THE ABSOLUTE SOUND Magazine
2011 High-End Audio Buyers' Guide
BEST AUDIOPHILE LABEL RECORDINGS:

Britten's Orchestra - Michael Stern / Kansas City Symphony (Order RR-120HDCD) - (also available as HRx - HR-120)
"For me, the ideal demonstration disc combines both great music and great sound, be it something obscure from a major label or relatively mainstream music from an 'audiophile' label such as RR's recent (and brilliant) Britten's Orchestra... An instant classic of the recording art... breathtakingly airy, with magnificently convincing soundstage and imaging, superlative low-level detail, wide dynamics, and persuasive sense of bottom-end heft." --Wayne Garcia

John Rutter: Requiem and Five Anthems - Turtle Creek Chorale (Order RR-57)
"A recording of deep acoustic space, an unearthly organ, and a richly-detailed assemblage of voices make this a challenging disc for revealing minutiae as well as venue scale and scope." -Neil Gader

"With the most spectacular sense of space captured on disc, this is an acid test for evaluating a component's preservation of low-level detail that contributes to the reproduction of the lush acoustic. Also a test for very low bass; the organ pedal points will pressurize the room if your speakers extend low enough." -Robert Harley

Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances - Minnesota Orchestra / Eiji Oue (Order RR-96HDCD) - (Also available as HRx - HR-96)
"Supremely wide-ranging and dynamic, with powerful bass-drum thwacks and climaxes that open out gloriously, this may be Keith Johnson's best recording of a symphony orchestra (which is saying a lot)." -Paul Seydor

"This disc is particularly revealing of how well the system resolves gradations of tone color, which affects your ability to follow disparate musical lines... Listen to this on HRx at 176.4/24-bit and your jaw will drop." -Robert Harley

Clark Terry: The Chicago Sessions (Order RR-111HDCD)
"This disc nails the 'bite' and burnished glow of Clark Terry's trumpet, and the huge power and impact of full-on horn section dynamic swells--especially on "Moten Swing." Focused imaging and 3-D soundstages abound." -Chris Martens

THREE NEW RR SACD RELEASES!!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Keith O. Johnson Wins the 2010 Founder's Award from the Nation's Largest Audio Society - Also a Great Feature Article About "Prof." Johnson in UltraAudio.com

FOUR New HRx Titles: HR-70 Stravinsky, HR-95 Respighi, HR-99 Reveries - Eiji Oue - MNO; and HR-101 Organ Sensation - Felix Hell
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RR is excited that we can now connect with our customers and fans in new ways!

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We'll be announcing some great contests and discounts at these sites soon!

OTHER RR NEWS

A Great Feature Article About "Prof." Johnson in UltraAudio.com

Two New HRx Titles: Hr-117 Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy/DWS
and HR-119 Joel Fan's West of the Sun

Reference Recordings is happy to announce that our recordings are NOW AVAILABLE for U.S. customers as full CD-quality resolution (44.1 kHz), plus selected titles in high resolution (96 kHz)! from our partners at HDtracks.com - (More Information)

Keith O. Johnson is presented
a Silver Medal by the Audio Engineering Society

October 2, 2008– . We are pleased to announce that Reference Recordings' Technical Director Keith O. Johnson was presented a Silver Medal by the Audio Engineering Society at the 125th AES convention in San Francisco, California. The award is "For outstanding contributions sustained over 40 years, to the advancement of audio quality of recordings through innovation in the areas of analog and digital recording technology, transducers and music recording techniques." Congratulations to "Prof." Johnson for this lifetime achievement award!

Kansas City Symphony to Record for
Grammy-winning Reference Recordings

(Kansas City, MO) – The Kansas City Symphony announced it has signed a contract to record for the award-winning audiophile label Reference Recordings. The Kansas City Symphony's first project for Reference Recordings will be a new high-resolution recording of two sets of incidental music to Shakespeare's The Tempest, by Sir Arthur Sullivan and Jean Sibelius. Sessions will be held February 1-2, in the outstanding acoustics of the Community of Christ Auditorium in Independence, Missouri. Recording engineer will be multi-Grammy-nominated "Prof." Keith Johnson; Producer will be J. Tamblyn ("Tam") Henderson, Jr. Release date is set for June, 2008.

"It is a great opportunity to be able to partner with Reference Recordings. Both their catalog and their extraordinary standard excellence in recording have earned them a special status for both music lovers and audiophiles, and I and my colleagues in the Kansas City Symphony look forward to beginning this association with them," said Music Director Michael Stern.
RR president and producer Tam Henderson states, "Reference Recordings is hopeful that this new association with the Kansas City Symphony will be long and mutually beneficial. We are excited to be working with Michael Stern and recording these superb musicians. We expect great results from our partnership."

“We are thrilled to begin this new relationship with Reference Recordings.   For years they have set the standard for excellence in audiophile recording and I have long admired their work.   Having them record The Kansas City Symphony is a wonderful opportunity for both of us,” said Frank Byrne, Executive Director of The Kansas City Symphony.

The Kansas City Symphony has recorded for Naxos, and Michael Stern has recorded for Sony, Arabesque, Denon, Hyperion, and Naxos.

For more than 30 years, Reference Recordings has been one of the most innovative and respected
independent labels in the music business. Founded on the premise that most commercial recordings sound nothing like the live performance experience, Henderson’s productions for Reference Recordings have been widely and lavishly praised for their dedication to high quality sound in the service of great music. In 1978, Henderson began working with engineer Keith O. Johnson, who was already becoming an audio legend for his innovative approach to realistic recordings. Some 100 discs later, RR is still recording what many consider to be the finest-sounding classical and jazz discs in the world.

Reference Recordings has won two Grammy Awards and many other nominations, including a nomination for Producer of the Year in 1998 and seven nominations for Best Engineered Album (the latest for the 2008 Grammy Awards, with winners to be announced February 10, 2008). In addition, RR has received numerous awards and citations from industry organizations and publications. RR has recorded many world premieres, and has pioneered many technological innovations—most recently the introduction of HRx, high resolution digital files for home music servers, and the widely praised HDCD digital encoding process (co-invented by Keith O. Johnson). As President, Producer and Director of A&R, Tam Henderson has brought Reference Recordings to a position of prominence and respect achieved by few independent labels.

About The Kansas City Symphony
The Kansas City Symphony’s 80-member orchestra performs more than 50 concerts on three series (Classical, Family, Pops) during its 42-week season, September through June. In addition, the Symphony performs non-series concerts such as Celebration At The Station and Symphony In the Flint Hills, educational programs, community outreach performances, and serves as the orchestra for the Lyric Opera and the Kansas City Ballet. Classical performances are broadcast weekly on KCUR 89.3 FM during the Kansas City Symphony Hour, Thursdays at 9 p.m.

Visit the Kansas City Symphony online at kcsymphony.org

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