Not entirely clear. Aja and Gaucho will be cut from one-off tape copies, so maybe they burned. Too bad. As for the announcement... Come on. ALL are UHQR? I'm not into that.
I own the SHM-CDs of all the early Steely Dan albums (Can't Buy A Trill through Gaucho) and I'm more than pleased with the fidelity of these issues. I like Analogue Productions' work, so it should be interesting to hear how they sound.
I’ll probaby pick up Can’t Buy A Thrill, Aja, Katy Lied & Gaucho. I have the Japan SACD of Pretzel Logic which sounds great.
My Christmas list just got a lot more expensive. I'm in. Pre-order for CBAT completed. Looks like my vinyl spending fun is spoken for all the way through 2023.
The first post video is more about the "vinyl" pressings than anything SACD. My opinion of AP's UHQR "vinyl" packaging versus MFSL's "One Step" packaging ... I was at another forum friends home the other day and he had one of those new UHQR Miles Davis "Kind Of Blue" clear vinyl pressings, which was my first (in my own hands) experience of those. While the actual cover was beautifully pressed and the vinyl looked great, I personally felt that that right side slide out thick outer packaging was the WORST! It was like a old giant book type thing and I just found that rather sloppy looking and feeling and it almost seems in the way, if you will, when you just want to play that pressing. Both the UHQR and One Step packaging (again in my opinion) are BOTH too large for most people to store and while I get it that they are "meant" to be conversation pieces visually, they may have gone a little TOO overboard for most peoples collections? I'm guessing that most people who have the room to properly display those big boxes, will take the records out of them and store them elsewhere and just put the empty boxes out on display. The only place I have space in my house for those big boxes has already been taken up by my Beatles box sets, with my MONO LP box as the centerpiece. Back to the actual Steely Dan reissues in general, I couldn't be happier that these are happening and that they are having Bernie Grundman on the job mastering these, as I usually love his mastering work. My only issue is, the way Chad is talking in that video, it's that Bernie still has to do some of them. Bernie is sadly, like the rest of us, is not getting any younger so I hope that these are priority on his surely long list of mastering jobs!
Crisp and clear and adjectives I would use to describe many of my Grundman remasters. I find his earlier work on CD to be far more to my liking than his later work on SACD.
He had much younger 'ears' also. The guys like 78, no dis-respect... I loved his 1979 Commodores-Midnight Magic cut. I wasn't a fan of his Classics Gabriel IV.
Aja was one of those albums that all my friends had, so I didn't buy it at the time because of limited funds. Later, I purchased the Cisco reissue, which I thought sounded fantastic. Then, I started reading on this site that the original albums sounded better. So, I found an absolutely mint copy for $12 (those were the days!) and agreed that it sounded better than the Cisco. Then, I purchased a Japanese first pressing and it sounded like an exact copy of the US version, with even quieter vinyl. I wonder if this is Aja sourced from the same tape copy as the Cisco? Also, I purchased the Japanese SACDs of several Steely Dan albums, but think that the US and Japanese vinyl sounds better. IMHO. Maybe my vinyl rig is better than my digital rig, but the latter is no slouch (Oppo player with Modwright modifications to analog section). And I thought that the master tape of Katie Lied had been messed up by some event or equipment issue, so is that master tape even worth using? Better question: is an LP sourced from that master tape worth $150? I now have multiple copies of all of their albums, but will probably only buy UHQR versions for those albums that I don't have a good US copy of. Huge fan, but probably will only purchase up to Aja, and maybe only a few. If I didn't have good copies of these, I would jump on them. I'm a big fan of 45 RPM pressings, so I might change my mind ... LOL! Can never have enough Steely Dan!
huh I have the shm-sacd and OG pressing of aja but I didn't buy either of them. maybe it's time to buy a copy
Wanting a set of Steely Dans albums on 5 inch disc this does appeal liking AP's previous hybrid sacd issues and should be available at Diverse Vinyl over here so I can put the pre-order in settling up the bill when any one bunch are released. I think Chad would listen to the mastering before going into production from what he's said before about other projects they've tackled. Taste is of course subjective.
I'm in for SACDs of Can't By A Thrill, Katy Lied, The Royal Scam & Aja. The previous SACD of Aja that is out there is said to be not good. Don't know never heard it. Hoffman's Aja CD has always been the one to get if you can find it. I have Pretzel Logic, Gaucho and Countdown to Ecstasy on SACD. Pretzel and Gaucho are very well mastered SACDs. Countdown is good but not exceptional IMO.
I have a hodgepodge of original issue CDs and SHM-SACDs, I am definitely curious to hear how these stack up.
I’m gonna get all of these. Tempted by the vinyl too but must stay away from those for the sake of my relationship
He mastered the original U.S. Aja vinyl. It's great. It'll be interesting to see if he just uses his original notes or does something different. Either way, it'll be with different eqpt and it can never sound the same.
I concur. I sincerely hope BG is not inclined to 'increase transparency' like on some other reissues he did. If he manages to avoid that, his masterings can be great. I have hoped for these to come out on CD again, but it's gonna be a tough decision spending close to 300 € for all 7 'classic' albums when the original CDs are that good. Will most likely wait for reviews and comparisons too.
This stuff will (likely) all be available on high res streaming, so you should be able to listen before buying anything.
