Procol Harum - A Salty Dog - MFSL SACD

Is that tape damage apparent on the title track of the MFSL silver now gone?

 

You have an interesting take on it all as many here have disavowed the Salvo Salty Dog mainly for being overly compressed, etc. I'm curious as to what exact passages on the SACD you are hearing the "nasty warbly distorted sound" on as well because I'm not experiencing it. I would attempt to hear what you are.
I might have actually been happy with the Esoteric but find the new MFSL to be richer, clearer, more revealing, snappier, intimate, emotional and powerful. It sounds wonderful to me at both low and high volumes as well.
My appreciation of ASD has deepened as a result. Looking forward to opinions on the vinyl presently.

 

I have the Salvo and never noticed the aberration. I guess next time I will now.

 

I got mine yesterday, and am mesmerized. It's great.

 

Which one - vinyl or SACD?

 

Not hearing the 'warbly distorted sound' that you are, but maybe my systems (Auidolab CD Pre Power / Mission Speakers) is not as sophisticated as yours. Mine is hyper source critical, but the redbook layer on the new ASD sounds stunning as does the old mofi version as well.

 

I noticed it first at the beginning of 'Too Much Between Us' when listening on headphones. It's mainly in the right channel and is there at the end of the track as well during the fade-out. You have to crank the volume up to hear it, so it's not really all that bad. The Salvo version doesn't have it though, so it really shouldn't be there on a premium-priced audiophile disc. Perhaps Salvo used some sort of noise reduction or other processing, which might go some way towards explaining the compromised fidelity. I'm not a fan of the Salvo Procol Harum releases; Edmonton was a particular disappointment, with its foward and aggressive sound. I have the MFSL silver of that one and that's too much the other way; not really much better than the Chrysalis version. Anyway, I digress; this thread is about A Salty Dog. If nobody can hear what I'm hearing, I could put some samples in a shared Dropbox folder.

 

Please MFSL, bring on the debut and Shine on Brightly.

 

x 1,000,000

 

I don't doubt you have heard it, I think I haven't because I have listened at relative low volume on the HiFi compared to cranking it on headphones. I am sure someone else has mentioned this with regards to the old mofi as well so it looks like the same source tape was used for the new one. I will play the new one again with more volume. I do like the Salvo of Edmonton, but agree that the mofi is too laid back, although it does have some merits like the choir sound.

 

Vinyl.

 

All the above is my vote!

 

I want a Steve Wilson of Grand Hotel next

 

Just got and played the new MoFi Salty LP. Very highly recommended.

 

No, George P. stated earlier on the thread that it is still there. I guess it is the same source as the MFSL Silver CD albeit with a darker eq.

 

Well, the darker EQ sounds promising. The MFSL silver was too bright, IMO.

What's weird is that the German Cube CD does not have that damage on the title track. It also is darker and for CD has been my choice since reading about it here.

 

I am quoting my OP as a reminder of the thread topic, which, as you can see, does not include vinyl.

 

I think I'd miss the bonus tracks (non-LP singles) too much for those albums.

 

I agree with you. Be nice to have the US versions on MFSL.

 

I'm kind of late to the discussion, but here's part of the review I posted on Procol Harum's Facebook page back in July (for the record, very few of the members of that page are audiophiles):

"At precisely 8:00PM this evening, I coerced the SED vacuum tubes into a state of alertness and poured myself a glass of vino. At 8:20PM I inserted the older MFSL CD (MFCD 823) into my player and played “The Devil Came From Kansas”. I then played the same song (CD layer) from new MFSL(UDSACD 2192) release and felt that there was virtually no difference in quality. The newer release may have exhibited slightly more vocals presence, or the wine was taking its desired effect. I then played the same song from the Salvo release. Surprisingly, this CD had a lot more mid-range warmth and presence than either of the MFSL releases. Whether this was an artificial enhancement or not, I don’t know, but it sounded better to these old ears. My feeling was that it was similar to comparing properly mastered vinyl and CD versions. In virtually all cases, the CD will have better low-end (bass) response, but the vinyl will have better mid-range response and warmth. As this is where 80% of music is heard, vinyl will always sound better when sourced from the same masters as the digital equivalent. I repeated the listening experiment with “Juicy John Pink”, “Wreck of the Hesperus” and my favourite, “Pilgrim’s Progress” from all three versions and came to the same conclusion.

I played the SACD layer afterwards and it exhibited better high and low-end responses, although the mid-range was still not as good as the Salvo release. I did not play my Westside, Repertoire nor Japanese Cube copies. So....if I had to pick a favourite, it would certainly be the 2009 Salvo release. The comparison with the Esoteric release will have to wait until tomorrow......as will more vino."

 

As someone who loves the album but owns only the Westside and Esoteric versions, I'll be looking forward to your comparison to the latter.

 

I never did compare the above copies to the Esoteric, but will try to get around to it shortly.

 

Thank you!

 

I have to say that I am surprised to read this. While I didn't hear huge differences in the two, I did hear clear differences in the upper frequencies, with the old Mofi CD being more open. And I especially noticed this on the song you used to compare.