SACD recordings

Bruce B · Jul 13, 2011

I've been listing to some SACD discs lately and can't believe how bad they sound. So I did some investigating. Theres a few that I'll pick out for you.

Here is a disc where the DC offset is off the charts. Not to mention the noise from 50-100k.

Bruce B · Jul 13, 2011

Here you have a signal overmodulation from a loud drum strike.

amirm · Jul 13, 2011

Interesting. Is there a pattern to who produced it?

Bruce B · Jul 13, 2011

amirm said:
Interesting. Is there a pattern to who produced it?

Not really... one was a Marinsky Classic label and the other LSO

MylesBAstor · Jul 14, 2011

Bad mastering jobs?

Kal Rubinson · Jul 14, 2011

Bruce B said:
Not really... one was a Marinsky Classic label and the other LSO

Could be a pattern depending on who did the recording/mastering for each label.

Bruce B · Jul 14, 2011

Kal Rubinson said:
Could be a pattern depending on who did the recording/mastering for each label.

No.. one was a Soundmirror/Mark Donahue project and the other was a Classic/John Newton project.

I've seen this with Telarc, PentaTone, Chandos and lots of others. Seems every label has a few out of spec.

Kal Rubinson · Jul 14, 2011

Bruce B said:
No.. one was a Soundmirror/Mark Donahue project and the other was a Classic/John Newton project.

I've seen this with Telarc, PentaTone, Chandos and lots of others. Seems every label has a few out of spec.

Well, as Joe E. Brown said as he embraced Jack Lemmon (in drag) at the end of Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot:" Nobody's perfect!

FrantzM · Jul 14, 2011

Hi

I understand the subject is SACD (Don't cotton much to the format as you should know by now) .. How did the corresponding CDs (if any) sounded ?

Bruce B · Jul 14, 2011

FrantzM said:
Hi

I understand the subject is SACD (Don't cotton much to the format as you should know by now) .. How did the corresponding CDs (if any) sounded ?

Well the loud passages that over-modulated sounded like distortion/crackle. The other's just didn't have any life, very 2-dimensional and not pleasant to listen to.

Lee · Jul 15, 2011

Bruce, I wish you would name the titles. I'd like to know if I have them and/or to avoid them.

tailspn · Aug 27, 2011

Bruce B said:
No.. one was a Soundmirror/Mark Donahue project and the other was a Classic/John Newton project.

Gee, I thought it was Jonathan Stokes, not John Newton who worked for Classic Sound. But you are right about lifeless. I find everything done by Classic as you described, and their multi-channel recordings particularly poor. Classic seems to have no use for the ITU microphone alignment. Their 5.x recordings are basically faked quad.

Robin Hood · Nov 28, 2011

Bruce B said:
I've been listing to some SACD discs lately and can't believe how bad they sound. So I did some investigating. Theres a few that I'll pick out for you.

Have I just entered Bizarro World? I was hoping to pick up a few gold nuggets from the Whats Best Forum (not the Whats Worst Forum). Can you provide a healthy list of some SACDs that show the best SACD has to offer.

Bruce B · Nov 28, 2011

Robin Hood said:
Have I just entered Bizarro World? I was hoping to pick up a few gold nuggets from the Whats Best Forum (not the Whats Worst Forum). Can you provide a healthy list of some SACDs that show the best SACD has to offer.

I'd stick with Channel Classics, PentaTone, Mercury, Marinsky and LSO Live

Robin Hood · Nov 28, 2011

Thanks. These are all great labels for classical music on SACDs. What would you recommend for non-classical music like jazz, instrumental, pop/rock or world music on multi-channel SACDs? Or do you think that multi-channel non-classical music will be better served on other formats like DVD-As or Blu-ray?

Bruce B · Nov 28, 2011

For jazz, I'd go with Fantasy, Verve, MFSL and Analogue Productions.

I'd stick with DVD-A for Rock/Pop. There are a couple of MFSL, but it's slim picking!

MylesBAstor · Nov 28, 2011

Bruce B said:
For jazz, I'd go with Fantasy, Verve, MFSL and Analogue Productions.

I'd stick with DVD-A for Rock/Pop. There are a couple of MFSL, but it's slim picking!

What about Tom Jung and DMP?

Bruce B · Dec 18, 2011

Think I found the worst recorded jazz SACD I've ever heard. I can't stand to listen to over 10 seconds of it because it's recorded/mastered so hot, the clipping/distortion will actually hurt you. I had high hopes for these.

James and Lucky Peterson - If You Can't Fix It

LL21 · Dec 18, 2011

Bruce B said:
For jazz, I'd go with Fantasy, Verve, MFSL and Analogue Productions.

I'd stick with DVD-A for Rock/Pop. There are a couple of MFSL, but it's slim picking!

I totally agree on Verve, MFSL and Analogue!!!!!

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