[OldRoadToad]

This "thing" with MFSL faking HD transfers? If people had never found out, would they be still be incensed? Would the same recordings that are "bad" still sound "bad"? Maybe I am mistaken as I know nothing but the surface of this "thing", that they falsified their "mastering process"

If you did not know there was a difference there would no difference. Example? The recent Abby Road remix by Giles Martin. I bought it and did not like the remastering done by Giles. I still listen to it, just less often. There are memories tied to that album, good and bad and they were NOT remastered. I also have the unmastered CD and play it once in a while too.

As my mom taught me, do not make more out of some thing or even some one until there is proof of it being worthy.

ORT

 

[Paladin79]

For me the 9th (and close after that the 2nd, 3rd and 7th).

I was fortunate to receive the Mahler symphonies in classical CD"s I got from FLTWS. All in wonderful condition, I suspect he wore white gloves when handling them.

 

[45longcolt]

And talking about Stravinsky, he was also a very enthusiastic "borrower".

How many classical standards were based on old folk songs? Pretty much every composer did (and does) take inspiration from what came before. "There is no new thing under the sun." That was in the Bible, lo these many centuries ago. Or, as Tom Lehrer sang in "Lobachevsky," "Plagiarize, let no one else's work evade your eyes...only be sure to always call it please 'research.'"

 

[Les Strat]

A "Hi Res" release of an old analogue recording like the fabulous Wish You Were Here would first and foremost require a high resolution transfer of the master reel of the final mix. Without this a new "Hi Res" release of an old chestnut is BS. Would it sound 'better?' If the transfer chain was top shelf, and the mastering was done by someone with very good ears, then a Hi Res copy could sound better. It may also sound better as a Redbook CD than prior iterations. yet there are many factors involved. The reality is that very few such productions provide enough technical information to understand how the final product was created.

Steven Wilson's remixing is a great example here. He begins with a Hi Res transfer of the multitrack reels for an album, we'll use Jethro Tull's Benefit as an example, because I found his remix to be a genuine revelation. Steven will analyze his Hi Res copy of the original master tape (Jah forbid that MFSL gets their hands on this transfer, they'd burn it to vinyl and call it good), to understand the original mix in detail. He then builds a remix from the multitrack reels dancing a fine balance of maintaining the same mix parameters of the original recording, while presenting the sonic clarity of each original track in a manner unheard on the original mix. His mixes are faithful, and yet the details of the instruments and voices are notable. His final mixes are available in Hi Res format, and in Redbook format, and pressed to vinyl with transparency regarding the chain of events.

So a truly new Hi Res can be wonderful, proper remixes can be a blessing, so long as sound quality is the priority of the project. And our gear, across the spectrum of boxes, cables, and transducers, brings us the joy of the music.

Very nicely put @US Blues

I completely agree about Steven Wilson’s remixes.

‘Benefit’ does sound fantastic, as do the other Tull albums on which he has worked his ‘magic’!

I am not against ‘Hi Res’ and from what I have read, using 24 bit technology in the recording studio, allows Engineers more freedom to make the best possible recordings.

I like having the luxury of four playback options -Qobuz, ripped CDs, physical CDs….and vinyl!

 

[rkw]

First album returned by Roon search.

Roon search has improved, but until recently it was the absolute worst. There are some hilarious examples in the Roon Community Forum.

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/roon-search-sucking-please-provide-examples/77681

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/search-for-handel-returns-mozart-as-top-result/182104

 

[BraveNewWorld]

Steven Wilson's remixing is a great example here. He begins with a Hi Res transfer of the multitrack reels for an album, we'll use Jethro Tull's Benefit as an example, because I found his remix to be a genuine revelation. Steven will analyze his Hi Res copy of the original master tape (Jah forbid that MFSL gets their hands on this transfer, they'd burn it to vinyl and call it good), to understand the original mix in detail. He then builds a remix from the multitrack reels dancing a fine balance of maintaining the same mix parameters of the original recording, while presenting the sonic clarity of each original track in a manner unheard on the original mix. His mixes are faithful, and yet the details of the instruments and voices are notable. His final mixes are available in Hi Res format, and in Redbook format, and pressed to vinyl with transparency regarding the chain of events.

