Has anyone heard the Lenny/BPO/DG M9 on DG Original series?

[James Meckley]

...is the Carnegie box still available, and if so, where?

Amazon has it for $48.04.

http://www.amazon.com/Mahler-Complete-Symphonies-Carnegie-Presents/dp/B001TIQT98/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1326411085&sr=1-1

James

[merlin]

Thanks for the amazon link for the cd box.  I am wondering if the SACDs of these versions (Japanese) are the same re-mastering?

Returning to the Lenny/BPO cd again after several years away, the SQ is rather poor, to my ears, especially compared with the SACDs and more recent CDs of other works I have been listening to.

The performance is wonderful, but the SQ definitely marred my enjoyment.

[James Meckley]

Merlin,

I have this information directly from Andreas K. Meyer, the man who did the DSD remastering of this set for Sony in 2008. The "Carnegie Hall" CD set and the Japanese SA-CD Hybrids were both derived from the same DSD masters. Mr. Meyer's high-resolution files were dithered down using Sony's Super Bit Mapping technology in order to retain as much audio quality as possible in the "Carnegie Hall" CD set.

James

[merlin]

Thanks, James, for the excellent info.

So would there be much difference between the CDs and Japanese SACDs, given that they are both derived from the same DSD masters?

[James Meckley]

So would there be much difference between the CDs and Japanese SACDs, given that they are both derived from the same DSD masters?

I can only speculate, since I own the Carnegie Hall set but haven't yet heard any of the Japanese SA-CDs. I would expect them to have similar tonal balances and soundstage presentations, with the nod in terms of ultimate resolution going to the SA-CDs—which wouldn't necessarily be a good thing. Keep in mind that these are 50-year-old tapes made by a company that was hardly the last word in audio quality at the time. If you expect them to sound like modern performances captured in 24/96 digital, you're going to be disappointed.

Perhaps someone else here has been able to make a direct comparison.

James