Alice In Chains "Greatest Hits" SACD - the worst SACD ever?

Hi everyone,

On occasion, I like to relive the glory days of grunge from time to time, and I remembered seeing Core by STP on DVD-A and Alice In Chains on SACD and went to read reviews at sa-cd.net and amazon...boy am I glad I didn't shell out any moola for this one!

Anyone familiar with this supposed catastrophe?

Dan

 

I have it. It is compressed The 5.1 mixes are nothing special either. Although AIC is one of my favorite groups, this SACD does not get listened to very often at my house.

 

I have the "Core" DVD-A, and I actually prefer the stereo mix in Prologic surround over the dedicated 5.1 mix. The disc is a keeper for the video content, though.

 

I don't know if it is the worst
I think the Oasis (What's the Story) Morning Glory
or the Duran Duran - Astronaut are worse.

 

That Alice In Chains SACD I must say is one of the most horrible things I have ever heard. I never even was able to play it all the way through.

 

Wow, thanks for the warning! I'll stay away from those as well!

Any other bad apples in the HiRes community that we should know about?

 

I think the Oasis SACD gets more flack than it deserves. The 5.1 mix is ridiculous, yes, but the stereo layer is just fine. It is an improvement, however modest, over the redbook.

 

Their "Music Bank" Box Set from 1999 sounded terrific!
Very nicely done!

 

Dire Straits "Brothers In Arms" SACD and DVD-A. Great mix, nasty compressed sound.

 

Agree.

No reason for the label to CARE about those titles. Sad.

 

+1 on the Oasis. Sonic train wreck is the only way to describe it.

 

Kind of a shame since some of the original releases sound quite nice. Jar of Flies is one of the best sounding rock albums I have.

 

This is the type of thing that will destroy(ed) DSD/SACD's reputation. Why did they even bother with these?

 

Most of their catalogue sounds pretty good , Jerry's "Boggy Depot" and the Mad Season album sound decent too

 

100% agreement. Has anyone seriously compared the redbook cd to the stereo layer SACD on Oasis? I have and there is a clear difference between the two. I never listen to the redbook cd anymore. Part of the bad sound was basically baked into that album during the making of it. It will never be an audiophile masterpiece.

 

That's one of my "demonstration discs"
Beautiful sounding indeed; more here should be aware of it (but it's from the 90's and associated with the word "grunge"...)

 

This is the am old thread...but I have pretty much everything discussed. The AIC SACD is good, IMHO.

Not sure what you guys are running it through?

 

Just the compression and the sonics, that's all. If you could get over how it sounds, its fine.

 

I prefer the 5.1 mix of Man in the Box. It doesn't have this fake pseudo-arena reverb.

 

I've heard/read some pretty bad things about (the multichannel edition of) Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell SACD. Anyone?

 

I was curious about the Bruce Springsteen SACD "Live in NYC". To me the CD sounds awful, but I got my brother the SACD for Christmas last year (of course he hasn't played it yet), and when I go visit this year I'm going to make him play it, darn it! Am I in for a major letdown (and headache)?

 

A couple of the songs weren't mixed in 5.1. The multitracks were lost in a fire at Todd Rundgren's studio so they did some sort of electronic unwrapping and made a faux 5.1 mix.

The stereo layer sounds good.

 

I wouldn't say this is the worst SACD ever, but the 5.1 mix sure is confusing. It reminds me a bit of listening to music through Dolby Pro Logic II or SQ encoded quad material - half the time you're trying to figure out what the mixer intended so you're distracted from the actual music. It's sort of like 'ooh, did that guitar solo come from behind me? Oh, no...i was just closer to the rear speakers' type incidents over and over. By the end you just resign yourself that it's a big murky stew with no discernable soundfield at all. Couple that with anemic use of the center speaker, and missing overdubs on some of the songs ('I Stay Away' for one) and it's not really a demonstration quality disc.

 

Has anyone compared the stereo track of the Alice in Chains SACD to the CD? I haven't listened to either disc in a long time.

On a related note, Jar of Flies is my favorite Alice in Chains album, and the CD sounds great. "No Excuses" kicks a** on that disc.

Regarding the Oasis (What's the Story) Morning Glory? SACD, I stumbled upon a mint copy for $5 at Amoeba last year. It was mixed in a pile of used CD copies. I was glad to get it for $5. That's about all it's worth.

 

The "Music On Vinyl" release of Jar of Flies/Sap is most excellent.