fuwen

This is the Takako Nishizaki version that I have. I am a supporter for Nishizaki. In this SACD she presented a feminine and matured and sometime a rather free tempo of the Butterfly Lover. I guess she has been playing this for hundreds or thousands of time. Supporting orchestra and conductor were OK. As for the Yellow River Concerto, also a very good soloist Yin Chengzong who was also one of the composers of the Yellow River. I felt that the orchestra recordings were not as good as the above Hugo one. Also this SACD provides a nice CD booklet, the cover picture is very nice, but for some reasons they forgot to include the tracks details. Also the Butterfly Lovers was cut into a single track.

Hi! Mackie, have been concentrating on Western classical lately so have not got in touch with Butterfly Lovers for quite a while. Over the weekends I went through the 5 versions that I have. I will post something here for your reference. YMMV. I guess this XRCD2 version by Hugo should be one of the best, if not the most expensive Butterfly Lovers u can buy. Of course recording is good, typical of Hugo but this 1990 early Hugo recording maybe a tad harsh. Soloist of the Butterfly Lovers and the Yellow River Piano Concerto are both top class. The violinist Kong Zhao-hui is presently with SSO and has been featured in Zao Pao sometimes back. The pianist Shi Shu-cheng is one of the original composers of the Yellow River (Yellow River was group composed, as so was the Butterfly Lovers) and I believe he has been playing it in the order of thousands times. Supporting orchestra and conductor were OK and well recorded. The Butterfly Lovers was broken into 7 tracks with individual titles but these are for listener easy reference only and were not indicated in the original scores. Of course when u buy Hugo stuff u get a nicely prepared CD booklet with details of the music and the performers, and also the recording details. This XRCD also includes an additonal music Ode to the Red Flag. I am not totally agreeable to this composition but nevertheless this is a good piece to show off hifi system and for blasting purposes. This particular track was done in 24 bit digital recording and Hugo had achieved a very big sound stage hardly matched by other Chinese Orchestra recordings and can even surpresses some western classical recording. Should available in the normal CD version but I am not sure whether the Ode to the Red Flag is included or not as I do not owned one.

Oh! The above is the SACD version of Takako Nishizaki first recording of the Butterfly Lovers. Not recommended only if u are fussy about her not so polish on the part of Chinese flavour but overall performance is OK and the recording is OK. I believe it is one of the best sellers of the HK label. However, the performance of the Yellow Piano concerto to me is below average and definitely there are better ones out there. So all in all this SACD may not be a good buy unless u are a supporter of Takako Nishizaki and would like to keep a copy of her first recording for completeness. Anyway from memory this recording has the most agile fast movement as she was still young compared to her recent recording. Personally I have this CD version but not considering getting the SACD version.

Hi! Mackie, please do not quote me as the authority on Chinese Classical, as I am just another ordinary music lover, though I did play erhu in a Chinese Orchestra for almost 10 years (now retired, ha ha!), and I am just trying to share some good performances in this friendly and comfortable forum. Oh yes, Takako Nishizaki is still my favourite violin soloist as far as 'Butterfly Lovers' is concerned. Her very first recording with HK label was good but lack the maturity and the correct flavour for Chinese music, but technically she is very good. So far she is one of the few that let me feel very comfortable playing the fast theme in part II of the music. Many other players appeared to be clumsy playing the same part. The staccato are just not elegant and agile enough. I have seem the album above but did not buy it as generally I am still not very convince on Chinese Music performed by non-Chinese, and of course with the exception of Takako Nishizaki, who is a japanese but after all not so non-Chinese right? Furthur more in the album above she is accompanied by a New Zealand Orchestra and a non-Chinese conductor. So most likely I will not get it unless somebody highly recommended it. Her first recording with HK also has release in SACD but I think that version is still not her best version. I have also mentioned a better-not-to-buy SACD version of the Butterfly Lovers in one of the SACD thread in this forum. So far the versions I like best is the one by Marco Polo featuring Takako Nishizaki as the soloist and partnered with 'The Yellow River Concerto' and one by Hugo partnered with Mendelsonn Violin concerto. I do heard that some of the Chinese violinists played very good Butterfly Lover but unfortunately my exposure with those performances was very little and generally the recordings were not satisfactory. Will post some pictures of the 2 versions I mentioned ASAP, and maybe some others. Anyway Butterfly Lovers is definitely one of the master pieces of Chinese Classical composed. There are variants where the solo instrument is replaced by piano, pipa etc but I find that this piece is written for violin and so can only be convincing when played by a violin.

