Audio Fidelity new 24 Kt Gold CD of "Crosby, Stills & Nash" Review: Veil Removed!!!

Hey Randy, really enjoyed reading your article. Nice job!!

 

More here, as well as a great article.

 

Yep. ...but there wasn't a photo of that.

 

A great read, Randy. I'd been checking Musicangle and finally found your review up late last night--well worth the wait. Your writing style integrates very well with Fremer's.

 

BTW - There's a ton of outtake photos from the album's cover and gatefold kicking around on the Corbis archive.... more than I'd seen before....

Cover























Elsewhere on the same day








Gatefold

 

Mine finally arrived and sounds wonderful!

 

Nice job Randy!

Rich from Minnesota

 

Just a superb review, and recounting of your experience of the mastering session, Randy. Thanks for posting it.

I love the story of the iconic cover photo! We had that album in our household when it was first released, and for a few years I thought Nash was Crosby, and vice-versa due to their positions on the couch. I guess I was too young at the time to know about Crosby's prior work in the Byrds.

PS - no mention of the cheeseburger?

 

Great review, Randy. Thanks for including the pictures, too.

 

Very informative article. Thanks!

 

Great read Randy ! Really enjoyed, and as the Proud owner of a Classic 45 X 4, my favorite part is :

" What about the now out-of-print Classic Records vinyl of CS&N you ask? These pressings (both the 33-RPM and 45-RPM versions) were made using the same master tapes that Audio Fidelity had to work with. Cut by Bernie Grundman, these LPs are right up there with the double –F Atlantic reissue. In fact, the Classic Records 45-RPM version probably matches the Audio Fidelity CD most closely as it has that “pristine” presentation and is very transparent. Unfortunately, these are not getting any easier to find. And this article probably won’t help matters any. "

I have the best vinyl IMO, and the best digital IMO, 2 copies, and done !

 

Thanks guys!

I've started a new thread on my review here:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?p=7264703#post7264703

 

I also enjoyed the review, Randy. I had seen an excellent show on the History Channel about the photographer who shot the cover photo. It was a very fascinating story. The photo in the gatefold was the group's attempt to show the proper order by name.

 

Why AF GOLD CDs are no longer HDCD encoded?!?

By the Way.

Why Audio Fidelity declined to issue HDCD encoded CDs. I remember how HDCD was prasied when first new gold CDs by AF appeared (f.e. Bad Company).
What went wrong with HDCD, or with AF?

Regards
Tomek

 

Since I unfortunately started this misunderstanding, let me point you here - a thread Steve put up a while ago - "I've decided not to run my masterings though an HDCD converter..."

I'd misremembered the content of the thread, and thought all of Audio Fidelity was going to stop using HDCD from here on out. Untrue. All that's been explicitly said: this was a personal aesthetic choice of Steve and Stephen Marsh's. What Kevin chooses to do on his masterings is up to him.

 

I just got mine from Amazon in absolute perfect shape! Talk about a veil being lifted. I haven't heard the veil lifted this dramatically since Steve mastered Love Hurts/Roy Orbison. After listening in stereo, I listened to it again in 5.1 and it sounded better than most SACD and DVD discs that are made with a specific 5.1 mix! I REALLY thought I was in the studio with CSN.

 

Correct!

Some very funny comments by Crosby about that in the Burden/Diltz DVD "Under the Covers".

Also: My understanding is that our host had previously tried HDCD but preferred not using it. The degree of "lifted "veil" for this release is system dependent IMO.

 

I got my copy from DeepDiscount and no problems with my copy. Very sweet sounding.

 

got it too just now...love it!

 

almost perfect

Mine arrived in the post from cduniverse the other day, #2913. Got a chance to give it a spin last night finally. The package itself was in perfect condition, having been shipped USPS in a bubble-packed envelope.

Upon loading it into my Majik CD, it started to make some grinding noises, which I had never heard from this machine before. Ejected and reloaded it and it eventually loaded but seems like it took forever.

First track Suite: Judy.... started off fine, then stopped playing for a moment about a minute in and had another skip further in. Ejected the disc again, gave it a careful cleaning, put it back in again, same grinding occurred, would not complete the loading process but would go to 'play' when the button was pushed.

And once it started, OMG ! Everything that's been said is true, and then some.

I'm not sure at this point if I'm going to request a replacement (but I should prolly get on that asap if I'm going to)..... anyone else had similar problems ?

 

I think Stephen Stills also had some similar grinding issues with Suite Judy Blue Eyes. Wink wink. Nudge nudge.

 

Amazon estimated delivery date: January 6-10.