MF Gold CD's

[frenchmon]

Well put Dean, I would agree with your take.

Hey have you guys tried many Telarc discs? I grabbed a handful tonight...Brubeck, Brecker, Chestnut, Peterson...good stuff.

I have a few Telarc and wont be buying any more...I hate the fact that you have to turn it up to get sound out. I know they have a special way of recording but I hate you have to turn it up more than other disc.

[poppachubby]

I have a few Telarc and wont be buying any more...I hate the fact that you have to turn it up to get sound out. I know they have a special way of recording but I hate you have to turn it up more than other disc.

So funny you mention that. I haven't found the Telarc stuff too bad. Infact one of the Oscar Peterson discs is quite loud.

The MO-FI on the other hand is similar to an LP or my NOS DAC. You have to crank it. Not a party disc. However the fidelity is second to none. Most evident is the acoustic bass which can be heard clearly. Each pluck and percussive sound are audible. So right away I can say the levels and seperation are indeed enhanced. For the most part I have enjoyed it.

However at 25/30 bucks a pop is another story. I bought mine used for $5 and clearly they missed the fact that it's MO-FI at the shop.

The whole experience has got me more curious about SACD.

[frenchmon]

So funny you mention that. I haven't found the Telarc stuff too bad. Infact one of the Oscar Peterson discs is quite loud.

The MO-FI on the other hand is similar to an LP or my NOS DAC. You have to crank it. Not a party disc. However the fidelity is second to none. Most evident is the acoustic bass which can be heard clearly. Each pluck and percussive sound are audible. So right away I can say the levels and seperation are indeed enhanced. For the most part I have enjoyed it.

However at 25/30 bucks a pop is another story. I bought mine used for $5 and clearly they missed the fact that it's MO-FI at the shop.

The whole experience has got me more curious about SACD.

Are your Telarc's SACD? Mine are. They give you a detailed explanation of how they recorded it in a church because of the sound. They tell you they use one mike to record, They say they center the mike out front of the musicians. They tell you, because of this one mike, you must turn up the volume.

[poppachubby]

Are your Telarc's SACD? Mine are. They give you a detailed explanation of how they recorded it in a church because of the sound. They tell you they use one mike to record, They say they center the mike out front of the musicians. They tell you, because of this one mike, you must turn up the volume.

No Redbook. I don't own an SACD player. Yes I am familiar with those mics, and that technique. The Cowboy Junkies used this style on Trinity Sessions and it has a quiet air about it.

It would seem almost a rule, more dynamics means a quieter recording. As compared to some of the obnoxious compressed recordings, I'll take it.

[frenchmon]

No Redbook. I don't own an SACD player. Yes I am familiar with those mics, and that technique. The Cowboy Junkies used this style on Trinity Sessions and it has a quiet air about it.

It would seem almost a rule, more dynamics means a quieter recording. As compared to some of the obnoxious compressed recordings, I'll take it.

Well they are transparent recordings especially through my SACD player. Its just a nag of mine...to have to turn it up.

[dean_martin]

So funny you mention that. I haven't found the Telarc stuff too bad. Infact one of the Oscar Peterson discs is quite loud.

The MO-FI on the other hand is similar to an LP or my NOS DAC. You have to crank it. Not a party disc. However the fidelity is second to none. Most evident is the acoustic bass which can be heard clearly. Each pluck and percussive sound are audible. So right away I can say the levels and seperation are indeed enhanced. For the most part I have enjoyed it.

However at 25/30 bucks a pop is another story. I bought mine used for $5 and clearly they missed the fact that it's MO-FI at the shop.

The whole experience has got me more curious about SACD.

Glad you mentioned the mofi play back levels. This is most notable on my mofi vinyl copy of Sonic Youth's "Goo". I have to turn this one up to high noon, but the music is smooth as silk. I haven't really noticed lower levels on LPs Murmur and Nevermind or on cds VU and Honky Chateau. My theory regarding "Goo" was that mofi crammed a lot of music on one LP and this may have required some tinkering with levels to get the right sound. Of course it's only an unverified, unconfirmed theory.

[Mr Peabody]

Seriously, though, who other than Frenchmon would really care whether your volume is at 7 or 9, that's why we have remotes. And, in this day where CD levels are so high and compressed to sometimes distortion I personally welcome the lower levels. It's a more proper level or Mo Fi wouldn't do it that way.

[frenchmon]

Seriously, though, who other than Frenchmon would really care whether your volume is at 7 or 9, that's why we have remotes. And, in this day where CD levels are so high and compressed to sometimes distortion I personally welcome the lower levels. It's a more proper level or Mo Fi wouldn't do it that way.

What!!!!! Hey Peabody...I remember when I was in your two channel room how you almost blew my ear drums....remember, you had me read your sound meters and they where off the charts. lol.... I know why you like remotes.

[Mr Peabody]

Good job, JM

[Woochifer]

I have a few Telarc and they have all been excellent. If you find any Sheffield Labs they have some good recordings as well.

Gotta be careful with the Sheffield CDs because of lot of them were made with two-track tapes that had a lot of background noise -- and this was intentional. Back in the day, Sheffield Labs specialized in direct-to-disc LPs, which were performed live in studio with the board feed going directly to the cutting lathe. Sound quality on the LPs was extraordinary because everything was done with no tape intermediary and no mixdown stage. An entire LP side had to be recorded in one take.

