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  3. 167087-129917

Deja Vu all over again

The Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young remastered album is available on Qobuz for streaming at 192kHz 24bit.  It sounds great.  I have the original vinyl that I bought in the late 70s.  This remastered version has a very crisp clean sound with good soundstage depth and width.  I especially like the song, "Almost Cut my Hair". The song seems almost comical to me at the beginning but the mood changes for me as the song continues into a serious and good discussion.
I believe this digital version has little to no compression since I have my preamp volume set at 50 for my normal listening level.  Compare that to some pop albums on Qobuz at 44kHz 16bit that I play at a volume level of 27-33.
I believe the compression level is proportional to the volume level I use for my normal listening level.  For example, ROON shows the dynamic range of each of my CDs that I have ripped as FLAC files into my Library.  I see dynamic range as low as 8 and as high as 18.  The 18 is for a Telarc CD and is exceptional.  I notice my volume level for normal listening level is correlating to this Dynamic Range value.  Of course the higher dynamic range recordings have some nice loud peaks.

128x128tonywinga
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,589 posts
 
Thanks for the review, tonywinga.  I 'm away from home right now but look forward to hearing this one when I get back.

bigtwin,  They can't get something off the master tape that isn't there, but they can do a better job of getting what is on the master tape off it and onto a  better sounding digital or analog format, or not.  Remasters have to be considered on an individual basis.  Some are major improvements, some major disappointments.

Qobuz gets their digital files from the record companies, not from whatever is lying around.  In this case, the record company probably sent them a copy of the digital file that was downsampled to make the CD.  My guess is that individual systems and taste will determine which version sounds better, the original CD, the remastered CD, or the 192/24 stream.
patrickdowns's avatar
patrickdowns
512 posts
 
It is available on Tidal too (all 4 Cds, but not the vinyl LP :) ) Sounds excellent. I especially like all the outtakes that never made it to the final record.
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
The Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young remastered album is available on Qobuz for streaming at 192kHz 24bit. It sounds great.

Pity it’s said it’s compressed, compared to the original masters.
The first 16/44 issues are the best of the digital releases, if you prefer your music naturally dynamic and uncompressed.

Stereophiles music reviewer Tom Fine on CSNY "Deja Vu"
The first CD is the original album, sourced from the original tapes. Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering used a light hand at the mastering console and kept the original dynamics and tonal qualities. It’s superior to the two prior issues on 5" shiny plastic: It’s not so much that they were stereotypically bad CDs (although the 1994 reissue, made at the dawn of the awful Loudness Wars, is somewhat dynamics-crunched); it’s that this version is a really good demonstration of how good a CD can sound. Spin it on a top-grade player or through a good DAC and behold the state of the studio-recording art in late 1969.

We were listening last night to Jeff Beck's "Flash" and the 90’s CD was so much better than the streamed 2000’s release from my friends streamer, and this was why.

Jeff Beck Flash 1992 DR 14, 12, 15
Jeff Beck Flash 2006 DR 10, 07, 12


Cheers George
Post removed 
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,589 posts
 
George you should read that review again.

According to Tom Fine the new CD sounds better than the previous two releases on CD. He says that this reissue, "kept the original dynamics and tonal qualities."  He says the 1994 reissue "is somewhat dynamics-crunched," but the dynamic range database has two separate entries for the 1994 reissue and even it is not compressed.

I haven’t heard of anyone saying the Qobuz version is compressed and there’s no reason it should be.

Remasters are often crunched, but sometimes they get it right. Older is not always better.



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