SACD's: Recomendations, ones to avoid

Talked to Acoustic Sounds yesterday. They said that the MoFi Duke was recorded with the Meitner electronics which is why it sounds so great. Also, it is apearantly taking a lot of time to get masters transfered to DSD. Sony will loan their recorder to other companys, i.e. Chesky, Audioquest, etc, but it there are only a few machines to go around. Acoustic Sounds says they are "working on" getting their origional recordings transfered but that it might take years to get the whole catalog out. As far as them releasing any of thier comercial catalog on SACD, that would have to be negotiated with the record company on an individual basis and could take a year or more to get the rights to release a disc. Most of the newer releases that they have in their catalog are NOT alailable yet. None of the Cheskys or APO's and only some of the Telarc's are available. They will BO them and ship as soon at they are in stock.

I finally openned the Mobile Fidelity Duke ... Orbit. If you have an SACD player you must get this SACD. This is cearly the best recorded SACD. If Mobile Fidelity produced all of the SACDs, this format would really take off.

I have had the SCD-777ES since Feb. I have all of the DMP recordings. They are at or near the top of the list. I have SACDs from each label (MFSL, DMP, Waterlilly, Sony, Telarc). It depends on the recording.

BTW: is there anyone out there? Sometimes I feel like the only person on the planet with one of these machines. I would like to keep this thread going as new releases come out so I don't have to waste $30 a piece on mediocre music or recordings that don't merrit the SACD treatment.

Has anyone heard the Chesky releases? I would like to try some. It's too bad that they are not bringing out their new releases on SACD, Same with TELARC, only a few selected releases, so far. BTW, the Carmina Burana with the Philadelphia Orchestra was not that great a recording, I have several other versions that I prefer. I'll have to try it again since my player has "burned in". There is a great deal of tape hiss on this recording. I would be careful of the columbia reissues.

I have quite a few SACD's and from what I hear the Telarc and DMP discs sound great. I can't stop playing the Monty Alexander Music of Bob Marley.The Charles Mingus Ah Um (Sony) was also a real ear opener. The Audioquest discs sound great but I don't think they sound as good as the new Telarcs that are recorded directly to DSD. Stevey Ray Vaughn Couldn't stand the Weather is really lively, better than I expected, a good deal of hardness in the recording but a big improvement over the standard issue CD. Acoustic Sounds say that they are going to bring out all of their origional recordings on SACD, we'll see. The few that they have listed in their new catalog are not available yet.

I have to agree. The Best SACD that I have out of my 18 SACDs so far is MFSL's Duke Ellington, Blues in Orbit. It's an incredible recording. It's too bad that this is the only SACD (dual layered actually) that MFSL released. Buy if you find it.

Mofi Ellington is one of the best I have heard. Many of those I own or listened to at audio shop ahve sounded over engineered. Much like a vast number of new vinyl re-releases the mixing is excessive, bringing out too much of what the producer may have felt was needed while remixing. Herbie Hancock is not bad, Billie Holiday is awful, Some tune s on Billy Joel's 52nd St are very nice. Moat of the classical releases don't touch the vinyl. You may want to purchase the samplers.

Also, on one thread someone mentioned the Joe Satriani disc as being great. The MoFi Duke Ellington is also reported to be terrific, if you can still find it.