Thread: Solti's Ring on SACD -- the ULTIMATE?!

High bitrate releases of legacy titles are a scam. Get DSD 5:1 recordings by Pentatone and at least the technology will be utilized.

Originally Posted by bigshot

High bitrate releases of legacy titles are a scam. Get DSD 5:1 recordings by Pentatone and at least the technology will be utilized.

Yes, we know your opinion on high-bitrate formats, bigshot -- God knows, you repeat it every opportunity.

But it has nothing to do with what I just wrote about: that, apparently, the Esoteric SACDs that were touted as brand-new remasterings from the original analog tapes -- and which several people who sprang for them praised as being, essentially, the first time they were well-mastered, as opposed to the supposedly awful-sounding Decca remasters of 1984 and 1997 -- turn out to be not a new remaster at all but, instead, are derived from the very 1997 remaster those people so derided. And that would be the case whether the delivery format was DSD, 24/96 Blu-Ray (as is supposedly the case with the new box set) or garden-variety Redbook.

That shouldn't be a surprise. Once the material has been well transferred to a high quality digital format, the only improvement possible is filtering and noise reduction. Taking a 4 track master from the 50s and transferring it to DSD as opposed to 24 bit isn't going to make any real difference. It's what they do with it after it's transferred.

Edit: I was just thinking, and it's possible that if they bumped their existing transfer up to a higher bitrate, they might be able to use filtering tools that are optimized for high bitrates. This would mean that they could finesse the noise reduction at the noise floor of the four track and achieve better results. Outputting the file at high bitrate would end up with pretty close to the same results as transferring the original tapes high bitrate then processing in high bitrate. The only difference would be the resolution down around the noise floor. The normal volume range would be identical.

When I was doing sound restoration, I tried some of the tools at 24 bit, but they just worked slower- not better. But they were probably designed for redbook.

Originally Posted by GrosseFugue

Jack Lawson from Music Web hails the new CD/SACD hybrid remaster from the Japanese label: Esoteric. http://www.musicweb-international.co...SD90021-34.htm
It makes my mouth water! I would LOVE to have this. But it costs $800. Also I'd have to invest in an SACD player to really get the most out of it.

H

People who buy a good Blu-ray player will often get SACD capability thrown in essentially for no extra cost. I bought an Oppo BDP-93 player for $499 last year, and it plays SACD, as well as CD, DVD, Blu-ray and a bunch of other disk types.

To my ears, SACDs are sometimes warmer sounding that CDs. Many will play in 5.1 or 5.0, which can provide a transforming experience. Many remasters from the past were recorded in three channel, and appear on SACD in 3 Channel, often with increased clarity.

Your CD or DVD or BD player has to break sooner or later, so please consider a new player that will do all of these plus SACD!

All Sony Bluray players do SACD now. You can get one for a hundred bucks.

Originally Posted by bigshot

All Sony Bluray players do SACD now. You can get one for a hundred bucks.

I thought Sony had started taking SACD compatibility out of its Blu-Ray players recently.

Anyway, to take this completely off-topic, I have the Oppo BDP-93 (now replaced by the 103), and am quite pleased with it, not only for handling my collection of both SACD and DVD-Audio discs, but also for being able to read every disc I've thrown at it. I've made independent films in the past, and know a number of other indie filmmakers in the Seattle area, and one thing we have in common is that most of us self-distribute our films on recordable DVDs. The Pioneer universal player I used before going with the Oppo was notably finicky with DVD+Rs or DVD-Rs (and don't even get me started on the rewritable formats); some brands of discs it wouldn't play at all, while others it would play or not depending, I guess, on what mood it was in that evening. With the Oppo, I don't have to worry about this, as I haven't found anything yet it wouldn't play.

Pioneer used to be a good brand.

I like this Esoteric brand. It's laden with ironic humour. Just pointed out to an associate here, a power cord costing 1c short of $6,000.

http://www.elusivedisc.com/ESOTERIC-...fo/ESOP7P9115/

The response I got was, "Before you buy it, check how much it'll cost us to get the house re-wired to the power station with the same cable.

(At $4000/metre, that'll cost us nearly $1,000,000 to the step-down transformer. I hope it does sound different, if we have the conversion done!)

The 7N-PC9100 is Esoteric's Reference Power Cord incorporating the MEXCEL Conductor Technology. The MEXCEL Technology provides flat impedance response over an entire frequency range, even for the main power path! This results in the highest quality for sound reproduction

Yes. The frequency range of our power path is 50Hz +/- .01% approx (the approx being a fairly detailed calculation and measurement based on time interval comparison). So it's good to hear this power cable will give a flat response over that range. Nice.

