Review by evalese March 16, 2009 (7 of 7 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics: |
I've listened to this album on original, somewhat noisy vinyl. I've also attempted to clean up a recording of it on my pc, so I've gotten fairly deep into the album. I picked up the sacd hoping it would go beyond what I could glean from my recording. The level of detail and quality goes way beyond what I had hoped for. Not that the record was bad. It just could never be as clean or have the depth this sacd has. I think they did a spectacular job remastering this. There's minimal sibilance and other vocal issues that were more noticable on the vinyl. I was also very impressed with the equalization. It's not too bright, so when Louis' trumpet storms in, you're not cringing and reaching for the volume button. The presence created by the mono recording directed into the stereo LR speakers is well done. With proper speaker placement, you'll find it feels like listening to the performance centered in front of you. I had to get up several times to convince myself that the sound wasn't coming from the center speaker.
The levels and dynamics are sensitive to the equipment you're using, of course. In my case, I'm going DSD Source Direct from a Denon player into either an Onkyo PR-SC885 or an Emotiva RSP-2, both source direct also. Those feed into the same Emotiva XPA-2 amp, though the RSP-2 is using XLR cables to the amp. The RSP-2 is noticably brighter to the point where I wonder how many would choose one preamp over the other. In my case, I preferred the Onkyo because it seems more refined and smooth, and that's how I envision this album should sound.
To answer the question of how the source was acquired and remastered, here's an article describing the process. In a nutshell, they came over from Japan, recorded the original analog masters to DSD, then shipped those back to be remastered by Seigen Ono. So if that's true, this version is not identical to others after the analog source. http://www.highfidelityreview.com/news/news.asp?newsnumber=18372843
I'd recommend it as a must have. The songs are enjoyable and relaxing, and very fun to listen to. I was so happy that this sacd was still available at a decent price.
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