Why do all Mahler recordings seem too bright?

loweride57: You hit the nail on DG. My digital front-end is not great, but should be okay for most recordings. I have Cary 303/200 with Burr Brown PCM1704 DAC and I also have two Audio research DACs, DAC2 and DAC3. DAC2 has Ultra Analog D20400 chip set and DAC3 has a crystal Semiconductor delta-sigma DAC with tubes.

But some of my DG recordings are ear-bleeding kind including one by Annie-Sophie Mutter "Carmen-Fantasie" with Levine conducting Weiner Phil. This is a modern recording with 4D Audio, whatever that is. If volin is not properly miked, then it can sound harsh including mass violins as well. However, Bruckner's 4th by Abbado and Wiener Phil and Mahler's #1 also by Abbado with BPO on DG sounds fantastic. I have accepted that not every recording is going to sound great. As long as I can get most of my recordings to sound good/great, I am fine. Thanks for the suggestions.

Blue Coast

@pwerahera 

You're welcome. It's unfortunate that DG had many of the greatest talent and performances and were unable to achieve the SQ of Decca, Philips, etc.

Regarding Levine, I consider him an excellent Mahlerian, I don't think I have any of his DG but have many of his RCA CDs (very good quality). But there it is, DG engineers managed to make the VPO sound bad, as they did too often. Abbado's Mahler with the VPO sounds wonderful, as does his early BPO. I believe some of the recordings are from the 70's and would have been recorded analogue. His BPO circa 2000 was DG digital and is quite listenable with very good performances, although the over-micd orchestra is rather 2-dimensional.

I feel the same way as you, there are some recordings that I don't listen to, even with my well set up digital playback. With streaming it's easy to find other performances with good SQ.

@lowrider57 thanks.

I think you’re right about needing to tame the vibration coming in to my gear. That seems to me to be the most obvious - it’s harsh on the top end when the dynamics are loud. I’m pretty sure it’s not my amp clipping though it sounds like it.  As I don’t have any control for that in place, I’ll start there. My local dealer should be delighted to sell me more gear.

I also stand by my other comment that many recordings are brighter than they ought to be.  Treble energy dissipates in the concert hall. However,  the way orchestras are recorded - with a mic at most stands - does not recreate the balance heard mid hall. The mics are capturing what the musician might have heard, but not the audience.  

Like some others here, I have many wonderful performances of great music performed by stellar ensembles but recorded under the DG label.  The sonics are beyond disappointing.  Fortunately, Qobuz has brought to my chair a fabulous array of alternatives - and I needed help from this group here to sort through them to find some that are better balanced.  

 Best,

I also stand by my other comment that many recordings are brighter than they ought to be. Treble energy dissipates in the concert hall. However, the way orchestras are recorded - with a mic at most stands - does not recreate the balance heard mid hall. The mics are capturing what the musician might have heard, but not the audience.

There are (at least) two issues here. First, you are right that treble energy dissipates in the concert hall and, consequently, a good recording must capture that balance and the associated ambiance in order to have any expectation of reproducing the sound realistically in the home. Very few today (for many reasons) are created the way you describe and that’s a good thing.

Second, too many home systems are configured to create a flat response at the listening position without dealing with room acoustics and speaker-room interaction and that can result in a brighter sound than is desirable.

Since you said you’re listening to Hires, you’re either listening to CD or streaming digital.

Not necessarily. I listen mostly to high-resolution files and, whenever possible, in multichannel, as well. That includes the ones I have already mentioned along with a goodly number of direct live mic feeds. In some cases, I can compare the live feed with the commercial release. High-frequency imbalance is rare.