Agreed and it doesn't hurt that he is a musician first.

 

[Balthazar B]

You forgot the Italian part.
Something like in heaven your lover is Italian and in hell the Germans are. Something like that.

Oh, Pasqualino "Settebellezze" Frafuso would strongly agree, for sure!

 

[filthy mechanical]

How many classical standards were based on old folk songs? Pretty much every composer did (and does) take inspiration from what came before. "There is no new thing under the sun." That was in the Bible, lo these many centuries ago. Or, as Tom Lehrer sang in "Lobachevsky," "Plagiarize, let no one else's work evade your eyes...only be sure to always call it please 'research.'"

Not sure how true it is, but Allergri's Miserere was only at the Sistine Chapel until Mozart copied it after hearing it, although not sure how much that would be plagiarizing.

 

[valiant66]

Edit: redundant
.

 

[dstrimbu]

This makes me cringe so hard, I can't even…

That's a compliment, silly.

 

[dstrimbu]

"However, this is a forum for leisure and as such, being loquacious is welcome."

True, most are here to shoot the Schiit in between product releases.

Exactly!

 

[Paladin79]

Facetiously. There you go!
.

Yep lol. I have been playing word games against my wife and daughter in law since our last visit to Virginia so I am often in that mode.

 

[valiant66]

6800!!

Wow.
.

 

[33na3rd]

6800!!

Wow.
.

And we're just getting warmed up.

 

[dstrimbu]

With a few notable exceptions, such as Tool's 'Fear Inoculum' album, which is a superb digital recording, I find that most 'High Res' recordings 'sound like ass' compared with a standard 16/44.1 version.

The best sound quality I experience on my system, is undoubtedly from physical CDs, using my Jay's Audio CDT2 Mk3 CD transport, via original Yggy A2.

It beats even the best quality streams from Qobuz, or ripped versions of identical CDs, played from a hard drive.

The 24/96 High Res version of Tool's 'Fear Inoculum' sounds fantastic on Qobuz.
However, even that album sounds just as good to my ears (maybe even slightly 'better'...) when played direct from CD.

I am completely sold on CD playback

Agreed, 100%.

As I await the my upcoming Urd, I am using a (20 yr old) Musical Fidelity A308CR CD as a CD transport. Digital coax out via 75 ohm Analysis Plus Black Digital to Yggy OG A2.

(p.s. I have not listened to the A308CR CD's internal DAC in many moons; maybe that's something else to try soon...) https://www.musicalfidelity.com/uploads/manuals/English/a308crcd_eng.pdf

My second digital source is an AURALiC Aries G1 wireless streamer. USB out via a Cardas Blue Clear cable to Yggy. The AURALiC also holds ~600 CDs, ripped to FLAC lossless, and bit-perfect verified (via dBpoweramp from illustrate - great software!). The FLAC files are stored on a 500Mb thumbdrive, plugged into the Aries' HDD USB port.

Here's what I have found, quality of my hearing notwithstanding:

1.) 44.1kHz/16-bit data is all you need to reconstruct an effectively perfect analog waveform if you own a Yggdrasil. YMMV, but I think it's a very special machine
2.) Some streamed music sounds insanely great on Tidal via the AURALiC; as @Les Strat stated, "Fear Inoculum" sounds stunning as a stream, even the 44.1/16 version!
3.) Most streamed music sounds really good on Tidal, via the AURALiC, but unfortunately...
4.) ...some streamed music sounds like a--... and there's really no accounting for the differences, at least not w/r/t bit-rate or bit-depth
5.) FLAC files, streamed locally from the AURALiC's thumb drive, generally sound amazing... I keep coming back to the PRAT thing, over and over
6.) The CDs that those FLAC files were ripped from, however, always sound "the best", at least to me

OK, going to grab a glass of wine and go see if I'm fulla Schiit or not. More to come.