[jude]

One of the Audio Asylum Inmates posted that she was selling all her Sony label SACD's on eBay (can't remember the exact reason why). I bid and won the following (yeah, yeah, a lot less sexy than that HP-1000 auction, I know):

1. DANCES with WOLVES
2. DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET: Time Out
3. COPLAND conducts COPLAND
4. HERRMANN: Film Scores / Salonen, LA
5. RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3
6. SZELL conducts WAGNER

(sorry for the all-caps titles, but I just cut-and-pasted from eBay)

Anyone here have experiences with any of these specific SACD's?

I have a few of them on regular CD already, but was wondering how the SACD versions compared. If no replies, I guess I'll find out shortly.

Feels good to post somewhere other than the General Discussion forum today!

 

[jude]

Wow, I'm going to have to lock this thread for all this activity!

Man, would more of you cats puh-leeze get SACD players?

Ask a question about specific SACD's, and I "hear" an echo.....

 

[Apheared]

Since you have duplicates, you're in a great position to compare... you can use the same source player and compare the CD version against the SACD version... so while you're waitin on other SACD guys to post, I'm waitin on your experiments.

 

[jeremymayf]

congrats on the purchase jude,
I'd like a review of how they sound as well. Right now i have only 3 sacd's--boston, miles, and blood-sweat-tears. I don't have these on regular cd however-so I would also be interested to hear how your new sacd's stack up against their redbook counterpart cd's. By the way, I believe you "once upon a time" promised a review of the scd-333?--perhaps that would stir up sacd interest? I am busy labouriously burning mine in-

and loving every minute of it!

 

[jude]

I have compared CD and SACD versions of the following:

1. Miles Davis: Kind of Blue
2. Thelonius Monk: Straight, No Chaser
3. Rebecca Pidgeon: The Raven
4. Keb' Mo': The Door

The difference between SACD and CD on these recordings is actually quite striking. With SACD, any digital "edges" have been removed, and the presentation much more striking and three-dimensional. Detail is out of this world too.

Before purchasing an SACD player, I was very curious about the degree of improvement. I wondered if it would be more akin to the improvement one gets with a good system tweak? Or would it truly sound like a different, superior format. It sounds like a different format. And I hope it stays for the long haul. We'll see.

jeremymayf, I will be finishing my review of the SCD-C333ES. It's actually almost done, but I've just not gotten around to actually finishing it. Hopefully very soon though.

 

[bootman]

Are all your SACDs dual format?
In other words can you also play them on a regular CD player and if so is there a difference between the stepped down SACD and the original CD release?

 

[jude]

Quote:

Originally posted by bootman Are all your SACDs dual format? In other words can you also play them on a regular CD player and if so is there a difference between the stepped down SACD and the original CD release?

With the exception of the Rebecca Pidgeon one, all my other SACD and CD pairs consist of a separate CD and SACD (sigh....yeah, I know). Friggin' Sony should be releasing dual-layer SACDs, if you ask me. So, yes, I have both the CD and SACD of Keb' Mo's The Door, for example.

Though I don't have the CD-only version of The Raven by Ms. Pidgeon, I have read that the CD layer of the hybrid SACD actually sounds better than the standard CD. Since I've not done a comparison of the CD layer of my Pidgeon hybrid SACD to the standard CD, I can't say one way or the other -- but I have read that from more than one individual (probably on Audio Asylum).

 

[jude]

Some of the titles I have on CD I'd love to have on SACD include:

1. The Gladiator soundtrack (my top wish for an SACD version)
2. The Princess Mononoke soundtrack
3. Patricia Barber's Nightclub
4. Every Marc-André Hamelin recording
5. Keb' Mo's Just Like You
6. Flatt & Scruggs' Foggy Mountain Banjo
7. The O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack
8. Radiohead's OK Computer
9. Tool's Lateralus
10. Miles Davis' The Complete Concert: 1964 (My Funny Valentine and "Four" & More/Recorded Live in Concert) (my second biggest wish for an SACD version)
11. Audioquest's Works of Art series (which I realistically hope to see some day since Audioquest does SACD)
12. Everything by Steely Dan
13. Everything by Little Feat
14. Jeff Buckley's Grace

I'll stop here, because the list of CDs I'd love to see on SACD goes on and on. If these came out on SACD, I'd be in musical heaven.

Any other SACD listeners here have a wish list?

 

[jeremymayf]

Unfortunately, the 3 sacd titles i have are sony sacd single layer---#%@# sony! This is one of the reasons i never liked sony! Jude, looking forward to your review!

my 333 has been playing continuously since last wednesday! and everyday it sounds better and better! I had no idea redbook could sound this good--full, warm, yet detailed and lively; in no way harsh (well, the police discs are still abit harsh). . .perhaps the taras will help that. . . .
sacd wish list . .. .
steely dan, steely dan, steely dan-although i couldn't imagine it getting any better

steve miller-born to be blue
cs&n, hendrix, beatles--all my psychedelic stuff!
Zappa
stan getz
FRank sinatra
bowie
. . . . ad infinitum

 

[XXhalberstramXX]

Guess what i'm listening to right now..

STEELY DAN!!!

"..any major dude with half a heart will tell you my friend..."

ahh... sweet bliss

 

[jeremymayf]

XXhalberstramXX "ahh... sweet bliss" . . .no truer words have been spoken
I wanted to ammend my wish list to include a newer group--reel big fish--i have been sampling some of their stuff--peter bones--yaaaa, as well as the duran duran cover--hungry like the wolf

 

[Holy Zoo]

Quote:

Originally posted by jeremymayf Unfortunately, the 3 sacd titles i have are sony sacd single layer---#%@# sony! This is one of the reasons i never liked sony!

The story I read, and I have no way to verify this, is that there is only one factory that can press dual layer SACDs, and it's at capacity pressing other labels' SACDs, so Sony bowed out and is pressing at a different plant (a DVD plant?).

I read this some time ago, and cannot for the life of me remember where, so take this all with a grain of salt.

 

[Holy Zoo]

Oh... and a question for Jude:

How is the Szell Wagner SACD? I'm thinking of getting this one, and I'm curious how this 40(?) year old recording sounds.

Thanks!

 

[BenG]

Most so called audiophile discs kind of suck musically but here's one that is actually pretty good. It's the two bros. from the Conan O'Brien Show(Max Weinberg 7) . The music is a modern straight-ahead blues sound with a classic soul-jazz influence(guitar,sax, organ, some vocals, some covers).

If any one is interested in how good the SACD format can make music sound more "live", this would be the disc to listen to. It's a modern, direct to DSD recording that has more detail than the tax code. It also is a hybrid disc, so you can compare layers, catch is it's more expensive cuz it's a hybrid.

Benny Waters "Live at the Pawnshop" is another great find. A live jazz disc from 70s that will blow you away. Hard to find, but listed at only $15! I got mine from CDNOW.

As far as those older 50s & 60s classical recordings, some of recording techniques back then are better than what is being done today, you just have to deal with some background hiss.

I have not heard the Sznells, but the Stravinsky 'Rite of Spring' will blow your windows out.

 

[XXhalberstramXX]

Reel Big Fish... <shudder>

one of my friends had a reel big fish tape stuck in her car tape player. and the radio didn't work. it was a dark, dark month for her.

Edit:

i think there's a recording of Verdi's Requiem on SACD. i believe it's the Eugene Ormandy recoding. i've heard this on LP and it has the most fabulous deep bass drum on it. Proformance doesn't hold a candle to Toscanini or Fricsay, but what does? it's tough to live with mono too (the format, not the illness)