Claude

Seems nothing has changed in Italy for the past 5 years http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=2595

The situation with the Rolling Stones discs (and other ABKCO SACDs) is particularly confusing, because the hybrid SACDs were replaced at some point by regular CDs (identical to the CD layer of the hybrid SACDs) , keeping the same reference number. This confused many buyers and stores. The SACDs were sold in digipaks, while the CDs are in jewel cases and marked "DSD remastered".

No, it's a DAD ("Digital Audio Disc", which is technically a DVD-Video with stereo sound only and a still picture), released by Classic Records (referred to as City Hall by some stores). This allows to make use of the higher resolution of the DVD (24bit 96kHz) compared to the CD (16bit 44kHz). This format was used by a few audiophile labels before the SACD and DVD-A were launched. http://www.classicrecords.com/item.cfm?item=DAD%201037 (it was released in 1998, not 1900 ) Explanations: http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:wxgJW...t=clnk&cd=1 I have this and other Blue Note DADs. It sounds much better than the RVG CD (better mastering), but you'll need a very good sounding DVD player to fully benefit from it. I play them through an external Digital/Analog converter which accepts hi-rez digital input.

Nope, CD is the new analogue. Digital = downloads

That's great news. First, because I prefer to buy SACDs rather than 45rpm LP sets (which I like too) Second, because it means the sound of those tapes has been archived in hi-rez digital format by excellent mastering engineers. It would have been disappointing if in the future, when the tapes have degraded too much to be used, Rudy Van Gelder's 24bit transfers (made for the RVG series) would have been the only hi-rez archive copy of the tapes.

Here's the list of releases in this series: http://www.sonyclassical.com/music/bernstein.html I have a few of the Mahler sets and the "technical difficulties" (Music of our time) disc The "Modern Masters" (Lopatnikoff, Dallapiccola, Shapero) looks interesting, for the rare repertoire. http://www.sonyclassical.com/music/60725/tracks.html Has anyone heard "What is jazz?" http://www.sonyclassical.com/music/60566/tracks.html

Back online http://www.destination-out.com

This set was prepared by Mosaic and sold as a Mosaic set, but it was later also released in Europe as a Warner set with the same content but different packaging (search for "Spiegel" to find discussion threads on that subject). The fact that it is not exclusive to Mosaic probably explains why it is also available on iTunes.

It's a Select with a wrong track on disc one

How can you think the site is legitimate? http://mp3xclusive.com/legal OK, then, let's check Skyshare.cc http://skyshare.cc/about http://skyshare.cc/legal

A few more Tokyo subway packing videos, but not nearly as spectacular as the first one:

It could be worse

That's correct

When I see this, I'm thinking of starting my own "label". It might take one or two hours to create such a classy reissue. Just copy some tracks from my CD collection, download pictures and logos from the net and create some fake covers, and then sell downloads for $8/album on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/One-Night-Only/dp/B0015RBH3G http://www.amazon.com/Late-Night-Jazz-Favo.../dp/B0015RD1YY/ http://www.amazon.com/Poinciana-One-Night-.../dp/B0015R62WC/ Complete list of "Stardust" releases here: http://www.emusic.com/charts/ch/b/-dbm/a/0...00139665/0.html

I've read about other SHM CDs that they use existing mastering already released before. I haven't heard any of those SHM CDs, but I can't believe the manufacturing process has any incidence on the sound quality. If it had, CD-R copies would have to sound worse than the original manufactured CDs, but that's not the case in my experience.

I always thought they needed larger cases because of the larger booklets required for the enormous amounts of background information that usually comes with DVD releases

I'm happy to be protected from passive smoking. That's what the anti-smoking laws are about. Nobody is prevented from smoking as much as he likes, just not in public areas where he harms others. So it's not "babysitting".

I've just found out from the german customs website that the EU customs rules will be changed as on December 1, 2008. The current custom-free order limit of 22€ will be replaced with 150€ ! http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUri...001:0002:EN:PDF http://www.zoll.de/a0_aktuelles/azr_kleins...ngen/index.html

I'm not so pessimistic, as far as the availablity of the music is concerned. The music business is changing quickly, with more and more downloads being offered. Very soon, lossless download options will be available. If Concord is offering these rarer OJCs as downloads (they are already available from Emusic), it will not remaster them but simply rip the old OJC CDs. So in the end they could very well be around forever.

I haven't heard that recording, but it is also my general experience with SACD over CD. Audiophiles tend to exagerate differences (a cable will sound "dramatically better" ), but for me a difference is only important if it can be identified without any doubt. A lot of times, I have problems hearing a clear difference with the redbook and hi-rez layer of hybrid SACDs. The clearest advantage of higher resolution is with orchestral recordings, because it contains much more sonic information than recordings of small jazz groups.

I have heard the OJC, the K2 and the DCC CDs, and the DCC is by far the best sounding one. It goes for $40 and more on Ebay.

I guess the turntable is installed as a USB audio device, like an external sound card. Maybe you need to activate it in the Windows Audio properties Start > Settings > Control Panel > Sounds and Multimedia > Audio , then select it as the preferred Recording device

Why didn't NYC choose a banana logo?

The rumour/news was already discussed here a couple of days ago: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=40913

I haven't compared the tracklist with the original discs. Did they try to combine two sessions on one CD or is the set strictly chronological, which could mean that some sessions are spread over two discs?