Claude

A stereo mix with nothing in the middle can indeed sound odd. But on the previous CD issues of "Blue Train" piano and bass are in the middle of the soundstage, the horns being in the left channel and the drums in the right (the latter not hard panned). I find this more convincing than the SACD mix wich sounds almost mono.

Just more bits? That would make no sense at all, because the "bits" describe the remastering process. If an analogue mastertape is taken from the archive, played on the tape machine and digitized in a higher resolution (24bit instead of 16bit), it is called remastering. But more bits does not automatically make the sound better, other factors such as correct equalization are much more important. This new release of "The Brigde" is said to be mastered from the original 3-track tapes (mixed down to stereo), whereas the previous CDs were made from a stereo mixdown tape. So it is likely to sound different, because of the new mixdown.

This can be due to the prefered font you have set in your browser configuration. Try different standard fonts (Arial, MS sans serif, ...)

Acousticsounds.com ships to Europe, but charges $25 shipping

They have only been announced for August 26, so that's impossible to say. cduniverse.com often has reduced prices on new releases, they may offer the best deal.

I have a Sony SCD-XB770QS, a midrange player ($700 list price, but retailing for $400) which is only avaialble in Europe (maybe Asia too). I bought it based on reviews, as no hifi shop in Luxembourg has one available for auditioning. http://www.avguide.ch/test/index.cfm?show=detail&ID=66 Until then I had a Sony CDP-X777ES CD player, a $2000 model made in 1991 (got it for $500 in 1995), that I am very attached to because of it's good sound and fantastic build quality. I was dissappointed by the Sony SACD player. It had trouble reading some CDs (this has dissapeared after a few weeks) and the CD sound is inferior to the old Sony. It lacks dynamics, detail and low bass, the sound is very laid back. In direct comparision of the two players, there is something missing with the new Sony. I did not expect it to blow away the old Sony, but based on the reviews and technological progress (10 years difference) I expected it to be better. Midrange SACD player are said to have average redbook playback but excellent SACD sound. Until now I still have to be convinced by the advantages of SACD. I received amazingly good speakers this week (Dynaudio Contour S3.4, $4000) and will most likely upgrade my amp (Electrocompaniet ECI-3), so SACD may finally show it's superiority. Based on my experience, I am very sceptical on the necessity of hi-rez digital sources in mid-fi systems. For some time I am searching for a new CD/SACD player (the cheap Sony was more a test buy to check SACD capabilities), but very few SACD players are available in my preferred $1000-2000 price range. The excellent Sony SCD-XA777ES, recently discontinued, is only starting to go below $2000. There are very good CD-only players in this price region, but I hesitate to buy one because I will miss the SACD capabilities when/if this format takes off. This is in fact not very rational, since I have 2000 CDs and only 20 SACDs, and I'm still buying 10 times more CDs than SACDs. Hey, I even buy more LPs than SACDs

The important thing is if universal players really gets the most out of every disc. They need dedicated circuits for every format, which has it's price. I haven't seen good reviews of players that support DVD-A and SACD. I don't know the Pioneer, but it would be of no use to have a universal player which doesn't sound better with hi-rez discs than a CD player of the same price. While it's debatable if it is worth investing into a good SACD player now, as this format's market success is not guaranted, the question is much more pertinent with DVD-A. You risk buying discs with no so great music just because there are so few releses in that format. The list of available DVD-A titles does not convince me to get a suitable player. Jazz fans are luckier with SACD releases, but this could only be a coincidence because of a few labels (Sony of course, Analogue Productions and now Fantasy) active on this format.

Maybe these reviews give an answer: http://www.homecinemachoice.com/testbench/...nAVR-3300.shtml http://www.audio-ideas.com/reviews/receive...n_avr_3300.html Like you say yourself, the fact that a CD has been remasted at 24 bit/96 KHz will not change anything on the CD playback side, because the digital signal on the CD is always 16bit/44.1kHz. So it's a pure coincidence that those CDs sound better with a certain setting of the D/A converter

No horizontal scrolling problem for me, with an Opera browser and a 17" monitor running at 1024x768 resolution.

