New SHM-SACDs announced today...

I'm still buying them, depending on which ones...

I'm also buying selectively. I've got 15 of them.

I've got 3 titles at present. Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life. ( impressed with the " detail " ) Hotter Than July & Queen - The Works. I'm impressed with all 3. ( the difficulty is, constantly thinking what they'd sound like in multichannel ! )

Were you able to A/B the Stevie Wonders to CD's or LP's? I own Innervisions, which was an improvement over the Mofi Gold CD.

Aja, Who's Next, Blind Faith and Cream's Wheels of Fire were all disappointing and worse that the CD's I own. Admittedly, I'm comparing Who's Next to an English LP and German CD, which sound light years better than any other pressing. The other SHM-SACD's I own are improvements over the CD's.

Caveat Emptor!

Dixie4 said:

I've got 3 titles at present. Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life. ( impressed with the " detail " ) Hotter Than July & Queen - The Works. I'm impressed with all 3. ( the difficulty is, constantly thinking what they'd sound like in multichannel ! )

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ALL the Stevie Wonder SHM-SACD's sound awesome and are an improvement over vinyl and cd version IMHO. However, as one said above, the possibilities for multichannel work on these albums would be exquisite. They are fine versions though. Aja I absolutely hated. I think the 180gr vinyl sounds so much better. They seem to be a sort of hit or miss affair. I couldn't stand the sound of the Velvet Underground, Aja, or Paranoid. However, the Stevie Wonder stuff is a revelation. The Stones have had some nice reissues with Exile and Tattoo You, though the latter is not much of an improvement over the CD for whatever reason.

It all depends on how far back the tapes go back. An early generation of tape, with proper mastering, can be exquisite, even on a lowly CD. Garbage in, garbage out.

Bleedink said:

ALL the Stevie Wonder SHM-SACD's sound awesome and are an improvement over vinyl and cd version IMHO. However, as one said above, the possibilities for multichannel work on these albums would be exquisite. They are fine versions though. Aja I absolutely hated. I think the 180gr vinyl sounds so much better. They seem to be a sort of hit or miss affair. I couldn't stand the sound of the Velvet Underground, Aja, or Paranoid. However, the Stevie Wonder stuff is a revelation. The Stones have had some nice reissues with Exile and Tattoo You, though the latter is not much of an improvement over the CD for whatever reason.

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Stevie Wonder in particular is well suited for SACD treatment I would think. Great bass and synth hooks, piano, and stellar vocals all are things SACD seems to get right. A lot of purists don't like the things that Steve Wilson has done with some of his remasters (no tape hiss and the like). I personally prefer that approach. If I wanted hiss and the like I can listen to vinyl! (Well, poorly treated vinyl anyway) One of the main disappointments with Aja, Paranoid, and VU was the amount of noise. I'm all for pure transfers but with all the tools at their disposal it seems weird to have such a technology sound worse than the CD. At least it seems with the mass releases they try to clean some of that stuff up. MY humble opinion of course.

Dixie4 said:

I've got 3 titles at present. Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life. ( impressed with the " detail " ) Hotter Than July & Queen - The Works. I'm impressed with all 3. ( the difficulty is, constantly thinking what they'd sound like in multichannel ! )

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reminder. I just ordered The Works from wherehouse.com with their $10 off deal. Cheap.

Quad Linda said:

Were you able to A/B the Stevie Wonders to CD's or LP's? I own Innervisions, which was an improvement over the Mofi Gold CD.

Aja, Who's Next, Blind Faith and Cream's Wheels of Fire were all disappointing and worse that the CD's I own. Admittedly, I'm comparing Who's Next to an English LP and German CD, which sound light years better than any other pressing. The other SHM-SACD's I own are improvements over the CD's.

Caveat Emptor!

Click to expand...

I have Hotter Than July on vinyl & Queen on vinyl. ( i rarely play my vinyl collection now. ) Never had the redbook versions. I'm very impressed with SITKOL, very detailed as i said. Hotter Than July, is impressive too ( i'd put SITKOF, just ahead though, but that's more down to the style & recording period ) Queen is impressive too. They all seem very " detailed ". Tempted to buy more titles.

Bleedink said:

Stevie Wonder in particular is well suited for SACD treatment I would think. Great bass and synth hooks, piano, and stellar vocals all are things SACD seems to get right.

Click to expand...

Have to agree, i'd never heard Songs In The Key Of Life, before. Very impressed ! ( worth buying for the quantity of songs, besides the quality ) I'm tempted to buy the rest. Do you own them all ?

I have FFF, TB, IV, HTJ, and SITKOL. Think that is all that is out on SACD. They are all stellar releases (sound better than their HDtracks counterparts IMHO). Not in surround but very very good quality studio work transparently transferred.

(I can only speak for the vinyl rips and the Gold Cds in terms of SQ. Talking Book HDCD was also REALLY good-just a bit less detailed in some parts-liked the vocals on the first track on HDCD better than SACD FWIW. Least I think it was that one that was on HDCD.)

Cancelled: Brothers In Arms

http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/product/detail/4909551