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Pro-tip: Just change the .co.jp to .com and you have a US link. Applies to any Amazon links, ie Amazon.fr, amazon.it, amazon.ca, etc.
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It may not be the DSD process that's making these albums sound better, but rather more attentive mastering.
This is exactly it.
Heres an example, The RCA Living Stereo SACD remasters from 2005-2009 are highly praised by audiophiles for their high fidelity and sonics by the original engineers of the recordings. By 2011 Sony obtained the RCA Living Stereo catalog, and remastered them as DSD remasters with different engineers and released them as budget priced boxsets. The resulting CDs featured compressed dynamics and the lost of all clarity and richness of the originals. The fact that they were remastered in DSD made no difference at all. It was just Sony's cookie cutter approach.
I'm not sure you have any idea what you're actually talking about. I have all the Living Stereo remasters from 2005 on and they are ALL DSD, everyone of them - and are you trying to say the engineers of the original albums worked on the SACDs??? Because when you say different engineers worked on whatever these budget priced box sets you mention that's what you're kind of saying. Since most of the engineers who did those original RCA albums are dead I don't think you meant to word it in that way. Or in your obtuse way are you trying to say that Sony took the Living Stereo SACD stereo layer and remastered that for the box sets - in DSD - well, no, because the SACDs were already DSD so that makes no sense. I've read nothing about any box set remasters or compressed sound on them. Why don't you just link us all to these things so we can read up and be educated because right now just about everything in your post from June of last year makes no sense. Do you even have the Living Stereo SACDs? If you did, you would surely see the BIG OLD DSD logo on them.
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Again, DSD without SACD is kind of meaningless. The only real way things would sound better is if they were newly remastered better than the old masterings or if better source material is found. Then again, some people look at letters on packaging, listen, and just believe it sounds better. The DSD part, as has been pointed out here in this thread, is essentially meaningless for CDs.
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The 2004 Star Wars Trilogy DSD transfers sound better, at least the first two scores do, owing to the fact that the analogue recordings of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back sound better than the digital fuzz of Return of the Jedi. The Sonys of 2004 sound better than the RCA/Victors of 1997-98 (again, only including Star Wars and Empire here.), though I think both may have been derived from the same analogue masters.
As for the 2005-6 RCA Living Stereo issues, no classical reissues have ever sounded better to my ears.
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Again, DSD without SACD is kind of meaningless. The only real way things would sound better is if they were newly remastered better than the old masterings or if better source material is found. Then again, some people look at letters on packaging, listen, and just believe it sounds better. The DSD part, as has been pointed out here in this thread, is essentially meaningless for CDs.
Bingo, that is the core right there. Creating a DSD master from an existing CD source is (no matter how the CD was originally mastered) is not going to get you a better result. So, definitely, it's meaningless.
Unless the new DSD master was created from original source (not a CD or LP master), then there is no benefit.
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Two months ago, I started and finished a project whereby I finally transferred my SACD collection (the DSD layers, both 2-channel and multichannel) into DSD files that are now playable on my computer, and through DLNA support on my home network to various HiRes devices. The 2-channel DSD files also natively play on my portable HiRes music player and balanced headphone DAC that I use in another room. For this reason, those CD's which are an "event" to play on my home hifi system, now have an extended and in some ways "new" life. The sound is far superior to my ears than the CD counterparts, mainly because the greater available bandwidth and higher sampling rate of the recording. It was a bit of a trick to do it on the old Oppo SACD/BD player, but once I got it working it became a routine process that was completed in one weekend. Some titles of interest that sound wonderful in DSD:
The Mission - (I bought the SACD in 2003 and hadn't played it in a while, due to the cumbersome limitations of only being only able to listen in one room on one player)
Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone - (Bought this at the Tower Records Closeout sale, I think it was only $6)
Star Trek - Nemesis - (Bought this from Varese when it became available after the initial CD release. Sounds way better in pure DSD)
The Great Train Robbery - (Truth be told, not a favorite on this board, but I am appreciating this now even more that I can play it back on better reference devices)
Goldsmith Conducts Goldsmith - (That Telarc album which was originally bundled with Phillips SACD players. Sounds great in multichannel on my PC. The 2-channel is also wonderful on the DAC)
Jerry Goldsmith: Christus Apollo - (The multichannel has Anthony Hopkins voice directly out of the center channel and it's eerie, The rest of the recording sounds great in 2-channel)
Timeline - Jerry Goldsmith (Preparing for Battle/Victory for Us is the standout cue for me. Sounds great in 2-channel and multichannel)
E.T. - John Williams - (This was the SACD of the 20th Anniversary CD. Surprisingly, the SACD was not that impressive in 2-channel or multichannel. It could have been a knockout)
Titanic - James Horner - (The 5.1 mix was pretty dynamic, sound is excellent)
Dances With Wolves - John Barry (Another kind of "meh" sounding SACD that offered no great improvements in sonics compared to the original CD, the subsequent "Gold" edition, or first minor expansion - all from Elektra/Columbia)
Also, I have some releases of the Erich Kunzel Telarc SACD's from the last decade. Some tracks on ROUND-UP were great, but all-in all, these were very minor sonic improvements over those original CD releases. Some non-Film music SACD that I own sound outrageously great, but I won't go into detail about. The key common factor is that every disc is now in DSD format for me, which has expanded the shelf life of this platform for me.
Very
MaxB
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