Acoustics

[eschiss1]

I used to think there might be nothing better for hearing certain pieces of music than hearing them live (and am still not certain on the subject) but after receiving a particularly nice gift of good - and, especially, ear-covering - headphones - I've started to hear so much more of certain well- (or densely, too) orchestrated pieces with wide dynamic ranges, that I begin to wonder if part of the problem-- wasn't that so much wasn't lost between me and the orchestra, or the speakers, or the sound source just in the intervening air.  Little previously-unheard (by me) pizzicato upbeats(?) in Mahler textures (... say) I only see in score, I now hear, too.

Was thinking of that when reading about Bowen's use of harp to set off his viola solo (in the Bowen viola concerto thread)- will give (the library's copy of that) CD a whirl again for that among other reasons- and again in the Hausegger thread (though I've heard, not that work, but some of the works suggested- Schoenberg's Pelleas, e.g.- as similar to it- and have been relistening to them especially in fact). 

There are still, obviously, lots of reasons to prefer the concert hall (antiphonal effects come to mind immediately- anything to do with 3-dimensional "placement", with ideas traded between the violin sections, e.g., easier to tell when they're at different distances from you..- easier still if they're in unison/association with different winds, admittedly, but- right.) - (actually, to come clean, these were gotten for me with my frequent bus trips in mind, about which the only really good thing I can say is that I get to see family by taking them...- and if bringing a CD player or iPod along on a trip, phones like these tune out the bus and infant(ile) noise perfectly.  Let others' music be stuck at loud, we can have the music with range )

[semloh]

Eric, I believe that listening through quality headphones is a revelation. My first protracted experience of the Mozart piano concertos, when I was at college, was through headphones, and it's an experience I have never forgotten. Out of consideration to neighbours, my sleeping children, and my wife, I later listened to much of 70s rock through them too! I suspect that now I am (much) older, and my hearing is far less acute, I really ought to try it once more. Maybe I would hear more of the upper register sounds that I know I am missing....

The acoustics on LP/CD is an interesting issue. I wonder whether less familiar pieces of music, little known performers, and minor record companies, end up in settings with poor acoustics. If so, our UCs would be adversely affected.

[Gareth Vaughan]

What make of headphones are you using, Eric?

[eschiss1]

Erm- not meant to be an advertisement (as I said, I got them for free and expect that similar models from other companies produce similar results), but - Audiotechnica QuietPoint.

[mbhaub]

I have long advocated for headphones - and the higher the quality the better, and they must be attached to a great amplifier, and dedicated headphone amps aren't cheap, either. Currently I use a valve (tube) amp called the Earmax II driving a pair of Sennheiser 650s. On the front I use a Sony ES sacd unit. With a well-mastered cd the sound is breathtaking - far better than any speaker setup I could ever afford. Eschiss tells the other part of the story: you will hear orchestral detail that you just never will hear in concert no matter how good the orchestra or hall. There are some works that just sound better on headphones than they ever will live: Elgar symphonies, anything of Mahler, Atterberg, Ravel, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and many others. What you don't get of course is a sense of space and Bruckner for example. The most amazing sound imaginable comes from cds that are recorded using a binaural microphone - they are recorded specifically for headphone use whereas most recordings are mastered for listening on speakers. But there are very few binaural recordings available.

I know that purists will say that no recording can compare to a live performance. Maybe, maybe not. But I don't live in a place where there are half a dozen orchestras playing every night of the week. And no one lives where orchestras regularly play the repertoire of interest to readers of this site. So put the cans on, turn the volume up, insert Eugene Goosens and the LSO doing Scheherazade and I'm in heaven!

[Gareth Vaughan]

Thank you both.

[Amphissa]

I too prefer Sennheiser cans. Mine are 490 Pro. I use them for listening to downloaded music. Since the audio quality of mp3 is usually pretty poor, and recordings of live performances can be variable, I find the headphones offer a pretty decent solution. (I still prefer my traditional stereo rig for playback of LPs, CDs and SACDs.)

