What Is This New "SHM-CD"?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by bresna, Sep 28, 2007.

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  1. hifisoup

    hifisoup @hearmoremusic on Instagram

    Location:
    USA
    Just another format that will die.
     
  2. adhoc

    adhoc Gentlemen Prefer Stereo

    It's not a new format, just a better made CD. :p
     
  3. audiospirit

    audiospirit Active Member

    Location:
    Germany
    Have anybody listened such cds? Is it worth to pay for it? Or it is just new marketing spam?
     
  4. Gary

    Gary Nauga Gort! Staff

    Location:
    Toronto
    Now that would be an interesting experiment... you know how some CDs that are badly scratched can be "buffed" to a new surface. What probably happens is that they shave off a bit of the surface (I can't see it happening any other way). So would there be a difference to the reading ability of the CD player or playback?

    :shrug:
     
  5. audiospirit

    audiospirit Active Member

    Location:
    Germany
    Ok,I pre-ordered couple John Coltrane SHM-CDs,let see how they will sounds.
     
  6. RobertKaneda

    RobertKaneda New Member

    Location:
    Paris, France
    It says (in highly abbreviated form) that with the 25th anniversary of the CD, a new coating technology has been developed that allows the laser to more clearly "see" the pits, this technology being derived from things learned through work on LCDs. This technique will yield a more "correct" reading of the CD.

    I refrain from expressing an opinion as to whether any of this makes a difference in terms of what one hears.
     
  7. Gary

    Gary Nauga Gort! Staff

    Location:
    Toronto
    Although you are refraining, I prefer to speculate. :D

    I speculate that it depends on how well your CD player's laser works. :)
     
  8. RobertKaneda

    RobertKaneda New Member

    Location:
    Paris, France
    Well, this new technique does not change the way your laser works; if we are to believe what is being claimed, it changes, by being more transparent, what the CD offers to the laser to see. So it, not the laser, is the variable.:wave:
     
  9. Metoo

    Metoo Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Spain (EU)
    If this trend continues, next we will see Bausch & Lomb CDs. :D
     
  10. TOCJ-4091

    TOCJ-4091 Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    These ones are due out in Jan. $25 a pop.

    UCCO 9161(SHM CD)(RVG) Rollins,Sonny(ts) Saxophone Colossus
    UCCO 9162(SHM CD)(RVG) Davis,Miles(tp) Cookin'
    UCCO 9163(SHM CD)(RVG) Coltrane,John(ts) Soultrane
    UCCO 9164(SHM CD)(RVG) Dorham,Kenny(tp) Quiet kenny
    UCCO 9165(SHM CD)(RVG) Davis,Miles(tp) Walkin'
    UCCO 9166(SHM CD)(RVG) Haynes,Roy(ds) We Three
    UCCO 9167(SHM CD)(RVG) Monk,Thelonious(p) & Sonny Rollins(ts) Thelonious Monk & Sonny Rollins
    UCCO 9168(SHM CD)(RVG) Garland,Red(p) Red Garland's Piano
    UCCO 9169(SHM CD)(RVG) Dameron,Tadd(p) Mating Call
    UCCO 9170(SHM CD)(RVG) Ammons,Gene(ts) Boss Tenor
     
  11. Jay F

    Jay F New Member

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    I know someone who does that. He also stores the CDs he's going to play today in the freezer. :biglaugh:
     
  12. Claude

    Claude Senior Member

    Location:
    Luxembourg
    Hopefully the SHM manufacturing will fix the RVG mastering problems ;)

    Compared to 45rpm set of "Quiet Kenny", the US RVG CD sounds distant and muffled.
     
  13. TOCJ-4091

    TOCJ-4091 Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Never did buy the US RVG.....but I do have the XRCD (VICJ-61052) and might pick up this one title in order to do an A/B comparison of the two. :cool:
     
  14. Claude

    Claude Senior Member

    Location:
    Luxembourg
    It would be more interesting to compare the SHM-RVG with the US RVG (presumably same mastering, different manufacturing), but I'd choose a different title, as there must be better sounding ones than the Dorham (as mastered by RVG).
     
  15. TOCJ-4091

    TOCJ-4091 Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Well, yeah, I guess -- if, of course, one actually believes that RVG is performing all of the mastering/assorted knob & button studio wizardry. :)
     
  16. dachada

    dachada Senior Member

    Location:
    FL
    I think the record labels are trying a different move giving the buyers a much better quality product and stop the big piracy industry.
     
  17. Curiosity

    Curiosity Just A Boy

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    I'm prepared to entertain the idea that a more reflective disc may sound better but in order for this to show through the content needs to be well mastered.
     
