@chrisoshea
I am interested in the non-classical music that you think rivals classical for dynamic range. Because I am lazy, I asked Google (ChatGPT) about "dynamic range classical music".
This is what I got back.
Classical music features the widest dynamic range of any genre, spanning up to 30 to 60 dB in recorded formats. This means there is a dramatic contrast between near-silent solos and thunderous orchestral climaxes, mirroring the intense emotional peaks and valleys of a live symphony performance. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
The Mechanics of Classical Dynamics
Classical music relies heavily on these vast volume shifts to build tension, expressiveness, and scale.
- The Scale: Dynamics typically range from pianississimo (ppp - extremely quiet) to fortississimo (fff - extremely loud).
- The Challenge: While a live orchestra can reach an astonishing 90 dB of dynamic range, reproducing this accurately at home is difficult. Quiet passages can easily get lost against the background noise of a room, while the loudest passages might become uncomfortably loud. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
As for checking rumble with headphones, you’d think that would be simple 
. But I cannot find my good Sennheiser ones! A few years ago, I let my daughter use my house while her new one was being built. To get her stuff in, she ’tidied’ my stuff up. In the end, it was hard to actually get in the front door because of stacked boxes. I don’t think I’ve seen those headphones since.
I do have a lesser pair of Sennheisers but because of poor planning I left them in my motorhome parked hundreds of kilometers away in Sydney.
I do intend to buy a CD copy of the Telarc Saint-Saens ’Organ’ Symphony in my next ordering round with Presto, but they have some DG records to deliver first 
Meanwhile in the limited time I have, I have tried the following:
- Reduced the number of sorbothane hemispheres supporting about 60-kgs under my Holbo from 8 to 5. Re-ran the arm resonance test. No obvious difference - still about 5 to 6-Hz.
- Swapped my DS Audio DS003 optical cartridge into my Garrard / SME deck. This is not a trivial exercise because the SME has a fixed head shell. I had to remove the entire tonearm assembly and reset everything afterwards.
- Swapped my Audio Technica VM540ML MM cartridge into the Holbo. This is much easier, I just rotated the arm tube about 90 degrees for easy access.
- Re-ran the resonance test on the Holbo / Audio Technica - now 5-Hz
- Re-ran the resonance test on the Garrard / SME / DS Audio combination - clear resonance at 10 to 11-Hz, nothing below that
There is an observation I would like to note on the DG Mahler 2. In the concert, William Barton’s "Of the Earth" world premiere came first, but on the records it comes last. There is applause after the Mahler which lasts for about 45 seconds. After that, there is a 30 second gap before the Barton starts.
The dishwasher-like background noise persists continuously right through the gap. This makes me suspect the mastering lathe rather than the hall acoustics because I would expect the master tape to have audibly stopped and restarted in the gap. By the way, that dishwasher-like noise gets worse as playback gets further into the record.
I have two identical Hyperion records which have very quiet surfaces but produce dishwasher-like noises in the gap between tracks, but seemingly only there.
