@Antoine, @Confused, I've skimmed through about 500 records in my digital collection. I did not hear in details of course because I would still be listening or else would have had to skip lunch, dinner, work, sleep and still probably wouldn't have finished before a few weeks.
Most records sounded OK now that I've enabled SAM (wow!). OK ranges from superb (recent recordings) to enjoyable (for older ones). I speak about the sound, not the emotions; although poor sound tends to ruin the emotions. How SAM can improve sound to this point is a mystery and maybe not in B&W's favor.
When I suspected issues with a recording, I turned to Qobuz to compare. The result was often in favour of Qobuz, but not always. Most striking was when Qobuz had a remastered version.
Here are the records that definitely did not play well:
The high point of the evening though was when I listened to Kathleen Ferrier recording of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder on Qobuz. It's been remastered. And it's brilliant. Although at first you think not because they've NOT hidden the noise, compared to the earlier CD release. So you first think: what? how terrible. But then you hear she sing and it's a completely different experience from the CD. Less bass, more air, more emotion.
If you've missed this release, hurry!
Most records sounded OK now that I've enabled SAM (wow!). OK ranges from superb (recent recordings) to enjoyable (for older ones). I speak about the sound, not the emotions; although poor sound tends to ruin the emotions. How SAM can improve sound to this point is a mystery and maybe not in B&W's favor.
When I suspected issues with a recording, I turned to Qobuz to compare. The result was often in favour of Qobuz, but not always. Most striking was when Qobuz had a remastered version.
Here are the records that definitely did not play well:
- Bach partitas by Milstein: the highs tend to be clipped (CD), the Qobuz version is mildly better
- Chopin ballade #1 by Samson François: both CD and Qobuz sounded terrible, a lot of digital artifacts
- Verdi Requiem by Giulini: the voices tend to merge in a distasteful sound, even on Qobuz
- Ysaye sonatas by Papavrami: the violon causes quite listening fatigue
- Wagner Parsifal by Karajan: I remember the trombones on LP to be sublime and so did the press think at the time. Definitely missing some chromatism in the CD/Qobuz version
- Debussy melodies by Dietschy/Cassard: the voice tends to be a bit harsh. I've heard it sound sublime in some system in the past (ah! yes, the past is always better, isn't it?)
The high point of the evening though was when I listened to Kathleen Ferrier recording of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder on Qobuz. It's been remastered. And it's brilliant. Although at first you think not because they've NOT hidden the noise, compared to the earlier CD release. So you first think: what? how terrible. But then you hear she sing and it's a completely different experience from the CD. Less bass, more air, more emotion.
If you've missed this release, hurry!