  18. dprokopy

    dprokopy Senior Member

    Location:
    Near Seattle, WA
    If anything, I'd imagine this would make things worse. I know that if I leave CDs out in the cold for any length of time (out in my car, or out in the mailbox when I buy stuff online or from here), and bring them into a warmer environment, they tend to fog up (temporarily, anyway). Can't imagine that improves reflectivity.
     
  19. tps

    tps Forum Resident

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    These machine translations from Japanese remind me of the many translations of mindisc equipment announcements I read a few years ago. Phrases like the "rear end bit allocation" (ATRAC-R) and "high pitched sound" (high frequency response). Those are just a couple of those I remember off the top of my head.

    Although this innovation in CD manufacture may give us a more perfect data carrier, it will probably make little difference to the growing number of listeners (like me) who are using EAC (and other programs) to extract the bits from the disc, a trend that will certainly increase with each passing day. It seems to me that this is an attempt by the manufacturers to fix the wrong problem. There is usually little problem with reliably reading the data from a CD; the problem is that the data recorded onto the discs often needs a bit more care at the mastering stage.
     
  20. Metoo

    Metoo Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Spain (EU)
    SHM = Super High Material CD: http://www.hmv.co.jp/fl/4/321/1/

    From that page (automatically translated): "An article aiming at the improvement of the sound quality has been developed in various form for 25 years by CD release, but, at this time, releases a high sound quality CD by the new material by universal music and joint development of JVC. The normal CD material is the birth of the new CD which improved transparency more by using the polycarbonate resin system of the another kind. A quality characteristic of SHM-CD has improvement, a superior optics characteristic and the normal CD material with transparency in the polycarbonate resin system of the another kind. ・ is superior in the double refraction characteristic of the circumference direction in particular, and it is high fluidity, high transcription characteristics. The sound quality that a feeling of transparence with a little degree of distortion is high in comparison with the CD of acoustic feature / before of SHM-CD. It is realized more balanced sound quality by ・ resolution having largely improved. The ・ lack of volume of a low level common conventionally dissolves."
     
  21. RobertKaneda

    RobertKaneda New Member

    Location:
    Paris, France
    Interesting as well are recent studies showing that CDRs sound better than the original CDs from which they are copied, the conjectured reason being that the flat dark/light patches of CDRs reflect the laser more accurately, with less spurious light (and, therefore, less spurious sound), than do commercially manufacture CDs, which feature raised lands, whose convex shapes tend to diffuse the laser's beam, causing extraneous and degrading beams of light flashing all over the place.
     
  22. audiospirit

    audiospirit Active Member

    Location:
    Germany
    I've read some reviews in german audiophile magazines,they claim too,good cdr copy sounding better than original.Strange .
     
  23. Koptapad

    Koptapad Forum Resident

    Nothing wrong with improving the polycarbonate layer as long as they don't overcharge and hype it or lie. Does it scratch less than polycarb? That would be important too. Heat resistance? Etc.
     
  24. duneman

    duneman Forum Resident

    "especially circumferential" got a kick out of that - like the latter day Elvis
     
  25. drbryant

    drbryant Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    OK, so I went to the CD store today and saw the new SHM CD's on display. Nice packaging, with a plastic slipcase, green and gold obi and an oversized booklet that you can see through the shrinkwrap, with a nice blurb at the top saying "Is this really the same recording??!!" The selection was the usual suspects -- popular titles that have been mastered and remastered for years -- Sychronicity, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Slowhand, 461 Ocean Blvd., Aja, Gaucho, Who's Next, Now & Then, Fillmore East, etc., etc. The really interesting titles for me were the Stones' Let It Bleed, Beggars Banquet and Satanic Majesties, as I can't recall any "audiophile" pressings of these albums (other than the widely released SACD hybrids), but the store was out of them. My instinct told me not to buy any, but they were reasonably priced (about $26), so I figured I would try a couple. I decided against buying my 8th copy of Aja on CD, and went with the Police Ghosts in the Machine and Derek & the Dominoes' Layla.

    From what I can see, they are identical to the current releases of these two titles. The Police is the 2003 Ludwig remaster, and Layla is the Joe Palmaccio remaster. Even the booklet and inserts look the same. The only difference appears to be "SHM-CD" printed on the inner ring of the disc and, of course, the new polycarbonate layer that is more "transparent" for reading by the laser in your player. I put on Layla, but had to take it off because it started sounding too harsh about halfway through "Keep On Growing".

    Does the new material make a difference? I don't know b/c I have not compared it to the stock CD. But the mastering, at least on these two titles is the same one that is available currently for about 1/2 the price.

    I'll buy the three Stones titles to collect, but other than that, won't be buying any more of these because I am not a fan of the current issues of most of the titles.
     
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