BIG Blu-Ray Audio drive from Universal Music in 2013

[fredblue]

The Velvet Underground HFPA disc has just arrived (ordered yesterday from Amazon), while Exile On Main Street ordered last week directly from Universal's pure Audio shop is still a no-show.

I've only had time to skim each of the tracks, but first impression is that it sounds better than any previous version of the Velvet Underground's debut album that I have heard, but still pretty grim. The first two tracks sound awful. It gets noticeably better from Femme Fatale onwards, and keeps getting better as the album progresses. In general the quieter, more spacious tracks sound far better than the distorted guitar grunge ones, with maybe I'll Be Your Mirror the best example of audio on the disc.

There is no mention of 192khz anywhere on the disc, which is fine, as the first two Velvet underground albums are wilfully lo-fi, they pretty much invented the genre. Apart from its legendary status as an influential album, I can see no reason why Universal chose this for the first tranche of HFPA releases - 90% of the pop/rock canon would be more deserving.

no big surprises there but its saved me a few quid, thanks for all the feedback Casper!

no idea why your Exile BDA is held up, it's definitely out there in the big wide world!

 

[HomerJAU]

I've given feedback and listening impressions on every HFPA BDA I've bought so far (from when the first discs were released in France in May of this year until now) and posted them all here for QQ members to hopefully read ....

Thanks Fredblue. This thread has over 1600 posts now so most grateful for this post! My next HFPA disc will come from your 'excellent worthwhile' list!

 

[cupboy]

I've only had time to skim each of the tracks, but first impression is that it sounds better than any previous version of the Velvet Underground's debut album that I have heard, but still pretty grim. The first two tracks sound awful. It gets noticeably better from Femme Fatale onwards,....

I've always thought the SHM SACD sounds just fine. Must be something wrong with my system. I think the mono CD that was included with the deluxe CD set was nice too.

 

[Caspersozza]

I've not heard the SHM SACD. It may well sound better than the HFPA disc. I couldn't say, but your system is probably just fine.

 

[Odys]

Bob Ludwig is notorious for brick walling all of his mixes. The Queen 2011 remasters CDs aren't quite as bad, which is a miracle since they're by Ludwig again.

What's odd is that Ludwig's vinyl masters are highly prized and sonically stunning. He stopped working on vinyl a long time ago. It's a shame he's morphed into Brickwall Bob.

 

[fredblue]

Thanks Fredblue. This thread has over 1600 posts now so most grateful for this post! My next HFPA disc will come from your 'excellent worthwhile' list!

You're welcome HomerJAU, it's been another fun team effort of QQ members!

 

[fredblue]

What's odd is that Ludwig's vinyl masters are highly prized and sonically stunning. He stopped working on vinyl a long time ago. It's a shame he's morphed into Brickwall Bob.

maybe he's under tremendous record company pressure to maximise the albums he masters nowadays? ..can't be hearing loss as it'd be EQ boosts rather than brickwalling, no.. or can it.. maybe Ludwig's gone deaf!? :yikes

 

[Quad Linda]

Huh, what did you say?

maybe he's under tremendous record company pressure to maximise the albums he masters nowadays? ..can't be hearing loss as it'd be EQ boosts rather than brickwalling, no.. or can it.. maybe Ludwig's gone deaf!? :yikes

 

[bmoura]

If I was one of these "mastering" engineers I'd go ahead and brickwall it. Pay is the same. But... I'd tell them not to put my name on it anywhere.

Like a Director or Writer on a movie that was not happy with the final product.

That could happen. The only problem would be that the mastering engineer could not point to the final product as an example of their expertise and experience in highly compressed releases.

Having heard the many fine High Resolution Audio SACD and DVD-A discs Bob Ludwig has mastered over the years, when the artist and record label wants an excellent sounding disc to release, he would be a great choice.

But he does have to work. So when most release work calls for heavy compression, he has to deliver that as well - if he wants to stay in business.

Sad but true.

 

[mdmost]

Saw this earlier today. Good for people living in North America who want to try out the Queen Blu-ray for under $20. Since I already have the DVD-Audio, I'm going to skip it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/QUEEN-A-NIGHT-AT-THE-OPERA-HIGH-FIDELITY-PURE-AUDIO-DOWNLOAD-BLU-RAY-/380759252110?pt=US_DVD_HD_DVD_Blu_ray&hash=item58a7051c8e

 

[cupboy]

Saw this earlier today. Good for people living in North America who want to try out the Queen Blu-ray for under $20. Since I already have the DVD-Audio, I'm going to skip it.

