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| TechnoFile.com |
"Fortunately, there's hope for audiophiles, via some smaller companies who still take sound quality seriously...Which brings me to Reference Recordings, a company I discovered only recently and whose name pretty sell sums up its raison d'être. Reference Recordings has actually been going strong for years and claims to believe that how a recording sounds is as important as the music itself – something with which I would tend to agree.
Heck, thanks to Reference Records, 2L and others, I've found myself listening to music I wouldn't necessarily sit down with, only because the audio quality is so glorious I had to bathe in its excellence. And because of that, I've found some really great music as well.
It doesn't hurt that part of my job is reviewing audio equipment and to do that properly it's best to have excellent, er, reference recordings. Since I'm always on the prowl for new excellence in audio reproduction, when Reference Recordings introduced themselves to me my interest was piqued immediately.
The company's chief engineer and technical director is "Prof." Keith O. Johnson, who the company says designed and patented many innovative products in both the professional and consumer audio fields. He's apparently responsible for Reference Recordings' sound, the goal being to "Recreate the sound of real musicians making music in real space."
That's the Holy Grail of all high end audio: making you feel as if you're there, where and when the music is performed. Surround sound – whether it be from digital files, DVD-Audio, Super Audio CD's (SACD), Blu-ray or whatever, can help this because the extra channels can surround you with music, or just with the ambience of the original venue, whether it be a live performance or "live in studio."
And when they pull it off, it's glorious.
Reference Recordings, at least the three samples to which I've listened, has definitely pulled it off."
Labels: audiophile, Reference Recordings, Review, TechnoFile