Post by scotty January 1, 2014 (1 of 91)
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I must start by saying that I recently just got in to the SA-CD SHM format. I now own five of the titles available. I do own many Japanese mini sleeves, SHM, and SACD titles though, so I am always craving the best sound out there. I already had three different Japanese pressings and the original Mobile Fid. of Quadrophenia, which I consider to be hands down the greatest rock album ever made (and the Who is not my favorite band). I was very skeptical about buying another version of this because it never has lived up to the sound quality I was hoping to hear. After reading the review by Analogue I had to take a chance. WOW!!!!! I am so blown away from what I heard, especially after the fourth listen (yes they really do break in and open up) that I had tears of happiness as my sound system roared with Keith's pounding drums and the shear force of John's bass that I started screaming with joy as if I was at one of their early 70s concert. What we get here, is finally the separation this recording needed to open up and breathe. Yes, the louder the better and to hear Pete's guitar work sizzle like it was always meant to be. No doubt this has got to be the best sounding format out there. I just wish there were more titles available. If you own a high end audio system (and anyone on this site, I am sure does) you owe it to yourself to experience the ultimate sound! The one good thing about this kind of addiction, at least you know they will still be there in the morning. I want to shout out a big thanks to this site for being available and for all of the great feedback from the reviewers, very nicely done. I plan on reviewing all of my purchases in this format. Once again all I can say is WOW!!!!!!
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Welcome to the great world of SHM SA-CD. (Very) expensive product, but how rewarding. Quadrophenia certainly is a superb way to get introduced, among other sonic AND musical jewels such as Dire Straits titles, Queen titles, Rolling Stones titles, Black Sabbath titles, Wishbone Ash: Argus, Caravan: In the Land of Grey and Pink, Camel: The Snow Goose, Keith Jarrett Trio: Somewhere Before, T-Rex: Electric Warrior, and so on...
Despite not being as wealthy as many members here, and despite not being wealthy at all for that matter, I buy SHM SA-CDs anyway (because these are so good) and I now own 43 of them.
All I can say is : keep on, you will not regret it.
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Post by Alumni January 2, 2014 (3 of 91)
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scotty said:
I am so blown away from what I heard, especially after the fourth listen (yes they really do break in and open up)
It's not your disc that needs breaking in, it's your own ears. They aren't used to hearing such amazing sound.
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Post by scotty January 2, 2014 (4 of 91)
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not sure what to think of your comments. I know what high end audio sounds like. These discs do break in and open up and breathe after a few listens, look at other reviews please. Were you just having fun? Thanks for joining in! What an album though, right!.
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Post by Iain January 2, 2014 (5 of 91)
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scotty said:
I must start by saying that I recently just got in to the SA-CD SHM format. I now own five of the titles available. ......
Pity.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but SHM-SACD is nothing more than a marketing ploy to get your money.
It's unproven technology, at best.
However, If you can provide a link to an independent, peer-reviewed, legitimate source of information to counter this, I'll be willing to read it.
In short, save your money and get more SA-CD.
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Post by scotty January 2, 2014 (6 of 91)
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thanks for the great feedback. Wow, 43 titles already, very cool. I actually own tons of Japanese mini, SHM, and so on. I will say some of the regular SHMs are getting pretty amazing since they have updated the transfers/mastering. The job they did on the first three Cars albums, Love It To Death, Schools Out, the first five J.J. Cale releases, and even the newly released Vigrass and Osborne sound incredible. The titles I own besides Quadro are the first Dire Straits, and three Stones titles - Sticky Fingers, Dirty Work, and Exile. Since I want to live in my house and not the dog house, my wife wants me to limit my purchases to two titles per month. I am lucky she is a high end audio fanatic to, one of the reasons I married her...ha! Since you own so many, could you please list your top 10 favorites? I am also a fan of Caravan (own the import deluxe edition and it sounds great. Is the SA-CD SHM that much better? The next titles I am looking at are the first Black Sabbath, Undercover by the Stones. I have the SHM of Argus, and it sounds amazing so I will not spend more money on that title even though they are one of my favorites. I am a T. Rex fanatic but already own the Japanese box set which has the first five and then EW, Slider and Tanx. Is EW that good? The price on that baby is a little too high for me to consider since it went out of print. Also, are you aware of any other cool titles on the way? I realize this is Universal driven, which has always been the main champion of Japanese releases that sound the way you expect. Thanks again!
