SACD recommendations - quality sound only, please

[firedog]

Hi-

 

Need a relatively short list of SACDs to buy. Just starting out, can't imagine I'ill buy more than 50 -100 total. Recommend some you really love.

 

Interested in these categories of music:

 

1. Classic Rock/Pop from the 60's on.

2. Jazz from the Bebop era till today. Love stuff like classic Blue Note, Ornette Coleman, Coltrane

3. Orchestral music (not vocal) from the 19th and 20th Centuries

 

Criteria (other than above):

 

Must be good sounding. if it isn't better than Redbook remasters or other hi-res versions, I probably don't need to spend money on the pricey SACD versions.

 

Note: I know about Pink Floyd, The Stones, The Who, Bob Dylan, Yes, Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" - you don't need to tell me about those.

 

Thanks

[Robert Hutton]

Hi-

 

Need a relatively short list of SACDs to buy. Just starting out, can't imagine I'ill buy more than 50 -100 total. Recommend some you really love.

 

Interested in these categories of music:

 

1. Classic Rock/Pop from the 60's on.

2. Jazz from the Bebop era till today. Love stuff like classic Blue Note, Ornette Coleman, Coltrane

3. Orchestral music (not vocal) from the 19th and 20th Centuries

 

Criteria (other than above):

 

Must be good sounding. if it isn't better than Redbook remasters or other hi-res versions, I probably don't need to spend money on the pricey SACD versions.

 

Note: I know about Pink Floyd, The Stones, The Who, Bob Dylan, Yes, Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" - you don't need to tell me about those.

 

Thanks

 

It's early and I'm bored, so I'll bite:

 

1. Rock:

 

Can't go wrong with anything on MOFI. The Dead Can Dance stuff is awesome, so are all the Pixies titles.

 

There really is a dearth of rock on SACD aside from the warhorses. The Japanese Gentle Giant - Octopus is outstanding as is the Caravan Land Of Grey & Pink. The Analogue Productions Humble Pie - Smokin is excellent.

 

2. Jazz:

 

Here things brighten up. The Analogue Productions material is pretty unimaginative in terms of material - warhorses again, amnd the Blue Note material sounds very good with the usual caveats for the Hoffman EQ. The Impulse material mastered by Grey is better and the gem is Salt & Pepper by Gonsalves & Stitt.

 

Japanese SACD can be excellent. If you are a Shorter fan all 4 of the VSOP titles are worth getting, and Shorter's Native Dancer is just a killer title.

 

For a pure DSD recording the very rare Allan Holdswoth - All Night Wrong is well worth seeking out. Also pure DSD - all the Great Jazz Trio recordings by Hamk Jones. Amazing.

 

On MOFI, the Ellington Blue In Orbit is stunning and essential, as are the Miles titles - Round About Midnight and Milestones particularly.

 

Very highly recommended DSD transfers - Amina Claudine Myers Salutes Bessie Smith. Stan Getz - Pure Getz (late period Getz just smokes).

 

On the classical side:

 

Here there is lots of choice, but I find labels like Pentatone, Channel, and others to be offering largely second tier performances. BIS I avoid on SACD - too many 24/44 transfers. There are some very fine Telarc - the Hovhaness, Gliere, Popov and Hanson are highly recommended, but overall, I find their DSD a bit soft for my tastes, but it is still very good. THere is an outstanding Bruckner cycle by Blomstedt around - extremely good, possibly the best all around cycle I have ever heard. The early version of Mahler's first, rarely recorded, by DeVriend is amazing.

 

I avoid DG and Decca material on SACD as a rule - upconversions all too often - but - the Mahler 3 and 9 by Chailly are pure DSD recordings and are simply shockingly good.Luisi's Strauss on Sony is also pure DSD and exceptional.

 

In the reissue arena, the Japanese Bernstein Mahler from the early 60's is a revelation - particularly the 3, 5, 6 and 7.

 

Ignoring for the moment that they are 24/96 sourced, the Japanese EMI Furtwangler material is often revelatory and in shocking good sound - the Wagner overtures, all the Beethoven but particularly the 3rd, 5th and 6th - the Tchaikovsky 4, and the Bruckner 7 and 8. Essential.

 

I could go on for hours with this, those are top of mind.

[alehel]

While I haven't had a chance to hear them myself, I've heard that classical music by the Norwegian label 2L are supposed to very good. They even sell DSD downloads from their website. Apparently SACD copies are included if you buy their music on Blu-Ray.

