I never thought about it that way before but I think you are pretty bang on with at least what would be the "feel" of the difference of SACD in my room for me (funny enough very few DVD-V or A's did the same). Maybe adding to that a dash of more openness especially in the upper-mids higher; but yes sometimes when I think of better time/phase alignment it is to me about more "confidence" with "ease" and it all snaps-to in your head as just more "right", so in that sense I can agree. I'd say I've thought about time-alignment and coherence more then I ever thought I would, but having seen about 70 shows in front of the Grateful Dead's time-aligned PA, having Totems which seems to put some focus on that, falling in love with Ayre's Pono and now Codex on the digital filtering front, a pretty big user of Plangent's wow-flutter correction and more recently digital de-emphasis of the Nagra EQ curve for GD tapes recorded on a Nagra deck helping phase coherence from what I understand (they feel they can pretty much pass a square wave now); I've gotten that sense of it all working one way or the other to better dial in things from say using an average camera lens to one with killer bokeh, it just sings more. I'd also say, for an on-topic analogy, a recent Kevin Gray remastering is probably the best example of this feeling you'll find these days by comparison to many other remasterings; I find his remasterings so incredibly honest and maybe unencumbered with "process", it feels so master tape-y and gets you to that confidence with ease place very fast with it just snapping "right" in your head; throw that into DSD with some time and phase alignment implemented where needed and I sure don't need much else true analog wave or not.
I would love to hear what Intervention could do with the Lonely is an Eyesore 4AD compliation. I would buy that in a second!
This. Echoes my experience with more than one recording but Tea For The Tillerman is a good example. Always been a great sounding record, label CD, MO-FI, etc. When Analogue Productions released their SACD it was a PCM to DSD conversion done by George Marino I believe. I was doubtful that it would sound better than the CDs I had and to me it was disappointing. Not bad but it didn't have the timbre of the vinyl or the CDs. Fast forward, AP releases a download Direct-DSD done by Gus Skinas, I very reluctantly bought it and wow, there it was, the beautiful overtones, air & timbre. Besting the CDs with that little bit extra that makes all the difference, imo. Don't know if it was the mastering or what but the difference was readily apparent and repeatable. I can only surmise that someone at AP thought the SACD was a disappointment as well since they invested in a whole nother version etc.
No, there's a clear crossover from that audience. Gene Clark and the Byrds are 2 of the common causes many of them have. And Television. Hey, howzabout Television's second album in the "Nice Price" category from IR?
I'm glad you mention this band because I thought about mentioning them myself here. The remasters are all too loud and it's a real shame there isn't an available well mastered digital version of these albums. I have the Friday records double CD collection of the first two albums, the double version of Life Beyond LA that has a well mastered concert on the second CD, and the Rock Candy CD reissues of One Eighty and Road Island. I think there is a decent version of Life Beyond L.A. released in Japan on CD that I'll try to get on Discogs. They have a number of hits including Holdin' On to Yesterday, How Much I Feel, and Biggest Part of Me.
I brought it up first, so (SA)CD! The recent SACD 2fer of If The Shoes Fits and Two Lane Highway was great. But the first two albums need a full on remix to help that bottom end out.
Ditto. For example, I'm hearing things on this Quad Prelude / Deodato 2 SACD (different company, of course) that my personal vinyl set-up just couldn't generate. And I'm sure I'll feel the same way about Starfish when I pop the SACD into the Oppo. While I understand it's a business decision to keep the SACD's coming, my hope is that IR stays in the SACD business just a while longer.
Here's a challenge: master Oasis albums well. If you can do that you may go down in the mastering hall of fame.
I pre-ordered Gene Clark, and I am still trying to decide on M. Sweet, should I get the records or the SACDs? I have the original Girlfriend CD, which I like, but I don't know if I've heard anything else from him. I'll probably just get the SACDs. Then I'll like them so much, I'll go back and order the records.
Some jewel cases are definitely better than others, whether that is because of grades, or just different manufacturers, I don't know. I wish someone still made the original jewel cases, the super thick ones, those were the best. I like super jewel cases, but I would go for regular cases, if they were decent quality. I also like the Mobile Fidelity packaging (except for the banner at the top, and their generic labels on the discs).
Just going to throw my opinion in here quick. I am by no means an audiophile - just within the past month, I have finally found one track I can differentiate FLAC from MP3... and that's because the mastering had so much ultra-high end that it causes some wishy-washy noise in the left channel when deleted. My turntable is also very basic and my speakers would make many here weep. My point is, I love the music more than I love the "ultimate high fidelity experience". So my opinion, as a consumer interested in IR's output, is limited and certainly falls in the broader reaches of the label's target audience. That said, I have a handful of hybrid SACDs which I got for a well-mastered redbook layer. I was alerted to this thread by the decision to do the Church albums. I love the Church to pieces and would kill for a well-mastered CD of the two El Momento acoustic albums (suggested a few months back). I personally have no use for hi-res, but I would never discourage anyone from choosing it. But at the same time, I would weep if there were good-sounding Church remasters that I was unable to get on my computer. I don't know the cost incurred by adding a hybrid/redbook layer to a SACD; it's probably been mentioned in the thread, but I haven't read through all of it. (There's also a possibility I'm wasting my time, and that they already ARE hybrids, but I haven't seen that confirmed.) My point, which is obscured by sleeplessness, hunger, and an inability to communicate effectively, is that I really dig the idea of this label, doing dedicated reissues at the highest possible quality. I'm on the lower end of the spectrum for the audience here, but - and I think some will agree - getting poor-sounding albums to sound good on a technically inferior format opens up a much wider audience base. If I didn't make sense let me know. I suspect this reads like a concussed person explaining the plot of a movie.
That's how I remember the majority of the complaints. I have hundreds of SACDs in my collection, and only access the CD layer once if I want to rip FLAC or MP3 files to play on my home network or in my car. Otherwise, it's always the SACD layers that I play. Craig.
Exactly, they used the cheapest quality possible and considering they were the same price as the APO and Mofi releases it was totally unacceptable.
Before I forget, legitimate request(s): Thin Lizzy's albums Black Rose and Thunder and Lightning. Like Pure Prairie League's first two albums these are in SORE need of remixes to restore bottom end. I'm not joking. Listen to any other Lizzy album, in any format of your choosing (vinyl, reel-to-reel, SACD, HDdownload...)and A/B compare ANY of their other albums to the aforementioned two and see how disgustingly THIN the bottom end on on those cracking final two Lizzy albums are...you'll balk. I guarantee. I don't know if they were trying to compete with punk movement, if they were blowin' snow or if the producer/engineer was just incompetent but it's a travesty. A band...with Phil Lynott as their bassist putting out wimpy, bottom end-less albums? And make no mistake, they are craicin' albums...but boy are they sorely missing where it counts mix wise. I don't care who does it but these two albums also sorely in of need saving. Ok...enough whiskey for tonight, but still...
Just to clarify, you said Lizzy's final two albums, you may mean Thunder and Lightning and Renegade, Black Rose was prior to those two.
Damn. Yeah. Renegade is okay to me. I meant Black Rose and Thunder & Lightning. But "two of the three final albums" doesn't have the same ring. Fair play.