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Maddening Musical Mystery! Getz/Gilberto...

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Posted on March 22, 2017 at 15:05:07
mr.bear
Audiophile

Posts: 4167
Joined: November 13, 2001
 Listening to a new toy, a Sony Universal disc player UHP-H1, supposedly tailored for music. To see if these newfangled SACD's sound really SUPER, I bought an SACD copy of the beloved album ("Getz/Gilberto" Verve 314 589 595-2, 2002) and sat down on a nice quiet afternoon to compare that to the remastered CD (Verve V6/V-8545, 2014). The CD states the first 8 tracks are the "original stereo album" (although there are also mono tracks on this CD).

Comparing SACD/CD, it slaps you right in the face that they have reversed L&R channels, most distinctly noticeable on Track 1 "The Girl Form Ipanema" and Track 5 "Corcovado" where Astrud's voice is panned hard. What the heck-- that's crazy!

Also, the SACD playback is lovely but is a few dB lower than the CD. Is this done to allow more headroom for peaks utilizing the slightly greater dynamic range of SACDs?

I chose this particular album because the CD version seemed slightly too "thick" sounding, bassy, and almost distorted in some passages (like the vocal and sax mics re being way overloaded). The SACD is cleaner and prettier but the channel-swap is freaking me out.

Anybody know what's the deal?

 

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Is there a credit for the SACD remastering engineer???, posted on March 23, 2017 at 05:46:08
John Marks
Manufacturer

Posts: 7797
Location: Peoples' Democratic Republic of R.I.
Joined: April 23, 2000
 JM

 

Don't hesitate to turn up SACD playback-, posted on March 23, 2017 at 09:06:32
oldmkvi
Audiophile

Posts: 10581
Joined: April 12, 2002
 it will bloom before your very ears at the sweet spot on your volume dial.

 

I agree - in fact. . . , posted on March 23, 2017 at 10:07:25
Chris from Lafayette
Audiophile

Posts: 26428
Location: SF Bay Area
Joined: February 17, 2004
Contributor
  Since: February 6, 2012
 . . . that's often a problem with discs whose basic level is lower than usual: through either habit or inertia, people don't turn up the volume sufficiently and then blame the recording itself when it fails to impress at its low (relative to other recordings) volume level.

Unlikely as it may seem, I have that Getz/Gilberto SACD myself, and I totally agree with you about the volume "sweet spot".

 

RE: Maddening Musical Mystery! Getz/Gilberto..., posted on March 23, 2017 at 16:02:58
PAR
 The channels are now round the correct way.

 

RE: Maddening Musical Mystery! Getz/Gilberto..., posted on March 25, 2017 at 10:26:16
dirtyvinyl



That album is best heard on a period mono press. The 45 reissue?....meh
It's good, but not worth the price IMO. It too has the odd hard left/right like our beloved Beatles albums. It's the stereo thing the ruins many albums.

Still pretty easy to find cheap.

Music sits in the center, leaving your imagination to do the rest.

I'm not certain if MGM already purchased Verve when this was released, so my copy is pretty close, if not a period copy.

 

RE: Is there a credit for the SACD remastering engineer???, posted on March 26, 2017 at 11:11:36
mr.bear
Audiophile

Posts: 4167
Joined: November 13, 2001
 Remastered by Kevin Reeves, "Universal Remastering East" produced by Ken Drucker.

 

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