Miles Davis - CD, Lp, pressings comparisons

Oops! Made an interesting mistake. What I called the "RVG remaster" of Bag's Groove was NOT an RVG remaster, but was a 2001 Fantasy "20 Bit K2" remaster, not unlike the XRCD, BUT, the XRCD was remastered by Akira Taguchi and shows a 1987 copyright, whereas the Fantasy K2 remaster was by Shigeo Miyamoto and shows a 2001 copyright. As noted, the sound is quite different.

They don't make this easy, do they?

More comparisons to report on my end: I compared an early Bitches Brew Lp to the recent version of Bitches Brew on CD (from the Complete Bitches Brew sessions set). Both were very good, very listenable. The Lp had a bit less bass, and the treble was softer, very natural, and easy on the ears. The soundstage was wide, and there was good midrange warmth. The CD, on the other hand, was as good as CDs get. As with the later Prestige release of Bag's Groove, described above, it was as if the engineers/producers recognized the ways in which CDs can annoy, and "tuned" the production to avoid that. The treble was crisper than the Lp, but not annoying. The bass on the CD was better grounded than the Lp. The soundstage was a hair narrower, but quite good, and the midrange was warm and cozy. The highs on CDs can sound somewhat artificial and "splatty" (to me)...there was almost none of that on this CD. Finally, if this CD was missing the detail of the Lp, it was not particularly noticeable. I just got caught up in the music. (What I did was started Pharoah's Dance on the Lp and CD at the same time, and just switched back and forth. Not very scientific, but good fun.)

Try the hybird SACD of blue. Amazing sound in that it recreates the original master tapes three channel mono capture, no mixing. This assumes you have a three channel set up. You play it as it was. I have the other cd's and lp's and they all do not match the hybird. The sound stage, depth of image is so real.