Wayne, et. al.,

An update on hi res through the TRefs and Bel Canto amps. I once again listened very carefully to the Reference Recordings Wine Dark Sea, at both 24/176.4 and 16/44.1. I own both versions, and I believe it was originally recorded at 24/176.4.

Of course, the resolution of fine detail is fantastic with the amps driving the TRefs. Great sense of space, superb imaging, and all that. A sound to die for.

BUT. It sounds exactly the same way to me on the 16/44.1 version!

Maybe this is partly because of my old-age hearing, where I'm down to 4 kHz maximum on a good day, but I had a friend over who could hear much higher frequencies than I can, and HE couldn't hear a difference either! (By the way, there is a small difference in dynamic range between the two versions; I think they compressed the recording slightly to better fit the 16 bit space. But that shouldn't really affect other aspects of the differences between the two versions.)

On another front, I have finally gotten the T1s back from the service center, one having been repaired after my stupid accident. All the bass and midrange drivers were replaced under warranty, for which I am eternally grateful. I have a friend who was interested in buying them, so we unboxed them, schlepped them around, and hooked them up to the Bel Cantos. HOLY COW! Did they ever sound great with those amps, better than ever! Midrange and highs were similar to the TRefs, maybe not quite the same imaging precision, and they certainly didn't have as much bass slam and bottom as the TRefs, but still...Oh my. What a sound. My friend was so excited by the sound (and he heard the Trefs too) that he bought them. I warned him that he was also hearing my front end. He's building a new system from scratch (along with a new house), and he's happy to have the T1s as a starting point.

Charlie

Thanks Charlie for this information and your candor.
I believe your friend is VERY fortunate to have your guidance and that you sold him your Ones, he is definitely better off than most people in the world!!!!
I can easily see how one might not hear any difference in the two recordings. Sometimes I think it is just my imagination. But then, I say, NO, Hi Res is better, if only a little bit.
Pun intended.
Yes, you are right, your front end, and Bel Cantos have a LOT to do with the great system sound you are enjoying. And although we here on this forum are focused primarily on our speakers, and they are a LARGE percentage of sound quality, I do believe in a great source and fine as wine amplification.
Good for you, enjoy sir, you deserve it.
God Bless,
Wayne

Want to hear your Triton speakers sound their best? Want to hear cello and piano that is natural sounding as can be? From the growl of the lower register of the cello, the warm, full mids, the sweet treble, the richness of bass piano all the way up to the sparkling highs, it is all here in spades. Amazing.
Here we go again, I cannot buy discs from Amazon at the moment, but can download, so I did.
"Cello Sonatas" a 2017 recording of Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich music by the wonderful pair Audun Sandvik – cello and Sveinung Bjelland – piano. Shostakovich Cello Sonata Opus 40, Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata Opus 19.
These are 256 DSD recordings but not issued on SACD at this time. I got 128 fs stereo and multi-channel, though I cannot play the multi now. Wonderful, warm, vibrant, delicious Russian music!!!! It was said that they probably picked the cello as being the most expressive instrument--like the human voice for portraying emotions.
These guys are both virtuosos on their instruments.
Rach is the more melodic, rich, dreamy sounding, the Shost is a little more modern, but not jarring, a little showier and more emotional.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
God Bless, Wayne

I get most of my Hi Res DSD music from these guys at NativeDSD.
They recorded their own music, 8 ensembles in fact, all VERY naturally, in a natural room, only handling the sound by moving the musicians forward or back, left or right, etc.
They had to manage each piece in one take.
This video will make it clear what and how they did it.
I bought this download and the recording sonics are STELLAR. The music is not so much, some better some not my style, etc.
A piece or two really does it for me, the rest not. Let's just say the it is INTERESTING. REVEALING.
Some music I ordered from Amazon months ago just FINALLY came in so I will stop here and have a listening fest.
God Bless,
Wayne
P.S. one thing exciting here I find all the musicians are YOUNG and it is wonderful to see that in Europe at least, I hope in America and around the world, there are LOTS of young people studying, learning music, classical, all kinds of music. I sometimes fear once the old guard are dead there will not be orchestras to play the great music we have, but I am heartened lately that this is wrong.

Sometimes the oldies really are Goldies!!! I have these two and lots more on "Genius Loves Company" duets with Ray Charles in 24/88 Hi Res.



God Bless,
Wayne

Dog, my Hi Rez thread had gotten lost/buried.
So I am bringing it back.
The LSO, under the direction of Valery Gergiev put out an interesting double disc of Hector Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique.
It has a blu ray, pure audio disc with DTS 5.1 and stereo tracks both at 192 kHz. They sound great, AND there is a video included that lets you see the symphony orchestra playing it. Also included is a hybrid SACD disc, so you can play DSD and record your own stereo copy for your portable/personal audio listening pleasure.
That is a LOT for $17.60 on the Amazon.
And the SQ is pretty good, all channels were cooking, even my rear 6&7. Watching the LSO and Gergiev conducting was not quite that great, to me, so I just went with the pure audio. Unfortunately, I just found that I had to turn up the volume a lot to really get the full feeling of the music, and it seemed that in some ways, someone needed to turn up the emotional volume on such crazy music. For me there was just too much reserve, was it British reserve? The notes for this music describe an opium crazed dream and I can hear it here, but the pizzazz was not quite there for me.
And I would not call the recording reference either. I guess you get what you pay for, I was slightly underwhelmed. It was good, but not GREAT. IMHO. YMMV.
I wanted to love this one.
God Bless,
Wayne