Telarc CDs, are they all good?

[P-Dub]

So I've stumbled upon the Telarc site and they've got some CD's on sale. I've always heard about the 1812 cd and that is a sub killer. So is it a general rule that all Telarc CD's are of high quality recordings?

Here's a couple that interest me:

Symphonic Star Trek

Suround Sounds 2




Paul

There are three kinds of people in this world; those that can count, and those that can't.

[JonMarsh]

Telarc has been an innovator for a long time in the recording process, and in general offer a lot of high quality recordings- lord only knows, I've got quite a few. But, what's "good" at the time it was recorded, and what might be considered good now, can vary greatly.

For example, some of their early digital recordings used the Soundstream system at 50 kHz, and frankly, it's something of a reference point in my mind for early brittle digital.

So, although I'm a major league SACD fan, one of the things you have to be careful about is what the source material is, how it was recorded.

In my opinion, the best recordings I've heard have used DSD for the original recording. Next best have used high quality analog- such as some of the older Sony masters, or the Water Lily Acoustics recordings using analog tape and all tube gear. Then, there's "high res PCM"- such as 24/96 format (24 bits, 96 kHz). Last are some of the older digital formats, and source material from 20bit 44 kHz. Every time you transfer you usually lose a bit, and going from one of these lower resolution sources to SACD preserves only as much as what's on the original disk.

Telarc has produced some very good recordings both musically and sonically- maybe the real difficulty is finding out what you like, and locating a reputable reviewer who's taste is in line with yours.

Some of the recent Telarc releases I like are the McCoy Tyner Reunion, and the one with Stanley Clarke; the new 1812 SACD is pretty nice sonically, though probably not a "reference" performance. I'm also a fan of some other artists of theirs, such as Jacque Loussier Trio (Play Bach, Jazz, also DeBussy, Vivaldi, etc), LaVienta, and other artists like Ed Hamilton, Joe Pass, Stephane Grappelli, and Jon Hendricks.

Telarc disks are available from online vendors like Acoustic Sounds and Elusive Disk, as well as their own web site.

Best regards,

Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[John Holmes]

Paul,

I only own one (Jeanie Bryson-Tonight I need you so) but, as nice as it sounds, I'm shocked that I don't own more.

I've never heard the ones that you've listed. However, if most sound like the one that I have, I doubt that you will regret the purchase.




"I came here, to chew bubble gum and kickass. And I'm all out of bubble gum!!!" My DVD's