Scott Dolan

As far as I'm concerned there are no "right" ones. I was given a promotional copy Translinear Light, so that's my favorite because I didn't pay a penny for it. It has a moment or two of mediocrity, but that's about the best I can say about it.

Classic quote from that thread via Christiern: "I would test it on an Alice Coltrane disc."

Wow! Just got to preview the album on Emusic. Came away far more impressed than I had anticipated. Aside from the single horn front line, it really strikes me as a poor man's Kind Of Blue. Excellent recommendation, Dan. Thank you very much! *edit* Doesn't look like they have it on the HD site, so I'll end up getting it from Emusic.

Oh, I was definitely going to sample it first. With the wealth of info and sound clips on the intertubes, I never buy blind anymore.

That good, eh? I'll have to see if they have that on the HD site. I'm willing to give it a go.

No, not disappointed at all. Just a little embarrassed for spending $24 for a slightly better version of what I already had. That's why I got out of my audiophile-in-training phase well over a decade ago. Spending huge amounts of money on barely noticeable incremental improvements just struck me as dopey. I suppose if it's your passion, but I figured out it wasn't mine. But, this was worth the time and money. Always cool to at least try something new. Though, I will admit I'm seriously considering picking up the HD of Beck's Sea Change. Possibly the best headphone album of all time.

Hmmmm...a little more noise on Davis' solo on the title track as far as the HD version goes. Were those Williams snares being rattled in the background? I'd have to think since they were more pronounced in the "cleaner" version. Interesting...

OK, been doing an A->B between my '87 in .wav and the HD download. Definitely far less noise. Especially during Williams opening drums licks on the title track. The '87 mix had noticeable snare reverb on the opposite (left) channel. It is almost non-existent on the HD track. The overall mix on that track is lightyears better as well. Drums are much mor on par with the horns in this new mix. And Hutch's vibes were slightly toned down. Davis sounds warmer and rounder. Not as flat and plastic-y as on the '87 mix. Still not entirely sure it was worth the $25, but the differences are indeed there. More later...

Oy, got the download. Screwed up and got it in FLAC. Now I've got to download a player for it. *sigh* Me and my first world problems...

The "debacle of the RVG series"? Queue Jazzbo...

No.

OK. On your word, my lord. Download commencing... BTW, I'm going to run all of this through my iMac into my Headroom Micro Amp and Klipsch Image S4 buds. Might plug my Sennheiser 595HD phones in for a second listen later...

E-mail sent.

Well, let me ask you this: I don't have the RVG edition. I have the 1987 pressing from BN. Digital transfer by Ron McMasters. Will that be a fair comparison? If not, I may have to move to something else. My wife has the first two Norah Jones discs...

Fair enough. I'm willing to donate, but bells and whistles go off when someone is offering to use their own Paypal account. That's why I asked.

Why not just tell us how we can send our money to her?

Dude, I put the smilie winkie there for a reason. I was just messing with you. I didn't mean for it to come across as adversarial. Sorry, brother. I still struggle with finding a way to properly convey my humor online. What if HD is better? Nothing wrong with finding out, right? Out To Lunch! Think I'll use that as my test.

Just messin'. I'll have to check one of those out and A > B it against things like AAC and Apple Lossless.

Digging the music instead of seeing if I can pick out the musicians breathing in the background.

When you say HD tracks, what are you referring to? Amazon/iTunes/Emusic, that kind of thing?

Oh, I'd love to see most audiophiles take a blind test to pick a .wav from a FLAC. If the success rate were 50% I'd be shocked beyond words.

My iMac is only about a year and a half old. I'm an old school Wind'ohs user who just recently woke up.

Chris, can you expand on how Mountain Lion ate Lion? Not a huge deal, mind you. It would just help convince me...

Yeah, my iMac came with Lion. I still haven't upgraded to Mountain Lion yet. Have never been convinced I needed it. Thanks for the info, though.

Ah, OK. I didn't get a recovery/installation disc with my iMac. Is that normal? I thought it was until you cats starting talking about it.