Opinions on David Bowie’s 2003 Sacds?

How good are these? Hopefully, they aren’t simply high res versions of the less than stellar 1999 remasters.

 

I have Ziggy, Let’s Dance and Scary Monsters. I like them all, but Up The Hill Backwards on the latter has a wonky start for some reason. They are crankable at least. The packaging is the same as the 1999 reissues so perhaps they are from that source.

 

I'm not a fan - IMO they're treble boosted and bass shy - YMMV.

 

I really like Scary Monsters, ZIGGY Is good and Lets Dance sounds great but where is the bass??

 

Have them all and like them.

 

I’ve got them all and they are my go to (SACD layer) when I want to listen to those albums.

 

I have Ziggy, Heathen and Reality. Sorry, not all 2003. They have multi-channel mixes so if you want those, fine. In the case of Heathen and Reality, the 5.1 mixes are the best you can get for those titles. The stereo for Reality is no better than the horribly over compressed CD. The Ziggy stereo is not as good as either the RCA CD or the 2012 CD/DVD IMO.

Tim

 

I don't own it, and there was someone in the thread insisting that the transfer was done wrong, but in the blind test done by @Tsomi, I found the SACD for Scary Monsters to be significantly worse than the other options. The only sample it sounded acceptable on was the spacey outro to "Ashes To Ashes". Every other track sounded hideous to me (via those samples). That said, it got more votes than the 2017 remaster AND the Ryko CD, so just take this as my opinion.

 

Discogs indicates that the PCM stereo layer of the 3 SACDs from 2003 — Ziggy, Scary Monsters, and Let’s Dance — received a remaster in 2003. Are they truly different masterings than the 1999 Virgin (or EMI) CDs? I’ve had these SACDs since they came out but have never compared them closely to the 1999 Virgin discs.

 

I have the stereo Scary Monsters and Let's Dance, they seem pretty good.
Ziggy in 5.1 is excellent.

The Heathen and Reality sacd 5.1's are excellent too.

 

There's really no bass to speak of on "Scary Monsters". Sad.