1st impressions of the JPN 2-Track, 35DP-4 (Wish You Were Here)

Kevin
give me a moment and I will find the thread-"Horrid" will be my interpretation, but it certainly wasn't pleasant. Ok-maybe a tad over the top..but I respect Jerry's view.

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=2166838&postcount=4
I like the blackface its certainly doesn't have the deep fat fryer sizzling away like the silver face ( again hyperbole -exaggeration for effect).

In fact can we strike "Horrid" from the text-a mere exaggeration on my part (but I knew someone didn't like it)

 

There`s a sealed copy of the mastersound longbox on ebay at the moment. Unfortunately it passed my bidding limit some time ago...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...MEWA:IT&viewitem=&item=230083195770&rd=1&rd=1

 

That's an outrageous price, IMO. Got mine in EX+ condition for $70.

 

A private auction? Shills would be my guess. There is no way that CD is worth this kind of money.

Besides, look at that seller's feedback. Ouch. Too many ugly transactions there. Seems like the seller charges almost $40 to ship one CD to England too. Double ouch. Any international bidder is just looking for trouble here.

 

Totally agree-Private Listings always arouse my suspicion, there's something going on here.

Postage on the large Book /poster version is going to be on the expensive side, but really this is a $50/ $70 disc so don't spend more.

even this is cheaper- http://cgi.ebay.com/PiNK-FLOYD-Mast...goryZ307QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

...and thats not cheap

 

Wow! Makes me wonder what my mint, sealed promo copy would be worth! I notice the front packaging seems to be missing the white "20-bit Digital Transfer..." sticker too, so mine must be worth MUCH more!!!!!!!!

 

I finally struck gold.

...And at a good price.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280077458407

 

WOW you certainly did-I just love the description from the seller

Odd and bizarre CBS Japanese import issue of this CD. Even though the printing on the disc itself lists the songs as being indexed individually, they're not! All the songs from side one are on one track and all the songs from side two are on one track. The CD only has two tracks!

That is brilliant-what a score Fumi

 

You should buy all forum members a drink for this score!

 

That's an incredible deal! Take that all you eBay naysayers!

 

For those of you who own this disc have you run it thru Tau Analyzer or Audiochecker? The reason I ask is I picked up this disc on a certain site and upon checking it in the above applications it shows up as MPEG. I know that this is fairly common for some of the early Japanese discs. I think one of my Japanese pressed PF cds comes up as MPEG sourced and I know my Japanese 1st pressing of Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast comes up as MPEG sourced. Just curious how the real pressing of the 2-track WWYWH shows up.

 

That's a great description of the item. "Odd and bizarre"

 

I would only call the 2-track WYWH "odd and bizarre" if I'd never heard it.

I can do this for you. I'll use Tau Analyzer and post back tonight ot tomorrow.

 

The Tau Analyzer read my Black Face DSOTM as MPEG sourced--a pressed disc...is there any significance to this, or are we just dealing with a quirky program that may alarm people by indicating that some of their CDs are MPEG sourced?

 

What does "MPEG sourced" mean? That the CD in question was potentially sourced from MP3s? If that is the case, I think the program is making assumptions based on the frequency spectrum. A couple of older CDs do not have any frequencies over 20 KHz, and this characteristic is also typical for MP3 sourced CDs, but that does not mean that those older CDs will sound like MP3s.

 

I think you're right. I have since deleted this program, but it seemed to make these determinations based on the frequency rolloff which is diplayed in a spectrograph later after running the test.

 

GREAT score! Glad a forum member got that!

My search continues for this...

 

I used to have another program that tested wav files for lossy/losslessness, but accidentally deleted it a few months ago.

The only time I would ever use it for a CD that I bought here or on eBay would be if I suspected it was fake. I can do the test on my WYWH disc, but I would not expect it to show any mpeg source. We'll see. It's great if anyone can find one of these though. Enjoy!

 

22.05kHz.
And no "rolloff", brickwalled.
22.05 x 2 = 44.1
Hence:
16/44(.1)

 

As I stated above, I'll only use Tau Analyzer for CDRs that I suspect many have lossy sourcing. Yes, it showed as MPEG, but it does use information from the spectral analysis and frequency analysis. There were no lossy sourced CDs in 1983. This just shows the limitations/problems with the software.

 

Thank you Rick! As I stated I do not have a true pressed WYWH 35DP-4 just a d/l version put to CD-R and it showed as MPEG sourced but I did not believe it was lossy sourced. I do have some early Floyd from Japan that shows up as MPEG and they are factory pressed. I still plan on buying a factory pressed WYWH 35DP-4 provided I can find one at a reasonable price.

 

The MPEG 'conclusion' by the Tau Analyzer program is worthless here.

The good news is that, as the most recent person found, you can find these discs on eBay. I'm finding that there are several people who just don't know what they have or are selling. Persistence is the key here! I've been fortunate enough to find the CDs I've wanted even though it's taken months. It's amazing that someone found this version at $11!

 

I made a small adjustment to my system just the other day that made a huge improvement in the resulting audio, so I went back and listened to the MS Gold and the 35DP-4 again.

To make a long story short, the 35DP-4 still sounds as if it's lacking in the low end, but what I get from it is a sense of space and separation--more so than the MS Gold, even though it is audibly a few gens away from the source.

The Mastersound has more refined detail and power, and I have to assume this is what the Sax/Guthrie team intended. I was describing it as "fierce" before, but since the resonance in my system has been smoothed out between 6-7k I can hear more deeply into the mix now, and I find this disc much more enjoyable. Yes, you can hear that those peaks are a little loud, but I found out it's the system that will determine whether or not this gets in the way of the music.

It doesn't look like my opinion has changed much, but the fact is that I can enjoy both of these discs now, where before I would have just said I wasn't satisfied with either one. The Mastersound is still my top pick though, if I had to choose just one. The 35DP-4 is nice to have for it's extra breathing room, and if you can get it for the price that fumi did then it's a no brainer. I wouldn't put it in the same class as Dave's Holy Grail of Dark Side though.

It goes to show how these comparison threads always need a YMMV disclaimer before them: it's amazing how just one variable in a system can change everything.

 

Very good post GP! I have felt this way myself that in the end it all comes down to the system you are listening to the CD in. I am finding out that with the WYWH DP35-4 and DSOTM "Holy Grail" that I have, both CDs employ Pre Emphasis and if I listen to both of these CDs in my main system in which I use an NAD C542 CD player they sound like they have a veil over them. I have had to burn those CDs without Pre-Emphasis for listeing with my main system however in every other system I 've listen to those CDs in such as my truck I've needed the Pre-Emphasized CD as they have sounded very bright. FWIW I like both the 35DP-4 and the Mastersound about the same. They both have their merits, oddly I don't prefer one over the other.

 

I thought discs with Pre-Emphasis would actually sound less veiled, and too bright, on modern cd players like the C542.

I have an NAD C542 also and recently asked NAD about it's handling of older cd's with "Pre-Emphasis."

There reply? "Turn the treble down." That didn't sit too well with me.

What program are you using to burn copies without the Pre-Emphasis? I'm on a Mac, I'm guessing you're on a PC? I tried iTunes with a couple of older, shrill discs, and the copies sound the same as the original to me.