[jude]

In the most recent issue of Stereophile (July 2001), Chip Stern reviews Sony Classical's Appalachian Journey by Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Mark O'Connor.

I noted two things in the review:

At the very beginning he lists the catalog number as "SS 66782," which I also own -- but he lists it as "SACD/CD," where mine is not a hybrid SACD/CD. Thinking this a mistake, I read on. But in the last paragraph of the review, he states:

Quote:

Using "Slumber My Darling" as my reference, the first thing I noticed in switching from the CD layer to the SACD was the absence of compression..."

Anyone else notice this? Is there a newer version of this title out with the same catalog number, but in hybrid format? I'm guessing that he just had the CD version handy too, and wrote the article some time after his listening sessions (from notes taken whilst he was listening), and simply forgot that he listened to both the SACD and CD versions on separate discs.

 

[monk]

I don't have an answer, but I noticed the same thing.

My copy of Appalachian Journey SACD is definitely single layer SACD only (it says so on the disc,...and just to be sure I unsuccesfully tried to select and play a CD layer).

Sony must have started to issue CD/SACD versions of their discs, which would be welcome news. The (dumbed down !) CD version of SACD's is often extremely good. My car's CD player/system is generaly not involving at all ,...but it almost sounds good with the CD layer of SACD's (Ellington's Blues in Orbit, for example).

I'll have a look at the Hi-Rez pages of Audio Asylum and see if any of the SACD group have answered your question,

Martin.