Thanks Don. I neglected to mention the Sony CD's from recent times covering mainly RCA content but 
also Columbia content, that come from their DSD-SACD masters. In fact, the entire Living Stereo 
catalog that had been released on SACD was issued as a many-CD box set, using just the CD layers 
from the hybrid discs. I recall that the CD layers were down-coded from the 2-channel SACD layers. I 
would assume the same technology has been applied to any other Sony SACD content that had a 
2-channel SACD layer or was a 2-channel SACD in the first place.

In general, I don't think anyone should be shocked (shocked!) that CD remasters from the 1990s and 
especially from recent times sound better than early CD remasters. Compare early recorded-to-tape 
stuff to late-era mono (1956, say). Stereo LP cutting was kind of a "rare bird black art" in the 
early days and then it became common and good results became obtainable and repeatable. Nick Bergh 
demonstrated at ARSC how much recording electronics improved from the mid-20's just to the early 
30's. Technology advances, sound improves with each carrier/medium. It's a natural progression. I 
hate to admit it, but even download and streaming sound has improved from the earlier days (higher 
bitrates are typical, there have been tweaks to the perceptual encoding with later CODEC formats, 
etc). Many, many advances have been made in Red Book CD production, preparation and playback (here, 
mainly with attacking jitter more effectively and in mass-market-priced products) since the early 
days. It would be a total failure if it _wasn't_ possible to make a much better-sounding CD today.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Cox" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2012 6:28 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Who needs vinyl?


> On 01/06/2012, Tom Fine wrote:
>
>> One man's opinions ...
>>
>> 1. the early CD's "Great Performances of the Century" or whatever the
>> series was called, with the fake "newspaper front page" artwork,
>> generally sucked.
>>
>> 2. Dennis Rooney produced a good series of reissues in the late 90's,
>> Masterworks Heritage. I have those versions of Szell/Cleveland,
>> whatever was released in the series, and it is fantastic.
>>
>> 3. I thought much more care was taken and better quality resulted with
>> the Bernstein Edition reissues of the 90's, vs the earlier reissues.
>>
> A small series from 2006 labelled "Sony Classical - Great Performances",
> with a reddish-brown band at the top and a reproduction of an LP cover,
> are all DSD transfers and in my opinion sound good. The Boulez Debussy
> 2-CD set in particular is much better than the LP or earlier CD
> releases.
>
> I find the Bernstein Century releases quite satisfactory, and in general
> better than the earlier releases with watercolours by Prince Charles on
> the cover.
>
> Regards
> -- 
> Don Cox
> [log in to unmask]
>