Hi-Rez Highway New high resolution SACD releases, players and technology.

---

[ Follow Ups ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Hi-Rez Highway ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

Thanks to SACD I am able to enjoy music not just on Audiophile labels but Major labels as well.

Posted by Teresa on January 26, 2003 at 14:51:45

On Vinyl I mostly collected Audiophile LPs: Direct To Disc, Half Speed Mastered, Super Analog and some of the smaller pure analog labels like Lyrita. I avoided Digital except for the Soundstream Telarc LPs. I found that the LPs from the Major Labels to be rolled off at both frequency extremes and the image flat, like midrange wallpaper, the only decent major label LPs I ever found were pressings from the UK but the bass was still rolled off (for easier pressing and longer play times).

On CD I mostly collected the Reference Recordings (HDCD and non-HDCD) and Telarc CDs, especially the 20 - 24 Bit ones and DSD mastered ones. The Reference Recordings were very good (not as good as their vinyl), Telarc recordings were well made but did sound kind of dry but the strings were smooth, and Acoustic Disc. Most other CDs, including even the Audiophile CDs caused me PAIN in my HEAD, even to the point of making my ears bleed. I was not impressed with any of the major labels or many of the audiophile labels: most Mo-Fi's (even their High Fidelity Cassettes were better); XRCDs; Mapleshade; Delos; Sheffield Lab (their LPs were great, CDs not so hot), etc. So pretty much on CD I really only had 3 labels, the other 120 or so labels I tried were just too uncomfortable to listen to.

But with SACD, every SACD I have listened to has been comfortable and have never given me a headache or caused any PAIN whatsoever, even the George Szell's which I find shrill but they don't hurt the head!

I have even enjoyed every universal SACD and I have most of the them, even the Karajan Beethoven No. 9 with it's rolled off bass, and even though the bass is rolled off and many mics were used I can forget about the sound and enjoy the music. That is SACD's most important attribute is allowing one to enjoy the music instead of being aware that one is listening to a recording.

Anyway I now have 312 SACDs on 78 different labels (less than half are audiophile labels) and the music comes through on every one. When I collected Vinyl and CDs most of my music was Classical and a little Jazz. But now I can actually enjoy Rock music and some of it is great. I have Pop, Rock, Heavy Metal and even some Rap on SACD. I never thought I would like Rap, but now that Popular music has the Bass and Treble put back in on SACD I sounds quite like the real thing. Live was the only was I was able to enjoy Popular music before.

With SACD I have a much greater selection of "Listenable" recordings than I have ever experienced in any format, and there are many more coming.

I am running into another problem: Storage space. My CD collection was never larger than 100 CDs (even though I bought over 1,000 and listened to maybe 1,000 more borrowed from the library) most didn't stay, I either sold them or traded them in. And my LPs never went over 230. I have room for about 125 SACDs them I am out of space, I love all the SACDs I have (I sold the few SACDs that I didn't care for the music of) so what am I going to do when I run out of room? Get a bigger apartment? Any ideas?

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Sonic Craft

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---