Two Michael Jackson CDs arrived from Japan yesterday, two older masters of Thriller and Off The Wall, with pre-emphasis. I was stunned at how bright and trebly they are, compared them to my 1982 Thriller vinyl and a decent OTW vinyl, and they’re definitely very crazy bright to listen to. It really sounds like the CD player isn’t de-emphasizing them, which is strange. I could probably live with them. Maybe I’m too used to hearing the modern compressed remasters on streaming?
Those early Japanese CDs can be really bright if played on modern CD players without de-emphasis. Straight rips don’t help either as you still need a way to apply de-emphasis. What I do is for those few discs with pre-emphasis I rip using iTunes which can apply de-emphasis to the ripped file. Luckily it’s a rare thing, so I think I only have about 6 discs in my entire collection of thousands that have it. I’ve also read that dBpoweramp can now apply de-emphasis to rips. As for the Star, I don’t know how or even whether it deals with pre-emphasis - probably a question for Naim support?
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I’d be surprised if pre emphasis is not being applied…many discs from the. 80s and 90s used it, though less common now, but is part of the CD RedBook standard, that all audio CD players should follow.
Older digital masters from the 80s did often sound thinner, and used often more primitive compression.
New masters often use far more sophisticated compression and multi band compression, that can make tracks bouncy, and full bodied.
Going back to pre emphasis … if should be noticeable if not applied, but it shouldn’t be extremely noticeable.
Another consideration is that some older Japanese digital masters (from the. 80s and 90s ) were renown for their brightness, compared to European and US masters.
Edit…it is also possible the CD is part of a faulty production, such that the pre-emphasis attribute has not been correctly set in the disc TOCs…it seems this this occasionally happens… it might be worth checking with a ripper like dbpoweramp and checking its log file for a rip.
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Have you been able to check it actually has the pre emphasis enabled for the tracks you are listening to?
Worth doing to help prevent chasing ghosts.