Greg, I mentioned "Portrait in Jazz" because this is a special case. The tapes of this recording seem to be in bad shape. The Fantasy CD releases I have heard (box set, german ZYX 20Bit, US K2 20bit) sound much worse than other Evans Riverside recordings (Village Vanguard, Explorations), but the DCC is very good. There is no comparision. So Steve Hoffman did a remarkable restoration job on that one, which the Fantasy SACD engineers will be measured on.

Sellers that don't accept credit cards through Paypal should clearly state it in their auction, as this is a serious restriction especially for foreign bidders. Non-US bank accounts cannot be used with Paypal, as far as I know. I know the problems that exist with Paypal, but those are mostly difficulties for sellers who receive money. I've made almost 50 Paypal payments and never had a problem. In fact I couldn't use ebay without Paypal, as money orders or bank transfers cost $8-15 and would make buying a single CD too expensive. I have also noticed that CD auctions from sellers that don't accept Paypal have lower end prices. Probably because this almost excludes bids from foreign countries. Today I received great news from my bank: International money transfers to EU countries will cost only 0.75€ from July on. It was 10€ before. Now I can finally bid on CDs on Ebay Germany, where very few sellers accept Paypal.

I've ordered a few times at deepdiscountcd.com and can recommend them. They have a good customer service, and promptly react to emails. However it does not appear from their catalogue if a CD is in stock. I've ordered some CDs that showed as being backordered after I made the order. Most were shipped after some time, but a few CDs (OOP) were canceled.

I have some of those albums on remastered CDs and will wait for reviews on the sound. These are Fantasy releases and not done by Analogue Productions, so it's not sure if the quality will be as good as the first Prestige/Riverside/Contemporary SACDs I will not get "Portrait in Jazz" because I recently got the DCC CD and noticed a vast improvement over the K2-CD. This Steve Hoffman remastering will be extremely hard to beat.

Are these "real" TOCJs (remastered by an anonymous but unintrusive japanese engineer) or JRVGs (sonic reinterpretions by Rudy van Gelder)?

To me the SACD sounds like Rudy is in my house playing with the treble knob and the mono switch on my amp. The sextet returns when I play the MFSL CD

Time Life Spain had a deal with Verve (Universal) too. Check this ebay UK seller´s items: http://cgi6.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi...rid=busyjazzman

So we finally managed to have you join the Organissimo board

Here are some SACD reviews that Greg wrote for an online hifi magazine: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue2/maltzsacd.htm http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue1/maltzsacd.htm ... and so on.

Hans, is that really a DCC release (I have never heard of such a CD) or is it the Classic Records gold CD?

I have not heard this new reissue. It should not be difficult to beat the french 24bit remaster, as this does not improve on the original mid 90's CD release (only brighter, no gain in clarity or dynamics). Another competitor in term of sound is the Classics gold CD, which sounds much better than the regular CD (warmer, more clarity on the drums)

I think that it is the remastering that really makes the sound. Both the CD and SACD layer have the same tonal balance, narrowness and dynamics. The difference between redbook CD and SACD or DVD-A are marginal compared to the influence of the remastering engineer. The Universal classical SACDs (Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, Decca) with music from the analogue era are made from PCM masters (24bit/96kHz) because it was found the difference between hi-rez PCM and DSD is inaudible.

I'm surprised to hear about these shipping errors. Zweitausenseins is not one of those new stores created during the internet boom. They have 30 years experience in the mailorder business. This spectacular sale only concerns a few jazz box sets, so I don't think they have been overwhelmed by orders.

I just listened to the first half of the new Metheny CD. Hearing him solo on acoustic guitar without any overdub appeared very attractive on paper. These are slow folky tunes. Not much jazz. Reminds me of William Ackerman and other "adult contemporary instrumental" music. At first listen it was just boring. Recognizing "I don't know why" was also off-putting. I have many Metheny CDs (Group, trio, sideman), but I will not get this one.

Watch out for Blue Train MFSL CDs appearing on ebay now. There are always people who blindly "upgrade" their discs to the latest technology. But the Mofi CD is definitely better than the SACD. No, I'm not selling mine

But there can't be that many spanish Blue Note's left. Or did they expect every Time-Life subscriber to be a jazz freak and produce large quantities? I first saw this series in a Munich store, in the form of a 30CD-box (could be more), interestingly priced, but much too big for Time-Life customers. This would explain why it didn't sell, and why the CDs were thrown individually on the grey market.