Pearl Jam Yield 24/192 HDTracks Review

[FatherMurphy]

What Up Yo.

 

Now they have reissued both 1998's "Yield" and 1996's "No Code" on Vinyl...and were both mastered for the new vinyl reissues by Bob Ludwig, but there are no notes or information on the source of these digital files that are available from HDTracks (are there ever? This is a massive issue I have with HDTracks)

 

Quickly, the soind quality has improved (I bought both No Code & Yield from HDTtracks) on both albums, I can testify to that.

 

To compare the original CD release of Yield with this new 24/192 version, I loaded all 13 tracks from the 16bit/44.1KHz .AIFF files losslessly ripped from the original 1998 CD.

 

Then loaded all 13 24bit 192KHz .AIFF files from the 2016 HDTracks release so I could compare.

 

Adobe Audition 2017 was running on my MacBook Pro 2016.

 

I Ran an HDMI cable from the MBP to my Onkyo Receiver, using the receiver as the master clock.

 

I listened to each album through my Shure SE535 earbuds, which were plugged into my Onkyo reciever.

 

I listened to both albums direct, with out any EQ settings, changing sampling rates. Etweem tracks.

 

The bass on the new releases enhanced and deeper as should be the case.

Frequency is at 40 Hz were audible providing a nice thump to Jack Irons bass drums and deep sound to the Jeff Ament's bass guitar track.

 

When comparing this with the original CD there was a very apparent difference between the two in terms of bass and the highs in the album.

 

The vocals were a little bit more upfront, bringing a bit more clarity to Eddie Vedders vocals.

 

A bit more.

 

The album did not need a lot of work, this was obvious going between the tracks from 1998 to 2016.

 

However the equipment and technology now available is leaps and bounds more sophisticated than was available in 1998 anyway, so a nice remastering would have accentuated quite a bit more of the original catalog master...that's my belief anyway.

 

The issues are that once the songs got heavier the audio lost detail as it would have clipped had they not hard limited the tracks on the new release to -.1 db.

 

I have included 4 images:

2 images of Given To Fly

2 images of Do The Evolution

 

The first image is from the 1998 cd

The second is from the 2016 HDTracks versions.

 

These wave form images themselves are very telling of what to expect.

 

Personally I find the fact that the frequencies are obviously being cut when they reach the higher decibels disturbing.

 

This could have easily been avoided, but more importantly should have been avoided.

 

The album is in fact a 24-bit 192KHz Version of the album. It has not been sampled from a 16 bit 44.1 kHz master.

 

However when looking at the extra headroom in the 192KHz version, The 96 kHz version would've easily sufficed.

 

There is simply no information above 96 kHz or 48 kHz to be specific.

 

But it's the clipping that bothers me.

 

No I have not heard the new vinyl version of this album, but I suspect a proper rid of that album would provide superior high-resolution digital file then to what is offered here.

 

That along with the fact that Pearl Jam has not officially announced any CD or digital versions of this album becoming available, which is why when your notes would be so crucial and critical here.

 

I have read online that these digital files are most likely the files used to make the vinyls, but I cannot authenticate that information.

 

Overall I'm giving this a three out of five because of the clipping that would have occurred and was intentionally bypassed by hard limiting the sound files here.

 

Look at the comparison images yourself and you can see exactly what I'm talking about.

 

As far as the quality of the music, I am extremely happy to say yes it sounds better there is clarity and detail in this album I have not heard in the 20 years I've been listening to it.

 

Both Stone Gossard and Mike McCreadys guitar work on this album sound wonderful. There's a punch to even the snare drums and given to fly does indeed fly except for the fact that when it gets towards the end of the song, information begins to start missing when the music hits the sound wall.