A tale of two disks

[cwall99]

So, for my birthday, one of my boys gave me a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble so I could order some music (apparently, they don't sell hi-res audio formats in their stores).

I ordered Steely Dan's Gaucho on a 5.1 DVD-A and Edgar Winter Group's They Only Come Out at Night on a Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab stereo SACD.

Gaucho pops! It is such a great recording, I can hardly describe it. Great left to right imaging as well as front-to-back. Even better dynamics. It's one of the best recordings I've ever heard (at least on my modest system).

The Edgar Winters SACD.... not so much. After Gaucho, it sounded pretty dead and lifeless. I don't know if that's the fault of the original media the SACD was made from or what. Don't get me wrong, it still sounds pretty good, but more like the sound of a well-recorded CD than an SACD.

 

[bigaudiofanatic]

Nice littel review, I will have to check those cd's out or sacd's

 

[djreef]

So, for my birthday, one of my boys gave me a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble so I could order some music (apparently, they don't sell hi-res audio formats in their stores).

I ordered Steely Dan's Gaucho on a 5.1 DVD-A and Edgar Winter Group's They Only Come Out at Night on a Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab stereo SACD.

Gaucho pops! It is such a great recording, I can hardly describe it. Great left to right imaging as well as front-to-back. Even better dynamics. It's one of the best recordings I've ever heard (at least on my modest system).

The Edgar Winters SACD.... not so much. After Gaucho, it sounded pretty dead and lifeless. I don't know if that's the fault of the original media the SACD was made from or what. Don't get me wrong, it still sounds pretty good, but more like the sound of a well-recorded CD than an SACD.

I happen to own both and agree. I think the reason for the disparity is because of the timing of the recordings. Steely Dan recorded Gaucho well on into their careers, so they conceptually had a better idea of what was they were wanting to achieve, plus the recording experience and pedigree (they made a special effort making their recordings top shelf). Also, they had considerably more in the way of support from their label which allowed them access to resources that hadn't even been invented during the time of Winter's recording. Also given the recording is some years later the technology was, of course better from the recording all the way through to the mastering. Of course, recency doesn't necessarily have anything to do with recording quality, in general, but in this case I believe it does. Edgar just didn't have the pull this early on to make a real stunning recording. The performance rocks though, so I guess it's kind of a trade-off.

DJ

 

[cwall99]

I think you're spot on with your comments, djreef.

There's no question that the Edgar Winters Group disk sounds great, it's just that it had the dumb luck to get played immediately after Gaucho.

I'm actually taking the afternoon off work today because I'll have the house to myself and will be able to play both disks at a volume level that disks like these deserve.

I still remember the first time I heard the song Frankenstein. As a 9 year old kid, that synthesizer at the end totally freaked me out. Ever since then, I've wanted the album. Gee, it only took me 37 years to buy it. I'm sure it's worth the wait.

 

[Chatta]

The best disk from the Edgar winter group, is "The Very Best" album, one of the songs i like:

Frankenstein
Fire And Ice
and,
Tobacco Road