Album of the Evening

[firedog]

Streaming something on Qobuz I haven't listened to in a few years (hi-rez) -and it sounds really good!

The Doors - Strange Days

 

 

[firedog]

On 1/26/2020 at 2:01 AM, sphinxsix said:

16-44 Haven't made my mind up in 100% yet but possibly my favorite version of the 10th.

 

Don't know if it is my favorite, but it's very good - both in performance and sound. 

[firedog]

42 minutes ago, Musicophile said:

I really wonder why you can't buy these as DSD downloads somewhere. 

 

In any case, jealous and looking forward to your comments on the SQ.

For reasons I've never quite understood, the rights holders often seem not to want the DSD available for download, even months after the SACD has been released and clearly has sold the vast majority of copies it is going to sell overall.
Especially with DSD, which really is a niche audiophile format, it seems it would only help overall sales/profits to allow DSD downloads to be sold, even months after the SACD disc release.  I can't imagine a DSD download would have any negative effect on overall profitability/sales.

[firedog]

13 minutes ago, EuroChamp said:

 

My understanding is, MoFi is very conservative, and the SACD format is still a kind of copy protection. Their second format is vinyl.

The prices for an album are not exactly low. Downloads would need a different calculation.

I understand, but Acoustic Sounds does the same thing. They contract to remaster an SACD version, and a DSD download doesn't ever go on sale. And they sell massive amounts of DSD downloads overall, at quite healthy prices. It's not clear if the rights holders don't want the DSD download sold, or AS, or both. 

[firedog]

In memory of McCoy Tyner, one of my favorites, even though not his most highly regarded:

 

[firedog]

Just listened to this for the first time on Qobuz. Good performance. Good recording.

[firedog]

9 hours ago, austinpop said:

 

http://open.qobuz.com/album/zg2xq7xacdt7b

Rite of Spring: Like the performance, but don't think the recording sounds powerful enough in some places. I don't think it's the orchestra, I think it's the way it was recorded/mixed// mastered. 

[firedog]

http://open.qobuz.com/album/l0opkhodd8ufb

Not everyone's cup of tea. I quite like it, both the performance and the recording. 

 

[firedog]

57 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

And Roon still hasn't totally figured out how to tell apart this Avishai Cohen (tp), from the other one (b). 

[firedog]

1 hour ago, AudioDoctor said:

These two are great albums, and sound amazing!

 

 

Ghosts still doesn't come up for me in Qobuz US. Wonder what the deal is?

[firedog]

3 hours ago, Jud said:

John Adams' contemporary classical music, though widely lauded, can be challenging for me. But I enjoyed this album from the first notes. Yuja Wang.

 

 

I can enjoy the contemporary orchestral. This one is  definitely more accessible than some of Adam's work. Thanks for pointing it out.

[firedog]

1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Paging @AudioDoctor, an album in your wheelhouse ^^
 

Or should I say, an album cover in your wheelhouse :~)

It is, btw, quite worthwhile...musically.

[firedog]

13 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

As for the one you're talking about, guys - she's good indeed. But IMO not as good as her (at least in the four seasons):

 

 

If someone prefers female violinists photographed in horizontal positions  

 

It's an interesting version. Also quite good SQ.

[firedog]

3 hours ago, jma2 said:

Strange. I checked my link again and access the complete "album" through it. Could it be one of those "regional" restrictions that is in play?

 

Anyway, I am convinced the non-hires version is also fantastic! And if you can only access one track for now, I'm sure this will only be temporally.

 

J. 

Just search for it in a couple of different ways and it may turn up. The search is weird. Sometimes there are phenomena like search for the album name and you get one track, search for the artist and you get the whole album, etc.

 

[firedog]

[firedog]

Somehow got into a run of listening to 50 year old stuff.

I remember the first time I saw "Imagine" in a record store. I really wanted it, but didn't have the $4.99 (about $31 today) in my pocket needed to buy it.

Today I have about 10 different versions. Life can be good sometimes. 

 

[firedog]

42 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

It is, and I see her point if you've only ever heard low-fi crap recordings of him before on low-fi equipment.

His voice also lost a lot over the years. Best to listen to 50-60 year old stuff, not newer stuff.

[firedog]

3 hours ago, Teresa said:

Nice one. Thanks

[firedog]

Joe Williams fronting the Basie band. Haven't listened to this in awhile. Great stuff:

[firedog]

2 hours ago, JoeWhip said:

Firedog, check out the version of this from hughdeftapetransfers. Superb in all respects.  Love this album.

There are a few different versions of these sessions around. The HDTT one has a less attractive song selection, IMO.

HDTT often has an album with a different song selection from the known versions of the release. Not sure why this is. Maybe because they are sometimes remastering tapes that were once released to the market and those were a different release from the more well known LP version. Or maybe they simply can't get the rights to all the songs for some reason. Or maybe the tapes they have access to aren't identical to the original master release. 

[firedog]

 

24-96 version. "Sunshine of Your Love" is playing now. Good sound, great performance.

[firedog]

On 7/16/2020 at 3:33 AM, Teresa said:

Ole Bull's works for Violin and Orchestra: Sæterjentens Søndag (The Herdgirl's Sunday), Concerto In A Major, Concerto Fantastico, I Ensomme Stunde (Melancolie), La Verbena de San Juan, Et Sæterbesøg (A Mountain Vision)

 

Very melodic and quite beautiful music IMHO.

 

On Qobuz USA This is listed as 24/44.1. Roon is reporting this is an MQA "24/352" file. Roon software MQA decoder  converts it to 88k, as would be expected. Wonder if Qobuz knows? 

[firedog]

1 minute ago, Teresa said:

 

I have the Blu-ray Pure Audio / SACD combo pack which says it was originally recorded in DXD 24/352.8kHz. The Blu-ray resolutions are:

• 5.1 DTS HD MA 24/192kHz
• 7.1 DTS HD MA 24/96kHz
• 2.0 LPCM 24/192kHz

It was recorded in 2009 and released in 2010, so no MQA!

Not necessarily. If the master from 2010 was processed as MQA, then there's an MQA version. That's how MQA works - you take a master and apply MQA processing. It would be totally typical for such a 24/352 master that's processed as MQA to be distributed as 24/44.1 MQA and then fake unfolded/upsampled via the MQA process to 24/352.

[firedog]

1 minute ago, Teresa said:

 

I agree with that. I think you misunderstood what I typed. I was saying since the Blu-ray Pure Audio / SACD combo pack was released in 2010 it is not compromised with MQA like the streaming example you gave. This (for me) is another reason to purchase the physical disc.

 

Also (at least so far) physical discs state when they are from a MQA master, so far I have only seen MQA CDs. Fingers crossed MQA never comes to high resolution discs such as SACD and Blu-ray.

 

Yes, sorry for the misunderstanding. Looks like Qobuz - and probably the other streaming services - are being given a new, "MQA'd" version of the original recording.

[firedog]

The hi-res 2019 50th anniversary edition. Sounds simply stunning on my newly optimized system. Hard to believe it is a 50 year old recording: