texasdave

Responses from texasdave

Some great sounding classical "warhorses" ??
I’m a long-time, heavy-duty, classical-music audiophile with a large classical CD collection (over 2,000 classical CDs), including multiple versions of all the “warhorses” on your list. Here are my recommendations for your choices, based on a bala... 
Favorite Sibelius Andante Festivo?
I'm a Sibelius buff and have a whole shelf of Sibelius recordings, multiple versions of the symphonies, tone poems, violin concerto, etc. As you probably know, the Andante Festivo is not one of the better-known Sibelius works and so has not had th... 
Best sounding Saint-Saens Sym No. 3?
I also prefer the second (later) Telarc version. In theory the idea of recording the organ separately--in a different time and place--sounds awful--certainly a turn-off to purists. But pragmatically I find that when carefully done it has delivered... 
Best sounding Saint-Saens Sym No. 3?
Another estimable version not mentioned here so far is the one recorded circa 1976 on DG with Gaston Litaize, organist, and Daniel Barenboim conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. By the way, I have on hand all three remasterings for CD that R... 
Best sounding Saint-Saens Sym No. 3?
I have eight versions of this favorite warhorse and sonic blockbuster, and I'm surprised no one has mentioned one of the best, somewhat more recent versions, which has excellent sound: it's the SECOND Telarc version, also with Michael Murray as or... 
Your favorite J.S. Bach
I'll second the votes for Milstein's violin sonatas and partitas on DG and for Pierre Fournier's cello suites on DG. 
Your favorite J.S. Bach
For me Bach's organ music is in a class by itself--inexhaustible. I've got a shelf full of it. My current favorites are Toccatas and Fugues, Joan Lippincott plays the Flentrop organ of Duke University Chapel, Gothic (a 1997 release), and Preludes ... 
Looking For High Quality Drum Music.
I started a thread very similar to yours last year and got a lot of good responses. Check out the thread "Spectacular Drum Set?" (And yes, it's hard to beat the Sheffield Drum Record!) 
Music out there with good bass
Check out the thread "Organ CDs with Really Deep Bass." 
CEC Who are they?
I have a Parasound CDP-2000 Ultra CD player which contains a CEC belt-drive transport and has been widely praised for its excellent, analog-like sound. I think it has superb sound (although the belt-drive transport does have its annoying idiosyncr... 
is there a current production 20 bit cd player ?
Eldartford (and anyone else who wants to respond): You wrote above: "Oversampling came into the audio field with the first Phillips CD players. They used a superior quality 14 bit D/A with 4X oversampling whereas Sony used a true 16 bit converter ... 
is there a current production 20 bit cd player ?
It's not current production, but an excellent 20-bit player was the Denon DCD-1650AR, released in 2001, MSRP $1,800. I've owned two and still have one. While it's no longer my reference player, it's a very fine one, very well made, built like the ... 
Cars. What does the typical audiophile drive?
1. Lincoln Town Car2. Lincoln Town Car3. Lincoln Town CarI've been driving them for ten years and am on my third one now. Smooth-riding, comfortable, spacious and roomy, huge trunk, reliable, all the creature comforts. You can drive one all day on... 
Best Balanced DVD/CD players to audition
The short answer: Ayre. 
Arturo Toscanini Beethoven LPs
Might I suggest that if you admire the Toscanini/NBC Beethoven symphonies, you will probably also admire the Szell/Cleveland set, which offers first-rate performances in stereo sound which, if a long way from state-of-the-art, is at least a great ...