I too wonder if it is the mastering, as in re-mastered for the SHM-CD release. In my experience some SHM-CDs improve on previously released CDs and some do not. The Archie Shepp Impulse! series comes to mind as no meaningful improvement.
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Every time I see SHM, my mind re-arranges it to SMH, lol
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Was thinking of getting a DSD download to test/compare/experiment. This would be a good choice. Any others y’all might suggest?
The 3 dsd256 “albums” I mentioned above, but not sure whether you can use those to “compare” different versions, as different versions are most likely not available.
Discogs
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This one:
Buy the DSD256 and you get to download 6 versions from HDTT (3 x DSD, 3 x PCM). The Blue Note remaster is on Qobuz (24/96 and 24/192), along with 10 other versions.
HDTT are bad with sources. They say this is a pure DSD transfer from 15ips tape, but not where the tape came from. I doubt Blue Note / UMG just handed it over.
Just put microphone at speaker and record Qobuz stream, presto, then convert tape recording to DDS
But I don’t know how they do it
Just a brief note about the “pure vinyl” releases… Back in the day, Classic Records also experimented with clear vinyl, i.e., vinyl without the additive that makes it opaque or colored. I tried them to see what difference there might be compared to the standard black vinyl. There was an audible improvement in overall sound quality in my listening system – the clear vinyl was subtly quieter with bit more overall resolution and detail. (I hesitate to say “transparency” 
) Colored vinyl, in my experience, was always a sonic disaster. I stayed away from that.
Was the clear vinyl worth the hype? I decided, “No.” There was more difference from one batch of vinyl to the next given the quality (or lack thereof) of the vinyl pellets the plant was able to obtain. BUT, there was a difference from one CR release in black vinyl to the alternate release in clear vinyl.
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Rushton has many great recommendations on the HDTT DSD256. I really like Charles Mingus Ah Um DSF 256 too.
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good call. Would probably pick one that I’m really familiar with for comparison.
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Mirrors my experience as well, the traditional carbon black being my preference. Music Matters experimented with a cleaner vinyl, the name escapes me, but my copies are dead silent, the music jumps out of the grooves.
EDIT: Music Matters offered 45 RPM releases with a new quieter vinyl formulation, SRX series vinyl releases. Tone Poet more or less killed the Music Matters reissue program, and offers quality pressings at reasonable prices.
How does vinyl color change sound?
Agree, the cleaner, purer vinyl has always been the key factor to excellent sounding LPs in my experience.
The additives seem to create greater groove rush and noise, sometimes reducing the tracing of the needle in the groove resulting in a loss of fine resolution and transparency. At least, that was my listening experience. So, I chose to avoid the white, red, blue, multi-colored vinyl “speciality” releases after several experiments.
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That is right, not all SHM-CD releases are great. I had a few sounded disappointing. I could not even find where I put those anymore.
The Keith Jarrett SHM-CD releases were no improvement either, the original German vinyl trounces them sonically.
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fascinating
That’s funny.
So regarding different formats. Yes I agree they can all sound good depending on mastering etc. I have great sounding cd… listened to a tremendous 96/24 tonight … and also know of some great sounding 192/24. The dsd256 sounds really good to my ears as do many sacds. There is definitely a different ‘house sound’ w dsd in my opinion. And depending on system - will pick up on it or not. This is not to say that there are not any bad dsd recordings - as there are. I’m not that picky really. But since I gots ‘em … I play em and I have a tendency to like them more than not. I only have 2 dsd256. Both share the same qualities - but I am far from an expert there obviously.
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