jeff@tesla.UUCP (04/18/84)
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 84 18:09:13 est From: jeff (Jeff Frey) Message-Id: <8404172309.AA06206@tesla.UUCP> To: audio@net Subject: CD vs cassette vs black disc Malcolm Bilson is recording a series of Mozart piano concertos for DG using a fortepiano and original-size orchestra (i.e., Mozart-size). This weekend M.B. brought over a brand-new DG cassetted, unplayed DG record, and CD of his performance of Concerto #11, for comparison. For background, I have a Sony CDP101 CD player, Sony TCFX66 cassette deck (about a year old), and use a Shure M95ED cartridge; the needle was about six records old. THe original recording was made digitally with a two-mike setup (above the conductor's head, like the old RCA Reiner stereos). The recordings were all made from the same master tape; with only two microphones additional mixing would seem impossible. The cassette and disc had virtually the same high end, but the bass on the cassette was a little tubbier than that on the disc, and the disc had discernibly greater (not much, though) dynamic range. All in all, the cassette and disc sounded to M.B. as he thought the piece would sound from the middle of the concert hall. The CD had a definitely sharper top end, "steelier" strings, and a transient response that made the fortepiano sound more like a harpsichord than a piano (as it did on the cassette and disc). M.B. said the CD sounded the way the performance sounded from the piano itself. And here is the interesting point. The performer himself said that he consciously tried to make his playing (attacks) precise because he knew that by the time the sound bounced around the hall it would get muddier; thus, the CD sounded the way the performer tried to make it sound to his own ears; the cassette and disc sounded the way he wanted it to sound to the audience. THis is, I am sure, a purely fortuitous result of the limited d.r. of the disc and cassette, the better transient response on the CD, and the obviously better-defined bass on the CD. My own preference is for the CD, with the treble turned down a little. (speakers used were two large Advents in parallel on each channel and a Harmon-Kardon 70W/ch receiver drove them). Jeff Frey