Rolling Stones - BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD

Luke,

What's your playback system?

Thanks,
Lee

 

Nobody's quite figured out what's going on with Ruby Tuesday yet...it sounds different, but whether it's due to processing or whether there's actually something *different* is up in the air.

-D

 

But the stereo boots do sound better than the ABKCO 1980's CDs of their catalog

 

Mr. Kipper sir, I TOTALLY empathize with you. I just got off the phone with the last hope in Canada of a store maybe having the U.S. Stones remasters in as imports, the Virgin Megastore in Vancouver. And no they did not bring them in.

And look at us, Canada. A stones (no pun intended) throw away from the U.S. I think ABKCO really screwed up on this one. The U.S. isn't the only market in the world. Ya got yer Canadas, yer U.K.s, yer Australias/New Zealands, Germanys, Frances, etc. Come on. Deals should have been inked with these countries months ago so everyone could have the discs at roughly the same time.

As I've mentioned in other threads, earlier, Universal Canada is working diligently to get these discs up here, but late September is the earliest we'll see them, due to heavy demand south of the 49th.

I could never imagine EMI remastering The Beatles catalogue for say the U.K. or the U.S. market only. People in other territories would start riots.

I hope my J&R order arrives soon. Eveything shipped today, except Between The Buttons UK. Of course that's the one I wanted the most. So all stores didn't get all 22 discs in. Hmmm.

Maybe some nice person could let us hear a track or two.

Cheers.

p.s. I used to have pristine copy of the Honky Tonk Woman single, but someone nicked it from me in my radio days. I had brought it in to make a clean "cart" copy for on-air use. I believe the single was a fold down mix. I don't recall the song being any different from the stereo LP version.

 

The mom n pop I go to, Spinnikers in Hyannis, had about 5-6 titles of most every Stones SACD. Now, they only have a handful of Metamorphosis, a couple of HR and MHR, Flowers and I took their last Decembers Children.

Oh, I bought the Decembers Children, Between The Buttons (UK) and Aftermath (US). The tracks on both Aftermath that match do not have anything different that I can tell. The Stereo version of Paint It Black sounds nice, but a bit of the 1st note is missing (or so it seems) and the 1st snare hit is quickly faded in (subtle, but noticeable). Decembers Children! Wow, but laughable in one sense: "Look What You've Done" is Stereo, but Cloud, unlike the original London CD has the mono version there. I'm sorry, but I'm not happy with that. Silly.

BB, CC and most retailers don't have much for Stones. None or slim. That's it.

 

As in the new titles are "BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD"? Too early for such a generalized and boldly harsh statement....

Nothing against Like's assessment of the one track in question...just the generalized subject line is out of whack.

 

Mind you, nowhere did I suggest that all of the titles were bad. My comments were directed at a specific CD. I made this clear. I stand by my original comments (and subject header, for that matter). When something sounds fine on one CD, and then they do *that* to it, it IS "BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD".

 

I thought Luke made the "Bad Bad Bad Bad Bad" comment as sort of play on the name of a Stones song; after all, he did give an overall positive review of the sampler (a few things not so great, but overall very good), and his complaint seem to be aimed at something different from the sampler.

Anyway, for those of you going to Borders, try asking the clerk for help. I went to the local one here after work, and they only had a few titles sitting in the Stones section. There was only one person manning the department, putting cases on CD's, and she told me that the store was understaffed that day. But she, was kind enough to go to the stock room and look for the two titles I wanted (she first looked on the computer, and it reported 9 copies of each).

 

Luke,

Have you been listening to the Super Audio layer at all?

On my four it is a big step up over redbook.

I am sorry to ask again, but is your system listed on the board. Maybe I missed it.

Thanks,
Lee

 

He has no SACD in. I agree the SACD layer is a much better experience. A wonderful value, if you concider most are paying $15 per disc, and the bandwith on the SACD layer beats the crap off of 192/44, when DVD-A is still $24-29 RSP.

 

One of you blokes asked whether anyone here liked the 30th Anniversary Ziggy:
I really do. Not too dry, good dynamics, not overhyped-up hifi sounding at all. I have 2 cd's and 2 vinyl; copies to compare it to as well, and I am not disappointed with the new disk. I have a UK 45 of "Velvet Goldmine" with a wider soundstage, my one very minor complaint about the reissue.

Whatever is said here about the Virgin remasters, they really blew away the Ryko's.
On those, Dr. Toby had the drums on everything sounding like plastic pickle buckets.

- - -

BACK TO THE SACD's: Surprised to hear that Luke prefers the London 'Aftermath' cd to the new one. That old London always sounded thin and transistor-ey to me. They clearly used the right tape deck to transfer these this time.

Maybe eq and nr was applied after the tracks were sequenced; certain ones from "tape brand A" were brighter than "tape brand b" and they were just trying to match the tonal balance from track-to-track, just a guess.

 

Sckott,

Agreed. My point is that Luke may enjoy the sonic differences better via the improved definition of Super Audio and this may make the NR or lack thereof more obvious.

As for DVDA, I have been in the studio recently and listened to mic feeds before and after DSD and PCM conversion as Michael Bishop has discussed in Absolute Sound. The DSD wins hands down! For some reason, even at 24/192 cymbals still sound like crap in PCM. The tonality of the instruments s what made me a believer in DSD. Piano and guitar are hard to get perfect - the "glassy" sound of the keyboard and the "stringy" sound of the guitar are very tough to do.

My theory is that the higher sampling rate allows DSD to capture the transients of the notes better and that this is far more important than word length.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program...