APSoon Recordings has been releasing some truly outstanding organ recordings in Pure DSD256. This new release is their best yet. If you love great organ recordings, just get this now! It will blow you away.
Live recording direct to DSD256, with some of the deepest most powerful bass you will hear in a recording…
See my complete review here:
As waymanchen11 observes, this is a nice reissue from HDTT. From a 4-track tape, this is another example of why sourcing from the master tape is not nearly as important as the care and setup applied by the engineer making the transfer. I show both the DXD and the DSD256 because this is not a Pure DSD256 release. As HDTT carefully points out, it was initially transferred in DSD256 but then edited in DXD with the final release made from that DXD edit master. Buy the DSD256 and you’ll also get the DXD. It will be a good opportunity to compare to see which sounds better on YOUR system, the DXD edit master or the DSD256 derived from it.
P.S., in my primary system the DXD sounds better. With one less conversion, the DXD edit master sounds cleaner, more open, more transparent. The DSD256 will likely sound better in my wife’s office system. Different DACs, different results.
I want to see if the DXD is any better than the DSD256, so I just downloaded the DXD version to cmpare, and by god you are right Rushton!! The separation, presence and clarity is superior with the DXD version. I think like you say, the DAC is the culprit. I have a different DAC now than before. Thanks for the advice Rushton.
Glad you made the comparison. Just to be clear, with an excellent DAC, the generational difference is what we’re hearing. The edit master will almost always sound better than a different resolution derived from that edit master. 
In another forum I was asked about what I hear in as differences between Pure DSD256 transfers from analog tape versus “direct” to DSD256 Pure DSD256 recordings. I thought the question and my reply might be worth sharing here…
This is a little off subject but I was curious. Do you notice the difference between “Pure” if it is originally recorded with DSD256 or if it is “Pure” recorded from a master tape. I think the DSD256 would be sharper but what have you noticed or drawn conclusions? Your experience is greater than mine.
Pure DSD256 from an analog source is very high quality audio. They key is avoiding a journey through PCM. What you will hear, however, when coming from an analog source is that characteristic “analog” sound quality–for better or worse.
When that analog source is tape, you will hear the sound of tape. If it is a good, well aligned, carefully calibrated tape deck at 15ips or 30ips, with an excellent tape head preamplifier, the sound quality will be wonderful. It will have all those open, airy, full dynamic range characteristics that tape aficionados love (and count me among them). But, it will also contain the limitations of tape. While there is greater dynamic range than an LP, it is still less than DSD256 provides. For examples, listen to any of the Pure DSD256 releases from High Definition Tape Transfers when the source is identified as a 2-track 15ips tape. Or listen to any of the albums from analog tape listed in my Pure DSD256 From Analog Tape: My Top-of-the-Pile list.
Specs will tell you there is higher distortion with tape, too. But can you hear that? Doubtful. It is more spec-manship that listening reality. Is it subtly less transparent than a direct to DSD256 recording? Yes, possibly. But the differences you may hear are more dependent on differences in the choice of microphone preamps, tape head preamps, and cables than simply the use of tape.
Hunnia Records releases their Pure DSD256 files from an analog mixing console–sometimes directly from the microphones, but most often from Pure DSD256 tracking channels converted back to analog, mixed and EQ’d in the analog mixing console, and then converted to DSD256. The sound they get from mixing in analog is rich, sweet, beautifully rounded but still extremely detailed and well defined. They deliver superbly beautiful and highly nuanced recordings.
Eudora Records delivers Pure DSD256 recordings pretty much straight from the microphones. Gonzalo’s releases are DSD-Direct Mixed, entirely in the DSD domain with no analog mixing involved. His are perhaps the purest example of recordings created entirely in the DSD256 domain. They have that crystalline purity and clarity, with immense dynamics, that I hear only with entirely DSD256 recording chains. But, he trades off some of the warmth and rounded beauty of analog for that utter clarity and transparency.
All of these examples are different approaches to achieving a Pure DSD256 recording. They do have subtly different sonic characteristics. But, the difference are down to what we hear when listening to different very high quality electronics and to difference in tube electronics versus high quality solid state electronics. Different flavoring, if you will.
Interesting music, delightfully performed. And the recording quality is top drawer. Gonzalo Noqué has created another “you are there” or “they are in your room” recording, in Pure DSD256-Direct Mixed. The music is “chamber” music with various combinations of violin, cello, theorbo, harpsichord, and voice, all by women composers of the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 20th centuries. So, lots of variety, several are first recordings of the work. Album available HERE.
This is Sound Liaison’s second Pure DSD256 release as founder/engineer Frans de Rond begins his shift to recording all of his new projects in Pure DSD256-Analog Mixed. I’m a fan of blues/jazz singer Carmen Gomes and her group Carmen Gomes Inc. They’ve been playing together for a long time and they are a very “tight” band. You’ll find my review here:
Sound Liaison offers this recording in DSD512 even though the record was, “…mastered through an HQ analog stereo chain to a DSD256 master.”
Do you have any opinion you care to share on the value of grabbing the 512 vs the 256 resolution?. Asking $5 more for the 512 files (but not concerned about the cost over the quality of the play back)…
My DAC should be able to handle either.
TIA.
Here’s another beautifully recorded piece. I got the DSD256 version and it sounds sublime. Make sure to have your subwoofers turned on as the contrabass can give you a nice skin massage!
The DSD512 allows for a more gentle Gaussian filter when converting to analog. If your DAC is chip based and plays DSD512 then it is probably optimized for that frequency and DSD512 may sound a bit cleaner in such a DAC. OTOH, if your DAC modulates DSD internally, as does my Playback Designs MPD-8 and a number of other FPGA based DACs, then the DSD256 will sound great and there is little advantage to purchasing the already modulated to DSD512 version (with one consideration below*). The same can be said of DSD1024 offerings, when available.
Sound Liaison and NativeDSD offer the DSD512 because of this difference among DACs, not because it has any inherent greater sonic value in itself.
*One other item that could be a factor to what you may hear is the internal processing power of your DAC. Even if your DAC modulates the signal from 256 to 512 and higher, the already modulated release version takes the load off of the DAC’s internal processors which are having to do this on-the-fly and may be taxed to accomplish it if there is not enough processor power inside the DAC. Having it already accomplished offline might then be an advantage.
Unfortunately, as with so much in audio, this all boils down to “You have to listen to the comparison in your own system to find out what will be best for you.”
Thank you, for the detailed response.
I suppose I should have mentioned my DAC is a modified PS Audio Direct Stream Sr. (a/k/a the DS MK I). Does that additional information impact your observations?
Thank you, again.
Scott
Sorry, I don’t know enough about that PS Audio DAC to express any opinion. Perhaps some other forum members will have an answer.
10-4.
Cheers.
Prompted by your post, I downloaded this album…
And it is excellent. Thanks for this recommendation.
I did also, but I can’t get the .zip file to work/uncompress on my iMac.
Trying to figure out what I did wrong.
Any suggestions…?
When you double click the zip file. It should automatically decompress. Have you done it before?
Nope. First download from this site.
When I double click the file I get this:
I wrote to Sound Liaison and they replied promptly with:
Before I find and try a different application, do you think the file name might be impairing the decompress operation?
Regards.
I don’t think so.
I downloaded it, without any issues, using Decompress on my MacBook Pro.
Do you know of a Pure DSD 256 version of Kind of Blue!
