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Reviews: The Byrds: Greatest Hits

Reviews: 8

Review by Tom February 17, 2003 (2 of 2 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
This SACD was one of the first SACDs that I bought. One commenter on AudioAsylum stated that this is sonically the worst SACD. I don't concur. The trebble is a little bright and not as smooth as I would prefer, but the clarity and dynamics are OK. There's other rock albums that I'm far more disappointed. I give this SACD more rotation than more than half my SACDs. Since I owned the album, I appreciate the extra bonus tracks. It's not a reference SACD, but it sure brings back memories.

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Review by swanlee May 16, 2003 (0 of 1 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
Just wanted to add the sonics are not that bad average at worst. Alot of the songs don't have a ton of instruments going on so some of it is minimalistic. Still give you the nice smooth analog feel of SACD though and to me that counts a lot. Bonus tracks are worth the price of admission BTW and 8 miles high is probably the first legit psychedelic song ever written, great great song.

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Review by jnd28 September 15, 2003 (1 of 2 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
The Performance is Classic. However the recording is sub par in my boof. Having said that I think its a must own for fans of the Byrds. Its hallmark stuf in terms of the early California folk rock sound that spawned The Eagles and others.

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Review by Whitehall March 20, 2004 (1 of 1 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
While I've been a Byrds fan since the beginning, this mix seems to slight their greatest asset - their vocal harmonies. Perhaps I haven't tuned by system yet but the vocals seem lost amongst the instruments and it should be the other way around.

Still, the moving pieces are there ("My Back Pages") and and the fun ones ("Mr. Spaceman") too.

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Review by vonwegen June 14, 2004 (1 of 2 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
Would have been better as a surround sound release, but quite nice, none the less. Sonics are very crisp and smooth, with a surpising amount of 'thump' in the bass drum for a recording of this vintage. While this collection lacks some of their finest, courtesy of "Notorious Byrd Brothers" and the "Never Before" collection, it is a fine place to start.

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Review by Ritmoman77 April 16, 2008 (1 of 3 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
Hello, recently purchased this used on whim, but when I listened to it I was quite impressed. I think this is a fresh mix for sacd because it sounds much crisper and cleaner than I remember. I have the cd that has "Have you seen her Face", can't remember the title and the version on the sacd has much sharper sounding guitar and vocals. I differ with Whitehall's opinion that the vocals are not present enough. Could be his system. I found them to be out front and quite clear, all harmonies quite discernible. "Turn, Turn, Turn" is in mono, noticed the difference right away. The disc as a whole sounds very lively, a little loose in the muscianship(at the time I used to put the Byrds down as subpar players, then being a jazz snob!), at this stage the vocals were their strong point, but innovative and energetic, with the guitars, elec-12, sounding very edgy. I turned up the volume as I went along, like being taken back in time(if you were there!)A great sacd production of some classic 60's rock. The Byrds had a great vocal sound, and it sounds great on this sacd.

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Review by thelonious27 October 24, 2010
Performance:   Sonics:
Recently purchased this, based partly on the reviews here. MISTAKE ! The music, of course, speaks for itself, but if you are reading these reviews then it is the sound quality/SACD transfer that is at issue. The SACD quality on this is quite low, very compressed vocals, overemphasized high end and rather paltry low end. Overall, harsh and hard to listen to at anything other than moderate volumes, and then not really engaging.

I have over 100 SACDs and many other audiophile recordings (MOFI and DCC gold discs), as well as a very high end sound system. If you are wondering about sound quality on this disc, do not buy it. Perhaps the Japanese Sony SACD version is better, but this one pretty much stinks. I haven't, however, compared it with any of the redbook versions. It could be that the tapes didn't provide much to work with, though I've read reviews on Amazon that suggest that the most recent redbook remasterings outperform this SACD.

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Review by pvcmusiclover January 16, 2013
Performance:   Sonics:
This release is certainly an upgrade from CD releases. You'll get the benefits of DSD mastering - better "air" separation of the instruments. That being said, it suffers (as a lot of the early Sony SACD releases do) from sounding kind of muddy and grainy. To my ears, I don't think a lot, if any effort was put into properly re-EQing the tapes. The treble is a bit veiled, while the midrange seems resonant and shouty. I'd really like to see a company like Analogue Productions take on a Byrds remaster. I think the results would be a lot better.

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