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SACD recommendations

Collection grew by 150% yesterday, going from 2 to 5. New additions are:
The Band - Music From Big Pink. I realized I did not actually own this and I like it so I ordered it. MoFi. It is what I expected.

Hiromi's Sonicbloom - Time Control. I like Hiromi's solo stuff so I decided to give this a listen. Enjoyable but needs another listen to to solidify my opinion.

Kuniko - Kuniko Plays Reich. I had read a review of Kuniko's most recent album, "Steve Reich: Drumming" where she plays all of the parts to the 70 minute piece by Steve Reich through use of overdubbing. It sounded interesting so I bought the CD of that and the SACD of Kuniko Plays Reich which is her performing her arrangements of other pieces by him. Again, it is her overdubbing things to get various parts in (for example, track four is a piece for six marimbas). All in all it is very pleasant and soothing. The fact that the only instruments are marimba, steel pans, and vibraphone means that clarity is nice. Eventually I want to take this down to my parents' place to hear the multichannel version since my SACD is currently only in a 2 channel system. I can imagine the six marimba piece being interesting if they split up the marimbas. But I will have to wait to confirm if that is the case or not (or lug my oppo to the living room system which has surround).
 
Thanks for the reminder about Kuniko's Drumming. I didn't realize it was available in Mch, I'll have to get that asap.
I really like the 6 Marimba's piece - might be really interesting in Mch.
Thanks!

In exchange, I've recently ripped Patricia Barber's Cafe Blue Unmastered SACD to ISO (also Mch), so I can play it via my OktoDAC, and all I can say is "oh, my".

It's like a different recording entirely (flipping between CD and SACD); the CD sounds flat as if 'coming from a wall', whereas Walker's tom-tom work on Maya Angelo's Mourning Grace and Too Rich for My Blood on the SACD is in "3D".
Pity my neighbors.:rflmao:

PS. Having a big-ass sub also helps out a tiny bit:)
https://www.amazon.com/Cafe-Blue-Unmastered-Patricia-Barber/dp/B01B9RO8O6
 
Minor clarification: Kuniko's Steve Reich: Drumming is only on CD and thus only stereo. Kuniko's Kuniko Plays Reich is in multichannel SACD. Fortunately, Kuniko Plays Reich is the one with the 6 Marimba's piece.

Just wanted to clarify so you did not go down a rabbit hole trying to find the wrong album in a format it does not exist in.
 
judsonw said:
Minor clarification: Kuniko's Steve Reich: Drumming is only on CD and thus only stereo. Kuniko's Kuniko Plays Reich is in multichannel SACD. Fortunately, Kuniko Plays Reich is the one with the 6 Marimba's piece.

Just wanted to clarify so you did not go down a rabbit hole trying to find the wrong album in a format it does not exist in.
Click to expand...
LOL, I'm halfway down that hole now. thanks for the heads up.
 
Just a quick updated on the Kuniko - Kuniko Plays Reich SACD. I had been enjoying the stereo mix as that is what my set up is unless I want to drag the Oppo to the living room. This weekend for Fathers Day I went to visit my parents and my dad's set up is quite a few steps above mine, but that is not surprising. We put the disc in and finally got to hear the 5.1 multichannel and it is immensely better than the stereo, especially the 6 Marimbas piece. Each marimba was clear and light, spaced out. The stereo version definitely condensed things a lot.

In short, the stereo mix is ok, but the multichannel mix is amazing.
 
judsonw said:
Just a quick updated on the Kuniko - Kuniko Plays Reich SACD. I had been enjoying the stereo mix as that is what my set up is unless I want to drag the Oppo to the living room. This weekend for Fathers Day I went to visit my parents and my dad's set up is quite a few steps above mine, but that is not surprising. We put the disc in and finally got to hear the 5.1 multichannel and it is immensely better than the stereo, especially the 6 Marimbas piece. Each marimba was clear and light, spaced out. The stereo version definitely condensed things a lot.

In short, the stereo mix is ok, but the multichannel mix is amazing.
Click to expand...
Wow... that sounds cool. I have no intention of ever having a surround sound system, but a friend of mine does and I'll have to talk him into buying this CD... or maybe buy one for him. Truthfully, I wasn't all that crazy about the surround sound stuff that he played for me, all rock albums that were remixed for surround sound and for me the effect was a little bit gimmicky and distracting. The idea of hearing 6 marimbas in a room though is much more interesting to me and I like Reich's music... though a little bit of it can go a long way!
 
Depeche Mode's "In Your Room" (from Songs of Faith and Devotion) sounds excellent in surround--their remastered/reissued albums on SACD I believe all had surround mixes. I have them stored away at the moment and only ripped the stereo DSD track to the server for now, since I no longer have a surround setup. The album version of "In Your Room" has a cinematic feel to it, where I felt the single mix kind of weakened the impact of this track.

I do kind of miss my surround setup a little, but I no longer have the room or the system for it.
 
I have a number of the RCA Living Stereo SACD reissues, in 3 channel. My favorite is the Saint-Saens organ concerto. However, I only have a 2 channel system. I believe these hybrid discs have a 2-channel version on the Redbook layer and 3-channel on the SACD. Which layer should I use, and how would I tell the difference?

PS I noticed that this same Saint-Saens reissue is available from Acoustic Sounds in many formats, including 1/4" 15 ips tape, for $450!
 