I wonder what he means by download?

 

[Neb-Maat-Re]

"Limited time voucher for digital download of the album in FLAC Lossless and MP3 format"

http://www.elusivedisc.com/QUEEN-A-...U-RAY-PURE-AUDIO-DISC/productinfo/UNIBA32771/

 

[sukothai]

"Limited time voucher for digital download of the album in FLAC Lossless and MP3 format"

http://www.elusivedisc.com/QUEEN-A-...U-RAY-PURE-AUDIO-DISC/productinfo/UNIBA32771/

I got a voucher for the Supertramp BIA HFPA blu-ray; which has this same note on the Elusive disc listing, but the HFPA download site offered MP3 only - No FLAC.

 

[fredblue]

its a one time thing too, so you only get to download the files that come with these HFPA's just the once. what you get to do with them after that (i.e. transfer them from, say, your computer to a portable device etc.) I don't know as I've never bothered to download any of them. if I wanted the albums in mp3-like quality I'd have bought them on iTunes, so they just seem like a waste of time if they're lossy versions of supposed Hi-Rez music on the disc... another black mark against this HFPA campaign..!? @:

 

[cupboy]

its a one time thing too, so you only get to download the files that come with these HFPA's just the once. what you get to do with them after that (i.e. transfer them from, say, your computer to a portable device etc.) I don't know as I've never bothered to download any of them. if I wanted the albums in mp3-like quality I'd have bought them on iTunes, so they just seem like a waste of time if they're lossy versions of supposed Hi-Rez music on the disc... another black mark against this HFPA campaign..!? @:

MP3 is just dumb. I think the idea was to save disk space back when disk space was more expensive. Seems like with downloads you have DSD, 24/96 PCM, or MP3. Nothing in between. How about some 16/44.1 for the car?

 

[IMachine]

Oh man, after one week with 8 little children at north-sea and no surround music I'm very hungry now.
After fredblues overwhelming review, tomorrow my first action will be listening to my copy of Can't Slow Down Blu Ray.
Oh yeeeeeeessssss. :banana:

 

[IMachine]

I wonder if Beck / Sea Change will be dispatched at the end of this week ??? ( or will we find that the release date has been put back yet again ?? )
Read on a post that Nick Drake isn't 5.1 ? I hope this isn't the case, because it doesn't bode well for the Beck disc ! ( The only reason I ordered was because I've read on websites it was in 5.1 ) Why can't Universal put spec info on these discs ?? ( Probably because they don't really have confirmation on initial info, given out months ago !! ?? )

Where did you read that it will be no 5.1?

 

[IMachine]

I'm waiting for big releases.

Can't Slow Down is really really good, but I want new 5.1 releases, so I hope for Nick Drake to be a surround one.
If there will be only 2.0 releases it will surely die faster than it needs to take a real chance.
The german customer reviews at Amazon are not very good.

Why know customers things better than the big record companies???
I will never understand!

I spoke to a friend of mine who ownes a small record company, and he assured me that the "official" sales figures cannot be correct.

It can be a real good product.
But we need good and trustful informations what we can expect in the future...

I believe they are nervous at Universal..

 

[timbre4]

The Nick Drake has been recently confirmed as 2.0 stereo only.

 

[rtbluray]

The Nick Drake has been recently confirmed as 2.0 stereo only.

Well, there's another HFPA disc I won't be buying then...
Guess the only one I'll really be buying then is Beck "Sea Change".
What a disappointment this program has been!

Thank God we still have more Wilson mixes coming from Jethro Tull ("A Passion Play" and probably more), King Crimson ("Beat" and "Three of a Perfect Pair"), XTC ("Drums & Wires" and any other albums they still have multi-tracks for), and Yes (potentially all of the albums from the 1st one to "Tormato"/"Drama" and maybe beyond that...)
Also, there will be more ELP ("Trilogy" and "Brain Salad Surgery") and King Crimson ("THRAK") mixes from Jakko Jaksyck too.
So I think there could potentially be up to 10 (or more) mixes that could be released next year!

It's great to know that these 2 mixers are still providing great mixes for us to enjoy (with most of them being authored by Neil Wilkes at that!)
Universal should take note from these people if they want BDAs to sell!