The best SHM-SACDs (part3)

About the MFSL Gold CD of "Every picture tells a story". I have it and it is one of the best from the early period of Gold CDs.

In the old days MFSL did many releases where master tapes was located in the UK: Rod Stewart, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Moody Blues etc. Did Mobile Fidelity get those original masters shipped over to USA for mastering, or did they come over to Uk for mastering work?
Nowdays, MoFi only work with US master tapes/artists cause UK/european master tapes does not leave the country?

 

Are you sure? What tapes they used on Pretenders' ST album?

 

Yes, the SHM-SACDs are the 96/24 masters converted to DSD.

 

Ok. In some cases they could get the tapes on a flight over to California, but in most cases I think the owners of those master tapes are pretty restrictive. Even more restrictive these days than before, I think. Maybe the insurance rate is too high that small audiophile labels can afford it?
I think Steve knows a bit about this issue.

 

The major labels tend to not let the master tapes travel as much now; which is one of the reasons that Acoustic Sounds is using both New York and Los Angeles-based mastering facilities in recent years.

 

That's right..... it's more difficult to get tapes from the UK. A good example are the transfers of the SHM-SACDs. Universal UK or USA will never ship tapes to Japan and Universal Japan do not have the original playback machines. That's the reason many transfers were made at FX Copyroom in London.

 

According to Bill Levenson in page two of this thread ( http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...tells-a-story-mofi-silver-label-vinyl.264873/), Mercury didn't work like this. They insisted only on master tapes for artists they signed, so UK Phonogram would have had copies of the Rod albums and Mercury in the US would have had the masters.

 

O.K. Thank you.

 

I was very happy with the 2010 Lennon remasters for the most part. I knew going in the SHM-SACDs were from them, but it's very hard to tell the Imagine SHM-SACD has been sourced from a Hi-Rez PCM transfer. The SHM-SACD is a big step up from the redbook CD version.

 

Ditto

 

Hopefully its next in line for release, unless there may be some problems with the master tapes etc. that could prevent a SHM Sacd & Platinum SHM release.

 

I have been collecting sacds (mainly rock & jazz, haven't heard much classical on sacd) since the format introduction & I really believe that Every Picture Tells A Story is THE best sacd I have ever heard. Absolutely superb in every way.

 

I thought the master for this was 16bit/44.1kHz digital, and that was why it hadn't been released on SHM-SACD, them being usually flat transfers.

 

If so, why not pull the usual Uni Japan trick & release products stemmed from flat DSD transfer of the original analogue LP master (a la 2014 Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms SHM-SACD + Pt/non-Pt SHM-CD releases)?..

 

Yeah I thought about that, but this particular LP master might not sound as good as the Dire Strait one, or is in no usable shape, who knows.

 

You obviously don't do multichannel...



Yes it does sound superb for sure.

 

About Brothers in Arms SHM-SACD, I hadn't spun this disc since the days it was released. But last night I did.

It is interesting cause it's like these SHM-SACDs ages like a good wine in my ears*. It was like I remembered it. There is slightly more (subtle) background noise on this LP master used for this SHM-SACD. The background on the original CD is more black silent. But very few will recognize this.
The sound is better on both sides of the frequency extremes on the SHM-SACD; bass and treble. Treble is more like heard on the Lp, more natural. Bass is more pronounced in the sound picture.
Best of all: the sound is a bit more powerful and engaging, as opposite; the original CD sounds weaker and "thinner".

*I don't know what's happening, but SHM-SACDs that I have not played for months/years sounds even a bit better than I remembered, like things in the background of the sound picture can be heard more easily, same with subtle details and ambience etc. Subtle….but there is.

 

No multi channel for me, I'm old school two channel stereo. I've heard surround mixes and to be honest they really don't do much for me. I don't even own speakers any more, headphones only, I like to crank it up but it disturbs the family, they know not to bother me when I've got my cans on and I'm lost in one of my fave albums, so its a win win, they don't bother me, I don't bother them!

 

Not to hijack the thread but would seriously suggest SACD people not in to multichannel consider it as an option. I went without quad and 5.1 stuff for many years and enjoyed stereo SACDs but then I bought a used 5.1 receiver on a whim for cheap, pulled some old bookshelfs out of storage and had a poor man's MC setup that could utilize stuff I already had in 5.1. It also opens up the whacky world of quad rips if you're in to that.

More on topic I really dig the Band S/T Japan SHM SACD

 

I was just wondering whats better on sacd, the MOFI Band releases or the SHM sacd?

 

Many people on this forum prefer the SHM's, myself included.

 

Just a weird assumption on my part, but maybe.....

When you first get a disc you listen very intently for differences, hoping (as you know it is an SHM-SACD) that it will sound better than you expect. Your expectations are not met in accordance with the reality of the sound of the disc.

Then, after time and you have dropped your expectations of what a certain disc should sound like, you pull it out to listen to it; you are a bit more relaxed - coming at the sound with less expectation than when you first purchased the disc. Your more relaxed state, and listening with fresh ears lets you hear the disc in a "better" light than when specifically listening for improvements upon original purchase.

 

I only purchased the first two albums and they are definitely better than the MFSL's

 

Not true, I say... 2014 DS - BIA SHM-SACD/SHM-CD transfer is actually a tad brighter & has less bass than the original 1985 CD... Check the waveforms & the spectrum graphs comparison of a couple of tracks from 1985 Warner CD & 2014 SHM-CD (stemmed from flat DSD transfer of 1985 Bob Ludwig's analogue LP master), which I posted a while back in another thread. Polarity is also inverted on 2014 SHM discs.

 

It's not First-April joke:

Unfortunately, I do not remember where I read it ... or, possibly, I even made it up, but it seems to me that the first Surround Sound headphones are available now.