Sounds right up my alley.
Me too. Excellent ideas.
Of which manufacturer and recording do you speak? If it requires an NDA, send me a message and Iāll sign it.
I only know what I wrote so far and that they will have 2 days to setup mics, which seems to be a lot. Canāt tell the manufacturer at this time, sorry, no releases from there so far. Just something to look forward to. Letās see if a piano recording is good for hearing those differences 
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Hi @Paul - very happy to hear of the planned SACD packaging improvements going forward - the Octave releases deserve better 
Are you still considering offering a ādeluxeā version that would include an SACD disc and a second disc with digital files akin to the initial Octave releases? I believe the current SACD-only product was driven by a desire to maintain the $29 price; however, I donāt think Iām alone in seeing value in having the second digital disc as in the past. I wouldnāt expect a ādeluxeā version to have the DSD256 files - just a return to providing the file formats originally included. My use case is to listen to the SACD via my PST when in my listening room but using Roon and my NAS to listen to the digital files elsewhere in my home. In my case, I would prefer a physical disc to just downloading given the option.
If a second SKU is not a good option, would you consider taking a poll to see how many SACD buyers would be willing to pay $XX (your call) to receive two-disc sets as in the past?
Just finished my first listen and Iām smiling!
Some great examples of bass in some very good music. I am particularly grateful for the excellent capture of double bass in āShepās Dreamā - in fact I extend my compliments to an overall wonderful engineering job.
As much as I enjoy synth bass (and I loved āTake What You Needā and āWorld Windā), Vol. 2 could explore traditional bass instruments more fully. Contrabassoon is a fantastic instrument, as well as tuba. Woodwind ensembles and brass ensembles can certainly be represented.
A fantastic start to the series, Paul - kudos to all involved!
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Welcome, @bassman23 !
Iām purely a 1-disc guy. Have no need for the data disc. I was OK with the Bass sleeve, but a jewell case sized one fits on the shelf better and is easier to locate (it has a spine that shows).
Still havenāt had a chance to play it at the level it demands as my wife hasnāt left me alone in the house for quite some time. 
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I know a small, high-end recording label that can set up microphones for a piano in 30 minutes.
This is a video of the studio recording of a track I used to use as a piano test track, a very clean sound (this is in Abbey Road). Iāve heard it performed in an equally dry music room.
Iād much rather listen to piano with this acoustic, instantly recognisable, a venue I must have been to hundreds of times.
Many live recordings are done here, for radio broadcast, online live stream and released as downloads or on CD.
When it comes to recording piano, as these two examples show, messing around with amplifiers and formats might have an extremely marginal effect compared to everything else in the mix, not least that Andras Schiff is playing the house Steinway rather than his Bosendorfer that invariably accompanies him. He doesnāt look happy and it doesnāt sound right.
I find some of this recording very good and some disappointing. Some of it feels as if musicians were told to use deep bass instruments when they really werenāt integral to what else was being done musically (tonally). The mainstream jazz pieces are a good example of this, being in the same key being the main commonality. And there are a couple of others where the deep bass is less a factor but when it does come feels forced.
I guess thereās a difference of creating a setup that doesnāt need add. mixing.
Maybe itās because there is probably less deep bass in real music than Paul thinks and so he had to improvise to do a bass-dominated CD. I used Harbeth for 7 or 8 years and the designer, Alan Shaw, is not that fussed and is probably correct that there is little information below 50hz. You can obsess about those few seconds or tracks when it is there. My speakers do 32db and the bottom end of a piano sounds fine to me. Bass is hugely influenced by speaker positioning anyway, that was obvious when my dealer set up my speakers.
Me tooā¦did not really think the pieces with electric bass were very good, āsonicallyā.
But this could be system dependent.
YMMV
Thatās called an audiophile sampler
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Iām speaking musically. How well my subs, which go down to the high teens/low twenties, handle it is beside the point. To me, musically, the deep bass on some of these pieces is artificial, imposed not organic or integral to them. Thatās also separate from how well I like the music and the performances.
@srevensegal Iām not sure that I agree about the low frequency info comment. Certainly, a double bass or a pipe organ has something to offer, and I find subs really do offer a more complete sense of sound generally (undertones). In this case, I agree that the very deep bass seems imposed for commercial (or ego) reasons. Then thereās another consideration: if oneās system can handle a pipe organ ably, shouldnāt it be ok with a jazz double bass?
I donāt disagreeā¦
My speakers at 32dB are fine for a double bass, which goes down to 40Hz. Bass tuba is about the same, contrabassoon goes down to about 30Hz. The lowest note on a grand piano is at 28Hz and in live performance it gets a bit mushy down that end of the keyboard. I donāt consider large pipe organs to be a realistic objective for most peopleās home audio, certainly not mine. Itās not music I like, although when Iāve heard large organs in churches or cathedrals they can be very impressive. I have a REL S/812, itās switched off most of the time, my main speakers do just fine.
Thanks! I did have a tuba quartet but decided in the end the results werenāt very low in frequency so we skipped it.
I love the idea of imaging next. May people donāt have a system that can image well, mostly due to improper positioning. Having a real reference imaging album would be monumental.
I echo some of the suggestions above regarding tonality, transparency, naturalness, depth, etc.
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Your download track list is correct, as is the track list on the website. The disc is wrong, or at least the track listing on the cover is. It has 2 and 8 swapped. Seriously, doesnāt anyone there in production know āHow Deep Is the Ocean?ā Itās an American songbook standard.
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