SHM-CD Format: Hype or Hope?, Metallica's New Album Options

[Livy]

There's been a lot of discussion over at SA-CD Net about SHM-CD's and whether the "clearer plastic" technology they use generates any actual improvement in sound quality. Many people simply don't believe that would be possible. Metallica's new album - Death Magnetic - is going to be released in Japan in SHM-CD format.

I'm not very knowledgeable about this area - does anyone here know more or have opinions about SHM-CD?

Edit: I've read that mastering engineer Ted Jansen is going to working on this album - whether as mastering and recording engineer, I don't know.

This post has been edited by Livy: Jul 29 2008, 15:48

[odyssey]

I quickly found this rather amusing thread elsewhere.

If it's a CD, then WHATEVER material it's made of, nothing but FUZZ! With EAC you can extract the actual content of a CD. A different plastic, gold layer or anything in that calibre would not change it!

[Rain]

Does it matter? The album's going to be as loud as hell

[Fandango]

I quickly found this rather amusing thread elsewhere.

If it's a CD, then WHATEVER material it's made of, nothing but FUZZ!

Not a fuzz, but makes you fuzzy in the head! Just read this:

"Super High Material CD
SHM-CD series

Pursuing the new possibility of CD!
The liquid crystal panel material (high transparency) the high sound quality CD by the new material which is utilized appears (out of nowhere! that's far out, man!!
The first press limitation"

SHM-CD is pure dope, I think!

EDIT: Ok. Sorry for the rule #8 violation in this post. Of course, I must do some double blind ingestion/smoking tests with these new CDs first, but you must understand that the high expectations make me all jittery, so to speak.

This post has been edited by Fandango: Jul 29 2008, 17:18

[unfortunateson]

bits are bits.

[giopiar]

This is a semplification, but you could imagine an audio CD similar to a device containing digital informations, even if Red Book doesn't have block-accurate addressing.

Think about a wave file which you might put on an Hard drive, a CD, a solid state disk, etc: it is always the same file even if the media is different! A CD is not a vinyl disc. In vinyl audio is recorded in an analogic way, it means that "the better is built, the better it will sound", but the CD is totally different.

AFAIK I can imagine that using a better material could cause less jitter which occour, as I have already said, because the Red Book doesn't require block-accurate addressing, but I don't think nowadays jitter is a real issue...

essentially: IMO that's garbage...

[.halverhahn]

Digital data are media independent. Even you write the bits on a sheet of paper, it will stay the same as on CD/DVD/HD/FLOPPY/RAM/FLASH etc.

[Sebastian Mares]

I once wrote an e-mail to Stereo or some other magazine I had a look at in the library. They had a comparison between PC CD burners and claimed that the sound of the CDs burnt by the Plextor Premium (Premium2 if I recall correctly) have a much clearer sound and blah. I asked them how on earth they can hear differences since all burners should write the same ones and zeros and if not, there must be something very bad going on with their hardware. Anyways, the answer was that it has something to do with how CD players interpolate when errors are spotted and that good writers produce less errors which leads to less interpolation attempts.

[Tahnru]

I'm going to buy one of these, draw a green ring on the edge, freeze it with liquid nitrogen, and run it through my demagnetizer.

I'll have better bits than anyone. My ones will be more singular, my zeros will be truly nothing. I will be the digital king.

What do you think ... too much?

[Sebastian Mares]

What do you think ... too much?

It's all worthless if you don't use a highly priced digital audio cable like this or this. And don't forget bi-wiring!

[Tahnru]

Oh I know! And you can't even make it from the wall to receiver without one of these!

I forgot about bi-wiring ... I guess I'll have to sell my other kidney to pick up the second set. Should I go with another of the same pair as I currently have, or should I upgrade to something better?

[me7]

...or should I upgrade to something better?

HOLY SHIT!!! I'd love to meet the moron who invented this just to tell him how stupid he is.

[Egor]

Bi-wiring/amping concept itself isn't a bad thing when used with reasonable priced cables. At least it *may* potentially improve something in amplification/reproduction process. (The previous posts sound like bi-wiring is for idiots who spend thousands on wires.)

This post has been edited by Egor: Aug 2 2008, 09:17

[honestguv]

...or should I upgrade to something better?

HOLY SHIT!!! I'd love to meet the moron who invented this just to tell him how stupid he is.

