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Re: While I agree all things being equal native DSD......

I don't think a jazz recording -- any jazz recording -- fully exploits the dynamic range capabilities of DSD. Jazz music simply does not have the dynamic range of classical symphonic music, including opera.

One of the impressive things about some of the recent classical DSD recordings I have purchased (including the LSO's live recording of "Falstaff") is the really stunning dynamic range and the absolute sense of both a lack of compression (or gain-riding on the part of the mastering engineer) and a lack of congestion on extremely loud passages.

Typically, analog tape recordings do not deliver that kind of range. The recording engineer has to compromise between hearing tape hiss on soft passages and saturating the tape on loud passages (where tape overload translates very quickly into substantial harmonic distortion, audible as "congestion"). Too much gain and the tape hiss is inaudible, but peaks are distored. Not enough gain and the tape hiss is audible; but the peaks will be o.k. The typical practice of the clever engineer is to "ride gain" by manually backing off the gain on loud passages to avoid the overload. A good engineer will know the piece of music and will know when these passages are coming. The effect, of course, is a kind of human-driven compression.

So, even a nice transfer to DSD of a well-done analog tape recording (like, say the RCA Living Stereos and the Mercury Living Presences) just isn't the same.

On the other hand, some of the analog tape to DSD transfers that I have of jazz recordings (e.g. DBQ's "Take Five"; Ray Brown Trio's
"Soular Energy")do sound very good indeed, no doubt about it.


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  • Re: While I agree all things being equal native DSD...... - Bruce from DC 06:36:20 04/19/07 (0)

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