2. digital
  3. 1294786425

SHM SACD's need to be burned in

I recently purchased Aja on a SHM sacd. I have never purchased any single disc at this price,but the chance of aquiring one of my favorite albums on SACD made me go for it.
I was so excited the day it arrived. I warmed up my system for a half an hour and popped it in. WHAT A DISAPOINTMENT!
The bass was bloated and the highs rolled off. It was inferior to my two redbook copies sonically(MFSL ultradisc and 1999 remaster).
I went on various forums to see if others had the same opinion as mine. To my surprise what I gathered was that playing these SHM SACD's about ten times to burn in improves the sound. I didn't beieve it but I had the disc already so .....
I played it on repeat on my cdp for two days straight. I then warmed up my system the same way and expected little change.
Much to my surprise the base tighten up,the highs improved and the soundstage organised itself. If I hadn't heard this for myself I never would have believed it.The mofi wasn't in the ballpark anymore!
Anyone else with a simular experience?

Regards,
montejay
aplhifi
515 posts
 
Montejay,

The SACD (of any kind) is a DVD-based media. A 650nM wave-length laser is used to read that media, and at a power that is 0.2-0.3mW. In order to burn a CD-R or DVD-R, the laser power is increased at least 10 times.

Simple math will be that, if the laser can heat the disc surface to 200C to burn the film at 2mW, the temperature while reading will be 10 times less or 20C. At this temperature there is no way for the laser to make any change on the disc surface.

Furthermore, even if the laser was capable of some sort of interaction with the disc surface and can somehow change the pits shape, this will not result in improved sound but in severe playback errors.

But let's imagine for a moment that the laser miraculously makes the pit edges smoother with many hours of repeat playback. Even with this scenario, the laser cannot re-master your SHM SACDs from dull/bass heavy sounding to amazing crystal-clear vinyl sound. :-)

Hope this helps!

Best,
Alex Peychev
bar81
791 posts
 
There are no SHM hybrids that I've ever seen.
montejay OP
285 posts
 
Hi Alex,
i trust only what I heard, and have no explaination for it.
I never said the disc went from dull to crystal clear analog sounding. I said it went from inferior to my mofi edition of it (not an amazing cd by any means)to now clearly superior.I was also able to pin point some of the changes I heard and attempt to convey them.
I still have quite a few sacd that are superior sonically to this SHM
In my research, I am not the only one to experience a sonic change with regards to the SHM sacd. Some theries put forth feel its the new materials used to produce the product.
If there exist cd enhancers (nats.markers, footings, power chords, and liquids)that alter the signature of a cd, why can't heat from repeated plays alter the sonics of the new materials being used as well?
Lots of people are flaming me for OP but no one has explained why it is impossible.

Regards,
montejay OP
285 posts
 
Thanks Bar81. I thought they were all single layer.Appreciate the confirmation.
The op of this thread concerned SHM SACD`s only with the Steely Dan Aja SACD in particular.

Regards,
aplhifi
515 posts
 

Hi Montejay,

Lots of people are flaming me for OP but no one has explained why it is impossible.

With my earlier post I did not try to "flame" you but to explain why it is impossible.

Best,
Alex Peychev
More to discover