All 9 Steely Dan albums to be released on Hybrid Stereo SACD courtesy of Analogue Productions

[marpow]

i'm already there!

yours Quadraphonically,
Freddie B.

Ok, Freddie, you got it.

 

[fredblue]

Is there really any discernible difference between the Hoffman and Nichole masters? Everyone seems to only look for visual identifiers rather than what they can hear.

Sometimes excellence can’t be improved upon.

i couldn't detect any difference between what was said to be SH's mastering & The Immortal one's work last time i drove myself bonkers with a Steely Dan shootout! ("with a gun.. with a gun..")

 

[key_wiz]

i couldn't detect any difference between what was said to be SH's mastering & The Immortal one's work last time i drove myself bonkers with a Steely Dan shootout! ("with a gun.. with a gun..")

Yep.

Similarly I went out of my way to buy SHs mastering of Phil Collins’ “Face Value” which sounds great but I can’t hear any difference between it and the original mastered by Barry Diament. trying to add a few extra tweaks to what was already perfection is superfluous at best.

But fanbois are gonna fanboi

 

[cbmmm3]

You the man, we got to get you in the ie club.
Rickie, Ralphie and Markie.
What you guys think?
@4-earredwonder
@cbmmm3

Markie
Freddie B is MORE than welcome to join our cult

 

[bookofsaturdays]

Is there really any discernible difference between the Hoffman and Nichole masters? Everyone seems to only look for visual identifiers rather than what they can hear.

Sometimes excellence can’t be improved upon.

I can’t really speak to that, it’s just what I’ve read. All I can say is I have a Roger Nichols mastered Aja CD that sounds great.

Barry Diament did some really excellent transfers to CD in the 1980s for Atlantic (WEA?). Most of them transferred flat from the analog master with very little EQ added.

You can bet on any BD mastered CD sounding amazing:

AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Eagles, CSN, Bad Company, some Genesis albums, NIN Pretty Hate Machine.

All very cheap and sound incredible especially when you crank them.

 

[humprof]

i couldn't detect any difference between what was said to be SH's mastering & The Immortal one's work last time i drove myself bonkers with a Steely Dan shootout! ("with a gun.. with a gun..")

If you read the October 2021 update to @JoshM's TBVO column on Aja (scroll all the way down), it seems he's no longer sure that what's been taken to be the Hoffman mastering is even Hoffman's.

Meanwhile, a couple of months ago, Hoffman now casually affirmed that he was "involved," uncredited, in the mastering of all the original SD CDs, offering recommendations to Nichols about levels, balance, and EQ. (Nichols, he says, sometimes followed his advice about levels and balance, but otherwise "ignored my little EQ touches and just ran [them] 'flat.'") Their working relationship wasn't exactly sweetness and light, he says, and yet "the stuff sounds good all these years later so maybe he was right."
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/steely-dan-on-ap-sacd.1155698/page-61#post-32278291https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/steely-dan-on-ap-sacd.1155698/page-64#post-32356389

 

[marpow]

Listening now to my new AP stereo SACD, Can't Buy A Thrill.
DSD64-DSF file. DR's are 10's, 11's, 12's.

My only other version I own is the HDTracks FLAC file 24bit/192Khz. DR's are the same.

The new SACD sounds much improved over the FLAC file.
The FLAC file albeit sounds good, but flat compared to the AP SACD.

I can't seem to find which way to go on these? I might purchase a couple $10.00 Nichols CD's for comparison? I'm A Fool Your Dirty Work

But right now this new SACD is great.

 

[fredblue]

Listening now to my new AP stereo SACD, Can't Buy A Thrill.
DSD64-DSF file. DR's are 10's, 11's, 12's.

My only other version I own is the HDTracks FLAC file 24bit/192Khz. DR's are the same.

The new SACD sounds much improved over the FLAC file.
The FLAC file albeit sounds good, but flat compared to the AP SACD.

I can't seem to find which way to go on these? I might purchase a couple $10.00 Nichols CD's for comparison? I'm A Fool Your Dirty Work

But right now this new SACD is great.
View attachment 96097

this is the best AP Steely Dan remaster i've heard so far, it's largely excellent and definitely worthwhile. the other two (CTE & PL) have issues i can't get beyond, particularly wrt speed of several tracks (which i know is more authentic to the original vinyl but tbh i'd rather have the tracks as originally recorded and so at the correct speed.. ) anyhoo.. back to the 80's CDs i gooo.. for now ️

 

[JediJoker]

Listening now to my new AP stereo SACD, Can't Buy A Thrill.
DSD64-DSF file. DR's are 10's, 11's, 12's.

My only other version I own is the HDTracks FLAC file 24bit/192Khz. DR's are the same.

The new SACD sounds much improved over the FLAC file.
The FLAC file albeit sounds good, but flat compared to the AP SACD.

I can't seem to find which way to go on these? I might purchase a couple $10.00 Nichols CD's for comparison? I'm A Fool Your Dirty Work

But right now this new SACD is great.
View attachment 96097

If that "HDtracks" download was recent (2022), then it should be the same mastering as on the SACD, and should sound exactly the same.

 

[shokhead]

That's to bad if it sounds exactly the same.

 

[JediJoker]

That's to bad if it sounds exactly the same.

Why? Why is it "bad" if a mastering is available both on disc and as a download?

 

[shokhead]

Just imo but disc sounds better then a download.

 

[marpow]

My Discogs order of stereo CD from Discogs, Can't Buy A Thrill, which is a top notch considered by others, has arrived.
Stereo RBCD, released 1985, MCAD-37040.
I will listen for difference of my now three.
2022 Download
2023 Hybrid SACD
1985 CD
Unfortunately, as I trust my buddy Freddie B., out of all the Steely Dan's Can't buy A Thrill is possibly the best in the Acoustic Sounds SACD.
Maybe I will try another title for better comparison?

 

[ssully]

Listening now to my new AP stereo SACD, Can't Buy A Thrill.
DSD64-DSF file. DR's are 10's, 11's, 12's.

My only other version I own is the HDTracks FLAC file 24bit/192Khz. DR's are the same.

if the DRs are truly the same...out to a decimal place...they are very likely the same audio.

If so, it means the 'heard' difference' is to do with different playback levels, or placebo. Nothing about the products themselves.

 

[ssully]

Just imo but disc sounds better then a download.

If they are literally the same audio data...it can't, really.

 

[marpow]

placebo

I am a big believer in Placebo, in the audio world.
Drinking alcohol also helps the listening experience.

 

[ssully]

Not to mention the posting experience.

 

[DuncanS]

Not to mention the posting experience.

...... The Allman Brothers did

 

[4-earredwonder]

I am a big believer in Placebo, in the audio world.
Drinking alcohol also helps the listening experience.

Alcohol as a rule dulls the senses whereas legalized marijuana heightens the experience and being a roofer, Markie, I should think you like to get HIGH!

 

[humprof]

If you read the October 2021 update to @JoshM's TBVO column on Aja (scroll all the way down), it seems he's no longer sure that what's been taken to be the Hoffman mastering is even Hoffman's.

Meanwhile, a couple of months ago, Hoffman now casually affirmed that he was "involved," uncredited, in the mastering of all the original SD CDs, offering recommendations to Nichols about levels, balance, and EQ. (Nichols, he says, sometimes followed his advice about levels and balance, but otherwise "ignored my little EQ touches and just ran [them] 'flat.'") Their working relationship wasn't exactly sweetness and light, he says, and yet "the stuff sounds good all these years later so maybe he was right."
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/steely-dan-on-ap-sacd.1155698/page-61#post-32278291https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/steely-dan-on-ap-sacd.1155698/page-64#post-32356389

In view of the AP release of Bernie Grundman's new mastering (in digital download form), Josh Mound posted a further update to his TBVO column on Aja a couple of weeks ago. Scroll down to (or do a Ctrl+F on) "UPDATE OCTOBER 12, 2023." The upshot: the new Grundman mastering and Eli Brown's 2018 MQA CD are in a near-dead heat for his preferred version, for different reasons--none of them having to do with MQA encoding, which he sees as snake oil. But he still gives the (slight) edge to Brown. (Hoffman--or, if you prefer, "Hoffman"--is now out of the running.) Mound detects several differences in tonality; for starters, Grundman's mastering foregrounds Fagen's vocals a bit more and gives the kick and toms a little extra "thump"; Brown's has more "air," "mak[ing] it easier for the listener to turn their attention to individual elements in the mix." But he concludes that they're both excellent--and the Grundman mastering has the advantage of being widely available!