Donald Fagen's "Nightfly": DualDisc Vs. SHM-CD

[audiophile65]

Which version of Donald Fagen's "The Nightfly" do you guys seem to prefer: the DualDisc (it's DVD-Audio side) or the Japanese SHM-CD?

 

 

 

[ted_b]

I believe there is nothing that touches the 5.1 surround mix that Elliot Scheiner did for his trilogy. My fave happens to be Kamakiriad, but all three are three of my all-time favorite multichannel music surround presentations. They are dynamic, discrete, tonally rich, and although they are somewhat aggressive they are so well done it's amazing...in full hirez of course (not DTS unless it's all you got).

 

So, my answer is neither..it's the regular DVD-Audio disc.

 

[bleedink]

I second that. There is nothing the man hasn't done that doesn't sound absolutely stunning. A real way to exploit the limitations of your system as well. I concur with ted that the DVD-A is really done well as are all of his DVDs. I have been unlucky to find the album Kamakiriad. Seems that Morph and Nightfly are readily available. I stopped ordering from Amazon after they sent me a few SACD hybrids that were only CDs and insisted that I ordered the CD! It was a band (Can) whose CDs I already owned but their SACDs are priced fairly well and sound great. Unfortunately neither amazon nor the third party was willing to make good on their mistake (I did my homework before ordering as I did NOT want the cd obviously...c'mon it's a 35 year old technology for peat's sake!). Anyway if you are lucky enough to get your hands on his recordings I am sure the SHM SACDs probably sound great. I have not heard that any of those releases sound significantly better than any other release IMHO. I would go for a full high res version as Ted says. The mixes in 5.1 are extraordinary as well. Like I said if you want to see how well your speakers perform the trilogy (minus the DVD-A I haven't heard) is certainly the way to go. Lots of beautiful horns and the mix is just exquisite...an effortless feel to each and these are some seriously dynamic albums. It's really nice to find those few that treat sound so immaculately.

 

[ttate90303]

I'll third that. It's a reason I still have an SACD/DVD-Audio player. Great recording. Find a copy if you must.

 

[audiozorro]

The below article is a very fascinating read:

 

Morph The Cat, Donald Fagen's third solo album in 24 years, sees Fagen and engineer Elliott Scheiner continue their quest for the best possible sound quality - which, it seems, comes only from analogue recording.

 

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug06/articles/fagen.htm

 

 

[frederick184]

I have the trilogy, plus the DVD-A's of The Nightfly and Everything Must Go by Steely Dan. Sad to say I've never heard the 5.1 mixes as I only have two channel, but I ripped the stereo layer (in 24/96 apart from Nightfly which is 24/48) of all of them and they all sound superb. Been a Dan fan since the beginning and in fact I'm going to see them (again) in MD on Tuesday.

 

Colin

 

[driven -- by sound]

I only bought the DVD-A version of "Nightfly;" wasn't any need to look further... :~)

 

[bleedink]

Thanks for the interesting link Audiozorro! I will definitely be checking this out next time I have a few minutes..

 

[driven -- by sound]

Admittedly, not a Fan of the Dan, though I do appreciate a track here and there. But I absolutely love "Aja!" And the wait for HDTracks to get their grubby lil' mitts on it is killing me!

 

[The Hawk]

I only have Morph The Cat as a purchase from iTunes, and as a lowly MP3 it blows the doors off of most redbook recordings. Honestly, even in low res it's amazing.

 

Look, it's really frustrating that on this forum, and most others, we are talking about recording quality. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. On the contrary, of course one wants a great sounding recording. But it's so hit and miss. People, we have the technology! Steve Hoffman can get it right. Roger Nichols. Ludwig. Marino. Schnee. Barry. Cookie. So many others. So how can so many in the industry get it wrong? I guess it's just the human condition. It's just a shame that so many great performances have been transformed into underwhelming recordings.

 

Dave