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In Reply to: RE: Hunh? What do you mean? posted by John Marks on May 09, 2012 at 09:03:49
I remember reading lots of posts on the hi-rez board to that effect.
One of them was:
Quote from Tony Faulkner: "I do not believe that SACD and DVD-Audio as currently offered deliver the goods, except in very rare combinations of player, disc, and system."
And that he did not seem to see a future in SACD's!!
Follow Ups:
Assuming that the quote is genuine and not a slanted paraphrase (I am not suggesting you did the slanting) it just might be a case of a guy who has been at this a long time saying what is on his mind, but other people don't want to hear it.
I have many SACDs I really like. However, my record label's offshore distributors have been negative on SACDs at the prices I would need to charge.
Now, there may be a straw in the wind heralding change. There is an industry consortium advocating a DSD over USB 2.0 standard. If that happens, things might loosen up on a hurry, because then DAC makers could add that to new products and transport makers could (in theory) get Sony's blessing to send DSD through a USB out.
Because as things are now reported to be in the marketplace, when the exact same title comes out on JVC XRCD and on SACD, the JVC XRCD outsells the SACD 4 to 1. People who do this for a living have to take note of such things.
And I think that the best of today's high-end PCM DACs sould better than any SACD player I have personally heard, and the only hi-end DAC I know that can handle DSD is the MSB, which is pricey.
Further adding to SACD's woes is that none of the upscale music-server options can handle DSD, so what gets ripped into a Sooloos is the CD-Q layer.
Ciao,
John
JM says:
"Because as things are now reported to be in the marketplace, when the exact same title comes out on JVC XRCD and on SACD, the JVC XRCD outsells the SACD 4 to 1"But they are so few XRCD's issued compared to SACD's, I think that I may have 3 or 4 jazz ones? Maybe JVC does know how to market their XRCD's
and do not promote SACD. The few XRCD's I have sound good but nothing to rave about, but then again I have so few that my judgment maybe worthless
Does JVC makes SACD players???JM says : And I think that the best of today's high-end PCM DACs sould better than any SACD player?
I always thought that the likes of Esoteric, Accuphase, Ayre, Playback Design, Meitner, DCS, which are all SACD capable where the cream of the crop as far as sound quality?
But coming back to the original question about Tony Faulkner recordings audio quality could you personally recommend one cd or SACD that he did that sounds outstanding? I have a penchant for chamber music and I know that I can buy a Praga, Pentatone, Channel Classics etc SACD and it will 90% of the time sound superb.
Edits: 05/09/12 05/09/12
Hi-
My favorite TF recording is orchestral:
SIBELIUS: Symphonies 5 & 7
Paavo Berglund, Chamber Orchestra of Europe
Finlandia 0630-17278-2 (CD). 1997. Pekka Savijoki, prod.; Onno Scholtze (Sym. 5), Tony Faulkner (Sym. 7), engs. DDD. TT: 52:56
However, it is OOP. You might find it used. You seem to have heard TF's chamber music work, or at least some of it, and if you are not tickled, that is OK.
The best chamber recording I have heard in a dog's age is the Pavel Haas Quartet's Dvorak on Supraphon. http://www.arkivmusic.com/albumpage/526314-E886-5&source=PRM
The best digital playback I have ever heard is the Bricasti M1 with the new M-P filter set, update coming in Stereophile. But I have not heard the latest MSB, which I am told is also a revelation.
I can only speculate why the same title sells better on JVC XRCD than SACD, although the comments from Chris from Lafayette are intriguing. It can't be the price, because XRCDs are not cheap. it could simply be good brand marketing. Back in the day, there were people who just had to buy ever MFSL Gold CD and every DCC Gold CD--because, period. Even though MFSL's Gold CD remastering could be hit or miss.
I neglected to mention that many of the SACD companies such as Hyperion and Harmonia Mundi are hedging their bets by selling hi-res PCM on HDTRacks.com.
As far as good chamber recordings go, btw, 2L in Norway is giving away free hi-res tracks including the Engegaard Qt's nice mixed program including LVB's "Harp," link attached.
JM
Thanks, the Berglund cd is available but very expansive.
Would the 4th and 6th Symphony with the same musicians be as good??
The Dvorak "American" I have a superb recording on the Pro Arte label thus
I will have to skip this one.
I don't think they've issued a SACD in several years now, and most of their previous SACDs are out of print. Some are commanding big prices on the used market, in fact.The last time I saw the Florestan French trios for sale, a truly outstanding disc, it was going for about $150.
Edits: 05/10/12
I have the Berglund Chamber Orchestra set of Sibelius. Put the emphasis on Chamber, as I thought they were weak sounding and inappropriate for the big Sibelius symphonies. Pretty much nonstartes for me.
Edits: 05/10/12
I prefer the more 'modern' nature of Sibelius' music. Berglunds thinning out the orchestration allows one to see into the symphony in a way that large scale (and dare I say slow in many cases) performances that seem to keep Sibelius in the full blown romantic period. #1 and #2 are more romantic in nature than not, so OK, but after that I like my Sibelius cool and crisp. There are some full scale orchestrations that do this as well (think Von Karajan, his #4 for sure, Ashkenazy perhaps). I can live with the orchestrations of most composers so long as the performance doesn't drag. Hell I even like Jarvi's - he really picks up the pace in #2 IMHO to its benefit.I have no real problem with TF's engineering on these discs either.
For a similar reason, but in the opposite direction, I love Mackerras #5, #8 & #9 on Virgin. Cleaning out the dense orchestration that usually accompanies these pieces is like a breath of fresh air. Another poster below was critical of #9 and while I have never been in his home it seems to me that his systems tonal balance and his expectations may be more responsible for his complaint than anything absolute about the music or the recording. Now I very happily listen to Schubert once again. :-)
FWIW, for other posters as well, I really enjoy TF's Bantock series as much for the recording as the music. I'm sure there are others as well that I don't recall this moment.
Edits: 05/10/12
I have many SACD's I really like too. However, you make some very valid points:
"when the exact same title comes out on JVC XRCD and on SACD, the JVC XRCD outsells the SACD 4 to 1"
I can completely understand this - I have XRCD's, some of which sound better to me than the equivalent SACD's. In view of the significant extra headroom of SACD's (in both frequency and dynamics), I have no idea why this should be - but that's been my experience sometimes.
"I think that the best of today's high-end PCM DACs sould better than any SACD player I have personally heard"
Yup - me too. And as I've stated on other occasions here, it makes me wonder whether the whole SACD roll out has been a technological dead end and has diverted us from improving PCM as much as we might have otherwise over the last decade or so. Not to mention that some SACD's derive from PCM masters and their conversion to DSD gives us the worst of both worlds: the purported inferior impulse response of PCM added to the high-frequency noise of SACD. It's now possible on some sites to hear some of these PCM recordings (that came out on SACD) as hi-rez downloads, unencumbered by conversion to DSD. The problem for listeners like me is that I lose multi-channel capability with these downloads, even though the actual file may be of superior quality to what I would get on the equivalent SACD.
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