Steely Dan UHQR
There is a great interview with audio engineer Bernie Grundman on the new UHQR album "Aja". At $150 it better be amazing. He talks about how they had to modify the sound of albums in the past so they would play on crappy turntables and how this album, at 45rpm, is designed for the best turntables and cartridges. He also speaks about how the "Dan" gang wanted to use their own speakers to listen to the master and not Bernie's. (Wish he had called out the speakers) But let me ask you this, can a sound engineer with 80 year old ears (born 16 December 1943), have the hearing to engineering a UHQR album to audiophile standards......I know my hearing is shot due to what I did in my 20's with Rock n Roll sound levels....At 70, no way could my ears be trusted for such a task.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGLFTm6jMrY
Let’s why Digital is leading the way ,records are so limited by putting = amount into good digital such as theT+A200 dac , LPS power supplies and quality cables there is so much more flexibility ,tuning, and frequency response records 12.5 bits Max vs true 20 bit, and digital keeps progressing. turntables worst certainly can sound great but takes a lot of time and $$ monies . that’s from someone who had well over a $15k setup. |
I had already moved on from Steely Dan by the time Aja was released but it got radio play and was a demo record back in the day. I always found it dry sounding, and the Cisco cut even more arid. Does the horn on Deacon Blues really wail like it should on this latest version? I have great respect for Bernie, going back to his days at A&M, but I'm not really a buyer of classic rock warhorses these days. I did buy good copies of their entire catalog a decade and a half ago but have gotten out of the habit of yet another "better" copy-- I guess if this record is important to you, you should have it. I kind of stopped back in the day with Countdown and have a children's blocks copy from the old days; did buy the Chad UHQR but I doubt it will get any more play than the old copy. |
I listened to the entire interview, and while there was a reference to TT's, I don't believe he was saying they tuned down the quality due to poor quality equipment. He said they didn't go to extremes and produce a groove that was only readable by the very top end of audiophile equipment. I would think that philosophy would hold true on this latest re issue as well? In fact, he seemed to be putting more emphasis on producing a master that sounded best on his speakers, compared to the bookshelf speakers being used by Fagen/Becker? In the end, it's mining the archives to squeeze out every dollar possible. My existing copies on vinyl and CD sound great. If the latest and greatest version makes you happy, that's all that matters. |
that is so delusional... AB 1006 stamper is sounding PERFECT on both pricey and cheap equipment. The dynamic range I bet can even be larger than UHQR version. Paying $150 for pop music record released in tens of millions copies is definitely gullible.
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I've heard this comment about having to cut the discs for the majority of playback equipment a few times in the past. Many of us might have had Audiophile turntables and cartridges but most didn't......And "Most" did the majority of buying albums..... |
I ordered it last week; should be showing up any day. This is the kind of thing I've been wanting to hear since I upgraded my speakers a few months ago. 'Aja' was like an 'audiophile' recording when it came out. Another great audiophile-quality recording from a few years later I was listening to the other night was ABC's 'Lexicon of Love', with its epic production by Trevor Horn. I'd like to hear THAT on a double-45. I hope Chad gives it a listen some day. @rbertalotto - do keep in mind that this has sold many millions of copies worldwide over the decades. 30,000 is a drop in the bucket compared to that. |
