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SACD's to avoid due to poor remastering.

I have just purchased and played a copy of a SACD titled "The Ultimate Tony Bennett" CS63570 a Columbia release.. This would have to rank as one of the worst remastering"s I have ever heard. The sibilance is unbearable, the soundstage is congested and instrument tonality unbelievably poor. I dont think I have heard a CD that sounds worse let alone a SACD.
I thought compiling a list of such titles to avoid may be interesting.

Regards

FWIW I have a Playback Designs MPS-5 which to my ears is the most analog sounding digital player to date. This therefore reinforces my criticism of the remastering of the disc.
ecka
gandme
212 posts
 
macdadtexas: I do not agree with your choice of Norah Jones "Come Away With Me" as a bad SACD. The redbook recording is excellent!...and the SACD takes it to another level!! I just played them and the SACD is more detailed and natural sounding to my ears.
synthfreek's avatar
synthfreek
627 posts
 
Gandme...if I'm not mistaken that Norah Jones sacd is THE most controversial one ever because it was proven that it is literally a cd's content transferred onto a sacd. It's the same waveform on both discs.
gandme
212 posts
 
Synthfreek: It was made using the same 44.1 kHz master tape. From what I've read the problems are in the multi channel layer not the 2 channel, I listen in only 2 channel. To me the SACD is superior to the redbook CD.
dotsystem
81 posts
 
An example of an excellent sounding SACD (stereo layer) is Elton John's Captain Fantastic. If this disc sounds bad on your SACD player, it will be difficult for your to accurately assess the merits of any SACD you play. This SACD is availble at Amazon or for under $10.00 at YourMusic.

In addition to all the lousy quality back catalog released by Sony (much of it fawned over by early adopters), most of the early SACD players sounded pretty bad. These players and discs are not representative of what SACD can do.
macdadtexas
1,794 posts
 
Gandme, I think the Norah Jones SACD sucks, and I am not alone. I didn't know anything about the remastering/recording controversy. I just know on every disc player I have ever had the CD version sounded better. I no longer have a reference level disc player, but it's even more pronounced to me on my current disc player (Oppo BP83), especially if I put the CD output through my Bryston DAC.

I won't even get into comparing the SACD to the vinyl on that recording, which is no contest at all.

I have hundreds of SACD's and DVD-Audio discs like many on Audiogon, and it was a great format. The Elton John SACD's, all of them are truly sublime in both stereo and surround (I never really listen to that anymore), and I spent the last couple of years collecting them as the format died. But, for many reasons, including poorly executed pressings, such as the mentioned Norah Jones, it is going the way of the 8-track and Betamax.
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