Favorite SACD's

Muswell Hillbillies - The Kinks
The Firebird - Stravinsky - Mercury Living Presence
Sea Change - Beck
Tommy - The Who

If you like female vocals try the album Yola by Irish artist Eleanor McEvoy, she is just brilliant! The recording is very good too.

Hi, I'm not sure if this is the spot but I have to whine about SACD. No doubt it is an improvement from standard Cd, but don't you feel conned?
They talked a lot of people into getting rid of their vinyl and buy the new wonder a Cd. It sounded horrible. Time goes on and small improvements are made, HDCD.They still sounded horrible but you bought it.You've now purchased the same album three times. No real improvements came along for a long time so the record companies came out with new re-mastered Cd's with extra tracks.That makes four times you've bought that album.
Now its SACD or perhaps DVD-Audio.Legitimate improvements from "old" Cd but now we are at number five. For me this is where it stops. I don't care if SACD is the second coming of recorded music, I'm not buying it.
I don't think you have to be too cynical to see how this fiasco has been played out.
Thank God I kept my original vinyl and (for the most part) stayed off the merry-go-round. As Johnny Rotten sneered when asked about the Sex pistols reunion "Ever get the feeling you've been conned'.

It get's better. Now they are releasing dual format. This is a 5" disc with cd on one side and dvd on the other. Just heard about this the other day. Cheers

•Geri Allen - Life of a Song: Geri has fabulous touch, and this is the first digital recording that captures the tiny dynamic shifts that are inherent to this level of piano playing. This also captures Jack DeJohnette's brushwork just right. The presentation is a little more tonally diffuse than the best LPs but there is NONE of the edge that gives almost all digital recordings their "digital" signature. BTW, the music on this disc is beautiful and would justify its purchase even if it sounded like plop.

•Sam Cooke - Ain't that Good News: Flat out the most icredibly real sounding vocal presentation I've ever heard from recorded music. However, the instrumental accompaniment is much less well served, sounding canned. Fabulous, timeless music. This one really turned the corner for me with digital recording.

•Mahler's First Symphony, SFPO, Tilson-Thomas cond.: Call me a Luddite but I have always thought that digital mangles classical music more than anything else. It's always destroyed the timbers of high strings and woodwinds, made tymps and snares sound unnaturally peaky, and we won't even talk about cymbals and other high percussion. These are things that good LP playback never does, and is infinitely more enjoyable because of it. This SACD is the first classical digital recording I've heard that is not offputting in the way described above. I have LPs of Mahler's 1st that are more sonically pleasing to me, but this is very nice, with string tone being particularly impressive. This is one of my favorite works of the Late Romantic era and a very enjoyable rendition.