In recent years, Acoustic Sounds/Analogue Productions has been reissuing a series of RCA/Decca/Decca-for-RCA audiophile classics on LP and SACD. These have, of course, been reissued many times previously; most notably, Classic Records issued LPs and Gold CDs of many of these same titles in the mid-90s, mastered by Bernie Grundman. When Acoustic Sounds bought out the assets of Classic Records upon the latter's demise in the early 2000s, they acquired the masters for these reissues. Nonetheless, when it came time for the current reissue series, Chad Kassem notably stated that he would not have even considered a reissue series unless the LPs were demonstrably superior sonically to Classic's reissues, and that these clearly were. In the case of the new series, both LP and SACD remastering was done by William Makkee, and the results have generally been well-received.
Thus, it comes as a surprise to read the ad copy for AP's new reissue of the famed "Royal Ballet Gala" set, which quotes from Michael Fremer's review:
So, unlike their practice with the other reissues in this series, AP elected to re-use the Grundman mastering for this set. The copy for the SACD set compounds the mystery:
This is puzzling on many levels. First off, why the mono mix at all? It doesn't seem to be held in especially high regard over the stereo (this is Ansermet and the Royal Opera House Orchestra, not The Beatles!), and I've never seen it reissued before. It seems to be more a curiosity attached to this set of discs rather than a real draw. More to the point, it shows that AP was willing to have Makkee do some work on this set...so why stick with the Grundman mastering? This is especially relevant considering that Grundman's digital mastering was intended for CD; we have no idea whether it was remastered directly to Redbook, or to a interim high-res digital format such as 24/96, since Classic never bothered to reveal the mastering details of their CDs. However, it simply couldn't have been originally mastered to DSD, as that format hadn't been developed at the time the Classic CDs were made.
Given all this, while AP has remained mum on the reasons for these mastering decisions, it seems hard to avoid the likely conclusion that, in the past twenty-plus years, the stereo master tapes for RBG have either been lost or damaged, to the point that a new remastering became impossible (the same was true for the master tapes of Solt's monumental Wagner Ring Cycle -- when time came to make the Esoteric SACD set about a decade ago, it was found that the master tapes had deteriorated to the point of being unusable; thus, it and the ensuing Deluxe Edition had to be based on the 20-bit PCM master made in 1996). This would be why the mono mix, presumably from undamaged tapes, could be newly-remastered for DSD, but Grundman's work had to be used for the stereo.
What does that mean for the buyer? Well, if you have the Classic LPs in good condition, any improvement you might hear in the new set would be purely due to improvements in vinyl formulations and pressing equipment since the 1990s -- which, to be honest, may well be considerable. The SACD is a different matter. Unless you desperately want to hear the mono mix, you are almost certainly going to be getting an SACD track that is merely upsampled PCM...and that well might be merely upsampled Redbook. Now, in fairness, Grundman's digital remastering of this set is very, very good -- it's one of the best-sounding CD releases in my collection -- but it isn't DSD. You may still want to buy it if you don't have the Classic CD set, which is long out-of-print and quite pricey on the second-hand market, but it's quite possible that there will really be no sonic differences between its SACD and CD layers, so the only improvement you might hear is if your DAC is better-optimized for DSD playback over PCM.
In any event, this isn't the first time questions have been raised about AP's SACD reissues. A number of their popular SACD releases, including "Tea for the Tillerman," "Getz/Gilberto," "Ella and Louis," and Sam Cooke's "Night Beat" (among others), mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound, turned out to be upsampled from 20/48 PCM. Acoustic Sounds eventually had to include that information in their ad copy, claiming that Marino had concluded after extensive testing that "the George Massenburg GML 20 bit A/D produced the best and most synergistic sound for the project." Perhaps. But the fact remains that, until Acoustic Sounds added that disclaimer, people were purchasing their SACDs under the impression that these were remasters straight to DSD, not to upsampled PCM. And there's still no word on whether the SACD of RBG might even be sourced from upsampled 16/44.1.
Chad, you got a lotta 'splainin' to do!
Thus, it comes as a surprise to read the ad copy for AP's new reissue of the famed "Royal Ballet Gala" set, which quotes from Michael Fremer's review:
Analogue Productions' Classic Records buyout brought with it metal parts for many albums, cut by Bernie Grundman, including for this record. ... AP chose to produce a new stamper using the "mother" cut from the original master tape by Bernie Grundman.
SACD layer contains both the stereo mix (mastered by Bernie Grundman), mono mix (mastered by Willem Makkee)
CD layer only contains the stereo mix
CD layer only contains the stereo mix
Given all this, while AP has remained mum on the reasons for these mastering decisions, it seems hard to avoid the likely conclusion that, in the past twenty-plus years, the stereo master tapes for RBG have either been lost or damaged, to the point that a new remastering became impossible (the same was true for the master tapes of Solt's monumental Wagner Ring Cycle -- when time came to make the Esoteric SACD set about a decade ago, it was found that the master tapes had deteriorated to the point of being unusable; thus, it and the ensuing Deluxe Edition had to be based on the 20-bit PCM master made in 1996). This would be why the mono mix, presumably from undamaged tapes, could be newly-remastered for DSD, but Grundman's work had to be used for the stereo.
What does that mean for the buyer? Well, if you have the Classic LPs in good condition, any improvement you might hear in the new set would be purely due to improvements in vinyl formulations and pressing equipment since the 1990s -- which, to be honest, may well be considerable. The SACD is a different matter. Unless you desperately want to hear the mono mix, you are almost certainly going to be getting an SACD track that is merely upsampled PCM...and that well might be merely upsampled Redbook. Now, in fairness, Grundman's digital remastering of this set is very, very good -- it's one of the best-sounding CD releases in my collection -- but it isn't DSD. You may still want to buy it if you don't have the Classic CD set, which is long out-of-print and quite pricey on the second-hand market, but it's quite possible that there will really be no sonic differences between its SACD and CD layers, so the only improvement you might hear is if your DAC is better-optimized for DSD playback over PCM.
In any event, this isn't the first time questions have been raised about AP's SACD reissues. A number of their popular SACD releases, including "Tea for the Tillerman," "Getz/Gilberto," "Ella and Louis," and Sam Cooke's "Night Beat" (among others), mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound, turned out to be upsampled from 20/48 PCM. Acoustic Sounds eventually had to include that information in their ad copy, claiming that Marino had concluded after extensive testing that "the George Massenburg GML 20 bit A/D produced the best and most synergistic sound for the project." Perhaps. But the fact remains that, until Acoustic Sounds added that disclaimer, people were purchasing their SACDs under the impression that these were remasters straight to DSD, not to upsampled PCM. And there's still no word on whether the SACD of RBG might even be sourced from upsampled 16/44.1.
Chad, you got a lotta 'splainin' to do!
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