What's the worst DVD-A or SACD that you purchased?

Al Green-- Greatest Hits DVD-A.

CCR- Chronicle SACD.

Roxy Music Greatest Hits. Different mastering (not Bob Ludwig) than the Avalon SACD which is fantastic, nowhere near as good as the Ludwig CD remasters from '99.

 

So the DAD is good? The HDAD should be superb!

 

Silverline's mess of a joke of a DVD-A for "Basket of Light" by The Pentangle. The only mix is "stunning 5.1 sound". Yeah right. OOPs and echo do NOT constitute a surround mix! Could possibly have redeemed itself with a hi-rez stereo track, but they didn't even bother. I won't venture a guess as to what they used as a source. Ummm... no, I will venture a guess... umm: maybe an old copy of the album on cassette? A waste of $$$ and IMHO an insult to the integrity of the band and this LP.

 

Worst DVD-A: Fleetwood Mac - Say you will. This one was released almost at the same time as the CD version (can you imagine?!) and for once when it comes to hi-rez seems like a "rush-release" has some strange mixes, almost like drop-outs (can´t really put my finger on it) in places and very little activity going on in surround. IMO a very dull effort.

Worst SACD: As already mentioned earlier in this thread:

Sting - Sacred love - dull
Roxy Music - Greatest hits - only a few tracks (the first few ones) sounds good.

 

Is everything set right on your system? My copy of this has TONS of deep bass & is as smooth as a baby's bottom!

 

But the stereo layer is very nice.

 

Possibly, but the same tape is being used (which has been discussed here) and the same matering engineer. The main difference will be the a/d converter. I'm not sure it's going to be a night and day difference.

 

Think about it: Three instruments, a vocalist, a huge crowd & hall ambience make for a GREAT 5.1 presentation. The sound on this blows away the also impressive 5.1 mix on the DVD. Also, LOVE the panning effects on Whole Lotta Love & Dazed & Confused.

The Sam Cooke stuff sounds AMAZING, especially compared to the original 1987 RCA CD.

 

I concur! Check your bass management.

 

That rumble is there on a lot of classical stuff. I hear it but it doesn't distract too much on any of my systems (headphones too). Every room is different though. Just listen with the knowledge they didn't tinker with the sound.

The music sounds good though. Nice and clear. Much, much, much better than my old CBS Masterworks CD and better than the re-released CD in the late 90's.

 

Very interesting posts here. A few from me...

1) Ella and Louis Verve One of my fave Lp's sounds awful. The extra resolution is there, but the brightness and sibilance drive me crazy.

2) Jeff Beck Blow by Blow Columbia Not bad, just ordinary sounding to me.

3) Pink Flody Dark Side of the Moon Capitol Just underwhelming sounding. I have to admit I expect a lot from this classic. I have not heard any disc version of this that excites me. The British Lp is still the king by a long shot! The quad Lp mix is fascinating as a different stereo mix!

4) Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde Columbia Nasty, bright sounding. I'm not a Dylan fan anyway, but I thought I might really get into him via SACD...ugh! Horrible sounding!

I really enjoyed the Gabriel SACD's and Sting's Sacred Love (not so much the music, but the sound) British Pressing SACD. Mary J has never sounded better!

All my listening is 2 channel only...have no interest in 5.1, save for movies.

 

Oh yeah! I forgot about the Dylan SACDs. John Wesley Harding, now that was a waste of money!

 

Bill Evans - Portrait in Jazz - I can't notice any difference from the redbook layer. I really can't stand all that noise. Was the original recording so bad? Or there is a truly better LP edition?

Bob Dylan - Nashville Skyline - just nothing special.

 

Get the DCC Gold CD of Portrait in Jazz. It kills the SACD. IMO

 

You made if farther than me. I listened to about 30 secs of the first song, skipped forward for 30 seconds of the second song before I removed if from the player.
I will try to unload this after the holiday's since it will never be reloaded into my player again.

I'd describe it as horrible swishing cymbals to give you a headache accompanied by some other stuff that I can't hear because I can't get past the sizzling white noise from the cymbals.

 

Did Bob Rock do the 5.1 mixes?

 

Which of the two BOB SACDs are you referring to? The recent multichannel/stereo hybrid, or the earlier stereo-only single-layer SACD?

Granted, BOB wasn't very well recorded to begin with.

 

Doesn't matter, since the stereo tracks are identical on both (and GREAT IMHO, regardless of what you guys are saying!).

 

I was a little sarcastic. I just wanted to know which edition he was referring to. It's just that maybe he just dislikes stuff that was seriously brightened and compressed on the tape to begin with.

IMHO, the worst versions of BOB that I've heard are the '80s vinyl repressing and the first Columbia CD version - the vinyl sounded harsh, while the original CD was a bad remix (note that I have never heard the allegedly craptacular Gold Mastersound edition).

By the way, the worst Hi-Res disc that I have in my collection is probably Pet Sounds (the only DVD-A in my collection). The original mono and the stereo versions seem to have added echo on this mastering.

 

Produced by Bob Rock at Plantation Studio. Mixed by Randy Staub.

I just happen to have the disc sitting here at work. Aceman400 brought it back. Guess he didn't want it either.

 

The 5:1 mix on DSOTM is the most disapointing SACD I have. The quad mix just kicks the SACD in the pants.
As noted before I have saved some bucks on the reviews here....but I'm glad I didn't pay attention on those "bad" reviews of the EJ sacds. As always YMMV(your mileage may vary).

 

Well, I tried to give it a fair chance, but it just did not work out. If I pop in a disc and I find I don't like it on first pass, I may try again at another time, or maybe in a different system, or maybe look to see if I somehow FUBAR'd something in the rig.

But with this one, it NEVER sounded right, nor did the redbook disc I own. There was plenty of low end slam, but those cymbal crashes were "sonic darts" (to quote my forum bud Taurus!).

BGL

 

That was probably the point.

 

What don't you like about that one??

Just curoius.

 

Musical Performance.