Reviews of Stones SACD sampler

HighFidelityReview.com has posted a couple of reviews of the sampler.

First review

Second review

 

I'll second that. highfidelityreview.com is just as useless as most other net "reviews". When the reviews appear in this forum, at least I know that there will be comparisons with the proper sources and the relationship to the common goal that most of us share.

 

And we're doing our best to get ahold of some of these...I seem to be cursed. EVery time an important promo comes out, I'm unable to procure one..;(

-D

 

I don't think the reviews are totally useless. There is obviously a lot of interest in the upcoming Stones SACDs and any information is useful. I am surprised that the review was so short though - I would have thought they'd look at each track in turn and make a comparison to vinyl or CD. I would. Most of the reviews of SACDs on that site are very comprehensive, so what they did was not typical.

I think we will see a better review of the sampler soon.

Regards,
Geoff

 

Well, hopefully I'll be able to put a word or two in by the end of the week. Oh, hell, I'll be putting in more than that...

Keep in mind that most of the people who are getting these are probably *not* big Stones fans, and don't have a wealth of knowledge about all the various issues and versions. I mean, for Stones fans, having 2120 S. Michigan Ave. complete, in stereo, and from tape is a big deal. To most of the people getting these discs it is probably just some strange instrumental.

 

Luke, I swear to god, the second you get that thing...do you have Paypal, so I can compensate you for the same-day air postage?

In all seriousness, those reviews are INCREDIBLY useless. Indeed, it almost sounds like they wrote them without even listening to the sampler, as they mostly talk about songs that've been in stereo already. I can't believe that nobody sees it fit to address the "new" stereo mix of Satisfaction (aha! Y'see? *I* haven't forgotten that stupid little detail).

And I wonder why Cloud is mono. Hopefully it'll stay that way, so the HR1s I'm stockpiling will continue to be worth a mint..^_^

-D

 

We might be able to arrange something...

Yeah, I've asked about that myself in a few places, and nobody ever says anything about it.

Perhaps they felt the stereo mix wasn't that good? It will be interesting to see if Play With Fire is in stereo or not (Heart Of Stone is, so you'd think PWF would be, but it isn't mentioned at all). Also, I'm kind of thinking that 19th Nervous Breakdown and Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby won't be in stereo after all. I can hope, but...

 

Say Luke, did ABKCO cough one up to you, or did you snag one from a Goldmine auction? Enquiring pests wanna know all the details!!!

 

Neither.

ABKCO wouldn't send me one, but I used to work at a newspaper, and they WOULD send one to a friend of mine who still works there...

So, the moral of the story is - if you want one of these, make friends with someone at your local newspaper.

Now, of course, the thing isn't in my hands quite yet, but...

 

Steve,

>Those review are useless! They aren't comparing the sound of the Sampler TO anything. Pointless!<

Huh?! The links guy posted are to NEWS STORIES, not reviews at all! Pay attention at the back! ;-) The HFR site has been carrying news of the Stones releases since they were announced, those pages are only a continuation of that. Besides, why bother reviewing a sampler when in a short time all the discs themselves will be out?

Geoff is right about the actual reviews at HFR, they're usually fairly in depth. There was a guy from the site called Robert (something) at the HE 2002 press conference and he was asking all the right questions.


Pete.

 

Hi-Rez Pete,

Welcome to this Forum! When you hang around here for a while you will realize that folks here have every Stones LP, both mono and stereo, both American and British and every CD, US and import on the Stones. They already know that some songs have a wide stereo soundstage and that the guitar on the left channel of "Brown Sugar" is distorted. They have been that way for over thirty years now.

What these folks want to know is how the sound compares to the Stones material that is out there in good sound already; in other words the MFSL LP box and Import CD's. We all are going to buy the SACD's when they are released, but after all this waiting, if someone ALREADY HAS THE SAMPLER, it's cruel not to let us know what it SOUNDS LIKE compared to what we know.

Can you see how something like the two below statements are tormenting us by being so vague?
-------------------------------------

" The fidelity appears to be excellent, though in one or two places some of the material is showing its age a little. Stereo separation is very good"

And:

" Brown Sugar is a treat through headphones with the saxophone playing on the right channel, the slightly distorted guitar on the left channel and drums and lead vocals appearing in the center."
---------------------------------------

And so on. We know this information already. The stereo mix of "Brown Sugar" has not changed since 1969! Obviously the reviewers haven't played a Stones song in a very long time if this is news to them.

So you can see why we are a little touchy here about teaser "reviews" like this.

Won't someone who plays the Stones on a regular basis AND is a Audiophile Writer who has the darn sampler let us know what the stuff sounds like already?

It's cruel!

 

I know. I find the "radio silence" on this sampler to be kinda bizarre. Tons of people have it, and none of them seem to care.

Are any tracks on the filesharing services?

-D

 

Do I count?

I'll get back to you on Sunday night.

 

You do, Luke. Barely. Study harder for your CAT (Counting Aptitude Test) next time.

Again, paypal account, so I can wire you the money for some sort of semi-express mail?

-D