Tuttle et al v Audiophile Music Direct

[firedog]

17 minutes ago, firedog said:

I'm pretty sure he corrected that somewhere.

Got Kevin Gray and Mark Wilder mixed up above. Gray worked on the Sony/Columbia releases, done from digital around 2010 AFAIK. Wilder did the transfers of the original 3 track tapes to both analog mixdowns and digital. 

[firedog]

7 hours ago, Jud said:

The DR Database entries, in descending order of dynamic range (the UHQR is on the second page): https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list/1/dr/desc?artist=miles davis&album=kind of blue

I'd say those are almost all so close as to be pretty meaningless. The DR SW isn't a super precise tool, especially with vinyl rips. I'd hesitate  to draw any conclusion about SQ from those results.

The tool in Roon (works on average levels, not peaks, so is less sensitive to the impact of silence) gives some more difference in the results, but I don't hear a big difference in actual listening that seems to reflect the numbers. 

[firedog]

Looked today. The Roon database has 37 different released editions of KOB - CD, LP, SACD, and downloads. Gotta be a record for one album, no?

[firedog]

53 minutes ago, Rt66indierock said:

 

Irving happy birthday, enjoy Kind of Blue. I'm off to Cabo for five days. My only audiophile thoughts during this time will be how I'm going to lure Andy Quint of The Absolute Sound to Arizona. I want to show him the Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon Caves and little of Rt 66. If we see any wild horses, wild burros, coyotes, bobcats, and the odd land tortoise so much the better.

Maybe play some MQA music and it will lure him. It seems to work for many staffers from there....

[firedog]

24 minutes ago, Jud said:

 

Apparently Dark Side of the Moon had nearly 500 versions listed on Discogs as of 6 years ago and was still considered incomplete.  I don't know what was considered a "version" there, though.

 

https://www.discogs.com/forum/thread/708862

Discogs lists releases in various countries.  The same LP or CD mastering released in 2 different countries counts as 2 releases there.  A different type of list.

Roon is trying to list different versions - different master, deluxe version, etc. 

 

So for DSOTM, Roon only lists 23 versions. 

 

I realize neither of those definitions is exact or necessarily correct.  But at least 37 DIFFERENT releases (I'm sure they don't have them all, they often don't seem to have Japanese versions in their database) is really a lot. Tells you how many companies have repeatedly thought they could make money off an additional release of KOB - and most probably have. 

[firedog]

31 minutes ago, Jud said:

 

Now *there* would be a job for @JoshM! 😁

Bad idea. It might kill him....not to mention bankrupt him.

[firedog]

19 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I thought they use digital with an analog step. 

That's Blue Coast Records. I hope that doesn't mean Cookie Marenco is an alien.

[firedog]

1 minute ago, JoshM said:

Don’t think that buying a bunch of (often pricey) ‘80s Dark Side CDs for the upcoming TBVO wasn’t part of my motivation to create Club TBVO!

Doesn't surprise me in the least.  Looking  forward to it.

Just don't buy all 500 listed at Discogs....Anyway, THAT article would be way too long. 

[firedog]

9 hours ago, PYP said:

I would be interested to know why they started using digital processing to produce a record and whether they had long ago used digital to archive the master tape just in case the tape became damaged.   At some point, did they find that digital processing was nearly undetectable to even a trained ear?  

There is an issue that didn't exist years ago: labels don't release the old tapes to outfits like MOFI so they can't take the tape home and make an AAA version. MOFI tested all sorts of methods, including tape, and decided that the most accurate copy of these old master tapes came from DSD.  And yes, they did find it was basically undetectable, as the controversy shows. 
 

[firedog]

1 hour ago, MarcelNL said:

Many years ago I heard a few master tapes played back on a studio tape recorder (Telefunken M10) and it was a mind blowing experience.  Master tapes are somehow magical and at times transcedental, only problem is availability/access to the real master tape, they do not lie around so it's a moot point for anyone not having access to those (which is pretty much 99.999999999% of the population).  I'll take a good digital copy (redbook please), or a first/early pressing mono Vinyl until I get my hands on the master tape mother lode.

  But that still doesn't mean you could hear the difference between that tape and a well done digital copy; Many say the difference is undetectable.

[firedog]

30 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

The strange part to me was the AAA and my belief that it really isn't possible top produce such an album for mass markets in AAA. Especially given the tape is from the early 1950s, and all the other reasons MoFi gave for not being able to produce its One Step albums from analog tape.

But it seems like the main reason they didn't use tape is that the labels wouldn't let them in many cases. So they could only make a digital conversion of the tapes on site and then work with that.  They then chose the method that got them in trouble as the best sounding one given that starting point.

Maybe that Miles mono master is in very good shape.

 

Obviously Blue Note doesn't have the issue of the label preventing them from using the master tape like Mofi did; and  with mono you have only one track and have to do much less physical manipulation/playback of the tape to get a disc. 

That may account for the difference. 

My problem with it is those recordings don't actually sound that great anyway. 

[firedog]

On 5/26/2023 at 8:06 PM, Mike Rubin said:

 

"The albums have all been mastered AAA from 1-to-1 tape transfers of the master tapes by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound." 

That sounds to me like they made  tape copies of the master tapes and then mastered analog from those. I can imagine that would be done to avoid wear and tear on the original tape masters.