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Discussion: Sibelius: Symphony No. 1 - Maazel

Posts: 81
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Post by flyingdutchman February 22, 2010 (61 of 81)
tream said:

Funny - the Tape Project guys got access to the Decca masters for 2 of the Series 1 tapes - their licenses end March 1, so if you are thinking about it better make a decision now.

I hope one day someone is able to do an SACD release of the Solti Ring using the master tapes. It would be an improvement on the Esoteric issue, I think.

Wow, that was $800 or so down the hole, then, huh?

Post by audioholik February 23, 2010 (62 of 81)
canonical said:



Reply from Esoteric ...
========================================================

we did not access to the analogue master tapes.

========================================================

Best regards,

Hiroyuki Machida

Product Planning Section
Product Planning & Marketing Dept.

ESOTERIC COMPANY

:-0

thanks for the information.

Post by hiredfox February 23, 2010 (63 of 81)
canonical said:

I sent a FAX to Esoteric in Japan asking them if they could possibly clarify the discrepancy between the statement made on the web site ('DSD mastering') and the statement made on the SACD box ('24/96'), and whether they had access to the master analogue tapes. They have kindly provided the following helpful reply today ...


Reply from Esoteric ...
========================================================

Great work! It puts the whole issue beyond speculation once and for all.

Unfortunately, it has also at a stroke killed my interest in and support for this venture. Having spent £250 on the first 8 recordings now to be told this...

I am not suggesting for one minute that they have not done a pretty good job but without access to original tapes what's the point even at £12 a disc? Plenty of others have gone the direct route and achieved excellent results - and some of the Living Stereo's are/were only £8. Buy up those Pentatones whilst you can...

Post by Jonty February 23, 2010 (64 of 81)
From what Esoteric said it seems they are working from new transfers at 24/96 so we can discount previous transfers at 24/96. So the Ring isn't the Cedared version last put out by Decca and the Mravinsky Tchaikovsky won't be the 'original image bit processing' version.

Post by tream February 23, 2010 (65 of 81)
flyingdutchman said:

Wow, that was $800 or so down the hole, then, huh?

That's my view thus far.

Post by Ubertrout February 23, 2010 (66 of 81)
In response to those now carping about how this release is mastered from 24/96 and not analog and thus worthless I have to say...who cares, if it sounds like a dream? I mean, everyone who has heard it says it sounds simply astonishing, and that it's a great performance to boot. I recognize that there may have been an iota of quality that could be have been tweaked out of a direct analog-DSD transfer, but isn't it equally possible that we simply wouldn't be able to tell and we're fooling ourselves with false positives. There is a certain point where humans really can't tell any difference, and while it's certainly not 16/44.1, 24/96 does offer an extremely high-resolution signal. According to my calculations, the bitrate for 24/96 is pretty darn close to the bitrate for DSD.

I'm not looking for buy this because I have this performance on RBCD, and I have the Jarvi Sibelius SACD set, which is also sourced from PCM, and sounds lovely on my enthusiast setup. I'd suggest that the threshold question is whether it sounds lifelike - like you're there. Only if it doesn't is it really worth inquiring into why, and sometimes (like with the Esoteric Kleiber Brahms 4th), discover that the problem is an inferior source.

Not trying to start a rumble or change the subject, but the story here is (apparently) that this release sounds divine. That's all I want to know.

Post by audioholik February 23, 2010 (67 of 81)
hiredfox said:

I am not suggesting for one minute that they have not done a pretty good job but without access to original tapes what's the point even at £12 a disc?

let's say I can understand that Analogue Productions is charging $35 for their new Nat King Cole SACD reissues, they had to pay for the access to the original analog Master Tapes (negotiations with majors take time and money), they made their own tape-to-DSD transfers, using state of the art A/D converter, probably even some custom made stuff on the analog part of the equation, their recordings are truly "DSD mastered" (by Gus Skinas), the final SACD's include both stereo and multichannel programs and even bonus tracks!

$70 for a Lexicon SACD is too much imho.

Post by calloway February 23, 2010 (68 of 81)
....musicdirect.com has the esoteric discs...and yes, they are expensive but the sibelius is truely amazing...listened last night to it and could not believe how truely the 'you are there ' factor is....i bought the mozart piano concerto disc today...some things are worth the extra price...this is one of them ..imo...

Post by rammiepie February 23, 2010 (69 of 81)
It would seem to me that the more canny purchase would be the 4 disc Sibelius boxed set of multi-channel SACDS from DGG performed by Neeme Jarvi encompassing ALL seven symphonies. Remastered from PCM, at least you're getting more of a bang for your hard~earned money unless one is seduced by the legendary status of the Sibelius PCM remaster from Teac~Esoteric. Best of all is the price: between $38~$41 for four multi-channel SACDs. I own them and agree with the other reviewers on this site that they are a worthy addition to one's SACD collection. And who knows, perhaps in 50 years these will be considered Legendary performances, too!

Post by tream February 23, 2010 (70 of 81)
rammiepie said:

It would seem to me that the more canny purchase would be the 4 disc Sibelius boxed set of multi-channel SACDS from DGG performed by Neeme Jarvi encompassing ALL seven symphonies.

Sounds great except that the conductor is Neeme Jarvi.

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