Elton John new 2018 remasters shm.

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by swintonlion, Apr 11, 2018.

  1. supermd

    supermd Senior Member

    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    Just got back from therapy after reading your post. ;)

    In all seriousness, great post!! I listened to many of the songs you listed as I read along (all but"Philadelphia Freedom" were new to me). I'm still taking in the other suggestions from others, but I must say, of all the songs you listed that I listened to, "Sixty Years On" hit me the most. I think I'll give that album a listen tomorrow. I really enjoyed the song. Oh, and Rock of the Westies was a nice listen from a couple days ago. :) Thanks for the great recommendations, to you and all others.
     
  2. Bemagnus

    Bemagnus Music is fun

    I have always enjoyed Blue Moves-at least part of it. With that said it definively has not been one of my true favorites of Eltons ”Classic” era. Listening to the new remasters the album as a whole still is a bit of mixed bag.

    Still-the great things there are-imo-some of the most challenging and exiting music Elton ever did. It s hard to pick a favorite but Tonight comes close for me. I know there are those who really dislike that track. Not me. It s a spectacular melody, a
    very good orchestral arrangement and maybe one of Eltons most mezmerising vocal-deliveries ever. To have that grand ballad followed by the progressive extravaganza of One horse town really shows why this album is so different and challenging.
    As pointed out the extraordinary sound on the new remaster/SMH vastly add to the listening-experience here.
    If-as some people believe- Blue Moves was the end of Eltons ”Classic” era he certanely finished it with a bang together with Bernie Taupin.
    In it s own way a very personal album from both of them. Just like most truly great music it s one for the ages. An album that more than 4 decades after I first heard it only get s better. That s a good thing I guess
     
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2019
    stevef, Carlox, mikedifr0923 and 5 others like this.
  3. lonelysea

    lonelysea Ban Leaf Blowers

    Location:
    The Cascades
    (how far the mighty have fallen...)

    Got my second batch today. Tonight I compared the new SHM Tumbleweed Connection with the (very excellent) MFSL. Was hoping and expecting it would be closer but the new one just has an obvious advantage in terms of detail and clarity, especially in the bass and low frequencies! The drums on Amoreena have a visceral impact and sound like real drums. I’m as amazed and perplexed as any others who have heard these - I’m looking forward to hearing from someone a more critical take on these new remasters because I’m having trouble finding much fault.
     
    stevef, supermd, Carlox and 7 others like this.
  4. jhm

    jhm Forum Resident

    Man, I SOOOO didn't need to read that. I've been happy with my MFSL of this one. Decisions, decisions...
     
  5. Full Circle

    Full Circle Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ventura, CA, USA
    Well, after reading all of these positive posts I broke down and ordered Capt. Fantastic and Madman from CDJapan after getting GYBR, HC, and TC from ImportCDs. On the way as I write this. Appreciate everyone who’s been posting the last couple of weeks.
     
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  6. lonelysea

    lonelysea Ban Leaf Blowers

    Location:
    The Cascades
    The MFSL of TC is possibly my favorite Elton John mastering and I still think it sounds fantastic. Fans of a mellower “analog” sound might still prefer it (I’ll be keeping mine), but there’s no denying how great this new one sounds.
     
  7. BrucePadgett

    BrucePadgett Forum Resident

    As my order from CDJapan seems to be stuck “in shipping process” for about 24 hours, I did something to slake my thirst for these SHMs. I checked Amazon’s listings and discovered one copy of CF was finally in stock. As that was the very first EJ album I ever bought back in the ‘70s, and is still my all-time fave of his, and also has terrific repros of all the swag included therein...I ordered it for delivery Saturday.

    Conspicuous consumption, yes I know. But these all may well be quite collectible very soon, so I’ll just talk myself into viewing it as an investment.

    Can’t wait for S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!
     
  8. BrucePadgett

    BrucePadgett Forum Resident

    P.S. Amazon also has one copy of the new Honky Chateau. (No other titles unfortunately.)

    You can thank me later.
     
  9. Bemagnus

    Bemagnus Music is fun

    As mentioned before bu me and others this release of Eltons ”Classic-era” is very well done.
    Last night I listened closely to the self-titled album-and once again Wow. The dynamics are stunning and the orchestration makes one feel in the middle of it all. It all comes together on the deep track Tour de force-The Kong Must die. It sounds so real and detailed in all registers I actually find it hard to believe.
    This was the first Elton John album I ever heard back in the days and since then I heard it more times than I can think of. Honesty though never sounding as good as here
    Highly recomended
    :)
     
    Last edited: Aug 30, 2019
    supermd, Oyster Boy and toilet_doctor like this.
  10. toilet_doctor

    toilet_doctor "Rockin' chair's got me"

    Location:
    USA
    Can I place it in the category "Best"?
     
