Bowie – "Heroes": Blind listening test

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Tsomi, Oct 8, 2017.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Markyp

    Markyp Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louth
    I burnt a CD and listened on my Hifi set-up with decent floor speakers. I suppose all these listening variables are going to taint the results and there's no way around that. At least we will discover whats best for us personally with earphones, headphones, PC, iPhone etc etc.
     
    Tsomi likes this.
  2. Solace

    Solace Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brussels, Belgium
    I haven't been able to spend a lot of time on this but it's B,C & F for me, with either C or F if I was forced to pick 2 . I'm going to predict what I think the 6 versions are:
    A Ryko 1990
    B Parlophone 2017
    C RCA WG ('dark'!)
    D EMI 1999
    E EMI 1991?
    F RCA US

    But as someone who listens to and loves Heroes as much as I do (it's actually my favourite DB album), I've never been that excited by any CD/ digital edition. In fact I didn't listen to it for years as the 1999 was so bad it actually put me off the album. It was only when I heard it on vinyl again, years later, that I suddenly remembered how much I loved the record. There's a muscular swagger and a depth that is lacking on all the digital versions I've heard.
     
    Tsomi and Dante Fontana like this.
  3. karmaman

    karmaman Forum Resident

    close. there's no EMI '91, but there is a Ryko Au20 in there.
     
  4. Tsomi

    Tsomi Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Lille, France
    Solace and NorthNY Mark like this.
  5. LCM

    LCM Active Member

    Location:
    Man
    PM sent ; please...
     
  6. LCM

    LCM Active Member

    Location:
    Man
    thank you Tsomi
     
  7. C6H12O6

    C6H12O6 Senior Member

    Location:
    My lab
    Went with F, though it's a little sharp for my tastes - I would take out something like 2 db around 8k or 10k.

    C sounded good for some tracks, almost enough to pick it over F (probably because it didn't sound so sharp), but when I got to "The Secret Life of Arabia," F won out because C sounded squashed and congested in the midrange of that track.
     
    Tsomi likes this.
  8. aphexj

    aphexj Sound mind & body

    Hmm, and other than the new box (with limited edition "temporary loss of energy") that's the only version of the album I own. I voted F
     
  9. karmaman

    karmaman Forum Resident

    same as the Ryko, hence no need to include.
     
  10. grandegi

    grandegi Blind test maniac

    Location:
    Rome, Italy
    Hard to choose between C and F. I picked F in the end, it's the most balanced on my system
     
    lukpac, Tsomi and karmaman like this.
  11. Yost

    Yost “It’s only impossible until it’s not”

    If C is the WG RCA than Heroes on the WG RCA Fame and Fashion compilation sounds quite different. More bright and less mid band EQ.
    Seeing the lack of love for D – which I chose as my favourite – made me relisten with other gear. I now hear I have been tricked by my DT770’s, and I hear the processed sound that others mention too. Still, I do like the fact that this remaster tames the busy sounding mid band a bit.
     
  12. rrowley

    rrowley Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sunderland,UK
    Yes.It also shows a nice increase of volume from start to fininsh.Just remember the channels have been swapped on F&F.Also my fav version of changes on that comp
     
    Tsomi likes this.
  13. Tsomi

    Tsomi Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Lille, France
    Well, I'm using DT770s as well and couldn't choose D any day, though :D But tastes, again...
     
    Yost likes this.
  14. aphexj

    aphexj Sound mind & body

    Same master but level-shifted so it doesn't peak at 0dBFS. Would be identical to the Ryko for the sake of this test, of course
     
    Tsomi likes this.
  15. Dante Fontana

    Dante Fontana Forum Resident

    Location:
    Melbourne
    I hope C isn't the WG RCA but instead a cheap easily available CD.
     
    InStepWithTheStars and Yost like this.
  16. Classicrock

    Classicrock Senior Member

    Location:
    South West, UK.
    C & F. Slight preference for C.
     
  17. thekid87

    thekid87 Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Netherlands
    I compared C with my German RCA and it sounds different. Could be me ofcourse :)
     
    Dante Fontana likes this.
  18. Chordeater

    Chordeater Forum Resident

    As my tastes goes for detail, I choose D, for me it shows a good balance between clarity, bass, richness ... A lacks some bass, but sounds good to me too. I think C is muddy, one man's meat is another one's poison :shh:
    Others sounds worse to me.
     
  19. karmaman

    karmaman Forum Resident

    don't raise those hopes ;)
     
  20. Bevok

    Bevok Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Zealand
    Well I'll have a go although I'm not much of an audiophile, I enjoyed the music even when it was on hissy old cassettes so CD's and high quality streaming are all a bonus as far as I'm concerned! (haven't looked yet to see what the samples are)
    I found it pretty difficult to choose to be honest, Beauty seemed to have more variety amongst the samples. I thought E had a nice balance with good clarity but a hint of the 'distortion' or harshness that seems consistent with the sound of this period. B C & F seemed slightly too smooth. On Heroes much more difficult, I thought the guitar sounded great on B C and E but the vocals a bit more rounded on E.
    In all honestly all great though and close listening like this is great as it brings out some features I hadn't noticed before.
     
    Tsomi likes this.
  21. misterdecibel

    misterdecibel Bulbous Also Tapered

    One of my problems with blind testing of multiple sources is that, let's say on D I notice some detail I had missed when playing A though C, and I think "aha this is more detailed", but then I go back to A again and hear it. So D could be more detailed, or I could just be learning the piece of music better as I go along. Either way, once I've heard some new piece of ear candy, I can't go back and un-hear it.
     
    InStepWithTheStars and Tsomi like this.
  22. MrTim

    MrTim Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pacific North West
    I have the Ryko,Parlorphone and a Virgin Japanese versions. The Virgin seems to be better balanced than the Parlorphone that seems to be imbalanced with the majority of the sound on the right channel. Other than that it is on par with the Virgin version. The Ryko version yeh it doesn't rank, typical Ryko lets boost the highs so it sounds weird.
     
  23. mr.datsun

    mr.datsun Incompletist

    Location:
    London
    'Blind' listening tests are one thing, but how about a 'deaf' listening test?

    Hehe. Anyway I'll do this Heroes one later.

    Oh - wait – did you use the hi-res files for the 2017 remaster?
     
    InStepWithTheStars likes this.
  24. Tsomi

    Tsomi Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Lille, France
    No, see posts #4 and #22 for the full reasoning for this. AFAICS, increased resolution, but same masters. I'm only interested in comparing different masters, for the moment.

    Samples comparing the regular Parlophones with their hi-rez versions are welcome as an addition, though.

    If someone can prove that the hi-rez mastering is different after downsampling it to regular 44.1/16 (different EQ, different compression...), I'll include them, though (that's why I included the SACD layer in the Scary Monsters test, but downsampled to match the rest). Hi-rez possible benefits are not the purpose of these threads, otherwise.
     
    lukpac likes this.
  25. mr.datsun

    mr.datsun Incompletist

    Location:
    London
    People in the now infamous ANCIANT boxset thread were saying that hi-res files were not brick-walled the same as the CDs. Waveforms were shown that confirmed it. But I cannot remember which CDs were discussed for that.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine