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Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

RE: Leaving aside the price...

Perhaps there has been technical improvements in NR software, but that doesn't mean the current usual practice isn't to use it to excess. Check out comments on recent "remasters" on sites like the Steve Hoffman board -- the reaction to most of them is that they've been drowned in noise-reduction, with the top end doing a basic vanishing act.

And that, I guess, is what's bothering me about the ad copy. If you're talking about a remaster that improves the sound quality, you provide some information about how the remaster was carried out -- working only from master tapes, using a restored version of the original recorder, high-quality ADCs, checking the results against earlier versions (including the original LPs), etc., etc. Basically, making the point that a lot of care was taken in making the new transfer. (Think of how the Mercury Living Presence and RCA Living Stereo reissue series was promoted or, to give a more recent example in the popular music world, the promotional materials concering the 2009 Beatles reissues.) Instead, what we get here is "improved noise reduction technology" and one mention of a bad edit being corrected. That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence that they did all they could to present what is likely the last remastering the Solti Ring will ever get in the best possible sound quality; rather, it seems aimed at the casual listener who's more allergic to the slightest hint of tape hiss ("yuck - that recording is old!") than attentive to good sound.


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