WHO'S NEXT Japanese SHM-SACD

b. losing marbles


but "whatever works" is my motto!! I keep my system "on" and "playing", all the time. Gotta keep those little electrons active and out of mischief.

 

Down to 40 bucks new on Amazon - time to pull the trigger?

 

Buyer beware - that is for only 2 marketplace sellers. And one of those has a ridiculously bad 30% positive rating, and if you look in detail at their feedback it sounds like they don't have anything they are claiming to be selling!

Wouldn't surprise me if neither of them are actually selling the SACD/SHM but who knows, you could get (very) lucky, maybe their price is a mistake and they'll ship it without realizing it. Amazon itself is still selling it for $73, and all the other marketplace sellers have it for about $60 & over.


I just got my copy today in the mail btw!! (Bought it off ebay). Hoping to crank it up tonight & see what my own ears think of it.

 

Please make sure you share your thoughts. Inquiring minds want to know!

 

I popped for the $57 to get one on eBay last week...coming from Japan so it may be a while, but I'm excited!

 

This a tough one - I think it sounds great but is it worth $60 for an album I already have like 5 or 6 versions of (and used to even have more when I still had my LP versions)?

I sat in my listening chair and closed my eyes, listened to the entire SACD, not doing anything else like I usually do (reading/working on the PC/whatever). And I was amazed by what I was hearing. Total bliss. Thought I could hear stuff I never heard b4 (for example an acoustic guitar strum in WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN at around 6:30-6:40).

Then I did some comparisons with the Deluxe Edition and the Canadien Steve Hoffman MCA using headphones. And a lot of the stuff I had thought I was hearing for the first time on the SACD I noticed I could hear on the others too! So maybe I wasn't listening close enough the past 20-30 years.

I think I can hear a slightly different "more detailed" overall sound with the SACD, especially with the drums, but the difference is so minimal, I dunno if it was worth the cost of this SACD.

Note that my ears aren't the greatest though, too many live concerts and loud guitar playing in my daze. Also note that the issues that mean a lot to some folks here like flat transfers with no EQ, trying to get same sound as their vinyl used to be, is not something I care about or would ever notice, so if this release nails that, I would be overlooking that aspect.

Before hearing Who's Next I was tempted to buy Wishbone Ash's Argus SHM SACD since I really love that album too but after hearing WN I'll pass. The difference is not that drastic an improvement to blow me away. Although a lot of that decision is based on my own finances though, with $60 a release being too much for me to justify it.

 

FYI, I ordered mine a couple days from one of the vendors on Amazon who had this for 40 bucks. It arrived today. Not a scam

 

Wow, that's awesome!!!!!!! Wonder what the story with that was.

 

What a deal. I wonder how they are able to sell them so low. I feel like a idiot for paying $60 bucks.

 

Hey, could you tell us which seller came through for you at $40? I have a friend who might like to get this.

I see 2 sellers with it for $40 - SoundSourceCDs (with only a 33% positive rating and numerous comments that they basically have nothing that they claim to be selling) and Fufillmentcity with a decent 99% rating.

I'm gonna guess you got it from Fufillmentcity???

Also perhaps that Fufillmentcity might be using automatic repricing software on their stuff on Amazon to keep up with lowest sellers (they have it for $39.98 and SoundSourceCDs "has" it for $39.99). Many Amazon sellers use software to adjust their prices to be 1 cent lower than the lowest seller. I bet SoundSourceCDs came along and bogusly put their listing up for $39.99 and Fufillmentcity then beat their price by a penny - and are losing like $15-20 on this!!! Just a guess. Or maybe one of these guys bought a ton at the CDJapan buy 4 get one free thing last year, so they can afford to blow them out at a lower price. In any case, folks that don't have this might want to pounce now before it is too late!!!!

 

I got mine from Fulfillment City. What was funny was I put it in my cart a day before as a placeholder because I wasn't sure I wanted to buy it and I think it was 50 bucks then. I went to buy a few other things the next day and I noticed the price had dropped to 40 so I went ahead and bought it.

 

Nothing to feel bad about man. Folks have payed more than that for the 1st Japanese CD pressing and the MFSL Gold.

This release beats them all.

 

So has anyone here pulled the trigger on the "Songs in the Key of Life" SHM?

 

Thanks for the heads up & big congrats on your find! I call that a Bargain - etc

 

Heads up for the (too late) bargain hunters - FullfilmentCity is back up to "regular" price on this for like $58. I still think they pricematched/beat that other seller (with the horrible quality rating, who I would bet anything doesn't even have this for sale) & let it go to Spitfire at $40 by mistake.

As a seller I once made a mistake like that - even worse than that actually. I put my mint condition Golden Earring 4 CD boxset called "Devil Made Us Do It" on the Amazon page for the 2CD version, not knowing there even was a 2 CD version - I thought they only made the version I had. The guy that bought mine got it for like 1/5th of the going rate, maybe even more of a discount than that. Plus I even had the entire booklet translated into English printed out that I included. Sometimes you lose, sometimes you win. I just hope it was a fan that bought it that got a great deal and appreciated his good fortune, rather than someone that turned around and sold it for like 5-10x what he paid me for it.

 

I've been grilling the SHM-SACD all week on all three of my systems and I've come to the same conclusion.

 

Losing? I'd check your marble bag.... They're all gone!

 

I have a pre-order on the SHM-SACD of "Songs", but it's not out till mid-February. By the way, I've been paying $52 dollars, plus shipping, for each of these, including my pre-order of "Songs In The Key Of Life", from a Japanese music dealer in California.

Chris C

 

I too have ordered it... Bummed about the delays, as it's holding up my GBYBR disc

 

I'm also awaiting the arrival of my SHM-SACD of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road". We will probably be reviewing it at the same time?

Chris C

 

I should qualify this statement.

What the SACD offers is a better view into certain parts of the performance, at the expense of some compression. The SH mastered made in Japan for USA double black ring CD has better dynamics. So my go to copy remains the SH mastering.

I'm not sure I will be forking out for any more of these SACDs. Although I would like to hear that John Barleycorn...

 

There's no compression on the SACD.

 

How do you know for certain?

 

While I wasn't at the mastering session, the mastering engineer explicitly said it was mastered flat.

Nor is there any evidence it was compressed.

 

The recording is compressed. The SACD sounds more compressed than the SH CD. Please pay attention.