milkpowder
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2005
- Posts
- 8,496
- Likes
- 21
I don't like it. The overall sound is far too mushy and weak for my liking. The percussions have some degree of sparkle, but the dynamic range is just not enough. On the upside, the sound is very smooth and organic. The strings are superb and so are the brass/winds sections. The timbre is spot on. In that respect this disc is great.
I listened both from my Cambridge Audio Azur 740c (upsampled to 24/384) and rips to ALAC, upsampled to 24/96 in foobar (Secret Rabbit Code, Best Sinc) then fed to the Azur 740c via TOSlink out of a M-Audio Transit USB (ASIO). I suspect this recording will sound infinitely better from speakers because part of the whole K2HD experience is a phenomenally realistic soundstage which I cannot get from headphones.
All in all, I expected more from a K2HD remaster and I find it difficult to recommend this disc to others especially when it costs twice as much as a normal CD or SACD. The main killer is the small dynamic range and percussion that doesn't quite have enough clang, crash and energy. The latter I found very surprising given the superb percussion in the sampler tracks of "This is K2 HD Sound!". It is never the less a decent disc, but there are countless superb normal CDs around with comparable sound quality. If you want ultra-concert-realistic instrumentals (bar percussion), this disc is great.
I listened both from my Cambridge Audio Azur 740c (upsampled to 24/384) and rips to ALAC, upsampled to 24/96 in foobar (Secret Rabbit Code, Best Sinc) then fed to the Azur 740c via TOSlink out of a M-Audio Transit USB (ASIO). I suspect this recording will sound infinitely better from speakers because part of the whole K2HD experience is a phenomenally realistic soundstage which I cannot get from headphones.
All in all, I expected more from a K2HD remaster and I find it difficult to recommend this disc to others especially when it costs twice as much as a normal CD or SACD. The main killer is the small dynamic range and percussion that doesn't quite have enough clang, crash and energy. The latter I found very surprising given the superb percussion in the sampler tracks of "This is K2 HD Sound!". It is never the less a decent disc, but there are countless superb normal CDs around with comparable sound quality. If you want ultra-concert-realistic instrumentals (bar percussion), this disc is great.
