Yes Fragile Mobile Fidelity Gold cd (1 Viewer)

[CarlP]

OK, Fragile is being re-issued again. If this were a SACD, I would buy in a heartbeat. (I don't care for the menu driven DVD-A) But, this is just a remastered gold disc. I may be naive on this, but is there ANY way this disc could sound better than the higher resolution DVD-A from years ago? The mastering of a disc makes a difference, but the lower resolution of cd makes me wonder...


The Secret Machines...best kept secret (no pun intended) in rock today.

 

[Ron Reda]

I thought it WAS an SACD...crap! I may have to go ahead and pick up the DVD-A. What's the bit rate?

 

[ScottCHI]

I really enjoy the DVD-A.

 

[Phil A]

Does the DVD-A have a dedicated stereo track too? What is the resolution?

thanks

 

[PaulT]

Both the 5.1 and Stereo mixes are 96/24.
Also has DD and dts tracks for DVD-V players.

Bonus Track #10 is 'America'.
Photo Gallery, Lyrics, Animated Yes Timeline.
Quite a good disc.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Its certainly possible. CD is tranparent enough to 99.99% of humanity that the masterign should be ther primary reason of it being better or worse anyway.

 

[Phil A]

Thanks, Garrett. I have excellent CD playback (currently use an outboard DAC and a Marantz DV9600 as a transport) but unless the mastering was not that great on the DVD-A (the DV9600 sounds great as a DVD-A player), I can't imagine opting for the MoFi CD at probably almost double the price, unless someone I knew had it and I could hear it on my system. This is one I forget to pick-up.

 

[Ron Reda]

Phil A, I'm with you on this one...I too have excellent CD playback, but I'm all about those 24/96 high rez tracks on the DVD-A.

 

[Phil A]

PS - Happy Birthday Ron

 

[Chris Gerhard]

This release must have a market. I guess the market is collectors of MFSL discs. I don't know why anybody would, but I guess there are some that do.

Chris

 

[Phil A]

Some I know have only 2-channel systems (incl. for video) and/or no DVD-A. For those who are fans of the album, it may be the best version available for their system.

 

[Chris Gerhard]

I think most people only have 2-channel systems. I don't buy MFSL, DCC or any gold disc releases but I assumed the people that do can play DVD-A for the most part and the stereo DVD-A version would be preferred for home use. The collection aspect of this hobby is one I don't understand at all. I have over 500 music discs with about half high resolution, but buy based on value, audio quality and music I like. Hobbyist collectors I guess buy several versions of many titles just for their collection and comparison of audio quality. I do want the CD often just to be able to play the CD in the auto which is why I liked hybrid SACD and DualDisc DVD-A. The difference between the MFSL version and CD in the auto is negligible. I am not sure the difference would amount to anything in a home system for that matter.

This one seems like a strange release to me but I don't even know what MFSL requires in terms of sales to make something like this work. Sales won't be much, relatively speaking, that I am sure of.

Chris

 

[PaulDA]

The DVD-A is great and if you want to avoid "menu-driven" problems, simply put your default setting to two-channel on the DVD-A player (should work for 95% of players), place the disc in the tray, press "play" on the remote and sit back and enjoy.

 

[Phil A]

Chris - most MoFi discs sound really good. When I referred to people with 2-channel systems, I was referring to people who don't have multi-channel at all. HT is much bigger than 2-channel audio and I think it is more common to see someone with a HT vs. someone w/o one but with a 2-channel system. It is not a matter of collecting at all. I do agree that some audiophiles do get overly neurotic about comparing multiple versions. I have MoFi discs (not tons of them just several) and they are hugely better than the CD counterparts on regular labels. XRCD (developed by JVC) is another example of how good a regular CD can sound when careful attention is paid to the mixing and mastering. I had a friend who worked in a high end shop and for a 5 yr. period I did virtualy every installation/install with him. The vast majority of people have never heard how good CD can really sound. With HT being the huge market that it is most people are content to have just plain old undistorted sound by hooking their DVD players to their rec'r to hear CDs. If that is their goal on music listening that will certainly be more than sufficient.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

In my opinion the new MoFi since the MusicDirect acquisition is much better sonically than the old MoFi. Plus, there is the advantage of improved converters in both ADC and DAC.

Don'y kid yourselves about redbook, if this was done on SACD it would sound even better due to the extra resolution.

 

[CarlP]

I'm sure the reason no SACD, is due to licensing. NO question a SACD Fragile in 2006 would blow away the DVD-A.
The question remains....Why no Hybrid SACD Mofi???? Please tell me, I'd like to know

 

[Phil A]

I'm sure that's all they got the license to do. Same with the John Lennon album that was released as a CD only on MoFi. I can understand "Fragile" a bit more since there is a DVD-A version by a pro-DVD-A label.

 

[ScottCHI]

Why?

 

[Phil A]

I presume he meant that the careful attention MoFi pays to mastering would likely produce a better product vs. a commercial 24/96 release. Hi-Rez can sound great from either format. The scarce nature of hi-rez releases led me to sell my Modwright XA-777ES which was excellent on SACD and CD along with my Sony TA-P9000ES to switch between multi-channel SACD and DVD-A and I went with a Marantz DV9600 universal. I use it as a transport with an outboard DAC as it is decent as a CD and SACD player but not in the same league as my Modwright XA-777ES was. DVD-A is outstanding on the DV9600 and at this point in time I have a few of those Universal Music releases that were on both formats and I opted for SACD at the time but now would opt for DVD-A due to the hardware in the current set-up.

 

[Ron Reda]

"PS - Happy Birthday Ron"

Thanks, Phil A...that was pretty cool!