Paul McGowan/PS Audio DSD is all about FOMO

[Lee]

As I posted above, the last 25 years most projects have been recorded to digital..upwards of 95%.

Another interesting not is that some of the biggest performers or bands of our time..Arcade Fire, Coldplay, Radiohead, Adele,
etc etc have virtually NEVER recorded to tape

U2 has not touched tape since 1991.

U2 has not had good sound since 1991.

 

[Lee]

I'm with mep, 85% of the music I regularly listen to was recorded on tape of the analog variety.

Same here.

 

[Andre Marc]

U2 has not had good sound since 1991.

I disagree. Pop, All That You Can't Leave Behind, Passengers, and Atomic Bomb sound excellent. I have played
those on Uber systems and the dynamics and over quality of the recordings were very impressive.

So does Achtung Baby, which is a mix of analog and digital.

 

[Andre Marc]

I know that Mark Wilder has archived a lot of important catalogs like Miles Davis, etc. but I don't believe that they will release everything. I'm just hopeful they will release a lot. We will see.

Sony has a history of big splashy hardware announcements and no follow-through on the software side. I hope I am wrong but we have to learn from history. And I'm a huge Sony/SACD fan.

I think we are ALL DSD/SACD fans!

The team at Battery Studios including Wilder and Vic Anesini are excellent. But they do almost exclusively Sony mastering. Warner has chosen
192 Khz PCM as their archiving format.

I find it funny we are counting on the company that invented and destroyed the SACD market to somehow get it right.

 

[Lee]

I think we are ALL DSD/SACD fans!

The team at Battery Studios including Wilder and Vic Anesini are excellent. But they do almost exclusively Sony mastering. Warner has chosen
192 Khz PCM as their archiving format.

I find it funny we are counting on the company that invented and destroyed the SACD market to somehow get it right.

The optimists are counting on the part that invented Sony. The realists are expecting that they will fail yet again.

 

[Lee]

I disagree. Pop, All That You Can't Leave Behind, Passengers, and Atomic Bomb sound excellent. I have played
those on Uber systems and the dynamics and over quality of the recordings were very impressive.

So does Achtung Baby, which is a mix of analog and digital.

Yeah, I was just telling a joke.

 

[Andre Marc]

Yeah, I was just telling a joke.

Yeh I knew by your emoticon...but I threw those albums out for the hell of it.

 

[Bruce B]

It's kinda' funny, but when HDtracks wanted to release some Sony Masterworks material, they didn't have the original DSD files. They gave me the SACD's to rip!!

 

[rbbert]

I'm with mep, 85% of the music I regularly listen to was recorded on tape of the analog variety.

Mark went a little beyond that by saying that today's rock bands are less talented than those of the '60's and '70's; he did add (reluctantly?) that was just his opinion

 

[rbbert]

I disagree. Pop, All That You Can't Leave Behind, Passengers, and Atomic Bomb sound excellent. I have played
those on Uber systems and the dynamics and over quality of the recordings were very impressive.

So does Achtung Baby, which is a mix of analog and digital.

Atomic Bomb (DR 5) and All That You Can't Leave Behind (DR 8) are very compressed in their officially released versions...

 

[treitz3]

Three great posts and no one welcomed him? What happened to the hospitality of WBF?

A very warm welcome to WBF Paul! This is a great forum as the moderators do try to encourage civil discussion. You'll find a lot of members here who will challenge everything in a humble, civil and intelligent manner.

Thanks for honoring us with your presence.

Hello Mr. McGowan and Welcome to the WBF. So glad to see you here. Gary, you took the words right out of my mouth. The bold in your quote was added by me.

Tom

 

[Andre Marc]

Atomic Bomb (DR 5) and All That You Can't Leave Behind (DR 8) are very compressed in their officially released versions...

Don't fall prey to those DR numbers, I find them very inaccurate.

 

[Andre Marc]

It's kinda' funny, but when HDtracks wanted to release some Sony Masterworks material, they didn't have the original DSD files. They gave me the SACD's to rip!!

Why am I not surprised?

 

[rbbert]

Don't fall prey to those DR numbers, I find them very inaccurate.

I was just throwing them out there for comparison. By any measure, Atomic Bomb is very compressed and sounds it, at least to my ears. I could show you the waveform or show you the numbers, but the easiest way to tell is the same as with most compressed recordings; it's hard to turn up the volume.

 

[Alrainbow]

Now this is just not cool. I ripped all of my sacd disk s
To play on my daps and non DSD dacs
But to pay for something that is not remastered or
Nothing better than what I have is why this whole
Music download just /:;;:: me off.
I buy my music. And had to go through the expense
Of learning about formats and having to buy music setimes twice
And a ps 3 to listen to the music I own
On other players. Now add to this that the various download sites do not state how or where
It is coming from. This is the part that is not fair.
If the sites would just say how and from what source
They obtained the music from I would be fine
As if they ripped it from the sacd I would not buy the sacd
I would pay them and move on.
Al

 

[Alrainbow]

Can someone explain what compressed music sounds like
As opposed to music that is not ?
Al

 

[JackD201]

Sounds okay at low volumes but when you turn it up EVERYTHING goes up. Lack of musical contrast but worst of all since the noise goes up everything becomes grungy.

BTW I found Atomic Bomb a disappointment sonically as well. Good thing the music is good enough for me to overlook the squash treatment. One of the recordings where I preferred the CD over the LP. The LP was so bad, I bought the CD.

 

[Asamel]

So when can I expect a PS Audio DAC with DSD? I had corresponded with them and told end of the year 2013.

Bruce in PA

 

[Alrainbow]

I am not sure I would imagine this year.
The dad debate is a big thing on ps audio
As for now if you have DSD downloads or
Ripped sacd s just use jriver on the fly to convert to PCM
It's what most people do anyway. You can also
Use dbpower and convert to PCM too.
Al

 

[microstrip]

Microstrip,

Great to encounter a music lover who likes Stockhausen! You can order the CD here:

http://www.karlheinzstockhausen.org/cd_order_form_2013_english.htm

At the online site posted there you can pay by PayPal, but once you get to the check-out page I think you can also pay by credit card if I am not mistaken. Carre is on CD 5, together with Gruppen, a Stockhausen classic.

Yes, the Emerson quartet playing Bartok is incredible!

Thanks for the link, it is a great site, I will order it from them.

I entered the European avant-garde music when I was still at a student at the university - first time listening to the water flow in a Xenakis LP at a colleague's house was an unique experience for some one who considered that music had stopped at Bartók. Since then, from time to time I carefully shut my door and listen to some pieces of Musique Concrète, although I am just a an amateur, not a specialist as you. Or, when I am sick of listening to drum test recordings, I fascinate friends with the Pleiades!