Audio Fidelity: Dio - Holy Diver

DaveHo
DaveHo Posts: 3,536
edited March 2012 in Music & Movies
Got this yesterday thanks to a very generous karma from member agfrost.

Played it a couple of times through last night. Lets just say that compared to the original WB redbook release, there is no comparison. This Steve Hoffman mastered Audio Fidelity version rocks! It's like a thick veil & layer of grunge has been removed. Everything is just so well defined instead of being a muddy mess. Drums are tight & quick. Ronnie's vocals are brought forward a bit. Great separation between all the instruments & much improved dynamics. Even my wife, who normally isn't very perceptive when it comes to this sort of thing, commented how much better the AF version sounded when I popped in the original WB release for comparison. My only complaint is that the kids were in bed & I couldn't crank it as loud as I would have liked!

Thanks Jay!

-Dave
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Comments

  • agfrost
    agfrost Posts: 2,430
    edited March 2012
    Awesome, Dave. I don't have any other redbook version to directly compare my copy to, but I've thoroughly enjoyed listening to to the AF/SH version. This isn't a CD that one can point out as the benchmark that shows the ultimate capabilities of the redbook format, but for anyone who likes the Holy Diver album, I'd certainly recommend this. At the price Amazon is shipping these out for, hard to go wrong.

    Cool wife! Mine was like, "Explain to me again why you ordered multiple copies of this?" :razz:

    Enjoy it! It's been nice doing Karma with ya.

    Jay
    Jay
    SDA 2BTL * Musical Fidelity A5cr amp * Oppo BDP-93 * Modded Adcom GDA-600 DAC * Rythmik F8 (x2)
    Micro Seiki DQ-50 * Hagerman Cornet 2 Phono * A hodgepodge of cabling * Belkin PF60
    Preamp rotation: Krell KSL (SCompRacer recapped) * Manley Shrimp * PS Audio 5.0
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  • pitdogg2
    pitdogg2 Posts: 25,649
    edited March 2012
    Not trying to step on anybody's banana here but this may just explain what you are hearing in the difference between the two.

    http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/index.php?search_artist=dio&search_album=

    the above link has both listed, which I didn't think I would see the gold AF CD but low and behold it's there.
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  • heiney9
    heiney9 Posts: 25,203
    edited March 2012
    Then with that the 1983 regular version would be even better?

    There is more to it than just loudness, Steve Hoffman remasters do a lot to get them to sound good. The loudness or lack of, is just one small part of it.

    H9
    "Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul!
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  • pitdogg2
    pitdogg2 Posts: 25,649
    edited March 2012
    heiney9 wrote: »
    Then with that the 1983 regular version would be even better?

    There is more to it than just loudness, Steve Hoffman remasters do a lot to get them to sound good. The loudness or lack of, is just one small part of it.

    H9

    Brock I have both and yes I agree with you in regards to Steve, with that said I have listened to both and in going back and forth there are songs on the original I think sound better and with most of the new AF IMHO I think the bass is just a little softer both sound good. With my comparing I had to go out and look to see at the loudness site not thinking they'd have the new AF gold CD, but when they did I suspected that may be why I though i was hearing what I was hearing...Same gear two different CD's....So who knows
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