Wow. So I’m not gonna read the other responses. I will after I write this because I am interested in others.
Here is my take. I think it’s system dependent. I find the eversolo plays really well w dsd as I think my direct stream does as well. I’ve got a ton of dsd and I think it just plays better w my system. Smoother. No digital edge. The a6 shows all the details and one thing I noticed with it is it shows immediate differences in an album if it is mofi / shm Japanese release / sacd / or 192/24. I continue to notice this w the a6 streaming into my dac. I always lean dsd.
From what I read online, only 1,000 official SHM-CD were made in Japan, more were made as fakes because the CD encoding is the same, just the packaging is different. Exactly the same data is written. The claim is better reading. That’s nonsense because about 25% data on a CD is parity and other error correction data. It is utterly impossible to impact sound quality because data on a CD is interwoven (i.e. it’s not sequential) and the actual data packets that encode sound are only reconstructed AFTER they are read or re-read. A ripper like those in an Innuos unit can read and error correct a full CD in 5 minutes. A CD has an error rate of about 0.1%, which is about 4 seconds of data over an hour, and it will be error corrected anyway.
So I’m not surprised SHM-CD was inconsequential, because unless a CD is completely trashed and packets are dropped it is impossible to hear the impact of error correction and it is the same data as the regular product. Even if pockets are dropped, you still won’t hear unless there are masses of them.
Honestly - I can say I’m not an expert or that knowledgeable about it. Just another one of the many so called improvements etc. they produce sacd as well. The outer sleeves have Japanese writing on them … so they must be better.
My mistake - the amount of error if data was not corrected is about 4 seconds in an hours of music. So if SHM removed all errors it would still be pointless.
Obi strips are another weird thing. I have four of them, two are Japanese recordings (McCoy Tyner and Yamash’ta & the Horizon), and two are by the Japanese jazz pianist Ryo Fukui. I don’t know why obi exist.
One of the not so secret secrets of audio and especially audiophile audio is that new formats are driven to a large extent to get people to buy multiple copies of the same music. It’s a complete con job. After SHM-CD failed, the guys at Universal Japan came up with “100% Pure Vinyl” - a new better type of plastic. According to Discogs, 26 of these were issued, almost all of which were jazz and rock standards that you would expect to grabbed by gullible audiophiles. Thankfully it also proved a waste of time.
I don’t know if it’s the material, or that it’s single layered, or if it’s the mastering, but all the SHM SACD’s I got does sound a little clearer and more resolution than the Acoustic Sounds SACD’s that I also have. Only problem is it is quite expensive at $60 a pop. And when I ripped the SHM to files, it sounds even better through my Esoteric transport than the orginal SHM SACD. Just like Donald, the ultra high quality USB cables didn’t hurt to achieve that result.
And back to my point waymanchen. the a6 shows differences between all recordings that is easier for me to hear vs my laptop jriver fidelizer rig. That was the point I was trying to make anyway
I don’t have vinyl, so for me, purchasing a newly made high quality dsd256 is worth it. My music player reads them from a usb flash drive and converts to analogue via internal dac, then outputs via xlr to my preamp. The 3 titles i mentioned above are among the best sounding music i have.
The limited comment on this SHM is that any sonic difference is because better masters are used. The SHM polycarbonate cannot improve sound quality.
It’s one of those fear factor things, because read errors are so low and get corrected anyway, but they want you to believe standard CDs have a high error rate to the detriment of the sound. (Not true and not possible.)
You don’t need DSD to get a huge soundstage, If it’s there, it’s in the recording and is also heavily dependent on speaker set-up. 16/44 PCM will give you the same soundstage.
In some genres the quality of tape to CD transfers was an issue and it is a good thing if better transfers are available.
For classical they are usually good and often excellent. There are good reasons for this. A lot also has to do with the original recording quality. DGG did their first recordings in the USA around 1972, they are extremely good and the versions on CD are also exceptional. An example is Mathis der Maler, Boston Symphony under Steinberg.
