|
Review by Empanadilla September 3, 2009 (6 of 6 found this review helpful)
|
Performance:  Sonics: |
It's nearly impossible to separate your emotional perception from these works of art, but I'll try to do my best.
As opposed to PF DSOTM(one of my fave LPs of course), which to me, the SACD was a waste of time and money (nice packaging though) because it should have been Alan Parson's original Quad mix that had to be released and not the "Extended let's play it safe for those who have small sattelite speakers STEREO" unresearched, insipid and uninspired mix that was force fed to us,
This Boston Stereo SACD (which decodes fairly well in 5.1 DPL Music setting; panorama=1) is what I have heard come closest to how I think the master actually sounded like.
My history with this record. This album is one of the few classic ones that still gives me goosebumps from beginning to end (well , OK, up until "Hitch a RIde") and I will never get tired of listening to. It's a Masterpiece Performance and a sonic delight recorded in lovely analog tape by somebody who knew not only music, but its technological aspects-and a fine sense of melody.
Formats that I have it on: I had this in Stereo 8 track when it came out in 1976. Then a few years later,in the "Half Speed Mastered"(sic) CBS LP releases (which is still my favorite version, surely because of the extra limiting and EQ needed in the LP pressing :=) I'm a junkie for good vinyl sources), and on the Tom Scholz approved remastered CD that came out recently.
I received the SACD yesterday and this morning I did an A-B comparison with the CD, both feeding my Pioneer receiver directly thru PCM.
The result- The SACD is almost flat response/unity gain experience with , either ,a little bit of highs rolled up; or, that's how the Master sounded.
I can hear ALL of the instruments Extremely clearly- even the "air" between them (and , no ; I don't do drugs), which I couldn't in the CD or LP.
It's not brickwalled at all, I'd even say it's not even slightly compressed. The slightly high freq boost I think can be blamed on some very subtle harmonic exciter.
The CD on the other hand- is compressed , although not brickwalled, has a bass and lo-mid notch which I find annoying and no "air" in its Hi Freq, very poor highs.Great packaging , though...
Mind you , I have heard very dark/muddy sounding SACDs; Eric Clapton's "Slowhand", Aerosmiths "Toys in the Attic", but also some very bright sounding ones, i.e. "EWF "Gratitude", so I can't say that it's medium related...
The only downside I can find on this is the shoddy packaging with washed out graphics and badly color separated litho photos..
BUT, the retro Epic records pseudo orange record label on the disc almost saved it.
The conclusion is , that besides the LP version; this SACD is way superior in fidelity than any CD version and preserves the integrity of the original recording...BUY THIS!
|
Was this review helpful to you?
yes |
no
|
|
|
Review by sacreviewer July 9, 2010 (4 of 4 found this review helpful)
|
Performance: Sonics:  |
it was Empanadilla's review that convinced me to ignore the warnings in the other reviews and buy this disc at an evelated price, but sadly, analogue had it dead on. The recording is easily the worst I own on SACD, though my collection is small, it consists of discs that had generally positive reviews. The sound is extremely bright, and a jumble of instrumentation with very poor separation. It's simply fatiguing and after one listen it establishes itself as "that disc" that goes back on the shelf with no desire to take it out when you're in the mood for some great acoustics.
I knew full well this was 2Channel, so that's not the problem, it's the mix. I bought this for over $40 hoping to get the warm, but sonically balanced and striking version I listened to literally hundreds of times on vinyl back in the day, thinking a remixed SACD was the best shot--not to be. As said before, if you're looking to have this disc for nostalgia and insist on SACD for SACDs sake, then by all means, but if you have a system capable of great acoustics, don't expect this disc to bring it out, rather it's poor qualities will be magnified by your system's ability to reveal whats on the disc, for better or in this case, worse.
|
Was this review helpful to you?
yes |
no
|
|
Sonics: 
