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Hyfi
07-17-2005, 04:26 AM
Lately my wife and I have been heavily into S & M. We were introduced to S&M through the track "Nothing Else Matters" on a wedding comp from a cousins wedding a while back. Lately with the help of a few friends, I have tried to get into Metallica. Although screaming is not my favorite form of vocals goes...over the last 20 years this is one of the better Metal/Rock groups IMO.

I have always liked orchestra along with rock music so when I first heard a few of the songs from S&M and cought a bit of the concert footage on PBS, I was hooked. My first intro to rock-symphony was when my 7th grade teacher made us listen to Days Of Future Past...on vinyl. I still enjoy it today.

S&M is a much better display of Metallica's talents than the studio albums for me. A bit more feeling and emotion was forced just because of the way it was all composed. I'm liking disk 2 a bit more than disk 1. It seems I like the tracks from the self titled Metallica album the best.

Anyone else enjoy this album?

Hyfi

kexodusc
07-17-2005, 07:34 AM
An excellent album, not surprisingly the best tracks are from Metallica's 80's albums (except possibly a few from the Black album and Memory Remains...). For Whom the Bells is pretty good too.

If you don't really like the screaming/metal style of the studio albums, best just avoid them then...If you buy just one, probably "...And Justice For All" is the ultimate display of Metallica's ability...unfortuantely the mastering job on this album is known as being arguable the worst job of all time, so it only gets by on the band's ability alone.. Except for a song or two on ReLoad, nothing since 1991 is worth spending money on...

Mr Peabody
07-17-2005, 11:37 AM
The mix of orchestra and Metal did not work for me. I don't like the S&M and I hated the Scorpions attempt even more. Although I am a big Scorpions and Metallica fan. The orchestral accompaniment seems to work better with more progressive music pieces like the Kansas album they done with an orchestra and Yes's album Magnification is probably the best use of orchestral accompaniment I've heard. If you want to hear true Classical Metal buy Engwie Malmsteen's first album. Anything after that first album is not worth mentioning because they tried to mold him into the Big Hair Metal cookie cutter but left alone he could have put out some truly interesting music.

Hyfi
07-17-2005, 12:30 PM
The mix of orchestra and Metal did not work for me. I don't like the S&M and I hated the Scorpions attempt even more. Although I am a big Scorpions and Metallica fan. The orchestral accompaniment seems to work better with more progressive music pieces like the Kansas album they done with an orchestra and Yes's album Magnification is probably the best use of orchestral accompaniment I've heard. If you want to hear true Classical Metal buy Engwie Malmsteen's first album. Anything after that first album is not worth mentioning because they tried to mold him into the Big Hair Metal cookie cutter but left alone he could have put out some truly interesting music.

Hey, how do you like your Danes? I have the 82s and love em. The 2.5s are a bit more refined I am assuming. Could you get away without a sub if you were just doing a stereo setup or do they lack adequate bass?

Hyfi

Mr Peabody
07-17-2005, 01:15 PM
Definitely, I only use my sub for home theater LFE. As you get into the Contour series you do gain more refinement, The highs are smoother and the response overall more revealing. I haven't heard the 2.5t on anything but Krell. With Krell the bass is very controlled and precise, it hits hard with no flab. Mine are 2.5t's and 2.1t, I believe they may have been discontinued when the new Contour S series came out. I haven't had the opportunity to do much listening to the new S series.

Do you drive your 82's with the Stratos? How does that sound on the Dyn's? I am a big Dynaudio fan, I find them to be one of the most neutral speakers on the market as well as being an excellent value even at their price. I have a pair of A60's on another system with Adcom. And I couldn't find a decent bookshelf speaker for my daughter's bedroom system so I ended up buying a used pair of 40's which will far surpass anything new for the price I paid. The 40's are driven by a vintage Sansui integrated AU-9500. Very impressive integrated although a bit aggressive. It does offer some filters and selectable turnover frequencies than can help tune that down if desired.

Hyfi
07-17-2005, 03:56 PM
Do you drive your 82's with the Stratos? How does that sound on the Dyn's? I am a big Dynaudio fan, I find them to be one of the most neutral speakers on the market as well as being an excellent value even at their price. I have a pair of A60's on another system with Adcom. And I couldn't find a decent bookshelf speaker for my daughter's bedroom system so I ended up buying a used pair of 40's which will far surpass anything new for the price I paid. The 40's are driven by a vintage Sansui integrated AU-9500. Very impressive integrated although a bit aggressive. It does offer some filters and selectable turnover frequencies than can help tune that down if desired.

Yes I have a modded Stratos and it has more balls than I can use. I have always liked Dynaudio since I 17 and could only afford a pair of Infinity speaks. I got a chance to hear some way too outrageously priced Monitours or something like that along with Dynaudio mono pre and mono 750wpc amps and cables that looked like vacuum cleaner hose.

I put the Danes head to head with B&W and JMs. The tweeter and bass controll sold me. The JMs in this range lack deep bass but do sound nice. The B&Ws are also nice but just couldn't sway me on SRVs Tin Pan Alley. He was in the room!!

I do have a pair of JM Labs Tantal 509 bookshelf speakers paired with an old Hafler pre/tuner and amp. Best bookshelf at the $500 range I could find....don't think the Audience line was out yet.

Mr Peabody
07-17-2005, 06:12 PM
Yeah, I owned some Infinity in the past. They were pretty good back in the 80's but either have gone way down or my ear has gotten too used to better gear, I think it's my first guess because my brother has my old Kappa 7's and they still sound good for what they are. Before I decided on buying the used 40's I bought a new pair of Infinity bookshelf speakers. I can't remember the model but they originally retailed around $400.00. I returned them, they were terribly unbalanced. They had decent bass response but the tweeter was so loud it drowned it out.

3-LockBox
07-20-2005, 07:29 AM
Anyone else enjoy this album?Hyfi

I don't know why it hasn't made it to my collection yet...maybe IT will. I saw the concert on TV as well (good ol' PBS)

I remember when I first heard the concept and I thought it was going to suck...but I was surprised that I liked it as much as I did. I don't know if I thought the music was that compelling, but I liked it conceptually, both in the way it was presented and the idea that a premier metal act like Metallica was being taken seriously, and not being made the object of satire...finally.

Metallica deserves all the respect they've received over the years because they did it the old fashioned way...while MTV ignored them (hell, actually, Metallica shunned MTV) they developed a large and devout following by touring their asses off and eschewed the glamour crap that other so-called metal bands embraced. They were alternative before there was the term 'alternative'.

Hyfi, if you like S&M, do you like Dream Theater or IQ?

Hyfi
07-20-2005, 04:12 PM
Hyfi, if you like S&M, do you like Dream Theater or IQ?

Not sure if I have heard either of those.