Audiophilepure

https://www.hifichoice.com/content/rotel-michi-x5

The X5 comes across as rather more programme-dependent tan the X3, even if it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why. With the Jared Sacks recording of the Oyster Duo’s Stolen Pearls recital there’s the odd effect of Nicky Schwartz’s double-bass dominating the piano of his wife, Anna Fedorova, and for all the weight and resonance of the double-bass here, the two sound like they’re playing some way away with the surrounding acoustic tending to swallow them up. Of course, sometimes this slight lack of ambience can help – or at least change – the sound of a recording. For example, John Challenger’s beautiful Salisbury Meditation recital is curated from 270 hours of live recordings made while the newly-restored organ was played in Salisbury Cathedral during the on-site Covid-19 vaccinations – the ambience of the instrument accompanied by the hushed bustle going on down in the cathedral’s nave. Via the X5, there’s still a fine sense of the instrument in the lofty space, but that rustle of atmosphere is somewhat diminished, which is a good thing for focus on the playing, but it may rob the recordings of a little of their magic.

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