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Post by paintedklown on Oct 18, 2012 2:00:57 GMT -5
+100000000000000 for Norah Jones. When I first got into hi-fi and started hanging out on the lounge, I began to notice that seemingly all of these audiophile guys loved Norah Jones. So, I decided to go out and buy her first record, Come Away With Me. I was so impressed by what I heard, that I immediately went and bought all of her records, and thus began my love affair with Norah Jones... Since then I have kept up with her newest releases as they have come out. I have yet to get the two Little Willies records, but I have heard the first one and it's not bad. It is full on country though, not really jazzy/quirky like her solo stuff. I am about to sell extra body parts to get that new box set she just released. You can get it on either SACD or Vinyl. It is all of her solo studio records, minus "...Featuring". It does include, however, a bonus sixth record titled "Covers" that is only available in these limited box sets. The title is self explanatory, it is her doing cover songs from other people. I cannot recommend Norah enough. I have attempted to get everyone I know hooked on her stuff. Generally the girls I date all end up liking her quite a lot. ;D I do recommend starting with her first record and moving forward in time though. Reason being is that they all have their own "feel" if you will. My personal favorite being her third record titled "Not Too Late". IMO, it is the "quirkiest" of her stuff. The first one is the "jazziest", the second one I always call her country record, The Fall and Little Broken Hearts are more straight ahead "rock" songs, and ...Featuring is duets she has done over the years with various artists. Most of those songs appear on that respective artists' record.
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klinemj
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Post by klinemj on Oct 18, 2012 5:55:15 GMT -5
You guys have me "sold"...the topper was that chuckienut posted the showing she is quite a cutie, also! that never hurts!
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Post by garbulky on Oct 18, 2012 6:44:21 GMT -5
+100000000000000 for Norah Jones. When I first got into hi-fi and started hanging out on the lounge, I began to notice that seemingly all of these audiophile guys loved Norah Jones. So, I decided to go out and buy her first record, Come Away With Me. I was so impressed by what I heard, that I immediately went and bought all of her records, and thus began my love affair with Norah Jones... Since then I have kept up with her newest releases as they have come out. I have yet to get the two Little Willies records, but I have heard the first one and it's not bad. It is full on country though, not really jazzy/quirky like her solo stuff. I am about to sell extra body parts to get that new box set she just released. You can get it on either SACD or Vinyl. It is all of her solo studio records, minus "...Featuring". It does include, however, a bonus sixth record titled "Covers" that is only available in these limited box sets. The title is self explanatory, it is her doing cover songs from other people. I cannot recommend Norah enough. I have attempted to get everyone I know hooked on her stuff. Generally the girls I date all end up liking her quite a lot. ;D I do recommend starting with her first record and moving forward in time though. Reason being is that they all have their own "feel" if you will. My personal favorite being her third record titled "Not Too Late". IMO, it is the "quirkiest" of her stuff. The first one is the "jazziest", the second one I always call her country record, The Fall and Little Broken Hearts are more straight ahead "rock" songs, and ...Featuring is duets she has done over the years with various artists. Most of those songs appear on that respective artists' record. Norah is very relaxing and come away with me is a very worthy release. So many of those songs are long term hits. It's simplicity made beautiful. Just stay away from her collabaration with DJ dangermouse. I think it's called little broken hearts. The audiophile recording values were thrown right out of the window on that. Very poor IMO. Sounded like a car radio. Her others are very worth it.
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Post by monkumonku on Oct 18, 2012 9:15:44 GMT -5
Gee I'm gonna go against the grain and say I'm not much of a Norah Jones fan! I'll listen to it but I'm not a big fan (for example, I think the pic Chuckie posted is better than her music.. okay go ahead and flame me ;D ). My choice for evaluating equipment, and I also like her music, is Diana Krall - except for her slow motion stuff. Steely Dan is another favorite.
I've also found that the Mercury Living Presence group of CD's is very well recorded. The recordings are from the 50's and 60's and were transferred to CD by the person who originally did the LP engineering and they are amazing. The only "drawback" is the tape hiss, but these recordings have superb dynamic range, detail and overall quality - much better than much of the stuff being done now. It was all done with only 3 microphones, if I remember correctly. Maybe 2, but no more than 3. Some of them were done using 35 mm film as the recording medium.
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RPA-1 man
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Post by RPA-1 man on Oct 18, 2012 10:10:48 GMT -5
Norah is good but not a favorite of mine for evaluating equipment. I like Diana Krall "live in paris", Patricia Barber, Steely Dan, Phutureprimitive, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones and recently added to my go-to list is Yello "Touch Yello" deluxe edition.
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Post by wiskers on Oct 18, 2012 12:18:56 GMT -5
I just hooked my xsp-1 and my xpa200 and played some Rush on my ERC2, All I can say is OMG! What a sound I feel their in my room playing!Well back to work.
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Erwin.BE
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Post by Erwin.BE on Oct 18, 2012 16:14:43 GMT -5
One of my favourite albums is "Rome" by Danger Mouse. It's very filmic music and... Norah Jones is singing on some of the tracks. Jack White is on another few. This music is much more complex and rich vs Norah's own simple, poppy, but also brilliant, stuff.
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Post by brubacca on Oct 18, 2012 17:13:00 GMT -5
I just hooked my xsp-1 and my xpa200 and played some Rush on my ERC2, All I can say is OMG! What a sound I feel their in my room playing!Well back to work. +100000000. For Rush Love Norah Jones too, but Neil Peart is God! What speakers?
