volume too low on SACD ?

[kanakaris]

i just received 'Pictures At An Exhibition' (classical music,notELP)on SACD.I have to turn up the volume real high , almost till the maximum.I hear the music , but also some hiss at this volume.Is this normal?

Greetings from Belgium
George K

 

[bmoura]

i just received 'Pictures At An Exhibition' (classical music,notELP)on SACD.I have to turn up the volume real high , almost till the maximum.I hear the music , but also some hiss at this volume.Is this normal?

Greetings from Belgium
George K

Which SACD of Pictures At An Exhibition is it (what label, orchestra, etc.)?

 

[kanakaris]

Label : Sacd Naxos
Orchestra :NSO Ukraine
Conductor : Theodor Kuchar

 

[Scottmoose]

i just received 'Pictures At An Exhibition' (classical music,notELP)on SACD.I have to turn up the volume real high , almost till the maximum.I hear the music , but also some hiss at this volume.Is this normal?

Greetings from Belgium
George K

Depends how you mean 'normal', and which bit.
The hiss first. This is usually caused by your amplifier, when cranked up to high levels, not the recording per se. On most, you'd never hear it -it's usually drowned out so to speak by the music. Out of interest, set the volume to the level you'd have to listen to the recording in question here -but don't turn on any source material, and listen to your speakers -you'll (probably) hear the same hiss. So, yes -it's normal, and no, it won't damage your amp or speakers -just remember to turn it down when you listen to your other albums!
Naxos recordings are usually of very good quality -I own a couple of dozen on CD and a couple on DVD-A and I'm generally impressed with the quality, especially for the price. That said, the levels can sometimes be a little low -I've a copy of Holst's 'The Planets' that needs a good twist of the volume knob to get your flesh creeping. The worst I've ever come across though were the original CD releases of King Crimson's 'In the Court of the Crimson King' and 'In the Wake of Poesiden' -my amp was running nearly flat out to get an audible signal in the quieter parts -talk about messing the levels up. Eventually I lost patience, ripped the music to a wav. file on my PC, and used the freeware program Audacity to boost the amplitude. Then I burned a new copy of the albums onto a CD-R. You'd think they'd be able to get these right by this time though...

 

[kanakaris]

all clear , thanx!

 

[ssully]

Those KC discs have been released at least three times on CD in the US alone. I've owned the last two editions, and don't recall any volume problems on either.

 

[Scottmoose]

Those KC discs have been released at least three times on CD in the US alone. I've owned the last two editions, and don't recall any volume problems on either.

Strange. Which versions do you have, out of interest? Mine are Virgin editions (I still have them) remastered by Robert Fripp and Tony Arnold in 1989, and the only conclusion I can reach is that they are either a bad batch, or suffered an almighty error in production, as I can't really picture either of those two illustrious types making such a simple but massive mistake in the remastering process. I've tried them on various combinations of equipment, to rule out equipment idiosyncrosy, and they're still not right compared to my original LP pressings (inherited from my parents). Once I boosted the levels on my PC they were fine, and I grabbed some newer HDCD copies a while back and they were OK too. One of those things I suppose. ITCOTCK is passable, if very quiet, but ITWOP is almost unlistenable. The worst track was The Devil's Triangle. I know it's supposed to start quietly and build up, but it was more like my player had taken a vow of silence for seven minutes!

 

[ssully]

There was a bad batch of 'Islands' CDs when the 'DE's were released, which was corrected, but I'm unaware that there was anything wrong with the first two albums.

And,. too, my memory could be failing. It's been some years since I owned the DE editions -- they were all replaced with the latest batch when those came out.