[dj_mocok]

I hope someone can answer this before tomorrow.
I'm gonna get this album because I like that "We Belong Together" song, but I just downloaded the album (review purpose only of course

) and it sounded flat and lifeless. I'm not sure whether it's the way the owner encoded the album or it does really sound like that.

It's not terrible, but it sounds strangled... not lively at all, sounds compressed, flat, there is no airy feel or sense of space in it... like all frequency and notes and instruments are set within the same flat range.
Each accoustic doesn't distinguish itself as separate music instrument performing together as a whole part of the song and the vocal is not lifely but just jumbled together in the music. (Jesus christ... too much head-fi as you can see.... lol)

I am talking from head-fi point of view, for casual listen, the file actually sounds quite normal and nothing's wrong with it. But you know us headfi members are fussy.

If someone owns this album or has heard this from a proper setup, how is the recording?

If it actually really sounds strangled like this, I might as well just keep this mp3 one instead of getting the album in similar quality.

Thanks.

PS: If nobody is answering, heck I'll just buy the album and see what happens.

 

[Coltrane]

Um...

 

[grawk]

You've got a crappy mp3. The cd sounds decent on my system.

 

[dj_mocok]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coltrane Um...

Thanks for the help man. Really appreciate it.

Grawk,
Okay then I'll get it.

 

[Elephas]

Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" sounds good to me on CD or Apple Lossless. Using the K701, instrument separation is good and the sense of air and space is there. Backup vocals are off to the far left and right, the hi hat is in a space by itself at the middle right, and the bass has solid thump without being too dominating.

 

[dj_mocok]

Great to hear that.
So it must be the MP3 that I acquired then.
I will get it then.

Thanks.

 

[Todd R]

I don't know guys. Every Mariah Carey CD I've heard has this horrible high pitched squealing sound to it.


Oh wait, that's her.

 

[Jasper994]

Personally, I think the recording sucks! It's really hot and over-compressed. That said, several of the songs are pretty good.

 

[dj_mocok]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Todd R I don't know guys. Every Mariah Carey CD I've heard has this horrible high pitched squealing sound to it. Oh wait, that's her.

lol.


Now I got someone saying its nicely recorded and someone who says the opposite. I think I should get it and find out bymyself.
I will post the update once I bought it.

 

[Scotty757]

i borrowed a friends copy (my money is far more precious to me than this tragedy).

See above, this is one of the hottest recordings ive heard in a while, and its awful.

 

[sumguy_]

Ive got the album+DVD version of the CD. I find that Its Like That and to some extent We Belong Together are not mastered all that well. Its Like That is terrible, clipping and crackling all over the place.

What is interesting, I have the singles for those two and they sound much more lively with less clipping artifacts. I havent listened for a while, just my thoughts from memory.

If you like the 1 song only, then get the single (if you can find it) and then you can get some of the dance remixes also

.

 

[Elephas]

Could someone who owns the "Emancipation of Mimi" CD describe the problems on the track "We Belong Together"?

I'm not trying to argue, I just want to learn more about how the mastering and compression reduces sound quality.

 

[Ruggerio79]

for the crackling sound on Its Like That..i noticed it when i was listening to it on my ipod with HD-25...afterwhile when i got my AE-1..it was gone...it was more of a case of the source not being able to handle the bass...We Belong Together didnt sound very good without the AE-1 as well...

 

[Elephas]

I listened to "It's Like That" and "We Belong Together." I don't hear any crackling. It doesn't sound any better or worse than other pop albums.

I'm wondering if I'm losing detail somewhere and not picking up the problems with the tracks.

System used:
iTunes ALAC > RME HDSP 9632 > Lavry DA10 > AT-HA5000 > ATH-W5000 and Sony SA5000

 

[dj_mocok]

I just got the album.

I'm not sure whether different pressing has much noticeable sound quality difference from other pressing.

I bought mine from here (aussie), but it actually says "only for sale in China region only" lol. The code is: TY0002C

I'm currently listening to the CD whilst typing, I'll give some quick rundown on what I think so far:

On It's like that:
This is just a quick listen, but I notice there's a slight crackle in the recording (I think it's the background recording IIRC) around 1:43 and 2:23 down the track, and some other more following that.
Not sure whether all pressings are the same or not.

But looks like the problem is more of a bad mastering?
To me, it sounds like the background vocals are not properly recorded.

Either that or it's not combined properly - I assume a process of making recording a song is: For simplicity's sake:
1. Record main vocal
2. Record the instruments
3. Record the backgrounds, effects, etc
4. Combined everything into a song as a whole, therefore all the adjusting processes happen here, eg: adjusting volume, freqs, etc?

Sometimes we will come accross a song that sounds like a bad "copy and paste" work - eg. the main vocal sounds just fine, and suddenly when the chorus (and background vocals) hit, they sound so different (eg. not as clean) from the main vocal.


In general, after listening to a few songs, I think the quality is so so, not terrible, but considering it's a pop album (hard to find a nicely recorded pop), I think it's just pretty normal and ok for casual listen.

Head-fily speaking, I feel the songs, especially Mariah's vocal, really lacks the airiness. The highs are not natural (no, it's not Mariah's shriek), the recordings sound too compressed, not enough instrument separation, everything sounds too crumbled into one. Plus the occassional dirty recordings here and there.

It's a shame really, I wish TELARC did the recording for We Belong Together, because that's the only song I really like. I wanna listen to her singing this song in all spaciousness of a recording, must be awesome.

But for general listening, it's really quite acceptable (I'm saying this considering the quality of today's pop albums in general), unlike Kylie Minogue's Fever, which is a real shame, so many songs I like from that album, but the quality is really really sub par.

On a totally different note, you guys should try to find Keb' Mo' - Slow Down HDCD (BK 69376), it's one of the best non-audiophile recordings Ive heard.