Post by Rickko January 7, 2015 (81 of 117)
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Hitters said:
I still find School to be the most problematic track. I think the bass and the drums distort heavily. Nevertheless, the song is so good that I can forget about all these shortcomings.
I will be looking forward to the review you plan to write. I believe you are an expert and will be enlightening to get to know your full analysis.
Finally, I wish to say I find the musical content of the album of great value. The music is simply fantastic and is still relevant and creative as it was 40 years ago. It was only a matter of expectations: I had hoped the high resolution files to be better and instead I met face to face with the limitations of the source tape.
Juan,
Crime of the Century has profoundly impacted me like no other album in rock history. I consider it to be Supertramp's masterpiece. For 40 years, I have listened to it at least 200 to 300 times (I listened twice today). I will never tire of wanting to hear it.
At the same time, I have always had high expectations for quality audio in Crime of the Century that was never met until the Blu-ray 192k/24Bit. As far as I am concerned, Ray Staff's remastering is superb. Crime of the Century has some drawbacks in regard to the original master tapes but Ray Staff should be commended for mastering warts and all.
I also took note of your comment on "School" as a problematic track. I just finished listening again to School on both Blu-ray and LP (using Sennheiser HD 650 headphones). I think I know what you may be referring to. Starting at approximately 4:20, I did hear something on the Blu-ray; I did not hear distortion of bass or drums but I did hear what appeared to be some sibilance on the cymbals that can seem to be distortion-like....my guess it may be more noticeable due to the higher sampling rate (yes, I did notice it on the LP but it was very slight).
I cannot speak to your expectations (or anybody else's expectations for that matter) on the quality of audio for Crime of the Century but I am aware that some other posters/reviewers (on this forum and others) seem to be satisfied with this high resolution Blu-ray version.
I am glad I could be of assistance.
Rick
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Post by Hitters January 8, 2015 (82 of 117)
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Rickko said:
Juan,
Crime of the Century has profoundly impacted me like no other album in rock history. I consider it to be Supertramp's masterpiece. For 40 years, I have listened to it at least 200 to 300 times (I listened twice today). I will never tire of wanting to hear it.
I am glad I could be of assistance.
Rick
Hey Rick,
I love "Crime of the century" and have listened to it many, many times. But the relationship you describe you have got with this album is similar to the one I have with "Breakfast in America". Many consider it a commercial project compared to the previous ones but I find it very inspired and never get tired of listening to it. I had the original vinyl when I was a teen, then got the CD, MoFi CD, remastered (japanese) CD and finally the SHM-SACD. I know the tracks down to the bone and could speak about their sounds with knowledge.
When I get back to my stereo I will listen to "Crime" again and see what happens.
Thanks again for the effort you put into studying the case.
Juan
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Post by Jethro January 11, 2015 (83 of 117)
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rammiepie said:
Two things come to mind, HiRezNut: Your 4 year old SONY player is desperately in need of a firmware update and the Optical cable WILL NOT carry the hi res signals (PCM 5.1/Dolby True HD/DTS Master Audio) from your player.
HDMI is IN ...... Optical cables are OUT.
Some of the newer discs also mandate that your current BD player has the latest firmware updates or else they will not work.
Hate to say it, but you are in desperate need of a system upgrade...and I say this with the kindest of intentions!
Uh oh...after reading this, I too may be looking at a system upgrade. My Arcam AVR250 only has Optical outs....No HDMI. I didn't realize they could not handle 192. So, am I correct in saying the max would be 96 for Optical?
Therefore, I'm not even able to appreciate DTS Master I guess???
Sigh
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Post by Marpow January 11, 2015 (84 of 117)
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Jethro said:
Uh oh...after reading this, I too may be looking at a system upgrade. My Arcam AVR250 only has Optical outs....No HDMI. I didn't realize they could not handle 192. So, am I correct in saying the max would be 96 for Optical?
Therefore, I'm not even able to appreciate DTS Master I guess???
Sigh
Small note: I went from digital optical outs to HDMI and I could actually hear the difference the HDMI sounding better.
At 59 years old and been in construction my whole life I don't have the best ears in the world so I am always very happy when I can hear the difference to the better.
Still have a 1080i Plasma TV, Pioneer Elite, lots of new TV's to look forward.
Sorry, definitely off topic for Supertramp.
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Post by rammiepie January 14, 2015 (85 of 117)
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My mini review of Universal's BD~A of Crime of the Century is extremely positive. I played it at a high but not obscenely so volume and the album was a joy from beginning to end. Everything sounded just right.
KUDOS to ALL involved.
My only gripe. It would be a natural for a Steve Wilson multichannel remix as would Breakfast in America.
And seriously, I cannot understand what all the negative reviews pertaining to this BD~A were, quite frankly, all about!
IT TRULY ROCKS!
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rammiepie said:
And seriously, I cannot understand what all the negative reviews pertaining to this BD~A were, quite frankly, all about!
IT TRULY ROCKS!
Compared to BIA SHM-SACD, to me the high end is very muted, just don't sound open. I guess I expected more.
But then, I'm not very fond of Blu Ray disc from HFPA.
I have more just average sounding releases from HFPA than something that sounds great.
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Post by rammiepie January 14, 2015 (87 of 117)
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hooperthom said:
Compared to BIA SHM-SACD, to me the high end is very muted, just don't sound open. I guess I expected more.
But then, I'm not very fond of Blu Ray disc from HFPA.
Hoop, I listened to Crime with my Meridian set for stereo.....no DSP. Chosen codec was PCM. I cranked it up to a pretty loud volume, and IMHO, NOTHING was missing. The drum thracks were totally solid and the vocals were clear as a bell as were all the sound effects. A very wide soundstage, as well.
Having just had my system professionally EQed, I can rightfully say that it made a HELL of a difference.
I have about 60 SHM~SACDs and the BD~A of Crime is right up there with the best of them....excluding the SHM~SACDs from Heads~Up (Telarc) of Hiromi and Stanley Clarke which were original DSD Recordings transferred to SHM~SACD. And those do sound spectacular!
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rammiepie said:
Hoop, I listened to Crime with my Meridian set for stereo.....no DSP. I cranked it up to a pretty loud volume, and IMHO, NOTHING was missing. The drum thracks were totally solid and the vocals were clear as a bell as were all the sound effects. A very wide soundstage, as well.
Having just had my system professionally EQed, I can rightfully say that it made a HELL of a difference.
I have about 60 SHM~SACDs and the BD~A of Crime is right up there with the best of them....excluding the SHM~SACDs from Heads~Up (Telarc) of Hiromi and Stanley Clarke which were original DSD Recordings transferred to SHM~SACD. And those do sound spectacular!
If you crank it up, sure it does sound better but can't always do that. To me the sound of cymbals just sound flat and dull.
I'll probably get the 24/192 download soon, heard it sounds better than the Blu Ray.
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Post by rammiepie January 14, 2015 (89 of 117)
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hooperthom said:
If you crank it up, sure it does sound better but can't always do that. To me the sound of cymbals just sound flat and dull.
I seriously experienced none of that. Everything sounded precise including the cymbals.
When I hit play on the OPPO I expected to cringe........instead, it brought a broad smile to my face.
Even the much maligned Nirvana BD~As (Nevermind, In Utero) sound great on my system.
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rammiepie said:
I seriously experienced none of that. Everything sounded precise including the cymbals.
When I hit play on the OPPO I expected to cringe........instead, it brought a broad smile to my face.
Like I said I was comparing it to the SHM-SACD of BIA.
Blu Ray of Crime is equal to Blu Ray of BIA.
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