What Hirez Discs Have You Purchased Recently? - Page 73

Mike, Monster Music (yes, that Monster) does have a DTS surround disk of a Charlie Brown Christmas. I don't have it and have not heard it, so can not really respond to it. But, I do have one of their disks (they call them super disks), "George Benson and Al Jarreau--Givin' It Up". I would recommend it to anyone who wants to sample surround music (and it is a good musical disc (not video, so very simiar to a dvd-a). It is not SACD but will play on a conventional dvd player and does have some (IMO) very good surround. I bought my disc at a local "Fry's Electronics" store.

You might, at least check it out. Again, very good sounding disc with good surround sound.

p.s., I think that Concord Music has started carrying a couple of these discs, specifically the George Benson disc.

Thanks, Frank.  I've got a Monster disc...Peter Cincotti's Live in NY.  Paid way too much for it, but it sounds pretty good.

I didn't realize the Charlie Brown disc was by them.

The Monster Music label "SuperDisc" that Frank refers to is a different release than the Fantasy Jazz label SA-CD that I linked to in my previous post.  Both are re-releases of the 1965 A Charlie Brown Christmas album but . . .

The SuperDisc is a CD (but not the previously-released remastered CD, according to an Amazon customer review) + DVD package with the DVD containing high rez stereo and three different lossy Dolby Digital and DTS surround mixes from different aural perspectives.  (This is a music-only DVD so, Frank, it has less in common with DVD-Audio [which does support video] than, say, those DAD releases from Classic Records such as the Glory score.)  The gravy here for some is pre-ripped WMA and AAC files (albeit at rezes lower than what I'd like to think most of us would rip from a CD:  192Kbps and 320Kbps, respectively).  Scroll down to the "Editorial Reviews" section here for more info:

http://www.amazon.com/Vince-Guaraldi-Charlie-Christmas-SuperDisc/dp/B000BPFBWG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1257404669&sr=1-1

The Fantasy SA-CD is a high rez stereo hybrid disc.  What with the SuperDisc currently being available used for a third the cost of the SA-CD, that's an attractive $4 buy.  Just be clear that the surround mixes are lossy.

Thx, for the link, Paul. I only mentioned that to him because he was looking for it in SACD, (and I remember seeing it at Fry's Electronics when I bought the George Benson dvd) and although it is in dts, I thought it might be something to check out with a surround sound. Anyway, I went to Fry's today and looked around and saw the Charlie Brown Christmas cd/dvd combo pack. I wound up buying it (for $10.00). I played it through 3 times on the drive home (2 1/2 hour drive for me). The cd, I thought sounded really good, haven't listened to the dvd though, yet.

I've been looking for other formats to listen to other than sacd/dvd-a, mostly because there are not a lot of those discs around (that I like to listen to, anyway). I've recently bought a couple of bluray music dvd's, along with some music dvd's with dts. Maybe the quality isn't there, but, I'm still looking, hoping to find some good stuff.

 Shostakovich Hamlet (Naxos DVD-A; also available on SACD)

What's happened to Lee. I have not seen him lately....is he off on an Antarctic expedition to record the songs of Emperor Penguins? I've not heard a peep out of Lee at Hoffman's either....no new hi-rezzed discs for me lately.

He has posted recently on the SA-CD.net Forum, specifically a thread about the Wish You Were Here SACD.

On one post from Halloween he says hello to his friends at the Hoffman Forum, so he is alive and presumably well.

Bought Amanda Marshall's Everybody's Got a Story plus a spare copy of Keb' Mo' s Just Like You

Bought Destiny's Child 'Survivor' SACD used (but like new) this week at my fave local record store for ten bucks, and got my Carol King 'Tapestry' SACD shipment in the post from AMZ.  Not a bad week in my estimation.

Remarkably, at least one of my local Best Buys still has a small smattering of high rez discs.  Picked up the Ziggy Stardust SA-CD and R.E.M. Document DVD-A.  May sell them new or open them up, enjoy and sell used later.

'Document' DVD-A is definitely worth a few doubloons.  Please let me know if you come across another copy.