[christopher3393]

Shostakovich - The Complete Symphonies / Caetani, Et Al: Shostakovich - The Complete Symphonies / Caetani, Et Al | ArkivMusic

 

This may be a bit of a dark horse. I own this and have listened to at least portions of all the discs. I really like the sound. It is different, very different than, for example, Bernard Haitink's sound. You can listen to these on MOG. Best price I've found:Dmitri Shostakovich: Shostakovich the Complete Symphonies: SACD Music Details: ImportCds.com 600554785080

[wisnon]

Hi-

 

Need a relatively short list of SACDs to buy. Just starting out, can't imagine I'ill buy more than 50 -100 total. Recommend some you really love.

 

Interested in these categories of music:

 

1. Classic Rock/Pop from the 60's on.

2. Jazz from the Bebop era till today. Love stuff like classic Blue Note, Ornette Coleman, Coltrane

3. Orchestral music (not vocal) from the 19th and 20th Centuries

 

Criteria (other than above):

 

Must be good sounding. if it isn't better than Redbook remasters or other hi-res versions, I probably don't need to spend money on the pricey SACD versions.

 

 

Thanks

 

I thought you had a DSD Dac.

Pure DSD recorded stuff is best.

 

The older Tealarc classicals...

 

The La Foglia Spagnola album.

Opus3 stuff as well as those magic 9 BIS albums recorded in DSD.

[Jud]

Beach Boys Pet Sounds

Rickie Lee Jones Pirates

Blue Coast singer songwriter stuff may be to your taste, have a listen to samples and see what you like

The SF Symphony Mahler First from Blue Coast on DSD

[elcorso]

Enrico Pieranunzi Trio "Improvised Forms For Trio"

 

True DSD recording, very nice SQ (and execution). Still at the nice price in Amazon.

 

 

Roch

[firedog]

Thanks guys, that was helpful.

[wisnon]

From whatsbest forum:

 

 

I thought it would be rare because I remember Linn Records mentioning in the past it was a headache with their SACD releases, which did require editing and therefore converting to PCM.

Not as rare as you may think. A lot of it depends on the equipment a label, or mastering house has invested. As Bruce mentioned, strictly speaking, you can't have any edits. But that's not really the issue that affects the sound quality of a DSD recording. By and large, the majority of native DSD recordings are edited with either a Sonoma or Pyramix workstation. The Sonoma (and DSD SADiE workstations) operates in DSD Wide, which requires no decimation, the villain in DSD to PCM conversion. The processing all takes place at 64fs sample rate, and with edits, only in the crossfade region.

 

Pyramix, on the other hand, developed DXD for editing and post processing of DSD files. This is simply a 8X downsampling (2.8Mhz > 352.8KHz) and 32 bit conversion of 64fs DSD, and does require decimation. For editing, Pyramix supports butt DSD editing with no DXD conversion (which is rarely ever used), and crossfade editing, where only the edit region is converted to DXD. That amount of time is typically in the hundred or so millisecond area.

 

The far larger problem for DSD purity than edits are level changes, and any effects processing (EQ, reverb etc.) These must be done over the entire length of the file of interest, and in either DXD, or converted to PCM or analog, and routed to an external device. Then of course, it needs to be converted back to DSD for release. For just level changes, the Sonoma has an advantage of DSD Wide, processing at 64fs, and requiring no decimation. Level changing is typically required where all mics are recorded (tracked) at full gain, and mixed (balanced) in post production.

 

Several labels take advantage of maintaining either all native DSD engineering, or one so close that for practical value, except for edit regions, it's unprocessed native DSD. Blue Coast records and edits in tape, and archives for release to DSD. The entire Telarc catalog was recorded and edited on Sonoma workstations. Channel Classics does a analog stereo mix at the session, and only edits in DXD in post. The recordings from these, as well as others that strive to maintain native DSD throughout their production represent a surprisingly large catalog. Even the Pink Floyd Albums mixed by James Guthrie were all done on a Sonoma.

 

 

As to recordings, as I stated in my post above, Telarc are all Sonoma processed, Blue Coast tracks to tape, and edits in tape, then using a Sonoma and ADC, archives to DSD. Channel Classics mixes and balances (stereo) in analog at the session, and edits (splices) with a Pyramix in DXD (affecting the edit regions only). Those are three that I know of, and there are certainly more.