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RPA-1 man
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Post by RPA-1 man on Oct 18, 2012 18:19:30 GMT -5
RUSH is gold but I don't know of any of their recordings that are audiophile quality. Please don't flame me because I am a huge Rush fan. Saw the MOVING PICTURES tour. Simply incredible. And yes, Neil Peart is god.
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Post by REN on Oct 18, 2012 18:52:53 GMT -5
rush permanent waves 180gr mfsl LP sound realy good i think its better then the original LP i think it would qualify for audiophile grade
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Post by wiskers on Oct 18, 2012 20:02:23 GMT -5
I'm using a pair of Tekton Lore speakers.
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Post by Emosean on Oct 18, 2012 22:11:41 GMT -5
All I have to say folks, is this one "BAAAAD" Pre!!!!!!!......
Hearing things I've never heard using the USP.....in total agreement with the OP..
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Post by charlie7 on Oct 18, 2012 22:55:17 GMT -5
RUSH is gold but I don't know of any of their recordings that are audiophile quality. If you have the capability, www.hdtracks.com has FLAC files in 24bit/96khz for Rush's Moving Pictures and Clockwork Angels albums. Sounds fantastic! ;D Charlie
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RPA-1 man
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Post by RPA-1 man on Oct 19, 2012 5:39:54 GMT -5
RUSH is gold but I don't know of any of their recordings that are audiophile quality. If you have the capability, www.hdtracks.com has FLAC files in 24bit/96khz for Rush's Moving Pictures and Clockwork Angels albums. Sounds fantastic! ;D Charlie Thanks for the tip. Will check it out.
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cgolf
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Post by cgolf on Oct 19, 2012 6:46:15 GMT -5
Gee I'm gonna go against the grain and say I'm not much of a Norah Jones fan! I'll listen to it but I'm not a big fan (for example, I think the pic Chuckie posted is better than her music.. okay go ahead and flame me ;D ). My choice for evaluating equipment, and I also like her music, is Diana Krall - except for her slow motion stuff. Steely Dan is another favorite. I've also found that the Mercury Living Presence group of CD's is very well recorded. The recordings are from the 50's and 60's and were transferred to CD by the person who originally did the LP engineering and they are amazing. The only "drawback" is the tape hiss, but these recordings have superb dynamic range, detail and overall quality - much better than much of the stuff being done now. It was all done with only 3 microphones, if I remember correctly. Maybe 2, but no more than 3. Some of them were done using 35 mm film as the recording medium. Rick, don't forget to email us all of the negatives then!! ;D
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klinemj
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Post by klinemj on Oct 19, 2012 6:47:14 GMT -5
Glad to hear you are in agreement, emosean!
Emotiva really got this right. They took a lot of flack for canning the original at about the time they had said it would be launched. But, to me - that act and what they have done since then with this design show they are a company of integrity and will make the tough decisions on product lauches. (Said another way, they have learned some valuable lessons and have matured as a company the last few years...GREAT news for us!)
Mark
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Post by merlinwerks on Oct 19, 2012 8:11:05 GMT -5
I've also found that the Mercury Living Presence group of CD's is very well recorded. The recordings are from the 50's and 60's and were transferred to CD by the person who originally did the LP engineering and they are amazing. The only "drawback" is the tape hiss, but these recordings have superb dynamic range, detail and overall quality - much better than much of the stuff being done now. It was all done with only 3 microphones, if I remember correctly. Maybe 2, but no more than 3. Some of them were done using 35 mm film as the recording medium. Can you provide any more detail on which cd's you feel are worthwhile? Thanks
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Post by monkumonku on Oct 19, 2012 9:10:34 GMT -5
I've also found that the Mercury Living Presence group of CD's is very well recorded. The recordings are from the 50's and 60's and were transferred to CD by the person who originally did the LP engineering and they are amazing. The only "drawback" is the tape hiss, but these recordings have superb dynamic range, detail and overall quality - much better than much of the stuff being done now. It was all done with only 3 microphones, if I remember correctly. Maybe 2, but no more than 3. Some of them were done using 35 mm film as the recording medium. Can you provide any more detail on which cd's you feel are worthwhile? Thanks Well they are all classical recordings and I am not real familiar with classical stuff but so far everything I've tried, if not my style, has been recorded very well. I would suggest their sampler which is called "You Are There." Here's a link to the Amazon page: www.amazon.com/Mercury-Living-Presence-There-Legendary/dp/B00000E58M/This will give you a really good idea of the quality as well as the range of music they offer. Then if you really go nuts, you can buy their boxed set that has 50 of their CD's in it which works out to just a little over $2 a disc. ;D Definitely try the sampler - the price is right and I think you'll be impressed at the quality, especially considering how old the recordings are.
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emovac
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Post by emovac on Oct 19, 2012 10:38:37 GMT -5
RUSH is gold but I don't know of any of their recordings that are audiophile quality. Please don't flame me because I am a huge Rush fan. Saw the MOVING PICTURES tour. Simply incredible. And yes, Neil Peart is god. @rpa-1 man - MOFI or Music Direct has the MFSL version of Rush Permanent Waves on CD, music direct also has Rush Roll the Bones by Audio Fidelity on Gold CD. HDtracks has 24/96 hi-res flac Clockwork Angels and Moving Pictures.
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Post by sharkman on Oct 19, 2012 12:15:59 GMT -5
I too had sibilance with my 2 channel system with the XDA-1/ERC and XPA-3. I am so glad I never ordered the USP-1 after reading comments on it in this thread. I solved my sibilance issue by removing the XPA and XDA/ERC combo with an Oppo 95 and Parasound amp. Perhaps this XSP doesn't have the sibilance issue, but it was 2 years late for me.
Good to hear happy owners of the XSP.
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