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Post by scotty January 2, 2014 (7 of 91)
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A marketing ploy to get your money??? First, I respect your feedback, but I would like to know what kind of system you are using? I hope the heck it is not a pair of headphones, because you need to experience these amped up! I realize not all of these sound as good as others. If you hate this format so bad, why are you even on this site? Along with many others on this site as well as my friends that have heard these, well, you seem to be a little in the dark here. As I said, I respect your opinion, but you are truly missing a lot of amazing sounding music here!
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Post by Iain January 2, 2014 (8 of 91)
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scotty said:
A marketing ploy to get your money??? First, I respect your feedback, but I would like to know what kind of system you are using? I hope the heck it is not a pair of headphones, because you need to experience these amped up! I realize not all of these sound as good as others. If you hate this format so bad, why are you even on this site? Along with many others on this site as well as my friends that have heard these, well, you seem to be a little in the dark here. As I said, I respect your opinion, but you are truly missing a lot of amazing sounding music here!
hmm ... you seem overly defensive. Are you a Universal Music employee? If so, this site has specific guidelines regarding SPAM, as the overly enthusiastic tone of your posts seems to imply that you are an employee of that company.
Additionally in the interest of full disclosure, all of my information relevant to this site are freely availably in user profile. If you aren't aware of how to access that, simply select my user ID. You will find answers to your specific question there.
Obviously, I'm a music lover, not an "audiophile" obsessed with kit. I'm simply trying to add a bit of common-sense to this thread and perhaps to SA-CD.net, which has become permeated with "high-end audiophile" disinformation over the past few months.
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Post by scotty January 2, 2014 (9 of 91)
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Iain said:
hmm ... you seem overly defensive. Are you a Universal Music employee? If so, this site has specific guidelines regarding SPAM, as the overly enthusiastic tone of your posts seems to imply that you are an employee of that company.
Wow, hold on here. Not defensive at all and let me clear things up. I am not a Universal music employee. I worked in music retail for over 30 years and I am now retired due to issues out of my control. I am simply a music fanatic like you and always supported all forms of music! Thus the reason for some of my comments. I have been in to music since I was five years old, starting with Coltrane/Davis/Wolf/Waters/Stones/Move/Zep/Family/Can/Hawkwind/Crimson and so on and on! I just love music and that is how I spend most of my free time. I tend to get very excited easy, simply because of my passion. By the time I was 12, I had almost 1000 albums. Would go without lunch so I could feed my love of music! I am just very fortunate to have a decent system to enjoy these on! Now with that said, why are you so defensive here, if you are willing to discuss further and if you could tell me WHY you think this format is so weak, I would like to know. I also own a lot of regular SA-CDs as well, and you should know those are hit and miss as well. I personally could care less what company is putting these out, as long as they sound good. Please believe me, you are truly missing something here, but as I said, I respect your opinion, but I can't understand why you are not hearing what these really sound like. I have also been in to Japanese vinyl since I was 16 years old. I hope we can resolve this conversation and be proactive here, but this is now in your court. I hope this clears things up some on my posts. As I said, I just LOVE MUSIC!!!
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Post by AmonRa January 2, 2014 (10 of 91)
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scotty said:
SA-CD SHM format
It is not a format, it is a marketing ploy to squeeze more money form gullible audiophiles.
SACD is basically a copy protected DVD. Clean disks can be read with perfect accuracy (something like one read error per 2 Terabits of data). Using SHM voodoo in the manufacturing and charging 3 times the money for that is not going to make that one lost bit appear once per week of constant playing.
And is it did, nobody would notice.
Learn the facts, not just read the pseudo scientific marketing jumbo-mumbo.
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