What Is This New "SHM-CD"?

From a Hong Kong website.....

 

I am privileged to get the sample copy including

Synchronicity1
I looked away
Deacon Blues
Sunday morning
Sing

Oscar Peterson You look good to me
Heren Merrill You'd be so nice...
Johnny Hartman They say it's wonderful
Bill Evans One for Heren
Carnival morning Gerry Mulligan

C.Kleiber Beethoven 7th 4th mvt
Karajan Respighi Ancient Dances
Pollini Chopin Etude op10-12
Gilelss Trout 4th mvt
K.Richter Matthew Passion Opening

Don't have time to listen to it now. Just for info for you.

 

Unless fluent in Japanese and reading the original announcement, I wouldn't necessarily assume this is balony.

 

I'd like to see a sticker on CD's which give the db of compression. That way we would know. I'm a dreamer. Hell how about eq settings too. LOL
Bad sounding music put on a superior CD is still bad sounding music.

 

Amazingly, because I expected these to just have something like added compression like JVC's "K2 HD" process, this new material does make a difference.

I bought Gentle Giant's Octopus, and it is not remastered. I was able to detect no EQ moves made or anything. Same TT as their previous release of this one in 2001 and that is confirmed as the same mastering the 1989 WG Line CD used. I'll test it in EAC to be sure the peaks haven't changed, but what I noticed was a lessening of the the "tinny," some might say "digital" sound.

More tests are needed, but the process could be something.

As far as the mastering, they seem to be repressing the titles on CDs with this new surface without any new work, and using whatever the currently in print or recently used mastering was, so it's important to establish whether one is okay with that. If you are, then yes, it'll sound a tad better. If you don't like, say, the Stones remasters or the work Suh Gur did on the Rainbow catalog, you won't like these, as the difference will only be minimal.

But it does seem to be a sort of "softener."

 

Does anyone know of a US-based online store carrying the Stones titles? I'd be interested in giving these a try.

 

Just wondering if you've had a chance to listen to the Stones titles, and what your thoughts are.

 

I listened to Beggars Banquet, and could not hear any difference between it and the standard redbook. I am not too good at these "shoot-outs" though, since I have to get up each time and change the CD (my wife refuses to participate).

Unless someone tells me they sound better, I am leaving TSMR and Let it Bleed sealed. They're kind of nice to have.

 

Refuses? Have you tried gentle coersion by dangling a box of ice wine truffles? No one refuses those!!!!

 

I don't get why they are trying to breath new life into CDs when they could be concentrating on things like SACD.

 

Easy. With this, they can market to anyone who owns a regular CD player. That market probably makes the SACD market look like a spec of salt.

 

I listened to the CD finally. The impression is just laughable.

First, most of the masters used for the CD are terrible. Flat imaging, narrow stereo soundstage and absolutely bass shy, maybe I should say no real bass at all. Some tracks brought a headache to me.

Second, I could here differences in some tracks. But none of them are huge. And they're not always improvement. Some tracks added a good sense of smoothness, while others got a brightness.

I'd conclude that you don't have to replace the CDs in your hands with the new SHM-CDs. If you have old Japan CDs, like the 2-CD version of 'Layla' for instance, you must NOT replace.

 

Right. Basically, although a better polycarbonate layer might help the laser read correctly, if the mastering is modern-day maximized, it doesn't help. I may buy new releases on SHM-CD just because it's a nice item to have (the new Stones Shine A Light soundtrack will apparently be released on regular CD and SHM-CD).

 

Well, as discussed, the titles are not remastered, so any differences that might prove the SHM CD to be a superior or inferior product would only be possible by comparing them to the same remastering on a regular CD.

In your comparisons, I assume that you had the regular CDs with the same mastering?

 

Oh sure. This is a set of a SHM-CD and a regular CD with the exactly same contents.

 

Sorry for the off topic, but Karl Richter's Matthew Passion (the older one) is a hyper spectacular recording. But it is so on the original vinyl published in a slip case. The box edition is much less so.
I've heard the first Japan CD from the 80s. Regretfully it sounded like no-noised. Quite dull and lifeless. :thumbsdn:

 

SHM-CD

Hi,

I know this has been discussed briefly but I see that Universal Japan are releasing many titles now with this new material used to make the CD.

Has anyone here picked up any of these and A/Bd them to their respective redbook CD?

Below is the blurb about these new CD's.

Thanks

Scott B


SHM-CD reissue featuring the 2000 edit of this release. The high quality SHM-CD (Super High Material CD) format features enhanced audio quality through the use of a special polycarbonate plastic. Using a process developed by JVC and Universal Music Japan discovered through the joint companies' research into LCD display manufacturing, SHM-CDs feature improved transparency on the data side of the disc, allowing for more accurate reading of CD data by the CD player laser head. SHM-CD format CDs are fully compatible with standard CD players. This release is also part of the 200-album SHM-CD Series Campaign from Universal Music Japan.

 

These are Redbook as well. I just played the first Soft Machine SHM pressing this morning. I thought it sounded OK, but really not an improvement. Marketing IMHO.

 

I've got plenty of these SHM CDs and I honestly can't notice any difference whereas I definitely notice the differences with some of my HDCDs. I suppose it's an apples and oranges comparison, however, as I'm not sure SHM CDs need any sort of decoder, etc.

 

Thanks. I think I'll pass on these SHM CDs.

Scott B

 

Maybe I need to take up that offer from a friend re listening to a couple of them. But otherwise I will pass on them at the moment.

 

Question. If you do EAC and have no errors how can the material improve a digital recording? Maybe some players can read them better or have better scratch tolerence and thus give better resolution, but I don't see how most decent players would have errors reading a new CD.

 

It is certainly true that cd-r's of different colors burned from the same
hd and files do sound different on playback. There's even a playback
variation among the 3-4 manufactures of black-cdrs.

Every little change matters. Retrieving that data off the cd is an analog process.
Decoding the retrieved data is the only digital process.
Otherwise all cd transports would sound the same and clearly they do not.

 

Hello,

I have a couple Miles Davis SHM-CD titles.
The play side of the discs are ultra clear.
Seems to me the discs are manufactured better (than their US/EU counterparts)...

If you are waiting to deciding to get any of those Miles SHM-CD titles, it is probably too late, they are sold out. However, it seems there is going to be subsequent pressings with package/catalog number variations...


Larry

 

This is literally true. However, I believe it is a mistake to read too much into the "analog" part of the CD reading process. The raw signal from the read heads on a hard drive is analog, too. Like the CD drive, there's some sort of "data slicer" that converts this analog signal to digital. At that point, the data is either right or it's not.

Hard drive technology has advanced to the point where the data is "correct" enough of the time to sataisfy the unforgiving environment of the determinitic computer. Although the Redbook CD is less robust as a data carrier than CDROM discs or hard drives, CRCs and AccurateRip show that it is generally possible to extract bit-accurate data from a Redbook CD, regardless of the quality of its manufacture, so long as it meets certain minimum standards. My experience is that CDRs, stamped discs, aluminum, gold, etc. all can provide bit-accurate data. Ceratainly Windows installs as well whether its from the original, stamped Microsoft disc or from a CDR copy.

For me, the bigger question here is, if you are hearing differences that you attibute to differences reading the CD, which player/disc is reading properly and what's wrong with the one which isn't? The digital data is either right (identical to the data on the digital master) or wrong (something else).