Please, don't take my word completely, it's been 10 years since I've heard the original WB CD, but I remember tape damage on Something So Right, like ticks and a dropout. I've burned a CD-R with the Warner CD and a tape dupe from Greatest Hits, Etc. CBS CD just for that song. The CD-R is probably dead by now.
If you're set for lp playback, a clean original must be hard to beat. However, perhaps it's me who needs to equip myself with SACD playback.
Especially the SQ version which I used to have. I kept that for years after I got rid of all my vinyl but eventually it went too. Too bad. I have excellent SQ decoding capabilities now too. I don't think I'm ready to hear this album in stereo so I guess I'll just skip it. Hopefully Dutton Vocalion will do some Paul Simon quads sometime in the future. Maybe after Paul is deceased. Of course by then I may be too.
Probably so. It's a micro-second tick, and could easily be digitally removed without any discernible loss of sound quality. But its stands out. I'd never heard the album or the song before getting this SACD, and on the first listen I noticed it clearly.
TBH, the original Paul Simon CD's on WB were done pretty well. It's been a while since I made direct comparisons, but IIRC even when later masterings made improvements (the 1993 box set comes to mind, which even advertises the use of a DCS converter for "audiophile quality"), they weren't that far behind. I'm still glad for these MFSL SACD reissues, in a way the format is really the selling point, but I have to admit Paul Simon's solo catalog was already well-served in the digital domain.
Well, they could use whatever converter and said it was «audiophile» This 20-bit A/D was not better or worse than others well designed A/Ds used for mastering CDs at that time. I have this Paul Simon 1964/1993 3-CD box. At least 15 years since I listened to it, maybe I should spin it again. But I liked the Negotiations and Love Song better, more organic and analogue sounding. In my ears they used some Cedar clean-up systems (or similar) on the 3-CD box. But as I said, it’s been some years since I listened to it
Played this SACD through my Marantz SA-K1 Ruby and it sounds absolutely fantastic. Great balance of the instruments and the vocals sound pure and clear. Perfect amount of bass. Very smooth and dynamic at the same time. It almost, almost, sounds analog. Rob LeVerde did an outstanding job of mastering this masterpiece of an album. I have a NM original LP (sounds really good) and the 2004 remastered CD (sounds OK). This SACD is highly recommended. If you are a fan, don't pass it up for $30.
That little click is also on the DCC vinyl. And if it’s on the Columbia vinyl, old Warner disc and this new SACD, it’s safe to say it’s an analog click
I wasn't impressed with the MFSL SACD of Still Crazy After All These Years, but this one sounds spectacular. They've really upped their game with this release.
I want to back up those that think Still Crazy MFSL SACD is not sound good enough for mfsl standard. Apparently not all mfsl releases on sacd sound equally amazing, i can add to those misses two first eagles albums , desperado and eagles, they not great at all in term of sound quality. On other hand I just received Chicago transit authority , its whole other story , great sound. Anyway I placed an order of simon new sacd and hope it will be much better then Still Crazy.
The MFSL of Chicago Transit Authority has nothing on the Mastersound disc. MFSL is good, but a little too much clarity. Mastersound has a bit more warmth
Bummer about Desperado, because my original Asylum first press white label sounds amazing. When the band kicks in on Doolin-Dalton (after the intro), it shows off what kind of mix they got there. Unless the first gen tapes are gone somehow, it should sound amazing and very powerful on a MFSL SACD.
If the rest are going to sound this good bring them on. Finally able to give this a good listen and I am just wowed by the album and the mastering.
Same. I got this SACD yesterday and played the album from start to finish three times in a row. It's that good! I wonder why these MoFI's are hit or miss? Like "Still crazy after all these years", it is not bad, but it is not great either. I prefer listening to CD versions. We now know by sure that Mofi has to travel out to the record companies tape vaults for a flat transfer from tape to DSD. MoFi does not do any mastering at these locations, like adding EQ, compression etc, only a straight tape transfer to digital. Back home at Sebastopol in CA they have a digital file to work on. So they have two options; either release the digital file as is on the SACD....or do some afterwork like Eq adjustments, dynamic compression, adjust for tape flaws etc. Lets say they want to do some Eq adjustments before a hybrid SACD release. They have a digital DSD file to work with. Do they convert to analog for Eq adjustments and then back to DSD? Or do they convert to Pcm for Eq adjustments and then back to DSD? Anyone share some light on this issue? I like minimal processing in sound, maybe because of that I love these japanese SHM-SACDs so much. And if you have to do some Eq adjustments with analog recorded music, you should alway do it before the tapes was converted to digital, not after!
Just for the record: the "Still Crazy..." MFSL SACD was greeted with great reviews on this forum, something must have changed in these few years.
But we don't know, do we? Or have I missed something? I don't mean to start everything up again, just set the record straight and avoid jumping to conclusions.
My 2 cents: I compared the W2 25589 original CD to the MFSL CD layer and I can't tell any significant difference. This was a well mastered CD to begin with. If you want this title for the SACD format, by all means get it. But if you're considering getting this as an upgrade to the original CD, you might want to listen first and make your own judgment as to whether you want to shell out the dough for it.