I asked Zeus to remove my review of this SACD. My Oppo failed -- or rather I failed -- to save my programmed settings; consequently, and unbeknownst to me, I have been listening in PCM/multichannel. Because I listen to all my music on headphones via the stereo (left/right) analogue outputs, changing the setting to stereo has greatly improved the sound quality of my player.
I listened to this Gotterdammerung again and, much to my amazement, the sound (especially of the voices, but also the orchestra) is much improved. I still wish the singers had more presence on this recording, but the extreme distance and muffledness has -- thank God -- vanished.
For some reason, certain recordings were affected by the mis-settings more than others. This Gotterdammerung was one for which listening in Mch mode but through stereo output was fatal. I think switching to DSD from PCM made a difference as well.
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