Thread: CDs, MP3s, Radio, LPs, Tape Cassettes, or 78s . . . How do you listen to Classical?

I have about 350 CDs that I bought in the late 80s through early 2000s. I haven't listened to them in many years. For a while I liked the convenience of listening on various radio stations from the Internet, but hated all the chatter and occasional ads. Now I have moved entirely to mp3s, actually using a streaming music service. I like the sound quality and most of all the convenience of having to bother with physical media like CDs.

Do some people still prefer vinyl LPs ? I have never used a 78 but sometimes used to see them in a back corner of an attic or sometimes at a used bookstore. They seem so funny to me. My father bequeathed me some tape cassettes of Columbia Masterworks recordings, I keep them for sentimental reasons, but never play them anymore.


What is your preference in listening to the world's finest music?

I prefer using a great classical music service on the internet called Mog! It's absolutely fantastic - the catalogue is huge, the sound quality is great, and it's only $4.99 per month! But, even if you're lazy and unemployed, there's a FREE trial. It has truly changed my life, and I'm just a customer!

Originally Posted by mitchflorida

. . . Now I have moved entirely to mp3s, actually using a streaming music service.

When working at my PC I will listen to streaming radio (commercial free Pandora @ $3/month), or listen to CD's that I've ripped from the original.

Originally Posted by mitchflorida

Do some people still prefer vinyl LPs ? I have never used a 78 but sometimes used to see them in a back corner of an attic or sometimes at a used bookstore. They seem so funny to me. My father bequeathed me some tape cassettes of Columbia Masterworks recordings, I keep them for sentimental reasons, but never play them anymore.

A good number of people still have LP's, although more commonly the 33's - I still have my collection from the 60's and 70's and have an active turntable as part of my home audio system.

At the thrift store where I work, we have a whole section devoted to LP's - they are selling like hotcakes. I've heard that some musician groups are now cutting LP's as the cost is cheaper than producing CD's in some cases.

Originally Posted by mitchflorida

What is your preference in listening to the world's finest music?

LP's, CD's (especially in the car on longer trips), streaming, and live air broadcast from our local PBS Classical station, KUAT.

Kh

Maybe I am getting lazy, but all that work of locating the exact CD in my collection, opening up the case to make sure the CD is there, loading it into my computer DVD player, then going to the trouble of copying it into iTunes , remembering to return the CD back into its case and then running downstairs to return it to the case. It can get exhausting.

Plus now I can listen to 20 versions of La Mer to find out which is the best. So far it is Charles Dutoit, but I did listen to at least 5 others so far.

Originally Posted by mitchflorida

[...]
What is your preference in listening to the world's finest music?

My 'active' listening is ~98% CDs, though some of them are CDRs of material from LPs or downloads. I too still have some cassette tapes, and listen to them occasionally. My only problem with them (tape hiss is beyond my hearing range) is the lack of track/band information.

So you haven't listened to a symphony or opera from 78s! It's an experience.

I think it would be cool to listen to Walter Bruno's recording of Mahler in Austria from 1939 on 78 rpm discs. The sound quality isn't that good anyway, so you aren't losing much. How many discs does it take to play a symphony using the old 78s?

I have noticed that you don't see people playing 78 rpm records in the old black and white movies. People just listened to the radio during that era, if you go by the films of that era.

Originally Posted by mitchflorida

I think it would be cool to listen to Walter Bruno's recording of Mahler in Austria from 1939 on 78 rpm discs. The sound quality isn't that good anyway, so you aren't losing much. How many discs does it take to play a symphony using the old 78s?

I have noticed that you don't see people playing 78 rpm records in the old black and white movies. People just listened to the radio during that era, if you go by the films of that era.

My classical recording listening 'career' began in about 1952 - near the start of but into the LP era - so my long-work experience with 78s is limited. I think you could expect somewhere around 4-5 minutes per side; so a 50 minute symphony would be on maybe 7 78s, with a blank side or a filler. That means a lot of getting up, or a changer. 78s are relatively heavy, so in the inexpensive stack & drop changers there was a thump involved (I have seen pictures of an expensive 'shuffle' type changer, never seen one in the 'flesh'). Both the distraction of repeated manual record changing and the thumping (maybe with assorted mechanical noises) would probably detract from the on-screen action.

In the last decade of 78s popularity, the sound got pretty good - about as good as in early LPs.

I've found that there definitely is a place for 78s. When I was getting interested in older music, I was initially discouraged by the opaque, dim and muffled sounding transfers on LP and CD. In the digital era, strange outer space digital gurgling artifacts caused by excessive noise reduction piled on top. One day I was listening to an LP and marveling at how much better it sounded than the same recording on CD, and I realized that most 50s recordings sound better in the format of original release. I decided to set up a turntable to transfer 78s and find out if it held true there too.

