I actually purchased 2 of these.... that included the LP... SACD version and the master files that they were produced with. Took them over to MikeL's place and had an afternoon of listening with others. ............. Waste of Money! Been trying to unload them ever since.........
I miss Tower records immensely, specifically the one on Sunset in Hollywood.
At one point they had a separate building across the street for classical only that was always busy.
I actually purchased 2 of these.... that included the LP... SACD version and the master files that they were produced with. Took them over to MikeL's place and had an afternoon of listening with others. ............. Waste of Money! Been trying to unload them ever since.........
Now for someone that is obsessive with the production of CD's, look no further than the late Winston Ma. We would sit in the studio for hours comparing different blanks.... different burn speeds.... and even different different batch #'s. I mastered 24 titles for FIM... 3 titles didn't make it into production because he didn't like the way the MAM-A "altered" the sound. I couldn't hear a difference.
Don't get me started on having to remaster 5 titles that he paid thousands of $$$ for (and a trips to Tokyo) because he didn't like the way they sounded when he played them back on his home system!!!!!!
Bruce, you wisely pointed out the difference between the quality of the physical cd blank (which I was referencing in my post) and the importance of the recording and mastering process. The highest quality cd, whether a crystal cd, SHM Platinum or UHQCD does not guarantee good sound. FIM produce some outstanding Ultra HDCD's with 32-bit mastering and 192kHz bandwidth.
Thinking briefly about remasters; there's only so much you can do with a turd of a recording, and often times its best left well alone. As Barack Obama said - "You can put lipstick on a pig...it's still a pig!"