SACD:
Dave Brubeck - Time Out  (BB)
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue  (e-Bay)
Dinah Washington - What a Diff'rence a Day Makes!  (HMV)
Billy Joel - 52nd Street  (BB)

DVD-A:
Flaming Lips - At War With the Mystics  (BB)
Foreigner - Foreigner  (Trade)
Olu Dara - Neighborhoods  (BB)

Craig:  Will do.  PM me if you'd like a link to my Amazon store to see if it's price works for you when I list it.

Blair:  "BB" = Best Buy, yes?  Some good finds still to be stumbled upon at some of those stores, if so.

I recently picked up the Mobile Fidelity SACD of Marshall Crenshaw's debut.  Nice. 

Yes, BB = Best Buy

VERY slim pickings these days but a few gems have mysteriously appeared lately.
The copy of Time Out was actually purchased for me in Toronto by a QQ Forum member....no copies around here.

Weirdly, I've seen a couple of SACDs show up at a local store (FYE--owned by TransWorld) in their holiday CD section.  I've picked up a couple of them.  One used, one new.  They were both marked (on their store price labels) "Holiday CD."  One was Thelonious Monk's 5 by 5, the other was some Mozart (cannot remember what pieces) by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. 

Very strange.

Found James Taylor's Flag SA-CD at a Best Buy.  Clicked around a bit and it appears to not be available from the usual outlets.

I preordered the new Sam Cooke SA-CD.....it's been some since I got a Sack-Dee....

What's the name of that album, Rachael?

It's Night Beat from Analogue Productions.....it's due out later this month.

Okay, will let you know.  I have a Dual Disc copy on order at the moment but if that falls thru I may be interested.

P.S.  Did you find the discs interspersed with the regular CDs, or does your BB have a dedicated hirez section?

I could swear that when I preordered it, Night Beat was scheduled for mid-January. I think they moved it up. Maybe they do that if a title gets plentiful preorders? It'll be like a new year's present I suppose, 'cept I have to pay for it! I'm getting somethin' by the band but I momentarily forget if it's a gold CD or Sack-Dee, le hybride.

Ooooh--didn't know there was a Document Dual.

"Dedicated high rez section" = where these discs were banished to after likely many unhappy customer returns.

But what this BB did isn't necessarily indicative of what your local store may or may not have done:  some stores don't have any discs anymore.  Others put them in alphabetically with that respective artists CDs.  I've found some in the Miscellaneous section.  Other stores have them together, oddly corraled at the edge of the music section, often near the Latin and Christian sections.  When I do find them, it's often the result of serendipity while browsing the aisles of the entire CD section.

Amen to that. 

Now that I'm into SACDs, every time I go to a store it's like a treasure hunt--without a map. 

As the guys who helped my in my other thread know, I am just (finally) giving High Res Audio a try.  I still don't have suitable playback set up, but that will be remedied soon, once the Pioneer DV-59avi player I picked up on eBay arrives, which I can connect with i.link to my VSX-56TXi receiver.  I really am curious what improvement (if any) I will hear compared to the Audio Alchemy CD system I already have, which truly does have exceptional sound.

I have to say, I have loved (with one exception) the sound quality of the CDDA layer of these discs.  They sound like they have been "juiced" on top of the SACD remix.

Telarc
Mahler S #1 (Zander)
Mahler S #2 (Slatkin, a real long term fave performance)
Stravinsky Rite of Spring, Nielsen S #2 (Järvi)
Prokofiev Romeo & Juliet (Järvi)
Holst, Handel Sousa, etc. Fennell & Cleveland Symphonic Winds
Dvorak S #9, Martinu S #2 (Järvi)
Debussy: Afternoon of a Faun, La Mer, Nocturnes, ect. (Järvi)
Bizet: Carmen, Grieg: Peer Gynt (Slatkin)
Handel: Water Music, Music for Royal Fireworks (Pearlman, Boston Baroque)
Mozart: Flute Concertos, Jupiter Symphony (Pearlman, Boston Baroque)
Ravel:  Assorted Tone Poems (Järvi)
Russian Nights (some standard and less standard Russian pieces) (Kunzel, Cinci Pops)
Dave Brubeck: Private Brubeck Remembers

Others
Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon
Elton John: Tumbleweed Connection
Elton John: Peachtree Road
Genesis: Wind and Wuthering

My only complaint is regarding Wind and Wuthering.  This is one of my all time faves and I was a bit annoyed with the level of tampering there was in the mix.  What I'd like to know is, how common is this?  Are all the Genesis SACDs like this?