The SACD should have two layers, but you will also find that there are two "programs" on the SACD layer--a 2-channel and a 3-channel. It's the same as the 5.1 SACDs--they have both a 2-channel section and a 5.1-channel. (They can be extracted separately when ripping the SACDs into files.)

Your player should have a setting somewhere that lets you pick if it defaults to the 2-channel or "surround" (3+ channels) SACD program. My Pioneer did, and pretty sure my Oppo 105 did as well.
 
If I play the three channel layer on a two channel system, what will I be missing? I'm assuming I'm gaining a higher resolution recording, and a different mastering.
 
MTVaughan said:
If I play the three channel layer on a two channel system, what will I be missing? I'm assuming I'm gaining a higher resolution recording, and a different mastering.
Click to expand...
If this Living Stereo SACD contains a three-channel program, the SACD is reproducing all three microphones used to make the recording--left, center and right. Without the center channel, you'd probably still hear everything but the balance will be off--that "center fill" will be missing. Likewise, if you listened to a 5.1 SACD with only left and right speakers, you would miss everything mixed to the center and rear speakers.

But you're thinking of this the wrong way. A multichannel SACD has three programs:

1. SACD stereo (DSD, 2.8224MHz/1-bit)
2. SACD multichannel (DSD, 2.8224MHz/1-bit)
3. CD stereo (PCM, 44.1kHz/16-bit)

You want the SACD stereo layer if you only have stereo playback available. Otherwise you'll be missing some (or a lot) of the parts of the recording.

Keep this in mind also. Many SACD players can play in surround. Others play in stereo-only. The stereo-only players will only play back the 2-channel program on the SACD. The surround-capable players let you switch between stereo and multichannel programs; if you are using this type of player in a stereo (2-channel) system, you need to choose the 2-channel SACD program as your playback default, so you don't have to pick it manually each time.

The mastering will be the same on most SACDs--the CD layer is created from downsampling DSD to 44.1kHz/16-bit CD resolution. The "mastering" is two parts--the final tweaking of the sound (using EQ and other methods), and the actual burning of the glass masters used to produce the physical disc. So on an SACD, the CD and SACD programs should have pretty much the same tonal balance or in other words, besides the resolution difference, they should sound pretty much identical. The CD layer was only introduced as a way to make SACDs backwards-compatible.

The only time I can think of where a mastering might be different is if a label releases the quad version of an album on the multichannel SACD program, and a stereo version on the stereo SACD program.
 
and now for another choice. Telarc released LPs recorded digitally at 50kHz sampling using the excellent Soundstream recording system. my favorite of these is my 2nd favorite version of Pictures at an Exhibition by Lorin Maazel and the Cleveland Orchestra. the tempi are all correct and the musicians consummate and happy. the impact of the concert bass drum has to be heard to be believed as it is as forceful as in the concert hall. Telarc have released numerous of these recordings so there is some variety.

many sacd titles are available from Acoustic Sounds and Music Direct:

https://store.acousticsounds.com/in...pxhKLibv1YVPY7zzjCELN-S6fQIwrThAaApGLEALw_wcB

https://www.musicdirect.com/Search?...SC&page=1&pagesize=24&c1=tab-products&c2=grid

life is good.
 
hifitommy said:
and now for another choice. Telarc released LPs recorded digitally at 50kHz sampling using the excellent Soundstream recording system. my favorite of these is my 2nd favorite version of Pictures at an Exhibition by Lorin Maazel and the Cleveland Orchestra.
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One of my favorite renderings of Holst's "The Planets" is the 1986 Telarc recording, but I don't think it ever made it to SACD.
 
Yes, that was the Planets with Andre Previn--it's probably my favorite rendition of all of the ones I've heard, so I'm OK living with the CD version.
 
hifitommy said:
and now for another choice. Telarc released LPs recorded digitally at 50kHz sampling using the excellent Soundstream recording system. my favorite of these is my 2nd favorite version of Pictures at an Exhibition by Lorin Maazel and the Cleveland Orchestra. the tempi are all correct and the musicians consummate and happy. the impact of the concert bass drum has to be heard to be believed as it is as forceful as in the concert hall. Telarc have released numerous of these recordings so there is some variety.

many sacd titles are available from Acoustic Sounds and Music Direct:

https://store.acousticsounds.com/in...pxhKLibv1YVPY7zzjCELN-S6fQIwrThAaApGLEALw_wcB

https://www.musicdirect.com/Search?searchterm=sacd&sort=popularity|DESC&page=1&pagesize=24&c1=tab-products&c2=grid

life is good.
Click to expand...

Telarc titles are quite nice indeed.

Out of curiosity, have you heard the Russian National Orchestra version of Pictures, conducted by Carlo Ponti? It's on a Pentatone multi SACD, and I was just wondering if it compares to the Telarc.
 
I think of all the money I've spent on SACD's and I rarely play them anymore.

Even on my $$$$ Marantz SACD dedicated player the sound is not nearly as good as streaming Amazon Ultra content from a Node 2i.
 
oooopsy, I said that the Planets to have ISN'T the Zubin Mehta but, it IS the one to have. there are so many that are nice but this one has it all, performance AND recording quality.

I must have at least ten versions including Tomita, another favorite,, all masterfully accomplished on snthesizers. there is a sequence of tower to ship dialog in a non-existent language and a blast off.

interestingly, the Holst family tried to prevent it's release.
 
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