While the session played and the LP got cut, a backup tape was simultaneously recorded. This backup tape is the source for the CDs, and Sheffield was very indifferent about how the backup feed sounded, using noisy tape stock and no noise reduction. As a company, Sheffield was vehemently anti-digital, and their CD releases seemed almost purposely doctored to further that agenda.

People who hear them without a reference might think the Sheffield releases sound good, but their CD releases are a noticeable step down from their direct-to-disc LPs.

[emaidel]

I still have several Sheffield direct to disc recordings that I initially purchased in the 70's. Two standouts are Dave Grusin's "Discovered Again," and Thelma Houston's "Pressure Cooker." Both were all but played to death at trade and consumer shows throughout the late 70's, but to this day are knockout demo recordings.

MoFi has released three discs within the past few years that are also stellar examples of how to make a "classic" sound terrific: First, both "Slowhand" and "461 Ocean Boulevard" by Clapton have been released on stunning sounding SACD's. "Slowhand" sounded pretty good to begin with, but "461..." was a pretty awful sounding LP. I found it absolutely amazing how much better the MoFi remastered disc sounds.

Last year, MoFi released a gold CD of Santana's "Abraxas." Anyone who purchased the original CD of that work knows how really, really awful a CD can sound. The gold CD remaster is nothing short of amazing, and well worth the $30 price tag. I suspect that had MoFi relased it as an SACD it would have sounded even better, but I've certainly got no complaints with the CD!

[Mr Peabody]

I only have a few Sheffield Labs CD's but they are very good. One is sort of a various artist thing called Spies which we used as a demo disc. Another is James newton Howard & Friends which tracks from that CD were used in IASCA car audio contests. It's hard to imagine a company with a reputation for high quality recordings putting out something inferior on purpose.

I bought Abraxas remastered but it's not gold. I'll have to look for the Slow Hand, is the Mo Fi also a redbook?

[Woochifer]

I only have a few Sheffield Labs CD's but they are very good. One is sort of a various artist thing called Spies which we used as a demo disc. Another is James newton Howard & Friends which tracks from that CD were used in IASCA car audio contests. It's hard to imagine a company with a reputation for high quality recordings putting out something inferior on purpose.

Like I said, without a reference they will likely sound fine. But, you have to know that Sheffield had a very clearly stated anti-digital agenda. Listening to an A-B comparison of the LP vs the CD copy, the flaws become very apparent. I have a direct-to-disc copy of the James Newton Howard LP, and have A-B'd it against the original CD release -- it's no contest as to which one sounds better. The LP itself is reference quality, and the CD sounds good if you don't have the LP for comparison.

It's not hard to imagine that Sheffield would purposely stack the deck against its own CD releases if you recall just how fanatically devoted to the LP format Sheffield was during their direct-to-disc heyday. They were not just anti-CD, they were zealots against all forms of digital audio, period. The audiophile press at that time was also engaged in a holy war against the CD format, and the guys in charge of Sheffield were very closely aligned with those views, often writing editorials attacking the CD format in publications like The Absolute Sound. Sheffield's CD releases provided the smoking gun for those looking for evidence of the CD format's inferiority.

During that time, Sheffield's LPs were practically required listening in high end audio circles, and it shocked people when they heard the CD versions for the first time. Sheffield kept claiming that the compromised sound quality merely indicated the CD format's inferiority, but others accused Sheffield of purposely releasing shoddy CD transfers in order to further their pro-LP agenda.

My understanding is that latter "remastered" versions of Sheffield's CD releases were much improved, but the fact of the matter is that a lot of those original CD copies are still out there. So, it's buyer beware.

[Mr Peabody]

I'd love to hear that LP version. I bet it would command a price. Isn't it Sheffield that does the drum track CD, it is. You know that disc is really expensive. You know what's bad if Sheffield's CD quality is not on par, it is still better than most new CD's of today by a good margin.

[Woochifer]

I'd love to hear that LP version. I bet it would command a price. Isn't it Sheffield that does the drum track CD, it is. You know that disc is really expensive. You know what's bad if Sheffield's CD quality is not on par, it is still better than most new CD's of today by a good margin.

Believe me, the sound quality on the JN Howard LP is astounding. It's the first LP I reach for anytime I tweak with my turntable settings. I'm familiar enough with the playback that it will reveal any issues with my turntable setup.

All of Sheffield's direct-to-disc LPs now fetch a pretty penny because they're all out of print and not that many of copies of each title were pressed to begin with. Even with more LP titles coming out, direct-to-disc recording remains very rare because it's so hard to do.

The musicians have to do the entire session in two takes (one for each side), and if anyone makes a single mistake, they have to start all over. Imagine with a five-song album side, if someone flubs the fade out on the fifth song, that ENTIRE recording session gets thrown out. In addition, the board feed, the levels, the entire studio setup has to be done right -- nothing can be corrected later on during the mixing stage since there isn't one.

That Sheffield's CD sound good is just testament to how amazing a direct-to-two-track process can sound. Like I said, it's not that the Sheffield CDs I've heard sound bad, it's that they're don't sound nearly as good as the LPs and (at least for the first editions) seemingly intended to be that way.

Other direct-to-two-track recordings are out there. Obviously, recordings done before the advent of multitracking were done this way. I also recall several smooth jazz albums were recorded that way back in the mid-80s -- examples include Dave Grusin's Mountain Dance, Lee Ritenour's On The Line, David Benoit's This Side Up, and Bill Meyers' Images. I'm not sure if any of these albums are even in print anymore, but they were very popular for demoing non-classical music because they use amplified instruments. That Bill Meyers album is a particularly ambitious and elaborate effort with about 30 studio musicians in session.