Search - Bill Evans :: Portrait in Jazz (Hybr)

No need for CD layer!

Toshio Fukuhara | Yokohama, Japan | 01/13/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a classic jazz masterpiece that requires no further compliments. I'm happy with the slight but recognizable improvement in the sound quality that SACD layer offers. Thanks to the lower background noise level (could be lower than what the original master tape contains, thanks to DSD remastering technology), the music contained in the SACD layer sounds deeper and more transparent.

For marketing purposes, I understand the merits of hybrid discs for newly recorded materials. But people who unmistakably buy this SACD (knowing this is a SACD disc) have a SACD player, plus CD and/or LP of the same title which they have played over and over with sheer admiration. Those with only CD players buy CDs, not SACD/CD hybrid discs for a lot more price. So what's the need for the CD layer whose sound quality does not match previously released JVC's K-2 or XRCD coded CDs. This holds true for all the classic masterpiece hybrid discs produced by Analogue Productions. Delete the CD layer and reduce the price."