If u like erhu music you can consider the Erhu concerto 'Parting of the newly weds' played by the very good Min Hui-fen. Hugo HRP 742-2 This album the accompaning orchestra were Shanghai Chinese Orchestra and The Ensemble of Shanghai Beijing Opera House. Conductor was Xia Fei-yun. Play back of some of the old recordings of Huga can sometimes be tricky but music and performance wise this album is definitely good. Incidentally Hugo recordings were monitored by Senheisser HD 540 Reference Gold headphones.

A very nice, well recorded audiophile jazz recording 'Here's to Ben' by our very own Jacintha. If you like slow jazz, Ben ( I believe he is a very well known jazz singer, correct me if I am wrong ) and you like stuff like Georgia on my mind, Tenderly or Stardust and also you want to support local artist, this is probably one album that u can try. Personally I like track 9 Danny Boy very much, especially the unaccompanied introduction. Available in CD and SACD (and I believe also XRCD) version. The SACD version was transfered to DSD directly from the original live-to-2-track analogue master tape.

Wanted to let go: AFA Poseidon II Balance interconnect 1m $100 AFA Hera II Balance interconnect 1m $300

My friend went down MDB and the Grado adaptor cost about $30 but no stock at the moment.

Liszt was a genius both as a piano virtuoso and a piano composer. His Piano concerto no 1 and 2 are energetic and full of new ideas. The version I have was played by Krystian Zimerman, the very good and detailed Seiji Ozawa conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra. DG 423 571-2. I believe his piano concertos will appeal even to classical beginers. Note: I have collected a fair bit of DG recordings. One of the reasons is I like the artists under the DG label and the other is as a serious amateur photographer I like the photo on the CD cover of the performing artists.

Ok, recommending this one by a female soloist: Anne-Sophie Mutter as soloist, Karajan conducting Berliner Philharmoniker, DG 413 818-2 This one is not the same as the one above, which is her lastest recording on Beethoven done in 2002. This one was recorded in 1980, when she was probably about 18. Although Beethoven violin concerto demands a fair bit of maturity to play well, a few artists did recorded it when they are about 18, some examples besides Mutter are Hilary Hahn and Vanessa Mae. What I find interesting about this Mutter recording are: 1. A very well played Beethoven, and with a style of a young and budding soloist and u are not able to get this style again when the soloist gets matured. 2. The violin recorded is very very airy. The sonic is feminie and gentle (u are unlikely to get the same with male performers) and sometimes when I am moody the 2nd movement can really comfort me (YMMV). 3. And as usual Karajan presented a very well balanced orchestra and soloist parts. Candaza used was Fritz Kreisler.

Interesting.... but I guess the seller got some mix up? Sennheiser cannot be in collaboration with Grado, right??

Thanks Rameish and Leng. Will advice my friend. Hi! Absolute0, not sure I read u correctly. The short adaptor that comes with HD 650 is not a Grado adaptor. It is a well made adaptor but no Sennheiser label on it. I have seen the Grado adaptor before and thus are aware of it and was thinking whether Music by Design sells it separately. I have seen the Grado adaptor available in Headroom so guess they sell them separately. Knowing it is quite difficult to get Sennheiser spares here in Singapore so I never thought of getting the Sennheiser adaptor and I guess they are not available for sale separately.

Hi! I have a friend recently tried my HD650 1/4in to 1/8in adaptor (short cable type) and he found it much superior to those 1 piece adaptor that we can get readily at DIY shop. Anybody know where to get such adaptor (good quality one)? I thought Grados top model come also with one such adaptor but not sure Music by Design will stock them separately for sale? I am looking for getting the short cable adaptor locally. I am aware that there are many places overseas that sell these.

