FIM UltraHD vs Analogue Productions - Digital

Hi...I am becoming very, very interested in the number of [excellent] remasters of blues, jazz and classical albums. There have always been Mobile Fidelity, Rudy van Gelder, Verve Remasters which do 24/96 remasters onto CD. But now i have also come across FIM UltraHD, 32-bit remasters...and Analogue Productions SACD.

In my own limited experience i found the 1 FIM i own Mozart Sinfonias, tremendously detailed...tremendously detailed. To the point where i was not sure if someone had hyped it, or that was just the recording. Still, while it felt a tad 'throw detail at you'...it still felt reasonably natural. On the Analogue Productions, i have Hoodoo Man Blues...and i love it. plain and simple...incredible acoustics.

somehow, in my mind these 2 labels seem ahead of where mfsl and some of the others left off. I have read great comments about both.

What has been your preference?

The reason is that i now note they are starting to release the SAME titles at the SAME time. I think Ella ad Louis, as well as Oscar Peterson We Get Requests are 2 such examples.

Sure, it'd be [kinda] fun to buy both and compare every time...but in general, do people have any general guidance for those of us who cannot afford to (or dont want to) buy both every single time?

Advice??

By the way, somewhere in this site, i remember a forum involving both Gary Koh and Steve Williams regarding FIM...and i think both Gary and Steve said something about a particular FIM transfer being the best digital version they'd heard. Cannot find the particular thread...

...in any event, i gladly welcome any and all advice from those who've spent time with FIM and Analogue Productions. I am literally waiting to decide whether to buy FIM Ella & Louis and We Get REquests...or the Analogue Production SACD versions (where i only for now use the CD layer since i'm 16/44.1).

...i suppose i could buy both and chalk it up to "paying for an education'. [sigh]...

Well, i bit the bullet....

i bought BOTH FIM Ultra HD and Analogue Productions SACDs of Ella & Lous, and Oscar Peterson's We Get Requests. I also bought Ella and Louis Again from MFSL and from Analogue Productions. This way, i can defintively compare the remasterings properly.

i have decided that i will keep one version and probably give the other ones as [still extremely nice] thank yous to audiophile friends of mine who often will do favors for me, or help me out with things from time to time.

will post my findings.

audioarcher said:

So what were your findings?

Click to expand...

Hi! Thanks...I thought I posted...maybe somewhere else? sorry...thanks for the reminder. FIM all the way. The Analog Productions is excellent...I would never miss the FIM if I did not already happen to have it. But when I compared them, the Analogue Productions, true to its name, was very very analogue sounding...not brittle in any way shape or form. But the FIM matches its natural tone without a glow which reduced detail. Quite a feat. My two cents.