Edited by JohnRice - 12/13/09 at 12:29pm

All the Genesis SACDs are re-mixed (obviously for the 5.1 mixes, but also for the 2 channel mixes).  The degree to which the new mixes differ from the originals varies from disc to disc (generally more pronounced on the first two (chronologically speaking) box sets).  In my opinion, Wind and Wuthering is the most different from the original mix.  I do not dislike any of the remixes, but I usually listen to them in 5.1 (2 channel listening for me is far more casual), so I can't say that any of them seem too radically different to me.  The one exception to this is Misunderstanding on Duke--I could swear there is a missing guitar lick in the refrain in the new 2 channel mix but no one else, to my knowledge, has mentioned it.

FWIW (which probably ain't much), I liked the 5.1 mix of Trick of the Tail (that's MY fave Genesis album).  I think the whole thing sounds very "alive"--like it could have been recorded this year. 

I've got the DVD-A...not the SACD.

Thanks guys.  Clearly all these albums are remixed for 5.1, I just didn't know how much the 2 channel mixes were typically changed.  The two Elton Johns I have don't have any obvious changes.  Of course, for the time being I am only listening to the CDDA layer.  I expressed my opinion of multi-channel music elsewhere and I am clearly in the minority.  Let's just say I pretty much can't stand listening to music that way.

Right now I am mostly wondering about the Genesis albums.  Mike, "Trick" would be my second favorite along with "Selling England".  I guess that general era is my favorite, though "Duke" actually comes in pretty close.  I think it's funny how so many great groups seem to have a "last gasp" great album after producing some decidedly low grade stuff.  "Going for the One" from Yes and "Brother Where you Bound" from Supertramp come to mind, along with "Duke", and possibly my favorite albums from Pink Floyd are "The Final Cut" and "Momentary Lapse of Reason".

I'm sure I'll have more to say once my player gets here and I can listen to this stuff properly.

I almost forgot, I had read a review somewhere saying that anyone who is only interested in the 2 channel mixes might as well stick with the standard "Definitive Remaster" CD from Genesis.  I wondered how common this opinion was, but judging on how prevalent the preference to multi-channel is here, maybe nobody will agree with that.

 John,

The thing about the Genesis surround discs is that the stereo tracks are remixes in addition to the 5:1 tracks. Sometimes those remixes are drastically different from the original mixes and even contain elements not in the original mixes. I'm not happy at all with what happened with the Genesis project. I got Trick of the Tail and stopped there because I thought everything about it was wrong. The surround mix is EQ goosed and also really maximized and has lost much of the dynamics in the original recordings. And as for the Definitive remasters, they are another nightmare. I wish I had never "upgraded" my original releases. All of the definitives, except for Then There Were Three suffer from varying amounts of no-noising, which has sucked the life out of most of the albums. The worst, is probably Duke, which is so muddy, it is almost unlistenable. I'm keeping my eyes open for old versions in the used CD stores. 

Clearly it CAN be done right (new 5.1 mix while maintaining the stereo one), since the Elton Johns seem fine.  I know they aren't identical, but they aren't particularly altered.  The problem is, I think I prefer the Mo-Fi of Tumbleweed to the SACD.  On the other hand, Peachtree Road sounds great.  A surprisingly good album as well.

As far as the Genesis, the remasters are the only ones I've owned on CD.  I've never noticed anything I disliked about them, but any alternative is going back so far, I have no recollection.  My main issue with the SACD of Wind and Wuthering is some occasionally annoying levels of reverb and similar effects, and I swear there are some added elements at times.  That echo crap they did just got on my nerves.