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Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Stockfisch Records and "3-formats-3 war" - CD vs. SACD vs. Direct-to-disc vinyl





"In January 2007 the Bassface Swing Trio landed in Stockfisch Studios. These amazingly talented musicians with nerves of steel are Thilo Wagner, piano; Jean-Philippe Wadle, upright bass & Florian Hermann, drums. They played Gershwin, celebrating & improvising this music breathtakingly – & swinging!










This is an entirely analog direct-to-disc recording, from the mix & the signal path to the cutting head of the VMS-80 lathe. What makes this particular production interesting is the splitting of the analog stereo sum into 3 destinations. In addition to the direct analog signal for DMM cutting, Stockfisch converted the mix into highest-grade DSD (Direct Stream Digital, 2,8224 MHz) – using a 1-bit converter – & into conventional digital audio format, 16bit/44.1 kHz PCM, as well. This direct-to-disc vinyl record comes with a bonus Stereo Hybrid SACD. This seems to be the 1st opportunity ever to compare 3 formats (CD, SACD, D2D LP) originating from the same analog source & transferred unaltered into 2 digital formats.















Stockfisch has made a very special recording of the trio playing six more or less known Gershwin tunes. It is a direct-to-disc cut SACD. I don`t care very much about what this means from the technical point of view, I just can say, that the result is real great sound. Stunning dynamics, incredible palpability, excellent soundstage, full, open, colourful, a sound for listening enraptured.
But that wouldn`t do if the music wouldn`t be a pleasure, too. The three guys are playing skilfully, with deep emotion or pure fun. They did get rhythm! Straight ahead jazz at it`s best, that every jazz fan will like."



Thanking Reinhard for the interesting hinting... 




2 comments:

Alex Kitic said...

The sound might be good (depends on the taste, some like "strange sounds for audiophiles"), but the performance is, to say the very least, disputable.

This is a common feature of Stockfisch records: rather good sound, rather bland music or performance: a true audiophile label...

twogoodears said...

Partially agree, Alex... Allan Taylor's disc on Stockfisch was amazing, for example...