Oh yes, the one recommended by cmk the Perlman version is very good. This EMI art series may not be easily available now. Perlman also used the candaza by Fritz Kreisler.

I just bought this SACD after seeing my friend's recommendation and was so happy after listening to just the first track. Ultimate Mancini concord records Well, the first track is the Pink Panther Theme (extended version). Perhaps is the memories this song brought rather than the audiophile quality that made me so enjoy this track. The 'chickyness' of the theme, imagining the pink panther walking down the street (have not seen the pink panther cartoon for very very long), full of brass instrument, basically siok! I got my SACD version from New Disc Village in the recent Hifi Show organised by Sight and Sound Journal, mine was the 2nd last copy. Not sure Ernest bringing some more or not. The SACD case is a bit odd size, not the normal squarish one but rectangular a bit like the DVD-audio type. Of course u can also get the normal redbook CD version.

Not sure whether I have done it correctly but it seems that there are signals from the SL-XP150 only when I switch off the main of the 963SA, even though I have used a cheater plug (not sure is it the right one, basically a 3-pin plug adaptor but the earth pin is plastic). If the main of the 963SA is switched on, the signal from the SL-XP150 still cannot get through. However, with both connected to the RCA splitter, the signal of the 963SA did manged to get through.

I believe the SACD CD layer may out-perform the redbook version. Wait for your A/B results.

OK, understand already. Will try it out and thanks, firefox.

Hi! Firefox, cannot understand lah, can elaborate a little bit more? And yes the 963SA is using a 3-pin plug.

Would like to recommend the followings: Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 'Organ Symphony' Moussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition Pentatone SACD Edo de Waart conducting Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra As the nick name implies, the Symphony No. 3 by Saint-Saens was written with the use of an organ. The use of organ made a special musical feeling at the quite 2nd movement and a very grand entry at the last movement. Picture at an Exhibition is originally written for piano but Moussorgsky's good friend Ravel had converted it into a very interesting orchestra version in this recording. In fact the orchestra version is very much popular than the original piano version and also this is a particular piece that audiophiles like. It is about, as the title says, various pictures displayed at an exhibition. As the pictures are different, the music are also very different in mood and character. The music consists of a total of 15 parts, each part is different and Ravel used different solo instrument to create the different mood appropriate for the parts. Out of the 15 I am quite sure there should be at least a few that will suite your musical taste but of course even if you listen to the parts continuously the transitions are smooth and logical. This is a Pentatone Quadro recording. The recordings were done in 1976(Saint Saens) and in 1974 (Moussorgsky). It is surprise that at that time some of the Philips engineers already believe in multi-channel recording and these old recordings were done in a 4-channel mode. Unfortunately the hardware did not pick up for 4-channel and u know by now what actually became popular are 5.1 and etc. To date with the invention of SACD, these old recordings were then given a new life by some ex-Philips engineers now in Pentatone who made use of the 5.1 capability of the SACD. In order to preserve what was originally intended these old recordings were remaster into 4 channels only as what they were recorded and presented to us.

Hi! Happy birthday to u. Life is getting boring so can u post something on your new gears?

Funny, I connected the splitter to the HA-1 in my office. So I was trying to connect 2 sources to an amp. One source is my Philips DVD 963SA and the other I connected to a Technics SL-XP150 PCDP. I somehow do not get any signal output (i.e. no music from the headphone) whether the 963SA is on or on standby. When I remove the RCAs of the 963SA then the music came in. I forgot to try any music from the 963 SA with the SL-XP150 connected.

Another one. Very good Pinchas Zukerman as the soloist. Daniel Barenboim conducting Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Candazas used were by Fritz Kreisler DG 463 078-2

This is one Beethoven violin concerto that I felt is about right and conventional. Soloist is the very demanding Christian Ferras, who himself has not many recording available. The very fantastic accompanist Karajan conducting Berlin Philharmoniker. Tempo is on the slow side but the effect is grand, something typical of Karajan. Also because of Karajan, the recording of the solo violin and the orchestra is very balance and u can hear lots of nice details on the orchestra part. Candazas used were by Fritz Kreisler DG 447 906-2

Hi! av98m, the ten tenors not bad! Good recomendation.