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Solti Ring remastered in 24/192

Dozey

Air guitar member
A taster is on the Qobuz streaming platform. Album title Golden Ring. It is a 6 minute excerpt from the Ride of the Walkure.
 
Lost count of how many version there are now. I I have the blue-ray audio version which I think was 24/96... and sounds fine. No need to buy it all over again!
I take it you are not a fan of streaming then.
 
Quite annoying this, when they introduced the last one (2012) they said the tapes were damaged beyond repair so they had to go back to the previous master (1997) and improve on it using the latest noise reduction tools - apparently now they are usable (with a bit of baking in the oven). Haven't heard new sample (I don't really do streaming either) but I think it's pretty good as it is although I prefer the original CD issue (1984?) with tape hiss. I like tape hiss! Although I'm sure most experts will tell you the original LPs sound the best.
 
I think I can detect a small amount of tape hiss, but you have to listen for it!
 
One of these days I'll get round to listening to a Wagner opera all the way through...

Until then, I'm with Rossini: "Wagner has lovely moments, but awful quarters of an hour" :rolleyes:
 
Quite annoying this, when they introduced the last one (2012) they said the tapes were damaged beyond repair so they had to go back to the previous master (1997) and improve on it using the latest noise reduction tools - apparently now they are usable (with a bit of baking in the oven). Haven't heard new sample (I don't really do streaming either) but I think it's pretty good as it is although I prefer the original CD issue (1984?) with tape hiss. I like tape hiss! Although I'm sure most experts will tell you the original LPs sound the best.
I have the ADD release remastered in 1997 (I have not heard the 1984 CDs). It's a very good performance and if Stereophile is to be believed [1] this later re-mastering reduces hiss well without revealing or introducing any unfortunate content.

I find modern re-mastering to be remarkable in revealing stuff that the tape captured but was not considered significant at the time. However, I think it can go too far. I generally have no problems with reasonable natural imperfections in a good performance. But IMHO, some things are better left covered up by (to me) unobtrusive hiss, lest they go from "noticeable" to "annoying".

For example, there's a 2021 re-mastering of Glenn Gould's 1955 Goldberg Variations (no media AFAICS) [2]. I still enjoy the performance. However, some of what is revealed doesn't quite correspond to what I can recognize as natural imperfection, so it does get at least to the borders of "annoying".

I won't be buying this Ring. There are (to me) better performances back to at least Clemens Krauss in 1953. I would prefer to add a different version to an already considerable number of versions on my bookshelves.

[1] https://www.stereophile.com/content/solti-iringi-remasteredagain: "The only sound that seemed to have been transferred with absolute fidelity to the 1984 CDs was the master tapes' considerable hiss."

[2] Under the "Alexandre Bak Classical Music Reference Recording" imprint.
 
Wow ! The price is eye-watering ! £68,- at Presto for two SACDs for Das Rheingold. https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/search?search_query=rheingold solti
It's also available from 16 December on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BC9YKQ7Q/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

However, by coincidence I discovered it had been released a few days ago on Qobuz, and I listened to the complete performance this afternoon.
  • It seems to be mastered at a higher level so could seem more impressive if you don't compensate.
  • It seems to have a slightly quieter background than my 1997 CDs (and the 2012 release I also just sampled on Qobuz).
  • The sound seems slightly cleaner than 1997 and 2012, with less distortion in general but particularly at the climaxes.
Actually, it's a quite impressive re-mastering overall, IMHO. Nevertheless, at that price I don't think I will have a copy (yet), but Das Rheingold has made it on to my favourites menu to listen again in the future.
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
192KHz seems to put an insupportable strain on my wi-fi signal :(

While it works... there is definitely more detail available and the sound is more "impressive" than before... whether it is more satisfying is another matter altogether - some loss of sheer weight? (I'm going purely by the Funeral March, given my allergy to sopranos).
 
192KHz seems to put an insupportable strain on my wi-fi signal :(

While it works... there is definitely more detail available and the sound is more "impressive" than before... whether it is more satisfying is another matter altogether - some loss of sheer weight? (I'm going purely by the Funeral March, given my allergy to sopranos).

Fixed Ethernet is much more robust. I'd put off installing it for a long while, but using flat Ethernet cable it turned out to be very easy in that I managed to avoid drilling any holes. Being flat, I found I could place in in spaces at the side or underneath doors. This is the kind of thing:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09P7K7YTQ/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

Though you can get in white as well, which might be less visible. Before that I found even 44kHz audio was hit & miss, now I always go for the highest resolution I can find on Qobuz.

(Can I hear the difference? Not sure I can, but worth it for the expectation bias! Plus you get to see the pretty lights on my Chord DAC change colour.)
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
I think it's BT's fault, though - signal delivery, rather than any shortcoming of my network/system. 192K in the evening (but not during the day) is the only signal that buffers, so the issue appears to be insufficient local bandwidth. And this at a premium rate... I really ought to complain.

The trouble is, it's hard to be certain of where the problem lies and BT would no doubt exploit that and respond accordingly... but the cable run from my router would be long and tortuous, so that would be very much a last resort. Wi-fi is supposed to be convenient!

PS By limiting my Auralic streamer's Qobuz stream to 96KHz I have got all the way through the Trauermarsch without buffering - yay! I'm still not convinced that the latest remastering is an all-round improvement on its predecessor, though...
 
I've never found WiFi to be robust even at distances of 5 metre or so, but no doubt due to walls getting in the way of a direct path, as well as the variable impact of neighbours WiFi. High-res audio was always unreliable at any time. With a laptop connected into the DSL router via fixed Ethernet I can always achieve ~60Mbps downstream. I've never had a problem with Qobuz since installing a fixed connection (except for the track-jumping issue, for which a fix was posted by someone helpful a while ago).

Maybe try a temporary solution first with a length of cable & see if it solves your problem? Its cheap enough to try.
 
Forgot to add - an intermediate solution is to combine a run of Ethernet cable with a wireless extender device (most have Ethernet sockets). This can be helpful if you can place the extender somewhere that is in better line-of-sight with the DSL router, and then run the cable from the streamer only back to the extender. The Extender then acts as a mid-way Ethernet point between the two, but with a shorter path for the WiFi. I used one of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01560JGQW/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

Bought a few years ago, no idea how it compares with more recent ones.
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
I have two extenders in situ - one for the front of the house and one for the rear (which makes the place sound like a mansion - it isn't!).

An ethernet link to the front-of-house extender would be feasible, so I'll bear this in mind. Thanks for the experience-based advice :)
 


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