Why is he stupid?

Selling a product where the cost of purchasing the item (or manufacturing in one or two cases) is a very small fraction of the retail price does not look stupid to me. Significant costs are going to be in the marketing and this needs to be effective for consumers of expensive audiophile cables. It does not matter much what those who are not consumers think of the marketing.

I would suggest that the consumers of expensive audiophile may well be described as stupid in most cases but I can see no reason to assume stupidity on the part of the suppliers.

[Silversight]

Why is he stupid?

[...]

I would suggest that the consumers of expensive audiophile may well be described as stupid in most cases but I can see no reason to assume stupidity on the part of the suppliers.

The stupid one IMHO is that Positive Feedback Editor. His review is ridiculous!

[Fandango]

The stupid one IMHO is that Positive Feedback Editor. His review is ridiculous!

This is still my favorite quote:

In extended listening sessions, I found the cables' greatest strength to be its PRAT. Simply put these are very danceable cables. Music playing through them results in the proverbial foot-tapping scene with the need or desire to get up and move. Great swing and pace —these cables smack that right on the nose big time.

danceable bi-wiring with a great swing and pace:


This post has been edited by Fandango: Aug 2 2008, 18:25

[greynol]

I would suggest that the consumers of expensive audiophile may well be described as stupid in most cases but I can see no reason to assume stupidity on the part of the suppliers.

...it's like saying Haliburton was stupid for making money off the war in Iraq.

[honestguv]

The stupid one IMHO is that Positive Feedback Editor. His review is ridiculous!

Again I disagree. The editors of publications like Positive Feedback, Stereophile, 6Moons, and similar are earning a good income (I presume given the length of time they have been doing it) by promoting audiophile nonsense on behalf of the audiophile industry. This upbeat positive nonsense about audiophile hardware makes their publications attractive vehicles for advertising. Further down the food chain in the publications there are some indications that some of the writers believe some of the audiophile nonsense and a label of stupid may well be fair in this case.

If we assume that Dave Clark is not a total loony, why is he making ludicrously over the top statements about danceable cables that no non-audiophile could possibly accept as being true? If you read the reviews on other completely absurd audiophile components like clever clocks, resonating cups, and the like you will almost always see the same over the top statments. Why? If the authors were making an honest attempt to deceive the likes of you or I would they do this?

I would suggest that the consumers of expensive audiophile may well be described as stupid in most cases but I can see no reason to assume stupidity on the part of the suppliers.

...it's like saying Haliburton was stupid for making money off the war in Iraq.

Granted neither is stupid but I would not put war profiteering in the same category as helping to sell nonsense luxury products to stupid rich people many of whom are perfectly happy with their purchases.

[greynol]

I can assure you that my hyperbole was intentional.

[honestguv]

I can assure you that my hyperbole was intentional.

My mistake and my apologies. As an Englishman it is perhaps more embarrassing to miss this type of thing than for you colonials. Of course, I have an excuse...

[greynol]

No apologies necessary. I wouldn't expect you or anyone else to know my opinion on subject, but I think it's in line with the rest of the people here. I don't feel sorry for fools who part with their money. If it results in their dependents going without then I take issue with the matter. More to the point, I'm not convinced this type of commerce is good for the world economy. We know what happens to bubbles, especially when they get filled with hot air; and these guys have a lot of it to sell.

[Bodhi]

A different plastic, gold layer or anything in that calibre would not change it!

It would just change the time life of your CD.

[insane_alien]

SHM-CD = SHAM-CD

a bit for bit copy is the same nomatter what media it is off of. i could get the data tatooed on my left buttock scan it in and it would still sound the same.

now, if they were offering something truely advantageous like an unscratchable disc orsomethng then it might be a good thing.

[Tahnru]

I had wanted to post this to the thread, but I forgot until today.

The Audio Critic's "10 Biggest Lies in Audio"

This post has been edited by Tahnru: Aug 5 2008, 22:21

[Tahnru]

Bi-wiring/amping concept itself isn't a bad thing when used with reasonable priced cables. At least it *may* potentially improve something in amplification/reproduction process. (The previous posts sound like bi-wiring is for idiots who spend thousands on wires.)

Bi-wiring by itself is different than bi-wiring/bi-amping, BTW.