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  11. fredblue

    fredblue Surrounded by Music

    Location:
    London, England
    hahaha!! :biglaugh:
    drunk reminiscing posting! i must be stopped after a certain time/number of beers! :cheers:
    glad you liked the suggestions! even Westies! yeay! that's hardcore Elton! let's rock!! :bdance:

    "Sixty Years On" is, to me, one of his masterpieces. incredible to think Elton & Bernie went from Empty Sky and Lady Samantha type stuff to that Elton John album (Your Song, Border Song, Sixty Years On, The Greatest Discovery, The King Must Die, The Cage, Take Me To The (freakin'!) Pilot...!!!!) in such a short space of time!! obviously Gus and Buckmaster brought a lot to the table with their Producing and arranging skills but there was more to it, Elton's voice was already maturing/improving and the songwriting was developing too, plus the kind of classic Elton piano style which isn't really there on Empty Sky is right there on a number of the Elton John album tracks. i've sort of come to take that 1970 album somewhat for granted but really its a great one and a very important one in his career. keep your ears peeled for a thunderous moog solo by Diana Lewis in the quirky "The Cage"! it still brings a smile to this day! "woah-oh-woah-oh!!" :pineapple:
     
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  12. Bemagnus

    Bemagnus Music is fun

    The best Iv heard
    For my ears
    :)
     
  13. fredblue

    fredblue Surrounded by Music

    Location:
    London, England
    well quite! it is perplexing! i'm normally the first one to be underwhelmed by a remaster and be stuck on an old CD and i was quite prepared for these to be little or no improvement (or like the 2 dull and lifeless Elton SHM-SACDs, of EJ & GYBR, actually worse than previous masterings) but not on this occasion, for almost all the tracks i played so far i'd never heard them sound so good.
     
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  14. toilet_doctor

    toilet_doctor "Rockin' chair's got me"

    Location:
    USA
    Elton John S/T - Best

    Done!
     
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  15. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    Without opening up a can of worms :D, what is the best sounding GYBR? I never really liked the SHM SACD either. It’s the 3rd pressing I own and in the end I put it down to just being a crappy sounding album!

    The other 2 CDs I have are the Gus remaster and the 2003 SACD/DVD set which I think is also the Gus remaster.
     
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  16. Bemagnus

    Bemagnus Music is fun

    I had the original album when released-sounded fine as far as I remember. Also have the 2014 box set-doesn t sound great to my ears. Now I also have the new SHM-remaster that-dare I say sounds phenomenal. Funeral for a friend/Love... actually kick a-s in a way I never heard before.
     
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  17. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    But I swore I’d never buy GYBR again...


    :D
     
  18. Bemagnus

    Bemagnus Music is fun

    The self-titled album is a stunner and for me really Eltons first ”real” album. Elton and Bernie were young, ambitious and obviosly influenced by the current singer/song-writer scene. There is among others a clear Leonard Cohen spirit in some songs. So a few years before the rock/glam-thing out boy was very much regarded as a very serious artist.
    I love that album that at least features three stone-cold classics in Your song, Border song, Pilot and some of my most beloved deep Elton cuts. Had it been his debute I guess it would have ranked as one of the strongest debute ever-from anyone.
     
    PhantomStranger, kippyy and fredblue like this.
  19. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    Just want to say I’ve never heard Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me sound as good as it does on the Caribou SHM. It literally flies out of the speakers. It’s like hearing it for the first time.
     
    stevef, supermd, Carlox and 4 others like this.
  20. toilet_doctor

    toilet_doctor "Rockin' chair's got me"

    Location:
    USA
    It looks like you missed my post where sound engineer with a big experience Barry Diament, who’s latest CDs were used as a reference discs in Hi-Fi magazines, compared SHM and non-SHM discs with the same master and said that the difference in sound was quite obvious listening discs through the player, and no difference in sound when you are listening to ripped files.
    (Post #1403, Page 57)
    Yes, it was, SHM discs were expensive and people paid premium for them, but that was 13 years ago. Thanks to the Japanese people who supported the format, SHM-CDs accounted for about 75% of CD production, and manufacturers were able to lower the cost of SHM-CDs.
    Such, for instance, the lowest price for Japanese Limited Ed. regular CD reissue in Jewel cases is 1,000 yen, while the price for the similar reissue of SHM is 1,200 yen. The difference is 200 yen (about $1.80). What a premium for “super-duper plastic” are you talking about? £1.5? You are 13 years late.

