I did a comparison between Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were here on the Sony Legacy Cd with SBM (super bullshit marketing) and the stereo layer of Acoustic Sounds “Wish You Were Here” SACD. I paid $50.00 for the Sony Legacy CD from Tower Records in Boston (remember Tower Records?) and about the same price for the SACD from Acoustic Sounds. I have heard both probably a gazillion times and after very careful listening, the Sony Legacy CD really sounds much better and more natural than the SACD version. There are more dynamic swings to the music on the Sony Legacy CD as evidenced by the meters on my Mac power amp.
The bass is much deeper and more taut, and the highs seem to have a little extra sparkle. In the midrange, David Gilmour’s voice seems more relaxed where the SACD version sounds a bit ragged and even screechy at one point. I do know that I enjoyed the Sony Legacy version much more on my system. I do want to point out that SBM really stands for Super Bit Mapping and it seems to make the CD sound more realistic. So, there you go, I know everyone was dying to know.