Always read the Amazon review before buying!
http://www.amazon.com/AudioQuest-NRG...DateDescending

Perhaps everyone has already read it, but I did not see a link to a long review of the new Solti deluxe RING box by Paul Godfrey of Musicweb:
http://musicweb-international.com/cl...ti_4783702.htm
appended with a short but fairly detailed review of the remastering specifically, by Jack Lawson (whose review of the Esoteric SACD edition kicked off this thread). To skip to Lawson's review, scroll down about 3/4 of the way.

Jiggered EQ. Sell it to you again.

I have the Vinyl Decca set which I grew up with and also Das Rheingold and Die Walkure on CDs. The CDs don't even come half as much to perfection as the LPs and you have to hear the opening introduction, the conclusion of Rheingold and the opening electrifying passage to Die Walkure to understand what I am saying. Whatever the medium, the ultimate deliverer of the Ring is Solti and no other conductor can be put into that category. He is miles ahead.

Originally Posted by thesubtlebody

Perhaps everyone has already read it, but I did not see a link to a long review of the new Solti deluxe RING box by Paul Godfrey of Musicweb:
http://musicweb-international.com/cl...ti_4783702.htm
appended with a short but fairly detailed review of the remastering specifically, by Jack Lawson (whose review of the Esoteric SACD edition kicked off this thread). To skip to Lawson's review, scroll down about 3/4 of the way.

Interesting that Lawson finds the Redbook CDs of the new set to be "audibly superior" to the Esoteric SACDs he so gushed over a couple of years ago. I'm wondering how anyone who shelled out $700-$1.000 for the SACDs based on his rave review might be feeling about the new review?

Anyway, that got me off the fence and onto an Amazon pre-order. Supposedly, it will be here in a little over a week. I'll post my impressions when I've had the chance to check it out.

Well, the set showed up last night. I got number 169 out of 7,000.

Initial reaction: to paraphrase Donald Trump, "The set is huuuuuge. Huuuuuuuuuuge!" In height and width, it's about the size of an LP boxed set, but thicker than any such set I've ever seen -- 3 5/8" worth! More to the point, the set weighs a whopping 13.4 pounds. (I'll bet Amazon is ruing the day they offered me free 2-day shipping with my Prime account.) All I've been able to do so far is clear enough space on my LP shelving and manage to heave the set up there, still in shrink-wrap. I'll open it either later tonight or this weekend, depending on some other things I have to get done right away.

Hi all,

I am selling my Solti Der Ring Deluxe Edition. The CD’s, DVD and Blu Ray are flawless, never been played. Books are in great shape.

Here is why I’m selling: my initial set came with some aesthetic defects. But I just received my replacement and it too has similar issues. So apparently there is no such thing as a totally spotless-looking set.

Specifically, the set has some pages that are slightly rumpled, as if handled a bit too aggressively. Though I couldn’t understand why since it came shrink-wrapped. I can only surmise it happened at Decca’s factory, sometime during its “assembly.”

Also, the covers of the Libretti & Ring Resounding books have a few scratches on them. My replacement set also came with scratches.

I can be very persnickety when it comes to fancy items like this. You yourself may not have any issues at all.

I have enclosed pics of the issues.

In short, I now have two slightly-less-than-perfect-looking-but-Brand-New Der Rings and am selling one.

Again, I want to emphasize that the CD’s, Blu Ray and DVD are all PRISTINE. And the problems are purely in appearance and in no way “major” or “big.”

So if you are alright with that, then this should be the deal of the century for you!

I will be putting it up on eBay in the next few days for the fixed price of $100, plus a $10 handling charge. You can choose the shipping option. I highly recommend media mail, it’ll be around $10 to anywhere in the contiguous US. Total: $120. (Overseas shipping, I’m afraid, will be prohibitive.)

On the other hand, I'd be happy to make a deal if you want to purchase now. I'd actually prefer not to deal with eBay and save the listing cost.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to IM or email me.

Thanks!

PS – You can read all the gushing reviews and details of this set at these links:
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Wagner.../56588/#Review
http://www.musicweb-international.co...ti_4783702.htm
http://www.classicstoday.com/review/...-deluxe-style/
I will add my own superlatives and say the remastering has fantastic dynamic range and detail, despite me only playing it on my bookshelf and factory car systems. I can only imagine how good this will sound on a truly high-end system! Blow your roof off!