Well it had to happen sooner later… a Tidal stream via Roon of the latest 2011 remaster of DSotM sounds better by a good margin than my earlier locally ripped CD master … first time ever an internet stream version of a master has bettered my local rip… interesting.
HI Simon, not disagreeing at all with your findings, but IMO the 2011 remaster is the best of the re-releases & re-masters of Dark Side
Interesting, from what I can determine, the one available to me via Tidal is from 1990. Different versions based on location?
Perhaps it was an MQA 
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Have you tried the 24bit/96kHz rip from the blu-ray in the immersion set? That’s what I run, and I’m curious how you think that compares…
I found that version too sharp on the top end, hard to listen too at volume.
Hi Mike, that could explain why it sounds best…
Perizoqui, no I have not tried and don’t own that version…
My CD rip, from what I can gather is the first CD version is too forward to in the upper mids, sounding a little steely and false, this seems to have been resolved in the 2011 remaster, a far more natural balance.
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I’ve yet to find a digital DSOTM I’m as happy with as the Harvest WYWH. Always a bit as you describe Simon.
G
I have two versions, yes I know its sad, but a mate has about 10.
One is a rip of the 2003 SACD CD layer. This was remastered by James Guthrie from the studio original master tape, previous CD’s were from 2nd generation tapes.
The other album copy I have is a Qobuz download of the 2011. This release was part of the Pink Floyd campaign called “Why Pink Floyd”. This was a huge undertaking of previously released, live & other unreleased material, 2011 DSOTM was re-mastered especially for Why Pink Floyd but I’m not sure from what master & who engineered it.
One of these dark nights I must run a comparison & keep only the preferred one.
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Bizarre, I can only find 1 copy of DSOTM on Tidal Hi-Fi, using any of the Naim App, IoS App and Mac App. Maybe it’s a regional thing?
That’s the problem with streaming services, you only get what they choose.
You need a NAS ;-D
Fortunately I have the CD ripped to my Core. I was interested in testing Simon’s finding of the streamed remaster, but alas, no, it’s not showing up in New Zealand.
There’s definitely something weird going on with Tidal. When I looked just now, on the Desktop app there were no copies of DSOTM, Animals or Wish You Were Here. Then I went out, and back into the Pink Floyd page, and they were there. There were no duplicates of anything (which makes a change) except for Endless River, and both of those were MQA. The Naim app Tidal input is different again, mainly because they have put the EPs and Live albums lists in with the Albums, but there are many more EPs listed here than in Tidal’s own apps, and now 3 copies of Endless River. All a bit of a shambles, really.
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Just to be sure we are all on the same page - the DSOTM release that Simon & I were talking about is “The Dark Side Of The Moon (Remastered Version)” Released on September 26, 2011 by Pink Floyd Records, not EMI or one or other of the usual recocord labels
It’s beyond me. One version of DSoTM, 3 versions of the Endless River which all seem to be the same.
There seem to be the regular and deluxe versions, both MQA, and a non-MQA version of the regular album, so not quite the same.
I wonder if Tidal are moving towards making the MQA versions the default, and only supplying the regular 16/44 version to non-MQA users such as Naim.
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running qobuz streaming for a while…I’m with you Simon- some records sound better than my ripped CDs!
Despite living in a Tidal/Qobuz/Spotify/Roon free zone this thread intrigued me.
I have a particular fondness of DSotM not only because it was the first Floyd album I bought but also because of the vivid memories of seeing it performed live back in 1974. I don’t normally collect duplicate versions of albums other than one vinyl & one digital and had always assumed that my Mobile Fidelity CD (UDCD517) of DSotM could not be bettered but the comments above persuaded me to break my habit and get a copy of the 2011 version. That CD arrived today, it has now been ripped on dBpoweramp, squirted over to my QNAP and beamed out via my 272 & yes it is most definitely much better than the MFSL version.
Thanks guys!
Next stop, a 2011 version of Meddle vs UDCD518
Mike
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How would they know who the non-MQA users such as Naim are? Would they be able to identify us by our account or by which device the file was aimed at?
Tidal doesn’t know, however you can control which version is selected from your application… so the Naim app can always select PCM encoded versions as opposed to MQA encoded version