HIGH Fidelity

BERNREUTHER/BAYER
"BROTHERS IN BLUES"

Clearaudio
CD 43040
Date of issue: 2005
Carrier: CD

Spis utworów:

1. Desrt Sun
2. Listen To Your Heart
3. The Same Thing
4. Peter's Tune
5. The Trill Is Gone
6. I Wonder Who
7. Livorno Blues
8. Baby Please Don't Go
9. New Morning
10. Won't You Never Tell me
11. They Are Coming...
12. I Wonder Why
13. Me And The Devil Blues
14. House Of The Rising Sun
15. She Won't Speak To Me

Clearaudio is a company producing gramophones, gramophone preamplifiers and pick-ups. From some time it is also engaged in the production of discs - CDs and LPs. The presented disc is an effect of the cooperation of two people - Wolfgang Bernreuther - vocal, guitar, dobro - and the contrabass player Rudi Beyer. Because on the Audio Show they played material from this disc (show coverage HERE), in a natural way the live performance can be compared with the recording (next month the vinyl version of the disc I'm Waiting for You). The recording was made during one day, in a minimalistic configuration in Reitstadel. Listening to the disc it cannot be overlooked, that nothing can replace the live performance - regardless of how good is the system always the emotions and fluids between the performers and the listeners is lost. In the RCM room, where the duo played, the contact was really intimate - only a dozen of listeners and the musicians. I remember well that performance, and that I enjoyed myself. Listening to the disc there is no such feeling. For the "box" it is a very good recording. The musicians are recorded from a distance, so many times it may seem, that the direct presentation of instruments or voice is lacking. Maybe on the recording the reverberation is too pronounced, quite dark and long, and this makes everything look like from a distance. A similar way of making his recordings uses the Australian master - Kostas Metaxas, the owner of the company Metaxas. I have the feeling, that there the resolution is somewhat better. But maybe I am just nitpicking, due to the lack of direct contact with the musicians, their humor? In this case it is easier to understand the music lovers, that are not satisfied by any system, even the most expensive one, because mechanical reproduction of music will always be worse than the reality, in the sense, that it will not pass through, that something volatile, what binds the scene with the audience. Because this is a very true recording, with nice music. These words I have written after initial listenings by headphones ( at the moment I am using the AKG L701 - test HERE and the tube amplfier Leben CS-300 - test HERE working as a headphone amplifier - the result is overwhelming, at least for me). It became apparent, that the way the recording of this disc was made impacts the perception of it on headphones - in short: it does not sound well. It is different while listening through speakers - the reverberation is still long, but the sound becomes more direct and coherent, it is not drowned in the reverb, and the details are really shown and the articulation of the leaders singing can be followed. With headphones, the sound was quite dull. On speakers remains the lack of sharpening, no brightening and similar. In this version two points can be added to the evaluation.

Sound quality (headphones): 6/10

Sound quality (speakers): 8/10

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