[cdj]

I'm the second owner, since November, of the first pair of walnut SongTowers. I read the many posts here and elsewhere praising the SongTowers. After some questions to Jim about my problematic listening room, I finally committed to buying a pair. I doubt that I'll be getting the "upgrade bug" for a long time!

After listening to SACD's by Norah Jones, Dianna Krall and Rebecca Pidgeon, I was on the look-out for a good male vocal disc.
I ran across a glowing review of The Paul Robeson Legacy from Linn Records. Were they ever right. Fantastic, Sir Willard White's voice is amazing through the SongTowers. The songs may not be to your taste but he is right there in the room with you.

You can hear samples on the Linn site:
http://www.linnrecords.com/recording-the-paul-robeson-legacy-sacd.aspx

I hope someone will find this as enjoyable as I have. 

[BrianM]

Willard White is one of those singers a lot of us would've gladly traded genes with.  Amazing natural resources.  Interesting story, son of a Jamaican dockworker, got discovered, rest was history...If you like operatic voices of the male variety I can recommend a ton of stuff, not necessarily of audiophile quality but good-enough sounding for quality speakers.  Feel free to PM me. 

[shortspark]

Speaking of operatic voices, this is most of what I listen to.  And many of those are of the vintage and historic variety.  The transfers from the first electronic microphones in the 20s, even when updated by the best engineers, leaves much to be desired in terms of today's recordings.  Even the best are still mono.  I have walnut STs coming any day now and I ordered these because of their reputation for accuracy and clarity of the mid range. 

I am now wondering if many of these old recordings will sound better or worse with such accurate speakers?  Tenor voices could be the most problematic.  Has anyone played Gigli, Bjorling, early diStefano and moving up to the 50s, Mario Lanza, who at least did make a few stereo records?  If so, how do these recordings sound on the STs, both in the original vinyl records as well as CD transfers?

[BrianM]

Mono vs. stereo isn't really the issue.  The issues with early wax & electrical recordings were higher noise & distortion (much higher with wax cylinders) and limited frequency range (high and low).  The rolled off highs are why sopranos from that era sound like they're singing without overtones (it's mostly fundamental and sounds too "straight").  Orchestral music was hopeless on wax cylinder because the violins were inaudible and everything sounded like it was being played by a wind band (and often of the local Salvation Army variety). Speakers like the SongTowers will obviously reproduce all the noise on the recording, but it's not as though people listening on Victrolas back in the day were being spared the indignity of scratchy fuzzy sound either.  I find that there's less difference listening to really old recordings on a great speaker system versus an ordinary one - no more or less offensive.  Anyway...I have recordings of just about any pre-war tenor you could name and it doesn't seem to be a problem for me.  Some recordings are pretty much beyond salvation no matter what you play them on.  Since the STs I'm sure will never be accused of being tonally out of whack, like having a too-pronounced midrange or something, your tenor listening enjoyment should continue unabated.   

[shortspark]

Thanks Brian, I am really looking forward to the STs.