Miles Davis SACD Box set by Esoteric

[mtroo]

With the code “music10” at musicdirect, the cost is $225 delivered.
Ordered mine tonight.
Thanks for the heads up

[docmd2010]

That's awesome that you guys got this too! I'm gonna pull the trigger soon! Thanks tim for the heads up!

[Weirdcuba]

Really great productions of this music. Has become my reference set for these pieces.

[scirica]

Ugh. Must...resist...

[SCAudiophile]

Resistance is futile 😎!

[rnrmf1971]

For these Esoteric box sets, i try to tell myself that these can’t be as good as other re-releases that use the actual masters to work from. But the reviews are pretty favorable elsewhere, too.

[mtroo]

The SACD’s arrived last week. They have been downloaded to the Silenzio and they sound amazing. Not sure they’re better than some of the vinyl releases, but they sure do sound amazing. Well worth it.

[SCAudiophile]

Originally Posted by mtroo

The SACD’s arrived last week. They have been downloaded to the Silenzio and they sound amazing. Not sure they’re better than some of the vinyl releases, but they sure do sound amazing. Well worth it.

Can you play the SACD back natively? They sound amazing and as good as vinyl versions I have heard IMHO....

[Boogaloo]

Since Esoteric has never had access to master tapes for their SACD reissues (as confirmed by their mastering engineer years ago), I assume these SACDs were made from the early 2000s Sony DSD transfers.

Of these titles, the "Sketches of spain" Sony SACD sounded awful, thin and bright, like the Miles/Gil box set. The later MFSL SACD transfer of the album has a much more natural sound.

The other Sony SACDs of these titles sound quite good. "Porgy and Bess" had so far only been released on SACD in Japan.

[rnrmf1971]

Originally Posted by Boogaloo

Since Esoteric has never had access to master tapes for their SACD reissues (as confirmed by their mastering engineer years ago), I assume these SACDs were made from the early 2000s Sony DSD transfers.

Of these titles, the "Sketches of spain" Sony SACD sounded awful, thin and bright, like the Miles/Gil box set. The later MFSL SACD transfer of the album has a much more natural sound.

The other Sony SACDs of these titles sound quite good. "Porgy and Bess" had so far only been released on SACD in Japan.

I like a number of the Sony Miles Davis,myself. I wound up getting most of the early releases (99-02).

I doubt that the Esoteric releases come from Sony's DSD transfers.

It is assumed, in their other releases, that Esoteric used archived PCM "masters" that the record label provided to them.

In effect, they convert PCM to analog audio for their "mastering," and then convert it back to digital (DSD and CD).

Esoteric says this about it on their site:
"The criterion of re-mastering is to faithfully capture the quality of the original master. ESOTERIC’s flag ship D/A converters, model D-01VU, Rubidium master clock generator model Grandioso G1 and ESOTERIC MEXCEL interconnect cables and power cords, were all used for this re-mastering session. This combination of highly advanced technology greatly contributed to capturing the high quality sound of the original master." " The reissue of historical music masterpieces by ESOTERIC has attracted a lot of attention, both for its uncompromising commitment to recreating the original master sound, and for using hybrid Super Audio CD (SACD) technology to improve sound quality."

Esoteric advertises that they use their flagship D/A converter (note that it isn't an A/D converter) from 2010-2011 in the mastering chain. I find it interesting that they don't use a more recent product, which must speak well to the musicality of the D-01VU.