    Yes, it was a “hot product” and people were amazed how SHM sounds.
    Here is 10 years old short pro review from the Positive Feedback:

    shmcd

    But now it is an everyday thing in Japan. For the past few years, the Japanese have been working to further improve the SHM.
    At first, they tried to use the smoothest surface on Earth, Platinum, as a reflective coating. The result was great, and the Platinum SHM-CD quickly went OOP.
    But platinum is 3 time more expensive than gold, and they tried a different approach – they added an additional layer of Photopolymer in the liquid state during the production process. The new CDs were named Ultimate HQCD (UHQCD).

    Japanese audio critic Masanori Hayashi visited Memory-Tech’s T s u k u b a P l a n t, where the UHQCD was developed. He learned about UHQCD directly from development team and wrote an article available now in English:
    Burrow into the Mystery of UHQCD Sound Quality

    Even compared to HQCD [SHM], which made use of improved materials, the audio quality of UHQCD is on another level entirely “ultimate” you could say so I am convinced that CDs still have a future. With this quality, UHQCD has a huge potential. There is no doubt that it can satisfy the ears and hearts of audiophiles.”
    He concluded:
    UHQCD was far superior to the conventional CD with greater frequency range and sense of spaciousness, more finely detailed information and more realistic tonal colors.”

    From this article, I learned about the material and thickness of the reflective coating that they selected from 5 samplers, how trascribability degrades to the edge of the CD, and much more.
    In the second article, Masanori Hayashi talks about the science behind development:
    Experimental Evidence of UHQCD Audio Quality
    “Same digital data, but why we hear the different sound?”
    A lot of pictures, charts – check it out.
    https://www.elusivedisc.com/UHQCD-explained.pdf

    Now please tell me:
    How dare you faulty and groundlessly accuse the team of Japanese scientists working on a sound improvement of our beloved CDs, calling their hard work “scam”.
    Have you done your own research in this area?
    Have you worked on new materials?
    Did you just know about their work?
    Have you compared these new CDs to their regular version?
    Have you bought any of them?
    Have you seen the image of one?

    What am I asking here if you are too lazy even to check how much the SHM-CD costs?

    It’s so easy, nowadays, to throw a few dirty words world-wide, just passing by,
    it’s much harder to do something, spend some money on a couple of CDs with the same mastering,
    compare them in the Hi-End system and put the result here for all of us.

    You got into this wonderful thread, where people were so happy that the canceled and long-awaited release finally came,
    where we expressed our feelings about music and our impressions of the great sound,
    and you just out of nothing to do, spoil the party.
    Not only have you contributed nothing to this thread;
    You not only demonstrated a lack of practical knowledge in any of the words you said,
    but you also have the courage to point out to other people with snobbery that is absolutely unacceptable in our forum.

    I think you should apologize to our lovely member, Oyster Boy, who contributed to the thread since day one, for the verbal assault.
     
  21. Oyster Boy

    Oyster Boy Forum Resident

    You know you will, press that button!
     
  22. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    Just reading through this thread, it strikes me that we’ll never really know what these Elton albums should sound like. The current theory is that CDs should sound as close to the original vinyl pressing as possible. Yet when CDs were launched we were told that massive compromises were made from the process of getting master tapes to the vinyl medium so we were in no way getting the full picture, sound wise, on records. This was backed up by many artists and producers of the time who couldn’t wait to get their catalogue onto CD so the public could hear the albums ‘the way they were meant to sound’.:D

    So, unless Elton invites us round to one of his homes and plays us the aforementioned master tapes (the ones that weren’t lost in the Universal fire at least), we’re never going to know. And let’s face it Elton is far too busy following Billie Eilish around to bother with his old material anyway.:D

    @fredblue saying he was used to the bass on Daniel sounding a certain way is a good example. Is this now correct on the SHM, or have we been shafted yet again?:D Or has Fred been loving the ‘wrong’ version all these years?

    All I can say is, I’m loving these SHMs. Yes, I’ve spent a lot of money on them so it could be that I want them to the the best ever sounding versions, but while I’m not such a big fan as some on here who have multiple copies of all these albums, I have been genuinely thrilled by these and can’t recommend them enough. Caribou and Don’t Shoot Me, to name but two, have honestly never sounded better to my ears.
     
  23. gadgetman

    gadgetman Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    I so much want to buy blue moves,GYBR,TC,Captain. The cost is putting me off the exchange rate for us in the UK is ridiculous.

    I need further reviews to sway me .
     
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  24. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    GYBR is frustrating to me. I’ve never found a CD version I really like. Though I don’t own the WG disc which a lot of people love. I’d love to hear more about what people think of the SHM CD. I mean, I know it’ll look good...:D
     
    fredblue and Oyster Boy like this.
  25. Oyster Boy

    Oyster Boy Forum Resident

    Your last sentence says it all and is ultimately all that matters.
     

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