Nice . You are right; I live so far out in the hills, I don't ever see this kind of deal. I'll get a player sooner than later though. Till then...
The stereo Shut Down, Volume 2 is sublime, but a chief reason I obtained the AP release was to acquire the album's mono version in best possible sound. Yet I honestly didn't know when I would listen to it given how great is the stereo counterpart. That is, I didn't know until this morning when I spun the mono Shut Down... in my car. It turns out mono readily plows through engine and road noise. And whereas fine elements of the stereo version are lost in the din, they become part of a more forceful whole in mono, which penetrates the clatter, thereby permitting the album to still sound great under less than ideal conditions. It all makes sense given the music's original audience and venues.
I think that extremely unlikely - HDCD is easily the weirdest/most pointless format I've ever come across. The discs that have Peak Extension and Transient Filter enabled just don't sound any different when ripped and decoded. And then there are the ones that have neither enabled...so it's just a bog-standard Redbook with an HDCD label on then? Great
Well of course. The more audiophile the mastering - preserving the maximum dynamic range - the less audible in a noisy background like a car the softer parts and the background instruments. That’s why most mono singles of the period are more compressed than the stereo album counterparts - they sound better on a transistor radio or car radio. Of course this can be taken to extremes but no doubt mono in a car with 60s music is the way to go - unless you have a loudness wars remastering of the stereo.
The question you are asking about SQ of the SACD layer versus the CD layer can be controversial. First, let me say that I listen to 90% SACDs and 10% CDs. The main reason why the SACD layer sounds better is that the DSD format ( this is what is used on SACDs ) includes frequencies higher than 22.o5 kHz in the music which allow the leading edges of the music signal to be sharper and better defined in time of arrival. This allows one to better delineate one instrument's location from another and produces a more three dimensi0nal sound stage. You might consider going to the Hardware forum and searching for threads about SACD versus CD.
It was hoped more labels would adopt HDCD, which theoretically sounds potentially better than ordinary redbook CD while having backwards compatibility with all existing CD players. The differences between a well-mastered CD and well-mastered HDCD weren't big enough on regular stereo systems to get consumers excited.
With HDCDs the Beach Boys releases they didn't use all the benefits of the technology unfortunately apart from the Pet Sounds boxset i believe so a missed opportunity, if someone says it makes no difference check out the Joni Mitchell HDCDs against the standard redbook cd on a HDCD enabled cd player, same mastering i think you will be won over.
What do you mean, they "didn't use all the benefits of the technology"? And what exactly are you comparing with Joni Mitchell?
I do not want to go off the thread to much as to upset anyone but in a nutshell the Beach Boys HDCDs didn't use peak extend features of HDCD, so comparing to a same master without the HDCD there would be little or no difference, on to Joni Mitchell HDCDs, they do use the peak extend and comparing her HDCDs to a non HDCD version same master you will hear a more dynamic sound where as the regular cd will sound a bit flat in comparison, apologies again for going off thread. This is when played on a HDCD chip cd player
Every time I see this thread on the front page, a small part of me thinks that maybe, just maybe, the remaining albums in this AP series have been announced.
What "non HDCD version same master" exists for Joni Mitchell? But regardless, that's not how HDCD works. A properly decoded HDCD CD that uses Peak Extend is not any more dynamic than a CD that doesn't use HDCD at all, it's just the bit depth is very slightly higher. But that doesn't translate into more dynamics.
This subject is for another thread ,the Joni Mitchell CD remasters were released in the US in HDCD the UK version were not i have both and to my ears the HDCD versions sounds better by a margin,I can only say what I hear.
If they sound that different, something had to be different with the mastering. HDCD or lack thereof won’t cause a large difference if all else is equal.
Which effectively isn't true. The only differences between a properly decoded HDCD recording and a straight 16-bit recording will be below -96dB, the noise floor of 16-bit. That is, basically inaudible. That's not just a theory either, it's something that's pretty easy to test.
I agree re the Joni Mitchell HDCD ISSUES- a notable improvement. The BEACH BOYS SACD editions are lovely.
Well, I'm a little late to the party. Just picked up these albums in the last couple weeks and have been listening to nothing but them. The question may have been asked and answered in the previous 100 pages, but what about Wild Honey, Friends, 20/20, and Carl and the Passions? Do they plan on putting them out eventually? Or maybe they have and I just missed them?
