Post by hiredfox October 20, 2011 (1 of 34)
|
|
I received my copy of this disc from Japan yesterday and played it last evening. No time for a detailed analysis yet but first impressions are of exemplary playing by the BPO, a typically exquisitely crafted interpretation by SSR.
As far as the recording goes it seems to me to be not much better than a RBCD suggesting this has been re-mastered from 44.1/16 bit material and upsampled prior to conversion to DSD; balanced too far into the bass regions with over emphasis of cellos and basses rather spoiling; not very wide dynamic range suggesting bandwidth compression to match listening room.
The jury is still in discussions.....
I may break all my own rules and buy the RBCD to compare, at least I'll get the booklet in English
|
|
|
Post by pacwin October 20, 2011 (2 of 34)
|
|
|
hiredfox said:
I received my copy of this disc from Japan yesterday and played it last evening. No time for a detailed analysis yet but first impressions are of exemplary playing by the BPO, a typically exquisitely crafted interpretation by SSR.
As far as the recording goes it seems to me to be not much better than a RBCD suggesting this has been re-mastered from 44.1/16 bit material and upsampled prior to conversion to DSD; balanced too far into the bass regions with over emphasis of cellos and basses rather spoiling; not very wide dynamic range suggesting bandwidth compression to match listening room.
The jury is still in discussions.....
I may break all my own rules and buy the RBCD to compare, at least I'll get the booklet in English
Its already a hybrid disc. Why buy another redbook audio.? This is clearly a dynamic recording, however the sound stage is somewhat collapsed/intimate for a big orchestra but thats not a recording issue. Having analyzed the spectra of the DSD data via 192/24 PCM conversion its likely to be originally 96 or greater PCM. There's 40khz frequency's 58db down. This chart shows the frequency spectrum of the 192/24 transcode for about 30 secs around the 4 minute mark on the first movement.
|
|
|
Post by yakman October 20, 2011 (3 of 34)
|
|
Hi, pacwin,
Just a bit curious
May I know what is the frame size for the spectrum analysis.
You mean you put 30 secs of samples into the FFT?
|
|
|
Post by Claude October 20, 2011 (4 of 34)
|
|
hiredfox said:
As far as the recording goes it seems to me to be not much better than a RBCD suggesting this has been re-mastered from 44.1/16 bit material and upsampled prior to conversion to DSD;
Given that this is a 2010 recording, I'd say that at worst this was recorded at 24/44.1 . But it's more likely they used a higher sampling rate.
Nobody records in 16/44 anymore, and I don't think they would be so amateurish as to use a CD master as a source for the SACD.
|
|
|
Post by hiredfox October 20, 2011 (5 of 34)
|
|
pacwin said:
Its already a hybrid disc. Why buy another redbook audio.? This is clearly a dynamic recording, however the sound stage is somewhat collapsed/intimate for a big orchestra but thats not a recording issue. Having analyzed the spectra of the DSD data via 192/24 PCM conversion its likely to be originally 96 or greater PCM. There's 40khz frequency's 58db down. This chart shows the frequency spectrum of the 192/24 transcode for about 30 secs around the 4 minute mark on the first movement.
That's really interesting. Thank you. The stuff above 22kHz appears to be programme related, is that confirmed by your measurements?
I can't say that I am convinced that it's 96kHz, plenty of those around now, DG being a good comparator. Need to listen again but from memory this sound doesn't really compare well to those.
|
|
|
Post by hiredfox October 20, 2011 (6 of 34)
|
|
Claude said:
Given that this is a 2010 recording, I'd say that at worst this was recorded at 24/44.1 . But it's more likely they used a higher sampling rate.
Nobody records in 16/44 anymore, and I don't think they would be so amateurish as to use a CD master as a source for the SACD.
Instinctively, I support your hypothesis; certainly the recent Argerich's on EMI we believed to have been recorded at 96kHz/24bit but they sound more convincing than this disc.
Unfortunately and despite my utter lack of knowledge of the Japanese language, there is nothing in the booklet, spine label or on the casework to indicate which PCM format was used. It has the ubiquitous DSD Remastering label which means nothing really.
|
|
|
|
|
|
hiredfox said:
Instinctively, I support your hypothesis; certainly the recent Argerich's on EMI we believed to have been recorded at 96kHz/24bit but they sound more convincing than this disc.
Unfortunately and despite my utter lack of knowledge of the Japanese language, there is nothing in the booklet, spine label or on the casework to indicate which PCM format was used. It has the ubiquitous DSD Remastering label which means nothing really.
And can we get confirmation that it is a stereo-only release?
Kal
|
|
|
Post by hiredfox October 20, 2011 (8 of 34)
|
|
Kal Rubinson said:
And can we get confirmation that it is a stereo-only release?
Kal
Hi Kal
It is unfortunately. Suggests they only had stereo masters to work from. Very short-sighted but if they had planned a hi-res release only for Japan the strategy probably makes sense to them.
John
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kal Rubinson said:
And can we get confirmation that it is a stereo-only release?
Kal
Not sure if they're all the same (though I'd presume so), but my copy of their Schoenberg release from that same batch is stereo only. (Recorded Oct & Nov 2009.)
Or so it says on the back cover of the case & booklet (I don't have an M/C setup so can't check).
PT
|
|
|
Post by seth October 20, 2011 (10 of 34)
|
|
Polarius T said:
Not sure if they're all the same (though I'd presume so), but my copy of their Schoenberg release from that same batch is stereo only. (Recorded Oct & Nov 2009.)
Or so it says on the back cover of the case & booklet (I don't have an M/C setup so can't check).
PT
Your SACD player cannot see all the layers of a disc?
|
|
