Sammenligning av Diana Krall "Love Scenes" på ulike formater:
I'll compare them on the following formats:-
-RBCD
-SHM-CD
-SACD
-SHM-SACD
-24/96 HD Tracks download.
SACD.....Surprised myself here in that it just sounds muffled and compressed with an overblown bass somewhat 'cardboardy'and no emotion to her voice. Going through the motions kind of thing. Don't forget my AA changes DSD to PCM to supposedly increase the dynamic range.
RBCD.....Better timing, better dynamics and you can appreciate Diana's vocal inflections much more. The finger snaps in My Love are better defined and the reverb around the studio clearer.
24/96....Excellent sound from HD tracks but compared to the next two kind of 'gritty'. Good resolution and emotional content to her voice. This result may be due to my modest Macbook/HiFace system. By the way, I use Decibel and like it's clean look and simple features.
SHM-CD...Everything is clearer, blacker background, guitar at beginning of Gentle Rain lifelike sounding, bass quicker and tighter. Voice dynamic and nuanced. A very nice disc and this seems representative of other SHM-CDs I have.
SHM-SACD...Well. well, what went wrong with the standard SACD. I thought I was being prejudiced against SACD as never really liked the bass or lack of timing/emotion. (I prefer the RBCD of Carole King-Carnegie to the MoFi SACD as they lost the emotion of it, don't ask me how that happened). I may have read that this edition is a new 2010 DSD master but I'm not sure.
The SHM-SACD is stunning, with power, a sense of gravitas, emotion and resolution of tiny nuances of Diana's voice. Those little raspy moments that tell you it is someone really singing. Finger snaps resonate across the studio, bass that sounds wooden and not cardboard, quick as a flash transients. The guitar in Gentle rain, the notes you can see into them, they are just expanded. I could go on. It reminds me of the FIM K2HD, yes the collector's edition, of Oscar Peterson, We get Requests and guess what, I've just ordered the SHM-SACD of this disc so another shootout to come.
So, the 24/96 is pretty good and on an even better music server and dac would perhaps come close to the SHM-SACD which makes it a bargain. The SHMs are expensive but do have lovely packaging and are a little treat to oneself after a hard month or two.
Still not sure the Super High Material is the reason for the improved quality but who cares. I really like them.
http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/vt.mpl?f=hirez&m=272593