Leste noe om dette for noen år siden, og tenkte det kanskje stod om det i Esoteric-boksen.
Fant det igjen på SA-CD.net.
De ønsket i utgangspunktet å bruke de opprinnelige analoge masterne, men de er (og var) dessverre ødelagte. Noen på Decca dreit ordentlig på draget en gang etter 1997. Heldigvis ble de dengang kopiert over til 24/48 av James Lock, som stod for 1997 remasteringen.
Det er disse sikkerhetskopiene som er Solti Ring Master nå. Se sitat fra Stereophile under. Og som du kan se i denne diskusjonstråden fra SA-CD.net, har Esoteric brukt denne sikkerhetskopien. Visstnok har de kjørt digital sikkerhetskopi over til analog, og så derfra til DSD.
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Tråden er verdt å lese.
As the previous commentary over in the Sibelius thread was left a bit ambivalent as to how this related to all other Esoteric issues, I actually asked them yesterday:
> Are any of the Esoteric SACD releases produced from the original
> analogue master tapes, directly as a pure DSD mastering (rather than via 24 bit / 96 kHz)?
... and to which came the reply today, from the same gentleman at Esoteric JAPAN :
Esoteric reply:
=================================================
No, we used digital copy of the master for all our titles.
We will change our web site accordingly for all titles.
Actually during our re-mastering process, we transfer PCM data
through Esoteric D-01VU D/A converter, and analogue signal mastered to DSD.
=================================================
If I understood that correctly, DECCA supplies them with PCM (typically 24/96) conversions of the analogue master tapes, Esoteric then convert back to analogue, and then go Analogue->DSD. Not clear to me why this would be advantageous over going direct PCM-> DSD ? But at least it explains why they have all those interconnect cables floating around in their web pictures
Her kommenterer trådskriver 'typically 24/96', men det var 24/48 Lock brukte. Litt om hvordan Lock arbeidet med 1997-masteren.
Recording of January 2013: Wagner: <I>Der Ring des Nibelungen</I> | Stereophile.com
James Lock did a terrific job of "de-hissing" the master tapes, using CEDAR and other tools, and archived the results as 24-bit/48kHz files (though the 1997 CDs were of course still only 16/44.1). It's well he did; when engineer Philip Siney returned to the master tapes to prepare this new edition, they had so deteriorated as to be unusable; Lock's hi-rez archives were used for the new CD and BD versions—and will be, I assume, for all future reissues.