I’m sorry but you’ve lost me. Not sure how this relates to my point about compression.
Of the transfer masters for distribution. DSD vs PCM. Your figures for CD at 16 bit and 24 bit PCM look similar… which suggests the tailoring undertaken for the CD distribution on its transfer master, was the same, other than downsampling/decimation for the hires PCM release.
Well, there’s the CD release from 2003 and the high res PCM release which I think was for its 20th anniversary in 2023. I would imagine they are different masters even if they look similar as there’s a 20 year gap. The Hybrid SACD is a separate release entirely with a DSD layer and PCM CD layer, both mastered by Ryan K. Smith for Analogue Productions.
Possibly a different distribution master off the original PCM transfer master for CD. The actual master, which is on analogue tape, was made by Sony by Vlado Meller.
I have since discovered Jack White wanted the CD transfer master of Icky Thump to sound hot and aggressive (which can mean pushed limited or ‘brick walled’) for artistic reasons by Sonic Solutions. Apparently however the vinyl transfer mastered more traditionally… whether that was because of limitations of vinyl I don’t know.
I am confident Ryan Smith will have created his transfers from the original two track analogue master by Sony… because I doubt there would be any other choice given how it was mix output recorded and mastered by Meller.
Mastered from the original analogue tape as it states below. Of course, 2 different mastering engineers can use the same tape and end up with 2 very different results.
Yep taken from the original two track master from the mix out…with a new transfer master (remaster) created for DSD from the main master. I suspect there will have been some eq optimisation and possibly some expansion for the DSD transfer etc… but that is speculation.
With two track masters, other than various multi band compression, and eq there is a limit of what you can do in terms of modifying the audio… as the channel, busses, and tracks are all mastered down.
The main master will be controlled and typically heavily influenced by the artist.. transfer masters less so as they are more about audio technicalities…though with the White Stripes Icky Thump album the artist specifically advised the effect of the CD transfer master.. to be hot and aggressive. No such direction for the vinyl master of that album…
I buy and download music I love to:
(i) try and help the artist earn a living
(ii) try and help the environment in the touching belief that this has lower carbon emissions over the years
Is two fact or fantasy?
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Not sure if anyone has done an environmental audit on streaming vs. CD vs. LP vs. download. Server farms use vast amounts of energy and I guess are bad if you use one to repeatedly listen to the same music compared to a one-off purchase.
LPs use PVC, CDs are polycarbonate, which both involve nasty chemicals etc. etc.
There’s no easy answer.
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You must be careful compressing SACD-masters due to issues with the noise-shaping used. SACD will distort your high frequencies much easier than normal CD.
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I owned the big Sony SACD 777ES with the sliding draw top for around 15 years but nearly always preferred straight CD to the SACD version when I did a comparison on the Sony. On top of that a Naim CDP555 easily outperformed the Sony using CD, so ended up selling the Sony. I will say that the Sony was a lovely piece of engineering and craftsmanship that weighed more than the Naim CDP!
Yes, and the vinyl sounds terrific, much better than the CD (Icky Thump) in my opinion. Curiously, Jack White went in the opposite direction for his first two solo albums but then went back to a loud, compressed sound with his later albums. It’s his choice, of course, just frustrating for those who like to control the volume themselves through their amplifier.
That’s my approach too, in the hope it does some good on both aspects. I will stream things, mentioned on here or heard on the radio, where I wouldn’t just take a punt on the CD, meaning that artist at least gets something. And if I stream multiple times then I often buy the CD. I sometimes buy pre-owned CDs from charity shops on the basis that the plastic is already in existence, but that does not help the artist.
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Please excuse my ignorance but what is Nas?
The thing is my favourite music isn’t static and unchanging either. It’s not like you could ever be short of things to listen to that you would enjoy.
A library of favourite music made sense when expensive physical media was the only alternative to the tryanny of DJs and radio producers control of the airwaves. Those days are gone and they ain’t coming back.
I really like(d) Michelle Shocked - resolutely unavailable on streaming services - yet I hardly ever play my local files/CDs.
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Well, a library of favourite music is very much indeed key to musical enjoyment for me! Yes, it can be nice to find new music, though I don’t find it particularly easy to find new things that I like, whike there is music that I will always want to go back to and want to be able to play whenever I want. And it may not all be available on online services, and online services may not always be available…
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I have 297 tracks in playlists created from Tidal Daily Discovery and Qobuz weekly Q over the last 3 years. Less than 10% are by artists already in my library and none are tracks on albums I already own.
Tidal is 10 tracks per day and Quboz 30 per week. So these playlists are less than the top 5% of the tracks presented to me in this way. There is some brilliant music in there which is easily the equal of anything in my pre-existing collection.
Different strokes……
Different strokes …. As you say.
The Wire magazine and Free Jazz Blog are my main gatekeepers for new music.
I use Qobuz but I only really to listen to stuff I think I may like before buying a download for my local library. I never use playlists and only listen to albums.
It’s probably a throw back to the days before streaming when you had to buy records, cassettes or CD’s.
Each to their own.
I used to be an avid user of online music. I then realised that I was effectively doom scrolling through long playlists, etc & not really listening anymore. Gone back to cd 
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I haven’t a single playlist, and other than perhaps when having a party I don’t see what they’re for: I just pick albums to I want to listen, or on rare occasions individual tracks that I fancy at that moment
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