SACD's to stay away from

If you liked Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, you will love Captain Fantastic. My next EJ purchase will probably be Honky Chateau. Don't believ the bad hype about Layla, kids. I read a review that said it was not good because all of the guys sat in the same room to cut the basic tracks and there is bleedover........funny......captured live in the studio....isn't that kinda the audophile holy grail? while that might not work for surround, it sure works in stereo

Junior Brown's - Down Home Chrome on Telarc. This surprised the hell out of me. I love Junior Brown. He's one of the masters of the unexpected and can sincerely play his ass off. I also generally really like Telarc's stuff. This recording is a flat out dog. Washed out midrange, wiry highs and a soundstage that is 2ft. tall, 3 ft. wide and 2cm. deep. Sucks, sucks, sucks. In fact, unlistenable.

First, I disagree with Macdadtexas about DVD-A. My experience, all Classical BTW, is the opposite--ie DVD-As generally sound better than SACDs...BUT...both CAN sound fabulous!

Here are some I've bought and put quickly in my SELL stack:
1. Williams--Close Encounters...Kind, soundtrack; Classics HDAD 2005. This is a 192/24 and 96/24 2-channel DVD-A. I love this music but forgot how bad--multi-mono-miked and compartmented--the original recording was.
2. Shostakovich Sym. #7, 'Leningrad'; Gergiev cond. Kirov and Rotterdam orchestras; Philips SACD # 470 623-2. Again, too compartmented. Doesn't sound like a real orchestra playing in a real concert hall.
3. Mahler Sym #3; Chailly cond. Royal Concertgebouw, Philips SACD #470 652-2. Boring performance. I like my Mahler played more strongly than Chailly's.
4. Stravinsky 'Firebird' and more; Dorati cond. London SO; Mercury SACD # 470 643-2. This is a 3-channel conversion of an original 3-channel recording. Unfortunately for me, it's from Mercury's 'fierce' period, when their Living Presence recordings were done with the microfones too close to the orchestra. It sounds very hard and strident. PROBABLY it's a very accurate representation of exactly what's on the analog tapes.
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I found the Norah Jones about the same as the CD. That said, it still sounds pretty good. I just remembered another one I have that's no better than the CD. Santana - Abraxus

Any Chris Botti.

I agree on the Journey Greatest Hits and would also Suggest you stay way from TRAIN Calling all Angels. Horrible sounding SACD disc...

Chris

Thanks. I haven't given up, in fact, I really love SACD. I like it much better than the DVD-A format, and have bought a ton of the SACD discs, mostly jazz and classical, and I have been extremely happy. Some discs just seem to be done better than others. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road on SACD is a revalation, as is the great mix of Dark Side of the Moon.

But some orchestral works and great vocal recording really have not been any better than the red books that I have heard, and they still don't sound as good as vinyl. But, it's getting there.

Macdadtexas, do not give up on SACD. Stereophile recently revealed themselves that there was no differnce between the PCM/DSD Norah Jones. They called it a "ripoff"......unfortunately this and some other "bad" sacd's were mastered from the pcm masters therefore no difference. Try (CHESKY) Rebecca Pidgeon "THE RAVEN" you'll be amazed at the sound

Nora Jones - Come Away with Me

I think the red book sounds better.

Not to stay away from, but I find that some really, really well produced red book CD's don't sound much better on SACD. No worse, and it's neat in multi-channel, but not a huge difference. Tierny Sutton's latest is a great example. SACD is nice, but really not any better than the red book. Well, my opinion.

Natalie Cole, Super stinker!