Recorded in a Church close to Buenos Aires Argentina, pressed in Haarlem, The Netherlands shipped to AM Records, California, stored in Japan where 2 of 12“ 45 RPM vinyl, one in red and the other in black, and the CD are ordered.
Now this magnificently recorded music is back in The Netherlands.
Testing my 40 years old Thorens TD 105 and Yamaha Blu Ray CD capabilities. To all High Enders out there: The music and recording makes the primary difference. What a listening experience!
He’s a great guy making fantastic recordings and cover quality. His recordings are remarkable not only given the fact he does most in PCM, only some DSD and the vinyl also from those digital files.
I had never heard this music before till I watched an on line review of equipment where they used the Nublado 12“ 45 rpm.
The music struck me. These artists can play their instruments so controlled that every sound is pure and that in a rhythmic fashion.
The cover art is indeed art, one of the main reasons I still love to spin the discs.
Roon can not reach that experience. I mean the communication with Todd, the way it is packed, the covers carefully wrapped in perfectly fitting plastic sleeves that can be opened and reused again, the truly beautiful cover art, Japanese sleeves for the vinyl, the quality of Music and Sound, just everything breathes passion and art.
The fact that Dutch government found another package to raise tax on, plus administration cost, just reminds me that the way our government saved thousands of jobs during this Corona crisis does cost money. As long as it‘s reasonable I should be happy to contribute.
The good thing is that it allows me to compare the different technologies, vinyl, CD and maybe someday with a new living room system the 24 Bit 96 kHz copy of the master that is also for sale.
I trust that he proved that the PCM vs. DSD discussion is academic.
I have Blue Coast records DSD recordings as DSD.
Also I own a Rolling Stones vinyl record based on DSD mastering by Gus Skinas. They sound also absolutely fantastic.
Bottom line: it is the art of music and recording.
I am convinced that a DAC needs to be capable to play all those formats.
There are many good DAC‘s and streamers out there that offer it all. Don’t compromise your self and narrow your music choices down due to limitations of your audio chain.
Would love to get my hands on the original tape (or the copy they were given by MA) once!
As a -very average, borderline mediocre I may add- keyboardist, I have taken clinics (lessons) from Mono Fontana in the past. And even cooler, I live 5’ from Pedro’s house here in BA
Todd says he usually doesn’t master any of his recordings they are published as recorded. So if you buy the resolution he recorded in, you have the work master.
Which is perfect. This high res protection nonsens of SACD’s has contributed greatly to Sony’s failure in growing the format and with it it’s own record label. If people could play that DSD layer with any player, they would have sold millions of drives and many more discs. They thought they were so big they could take the world market. Look at Sony Audio equipment now. They screwed it up, not only for them self.
I am planning to buy Sierá Una Noche’s Secunda in 24 bit 176.4 KHz as download from MA Recordings.
That full album is on YouTube in extremely good quality.
Not that I use YouTube for listening as it doesn’t pay the artists but without the YouTube publication I would have never heard samples that would make me want to buy it.
The sample player on MA Records WEB site doesn’t work with Apple Safari.
Linn are not promoting DSD because it does not fit into their all digital DSP EXAKT concept. DSD can not be processed by DSP cross over, room correction equalizing.
The only way DSD makes really sense is convert to analog and stay analog all the way through to your speakers. Or if you are like me and don’t want to be limited by formats.
The Buchardt active speaker concept equally with room correction, similar to Linn’s EXAKT, except that you can do it yourself is very attractive, if it sounds right, I right in my even accept the extra A to D to A conversion even though I would have a DSD source.
I would compare them with the all the way analog Abacus active speakers that offer filters that can compensate for the room characteristics, albeit more limited than the possibilities DSP’s offer.
But Abacus counter with state of the art analog stages.
It remains to be heard whether the Buchardt DSP power with less costly electronics actually beat the high quality discrete analog filter and amplifier stages and interfaces of the Abacus.
Linn made the decision to drop recoding in DSD about 10 years ago, long before Exakt. I bought one of their streamers in 2009 and neither of those that I owned (I had the Majik DS and upgraded to the Akurate DS) could process DSD. Only in the last few years have they enabled DSD in a few of their players.
The Sony policy has always been that the decoder can only provide an analogue output so, as you say, digital systems can’t comply.
I listened to La Segunda on Qobuz. Pleasant enough, but not worth €80 delivered for 63 minutes of vinyl, however audiophile.
p.s. Think I have the same floor tiles in my kitchen.
La Segunda is 40 US$ when you buy and download from MA Records site, which is worth it.
EUR 80 is indeed a lot. But I had to pay US$36 on transport and EUR 27 on VAT and import fees for my package from Japan.
The package I now have is reference material to evaluate equipment that I intend to buy. It is very hard to find the same superb recording on vinyl, CD and high res digital that is also fun to listen to.
You could get all the vinyl from Dave Brook in the UK. He’s a 100% guy, I’ve bought plenty from him over the years, he trades as MCRU (a PS Audio dealer) and Vinyladventure. Probably €10 P+P and no tax or duty. https://www.thevinyladventure.com/shop/?filter_brand=ma-recordings
La Segunda is £65 + £6 P+P, so £71, about €80 delivered.
Thanks Steven. I was referring to the fact that I now have Nublado on vinyl and CD and soon as high res files.
The Segunda download from MA Records is 40 bucks. I like that music and record too, but having Nublado as a referenc in different formats is good enough for me.
It was fun communicating with Todd Garfinkle, and ordering the package directly from him. He is a nice guy and gave me some good background information. It is worth the effort buying from him (MA records).
My main source is https://www.purepleasurerecords.com
The provide all the details of the source and mastering on the web page for each product and there is no premium compared to newly recorded issues. I have no desire to speak to the recording engineer!
The main issue is that they issue lots of music I like and my elder son buys from them as well.
US$40 is lot for a 24/96 digital download. Linn and Hyperion downloads cost me less than half that, £15 (about $18) for a 24/96 or 24/192 download respectively, and their recordings are superb.
This is my argument about audiophile recordings pricing, and it’s not like they paid for studio time. It was recorded in some deserted building in the middle of nowhere.
I have to damp your enthusiasm a bit from my experience. Purepleasure in my experience is the „worst“ sounding of the high quality labels like Analogue Productions, ORG, Impex, Speakers Corner etc. etc. But certainly better than those others releasing from CD masters.
Differently than the better ones I mentioned, reissues of Purepleasure mostly also sound worse than the originals while it’s mostly the opposite with the better reissue labels.
Purepleasure tell, they use „the best available source“. This can be true, because it seems it’s not always the real master available for them.
I still have several of their reissues and sold several of their not good ones. Finally I really just liked the few Steve Hoffman mastered ones. They seem to have been from original masters.
