Hello, Anthony, and rest of lutefriends,
now I am not that much an audiophile ('audionut') anymore as I used to
be, but am nevertheless interested in your opinion regarding Anthony's
question: what CD player, but not at the price of what a good lute does
cost? It is a difficult question, I know, but perhaps there is an answer...
Saludos from Barcelona,
Manolo Laguillo
Anthony Hind wrote:
>To all who do not find this too off topic
>
> Choice of strings and choice of recording equipment (microphones,
>etc) are clearly IN topics; but I am not sure that CD play-back is
>(even if the lute is central to my question); so if anyone answers
>this, they may prefer to reply directly to my mail.
>
>Over the last two years, one evening a month, I have had the good
>fortune of being able to hear Renaissance and Baroque instruments in
>the context of a Parisian "salon" (lutes, guitars, harpsichords, and
>even, ouds). Thus I am so aware of the discrepancy between the sound
>of an instrument, in such a context, and what people usually hear
>through their hifi systems in their own "salon".
>
>Recent communications mentioned listening to the quality of gut
>strings through the computer, using MP3 streaming. I feel that it is
>already very difficult to hear the sort of musical texture I expect
>from gut strings with a CD, on an average CD player, let alone on
>MP3. There just does not seem to be enough detail and micro-dynamics
>to be able to clearly hear the very special response of gut strings,
>or any other strings for that matter. Indeed, it is rare to be able
>to hear the micro-dynamics of the slightly rasping attack or the
>crucial timing of the slowly dying note on a CD (I suppose this is
>what hifi experts call "inner detail"). Macro-dynamics (overall
>range), which are not really relevant to the lute, may well be
>acceptably captured.
>
>My use of the word "gut-nut " (in a previous gut message), developed
>from my exasperation with this situation, which lead me to
>communicate with a number of hifi specialists, including an American
>hifi company called "Audionuts". I tried to convey to them what I was
>hoping to hear from a CD player, without paying the ridiculously
>exorbitant prices that so-called "audiophile" players cost. After a
>very helpful discussion with them, the "Audionut " person told me
>"You are most definitely a true audionut."
>And of course I took that as a very positive term, in the vocabulary
>of this audiophile. It follows that my use of "gut-nut " should be
>understood in the same positive sense.
>
>However, as a "gut-nut", when listening to lute music, I certainly
>give almost as much importance to the texture of the sounds as to the
>notes and rhythm (but the timing of the slowly dying note is, in any
>case, crucial to the rhythm in the wider sense). I am aware that many
>musicians feel no compulsion what ever even to listen to records,
>having no time for non-live music and sometimes preferring to shun
>listening to other people's performances; others feel they are so
>musically aware that they can reconstruct the performance from the
>most miserable of sound systems. While even others, use MP3 and
>computers through convenience, because it does allow you to analyze
>very closely some aspects of a person's performance.
>
>So my question is for the few, who like myself, really do like to
>listen to other performer's lute music and want to hear the lute as a
>lute, and not as some sort of amplified electric-lute with no
>delicacy. My own ancient CDP, a 16 x 2 Sony player, recently began to
>die, and an attempted replacement, a highly reputed player that will
>remain nameless, was quite unable to give me the sort of detail that
>I was hoping for, and then took a nose dive after barely a week.
>
>I would therefore be very grateful for a few personal messages, from
>lutists who could put me in the direction of a CD player that is not
>outlandishly expensive, but that does seem to retrieve some of the
>micro-details I have described here.
>
>Thinking a little more about this, as many lute players do take great
>care in how they have their lute music recorded, they may well care,
>that much of this precious information is just lost in the vagueness
>of playback systems; so perhaps this is not quite so OUT of topic.
>nevertheless, I fear that for many, the computer has become so
>central to their lives, as indeed it is to mine, that MP3 may well be
>changing our listening sensitivities.
>Regards
>Anthony
>
>P.S. I nevertheless thank those very generous players like Edward
>Martin & Paul Berget, Jacob Heringman, Paul Beier, and others, who
>give us access to their music through Magnatune. It would be churlish
>to criticize the MP3 quality of this very generous gift (which is
>much better than most other MP3 streaming); and I hope this does not
>prevent people from buying the corresponding CDs, as I have done
>myself (some of these are remarkably well recorded, see the
>interviews of the recording engineers on the Magnatune site).
>
>
>
>
>
>
>To get on or off this list see list information at
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>
>
>
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