A very German weekend (with a bit of Swedish thrown in)

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Saturday morning I managed to escape wife and baby and go shopping with Tony.

We headed off to the local "Clearaudio/Project/a zillion other makes" importer and distributor for 2 reasons:

First was for Tony to get details and pricing on a range of cheapie TT's which we did and second was for me to get a look at some of their audiophile vinyl pressings.

As Tony was deep into the cost/benefits of the almost innumerable options available (from about $200 up for a brand new TT with arm and cartridge) I was deep in the little album nest they keep.

All told they hold about 150 titles - all very audiophile and mostly unique to clearaudio. I ended up buying 12 albums at about $30 a piece - all brand new and sealed. Actually he gave me a bit of a discount so the total came out to around $310.

After a weekend deeply immersed in the music I can report the following:

1. New sealed records from these smaller companies are - so far without exception - absolutely stunning.

2. Pricing is basically horrendous - but you do get what you pay for.

3. Say what you will about Clearaudio - what they are doing with this, so far, limited selection of vinyl is simply brilliant.

Amongst the albums I bought are the following:

From Opus 3 (a Swedish company):

Suk/Tor Aulin/Brahms Piano and Violin works

Lindgren/Shostakovich Cello Concerto/Cello Sonata

Sibelius/Glaser/Beethoven Malinconia/Duo per Albena/Sonata 3

Beethoven Sonata violin & piano 10 and part of 9

Reger/Bach/Widor/Lindberg/Vierne Various Organ Works

Mozart/Bach/D'AquinBRheinberger/Olsson Various Organ Works

From Recreation (a German company - I think - difficult to tell)

Italians - Various Toccatas Canzonas and Sonatas

Plus a couple of Analogue Audio Association releases (again German - which I have bought before and are, as always, simply breathtaking). I havent fully updated my spreadsheet and my memory is failing me but they are a couple of Operas (Brecht is one - and Orf the other - double album that one).

The final Label was K Edition Open Window which I am yet to listen to but again have had before and should be great.

As an after thought I picked up a Clearaudio musical test record with a variety of music on it ranging including Jazz, choral, Vocal (folk), Organ, bits from concertos, Flamenco and other bits.

That afterthought has been dominating the weekend. OMFG!!! Aside from its astounding sonics the music is fabulous and so varied it can make you drunk.

There is a ton of blurb on the fold out cover about what you should be listening out for - why they chose these pieces and how this should be your standard test record once you have gotten to know it well.

Frankly - interesting as all of that was - I decided to ignore it totally after the first session and lust get on with listening. The days of evaluating my system are receding into history - this is about music and as such it is worth every penny of the $310 I paid for the lot.

If there is a clearaudio dealer near you I suggest you give them a call and see if they stock any of the Clearaudio titles. If they do - go get one - they are amongst the best I have ever heard.

Once I have bedded this lot into my collection I'll get back with detailed rec's.