Listen to a live orchestra and too often, one of the major things that separates the experience from listening to the same music on even a very good audio system, is the way that the music ‘sits’ in the stage. The audio system will tend to plant the sound with bass notes going down as far as the system extends. The live presentation is very different. You can hear the bottom of and beneath the bass notes, notes that float on a cushion of air. The way the whole performance comes off of the stage, the way it hangs in the air rather than being fastened to the space, is completely different.
One example will explain exactly what I’m referring to. Play the opening passage from the Starker/Dorati, Dvorak Cello Concerto (with the LSO, Mercury SACD 475 6608 or the LP, the excellent Speakers Corner re-issue of SR 90303, which is actually better than my original pressings): on the Peak El Diablos – a speaker with prodigious bass weight and depth for its size – there is an impressive sense of body and presence, of increasing orchestral density as the music moves into the first crescendo. But as the musical power builds, the rolling timps that underpin the music are more of a thick rumble than a distinct musical entity, the double basses are slightly softened and smoothed, their characteristic rising arpeggios after the first crescendo climbing off the floor and climbing in terms of body and dimensionality. As the crescendo peaks, the orchestra tends to flatten and clamber forward in the stage.
Now repeat the exercise with the PureLow GRs connected: as the mics come up, the whole stage opens before you, the opening instruments are placed precisely in space – and time. There’s a more relaxed feel to the tempo, more clearly defined space between the notes. As the orchestra enters and the crescendo starts to build, it’s a more definite, progressive process, with clearly defined dynamic steps and density – and one that stays firmly anchored in space. The timp rumbles resolve into individual strikes of mallet on skin, the texture of that skin a fundamental part of a far more complex sound. When the double basses grumble it’s with a sense of purpose, with intent in the bowing and when the crescendo drops away, leading to those exposed arpeggios, the basses are located clearly on the stage, the rising accent a deliberate and beautifully executed device, maintaining the forward momentum in the piece. The instruments are stable and solidly dimensional, their notes delivered with their characteristic sawed texture, full of vitality and floating above the floor, within the acoustic.
Nor are the benefits limited to the lower registers. The space and stability, transparency and locational focus extends right up into the treble. Woodwinds, brass and upper register strings all gain in terms of body, texture and dimensionality. Perspective, scale and proportions, in terms of instrumental size and position, become far more natural, the seated orchestra clearly laid out on the level floor with limited risers. The rear wall of Watford’s town hall is more clearly defined as is the air within it – and I haven’t even got to the solo instrument, the volumes of its body, rich tonality and the physicality in the bowing.
