An Acoustic Evening At The Vienna Opera House - Live Classical Music CD - Perfect for Relaxation & Romantic Dinners

So...Joe Bonamassa. Watch a youtube video of an interview with this guy and you will find he is not one of the many egotist rockers populating modern music. Any panel of expert/celebrity judges on any one of many many show dedicated to finding the next big egotist pop star. This man is quite simply a guitar nerd, albeit one with tremendous talent and developed skill. He loves to play his guitar, he writes songs that connect, he records them and puts them out to the masses for acclaim or ridicule. Having recently bought and consumed several of his albums, and having a consuming penchant for acoustic concerts recorded well in legendarily wonderful sounding venues I snatched this one up. It was the labor day weekend so it was a long wait. Wonderful. I ripped this double disc to flac to enjoy over headphones. I generally prefer listening on my hifi but with my three year old underfoot I don't have the time to disappear into the listening room. Computer audio will have to do for now. My dac is better than average and my amplification and headphones are better than that. Went straight for "Sloe Gin" before listening to the entirety of the album as I am very familiar with this tune as it's my favorite Bonamassa tune to date followed by "Ball Peen Hammer" as that is fav number 2. After that I go back to the beginning and listen to the whole thing. Even over the usb dac I can get a sense of the room, the size and space of it, the amount of wood, acoustic treatment. His vintage acoustic guitars ring as the should without echo. The myriad of other instrument sound well placed and mic'd and the musicians as expert as Bonamassa himself. Cymbals crash with authority and sizzle, the drums especially the bass drum; come forth without being overpowering or compressed. The fiddle floats about almost playfully. A long way from top 40 this album is a great way to drown out the sound from ever present cartoons my boy must have playing every waking moment just a handful of feet away. Like the genre/artist or not this album was produced expertly. Packaged well in jewel case with lengthy booklet both discs are secure.UPDATE***...So having a weekend off, the spouse is home and the kiddo is having a nap I got the rare opportunity to take this disc down to the listening room. It's mostly vintage equipment but it's really good vintage equipment. The CD player specifically is a vintage NAD and of the hdcd variety with 24 bit decoding, more on that in a minute. The preamp is vintage also a NAD; a 1240 to be exact, the amp is a new emotiva and the speakers Elac. The system is a little colored but accurate and gives a very near to live sound. This is why it matters for this particular disc. The CD players 24 bit decoding and the wide expansive sound stage of the amplifier and speakers throws the concert out across the room with a tremendous amount of width. I sit in my chair and the perceived width is feet wider than the actual speaker distance. The instruments have a little air between them. This live recording has a huge presence. Wider than many of my other live recordings, a few of those on vinyl. There's still very little evidence of compression once played back, very little evidence of the voodoo of terrible added gain. Everything sounds as it should and the sound stage is huge. No floating pinpoint stereo image. Great, great recording of a fantastic artist and a fantastic band.