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Holst: The Planets - Sir Adrian Boult/Vienna State Opera OrchestraI seriously doubt you will be able to find a finer sounding recording of this orchestral suite anywhere, regardless of format. What is even more astonishing is that this 24/96 stereo download courtesy of High Definition Tape Transfers was sourced from a 1/4" 4-track stereo tape. It really boggles my mind to think what the original master tapes must be like (assuming they still exist). I have several recordings of The Planets. Some are regarded as "must own" performances but unfortunately most of them don't sound particularly good. And sure enough I have a few that sound great but the performances don't do very much for me. Here is a case were a knock-your-socks-off performance meets best-of-breed sonics to produce a near-eargasmic effect on the listener. Chances are good, unless you own a reel-to-reel tape deck and shelf full of tapes, you haven't heard analog source recordings with strings and brass that sound like this. I have a lot of classical music recordings on a variety of formats: vinyl, SACD, DVD-A, and 1/4" 4-track stereo tape. Very few of them are able to make me feel as though I am actually at Symphony Hall listening to a live performance. This is one that can. At $14 for a 24/96 download it's a steal and you won't find a better value anywhere else in home audio. I give it the highest possible recommendation.--Jerome
Holst: The Planets - Sir Adrian Boult/Vienna State Opera OrchestraHere is a case were a knock-your-socks-off performance meets best-of-breed sonics to produce a near-eargasmic effect on the listener. Chances are good, unless you own a reel-to-reel tape deck and shelf full of tapes, you haven't heard analog source recordings with strings and brass that sound like this. I have a lot of classical music recordings on a variety of formats: vinyl, SACD, DVD-A, and 1/4" 4-track stereo tape. Very few of them are able to make me feel as though I am actually at Symphony Hall listening to a live performance. This is one that can. At $14 for a 24/96 download it's a steal and you won't find a better value anywhere else in home audio. I give it the highest possible recommendation.--Jerome
A question about the Planets download, if you don't mind. I, also, bought the Planets hi-res download after reading the comments on this thread. However, I can't get any of the files to complete downloading. They get to ~50 mb and time out in a FLAC download instead of a zip file. I've tried right-clicking in both Safari under Snow Leopard (latest iterations) as well as through Internet Explorer under Windows XP (latest iterations) (using Boot Camp). Same result every time. No zip file, dl times out @ ~50 mb in FLAC. Having had Macs since 1985, I consider myself more than just a casual user, but I can't figure this out. When I emailed the site, they just responded "server problems, be fixed soon." Yet some here appear to be able to get the download. Any ideas? Help please. Thanks.
Boy, the guys at CA certainly didn't like Churchill. Said it was overly compressed and useless as 24/96. I'd love to get AC impressions.http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/peter-frampton-2496
Where can you buy the hi-rez Morph the Cat from?Downloadable I hope?-Mike