I discovered that the world of 78s has a lot to research. There were different pressings at different times in different countries and all that can have an effect on the sound quality. So I picked a few key recordings and went searching for the best pressings in clean condition to experiment with. I developed a system for minimally invasive digital restoration and was very happy with the results. It's time consuming, but for the recordings I chose to work with, it was worth it.

Originally Posted by mitchflorida

I think it would be cool to listen to Walter Bruno's recording of Mahler in Austria from 1939 on 78 rpm discs.

That's one of the recordings I sought out when I was amassing my wall full of records. I'll post a link to my transfer of it below. I think the sound quality will surprise you.

Mahler Symphony No 9: Bruno Walter/VPO 1938
http://www.vintageip.com/xfers/mahler9walter1938.mp3

Here are a couple more for you to hear. I have more if anyone is interested.

Beethoven Diabelli Variations Artur Schnabel 1937
http://www.vintageip.com/xfers/schnabeldiabellis.mp3

Wagner Die Walkure Act 1: Bruno Walter/VPO, Lehmann, Melchior, List 1935
http://www.vintageip.com/xfers/walku...walter1935.mp3

Originally Posted by mitchflorida

I have noticed that you don't see people playing 78 rpm records in the old black and white movies. People just listened to the radio during that era, if you go by the films of that era.

Records were most popular during the teens and twenties and the late 30s. When radio was introduced, sales of records took a hit, and that was compounded by the depression. Later on WWII shellac shortages curtailed record pressings until the postwar years.

Thank you for the Mahler Bruno Walter recording. It is certainly a novelty to listen to, and to imagine how others heard it during that era. We have progressed mightily in terms of sound !

I can't say I would listen to this particular recording very frequently. Perhaps once every few years. Life is too short for poor quality sound.

Originally Posted by mitchflorida

What is your preference in listening to the world's finest music?

I like to listen to new music and new recordings (indeed I am paid by Fanfare to review them) so it has, by default, still got to be CD.

I have just inherited from my mother my parents' vinyl collection, thereby adding some nine feet of shelving of LPs and I will enjoy getting to know them.

In earlier times, when I could afford expensive hifi, I put together a vinyl replay system which (then) bettered any CD player. Although I also have an excellent CD player, there is a sense in which I feel I have to "put up with" CD quality.

The scales were lifted from my eyes when I heard a CD compared to itself - but copied to a server using a massive amount of error correction. The server-based file was substantially better than the CD itself, albeit it took the best part of seven minutes to make the copy (not much use if you have a thousand CDs).

Last time I was at the Linn facory, I heard a similar demo (admittedly on their ultimate system) plus a comparison with a studio master of the same recording (the Linn release of Messiah). The improvement delivered by the latter was jaw dropping. This is clearly the way to go and it is bitterly disappointing that more record labels do not make this quality available for download. For example, Hyperion could have done this with their Brian Gothic release (the recording was available in this format from the BBC).

CDs exclusively. I have a collection of 1526 of them.

Have you transferred them digitally to your iPod so you can play them when you are in your car or on the go? (gym, for example)

Originally Posted by Jeremy Marchant

The scales were lifted from my eyes when I heard a CD compared to itself - but copied to a server using a massive amount of error correction. The server-based file was substantially better than the CD itself, albeit it took the best part of seven minutes to make the copy (not much use if you have a thousand CDs).

Last time I was at the Linn facory, I heard a similar demo (admittedly on their ultimate system) plus a comparison with a studio master of the same recording (the Linn release of Messiah). The improvement delivered by the latter was jaw dropping. This is clearly the way to go and it is bitterly disappointing that more record labels do not make this quality available for download. For example, Hyperion could have done this with their Brian Gothic release (the recording was available in this format from the BBC).

The solution would be to convert your CDs to mp3s as you are listening to them. A one hour CD would take seven minutes as you say. That is what Linn is doing. You could copy them at 320kbps, with the price of a 2TB hard disk down to $100, you could put your entire collection on the disk and stream it to your system, which is what Linn Factory recommends. Then you could trade your CDs for others. Amazon pays about $3.50 per used CD. You could also record them off Spotify if you care to.

CDs almost exclusively. LPs for the rest.

Note: Anyone selling classical music CDs (orchestral, chamber, solo), can always PM me a list with prices.

Originally Posted by mitchflorida

.... Now I have moved entirely to mp3s, actually using a streaming music service.

and thereby cutting out about 1/3 of the frequencies of all you listen to. Convenient? Maybe, but at a great price I think.