As for live performance, so much depends on the acoustics of the venue. I've recently attended two concerts, and will attend another this week, in a hall that has very dead sound. I've attended programs in just about every imaginable setting, including outdoors. The old adjuration that recorded music is a poor substitute for live performances is really quite a gross generalization. Yes, I've heard some glorious performances in close-to-ideal halls, and would say that those occasions surpass any recordings I've ever heard. But those occasions were rare indeed.

That said, I am not thrilled with most recordings either. Multi-miking, obscenely unnatural balances of instruments, spotlighting, audio compression, and strange engineering make a lot of recordings less than ideal quality-wise. Headphones won't fix what is screwed up in the recording. What headphones can do best is isolate the audio from other distracting intrusions.

It's funny, though. I was reading an article just recently about how a lot of young people are taking off their earphones, buying turntables and LPs. Why? Because the ear pieces do isolate so well. Music has so much to offer as a shared experience. And this is why, despite the imperfect venues, I always seek out live performances, whenever I can. It's unfortunate that so few include the music of unsungs.

[sdtom]

I'm really glad that this topic was brought up as I have thoughts on this also. For years I listened to recordings with a Rega headphone amp and Grado Reference headphones. Last year the place where I work part time on sewing machines and antique radios was given a set of interaudio speakers. These quite ugly speakers were badly treated so among other things I replaced the woofers with Bose 801s woofers and tweaked the crossovers. For an apartment these have turned out to be an ideal listening experience.

Recently I received a CD of a live recording of Bruckner's 4th Symphony performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony conducted by Manfred Honeck on the Reference Recording label and was further impressed with these smaller floor standing models. If I listen early in the morning when there is little or no ambient noise the opening distant horn that sounds like it comes from the lobby of the hall is crystal clear. I use this as an example to reveal the sensitivity of the Marantz SA8004, my hand made 30 watt tube amplifier, and the intersound speakers. When there is a lot of ambient noise happening I go back to the headphone amp and headphones so this system seems to work well for me.
Tom

[mbhaub]

Your mention of ambient noise brings up another aspect of headphone listening that can be quite funny, or even disturbing - ambient noise in the recording. I've been listening to the Charles Munch boxed sets recently and there is so much background noise - traffic mostly. Big trucks revving the engines, etc. Sometimes you're not sure if the noise is real or just on the recording. Back in the LP days the S/N ratio was so low that the trucks wouldn't have been heard over the normal surface noise of the LP, but with CD sound, it's no longer masked. There are so many disks with background noises that I guess it's hard to find a perfect recording venue. Maybe that's why Maazel/Vienna Mahler cycle was recorded late at night after the opera got out, but it still didn't stop the very clear sound of someone with loud shoes clomping across the sound stage.

Tube-driven Marantz! How wonderful is that!!

[sdtom]

I've heard noises also. Perhaps in a way we were better off with our LP collections?
Tom

[mbhaub]

Not for me - LP listening was really difficult with headphone. The distortion, ticks, scratches, rumble, wow and flutter...no thanks! CDs aren't perfect, but a well recorded one (and some very old recordings on RCA, Mercury, Everest, etc sound fantastic!) played through decent equipment sounds great. Maybe if my ears were only 20 years old I would have different opinion, but at 60, I may be less demanding than I once was.

[Alan Howe]

LPs? Yuck! To distortion, ticks,  scratches, rumble, wow and flutter you can add pre- and post-echo, groove-jumping, the perennial dust and cleaning problem, storage and preservation, etc., etc. So much of my early listening experience was ruined by these factors that the advent of CD came like balm to my ears. Give me digital any day...

[sdtom]

I don't mean to infer I would ever go back again but being 67 I started with LP's and my early classical listening experiences were from my Uncle Bob who had a collection of the 12" 78's, the RCA Red Seals. He had built a 'Sweet Sixteen' speaker and the sound quality for me at the time was spectacular. I don't think I got headphones until the 60's.
Tom

[Alan Howe]

...I started with LPs too - in 1968 when I was 14. Unfortunately. I was forever taking them back...

[sdtom]

we had a shop called Tower records and I would sometimes go through three or four until I got a good one.
Tom