Olu Sonuga

Most recordings ask something of your system. This one asks everything. Choir, marching band, orchestra — layered, dense, relentless. Colors coming at you fast and furious, ceaselessly undulating in what I can only describe as a rainbow of nuanced hues that feed the senses scrumptiously. Very little respite from its persistent pacing.

A system must be open, clear, fast, nuanced and powerful to render this recording in its full glory. Wide bandwidth is not optional — without it, the recording devolves into a mush of incoherent sounds that forces your brain to work overtime just to keep track of what this music contains. With it, you are transported.

This DSD/SBM recording is a wonder to behold. All the intricacies of voice and instruments — across an astonishing number of musicians — are captured to a degree that defies what you might expect from a live performance of this scale. I recommend clearing your mind before you cue it up. You will need the headroom.

This is a grand and dense recording with a vast array of instruments that can challenge even the very best systems. The soundstage width clearly exceeds the lateral plane of the speakers, and the depth is among the deepest I have experienced on any recording. Oodles of layering from front to back and side to side — a well-executed system rendering the finest gradations will result in the maximum enjoyment of what this recording contains.

Male voices to the right rear of the soundstage, female voices to the left of center — also at the rear. Together they set the rear boundaries of the soundstage, deep and ever present. Despite being large groups, individual voices are clear, distinct and ultra-dimensional even so far back in the mix. Intonation is full and absolutely flesh-and-blood human even at low levels. The detail here is simply mindboggling.

The female voices start out soft, then swell impressively to match the power and depth of the males. The first crescendo — around the 1:40 mark — should cause the hairs on your forearms to stand upright with the power of the build and delivery. Total goosebumps territory. Astonishingly, the voices remain distinct and individual even through the densest, loudest passages.

Matched with the choir in the opening stanza, also at the rear of the stage. The big drums are powerful, the snares crackling, well organized and synchronized, the horns blathy and brassy. They help nail you to your seat at the first crescendo. Don’t miss their punctuation with the male choir early in the track — it’s a defining moment.

The handoff from choir and marching band to orchestra is smooth and seamless — but notice the transition from the marching band’s big drums and snares to the more subtle centered drum kit and upright bass around the 2:40 mark. The orchestra layers in just ahead of the space vacated by the choir and marching band: violins and violas to the left, cellos to the right, upright bass centered. The realism is remarkable — you feel as though you can hear the contribution of each individual instrument to the whole.

The flutes appear on the left, the brass on the right, layered ahead of the strings — energizing the acoustics with brassy fanfare and what I can only call “flutey” mellowness. The colors and contrasts are breathtaking as each cluster succeeds the other, proceeding in stunning fashion toward the front of the stage while remaining well behind the speaker plane.

Change one thing at a time, then play the same track. It sounds obvious, and almost nobody does it. Swap a component, nudge a speaker, raise the volume a notch, and if you do all three in one afternoon you can’t say which one changed what you heard. Pick a reference recording dense enough to show the difference (this issue’s is a good candidate), change one variable, and listen before you touch anything else. Your system will give you honest answers if you ask it one question at a time.

Hit reply and tell me what you heard on your system.

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Until then — find the chair.