This is a big deal. For instance, anyone who is a fan of great cellists will want to hear Jacqueline DuPre's version of the Elgar Cello Concerto carefully remastered for SACD. Beginning in April, EMI will release SACDs (not the Japanese versions) of many of its classic recordings. The new editions will be marketed under the "Signature Collection" name. More information to follow....
I just ordered all of the 10 sets that are available in the UK. (There are apparently 100 sets that have been issued in Japan). I ordered them from MDT whom I have ordered from before. They seem to be very reliable and look like the cheapest source. I got all 10 sets for 159GBP, about $250 US including shipping to the US. They discount the price and then do not charge VAT if the shipping address is not in Europe or the UK. It looks like a couple of the sets are not in stereo - the famous Gieseking Debussy was only in mono and Liszt Piano set I think should also be at least partly mono. I have all of the stereo releases in vinyl (original EMI pressings) except for the Schuricht Bruckner 8th Symphony. It is one of the very few ASD non White Gold label vinyl that I don't have (I have all the EMI analogue ASD's above ASD575 - when the white-gold labels stopped except for six of them. ASD602-3 the Schuricht Bruckner 8 are two of the six.) That set is one of the most rare and expensive of the EMI ASD's - I have only seen it once, for 2000GBP and I didn't order it. I will be comparing the SACD's with the vinyl versions and let you know what I think.
Hopefully, EMI will eventually release all of the SACD's that they have released in Japan. Since the SACD sets they have released are all multiple disks, they look like bargains - 26 SACD disks in the 10 sets - or less than $10 each ordered from the UK.
According to TAS in their current issue, the analogue stereo tapes (no multichannel) were first ripped to 96/24, then processed and then converted to SACD.
Thanks for the link. Looks like HDtracks has a much larger group of releases than the EMI SACD's so far released. However, it also looks like there are several of the releases on SACD that have not made it to 96/24 files yet. Note that quite a few of the releases are from mono sources. Furtwangler, Gieseking and Lipatti among others. Dinu Lipatti was a very gifted Roumanian pianist who died quite young. His version of the Chopin Waltzes is my favorite. He and my wife's piano teacher in college (Lory Wallfisch at Smith) were students together in Bucharest, both studying with George Enescu.
