A Minute By Minute Gem By All Means
This cd sounds really close to analog. Another wonderful remastering job by Steve Hoffman. Amazing tracks. Grammy winner 4x over. What more can you ask for? Or maybe, if Audio Fidelity uses the same lift-lock case used by MFSL/DCC Compact Classics, this will be perfect. But again, I already rate this product as 5 stars!.
Terrific remastering a highlight of this fine album from the blue eyed soul line up
Do you make it loud to appeal to the young person who can't distinguish an mp3 thereby brickwalling it eliminating dynamic range and much of the power of the recording? Or do you go with mastering to make the recording so as true to the master recording as possible? If you work for the music industry the former is what most often occurs with little dynamic range and a recording that starts loud, often sounds shrill on a good stereo system and undermines the range of a CD or vinyl recording. CD mastering is a tricky business. The end result is an album that just doesn't sound all that great.
Steve Hoffman has done a marvelous job of remastering this classic album. His mastering deserves 5 stars. "Minute by Minute" sounds warm, inviting and has an enormous amount of detail. What's more there isn't any compression done in the mastering phase so, essentially, this sounds as close as listening to the master recording as is possible for CD. This was among the first of the Audio Fidelity releases that picked up where the now defunct DCC left off. As with all of Hoffman's work, this is an audiophile's dream but, more importantly, it should be every listener's dream as it represents the potential that exists when a recording is remastered right.
Kudos to Steve for once again giving new life to a great sounding recording by not messing with the dynamics in the mastering phase. If you're a fan of this album, this is worth the extra $$ simply because the recording has never sounded so clear on CD before. .
Bravo!
You take a great album, find the true master tapes, give them to someone that knows what they are doing and what do you get?
Another excellent example of Steve Hoffman's mastering and a classic album lives forever.
24 kt Blue Eyed Soul
One of the Doobie Brothers best albums has gotten the 24kt treatment for superior sound quality and mastering. I didn't think it was possible for this to happen, but it did. Lets face it if your still listening to the tinny, muffled version of the CD that came out years ago and only has so many tracks remastered for compilation discs and Best ofs, then this is the CD for you. I only got this disc for one reason, to get a clear, crisp and fabulous version of "How Does the Fool Survive?" and I was amazed at the rest of the disc as well. From every little clatter in the back to any minute horn or vocal, you can hear everything on this CD. It also just simply sounds the way it should. Sometimes in mastering everything just comes out sounding loud or extranious. Minute by Minute isn't a loud album, it's a soft groovy kind of one that doesn't need just a big volume, mixers and faders are used to put everything where they need to be. Whats also nice is you get the full booklet to slip in for the jewel case and everything is where it should be. There are no extended cuts or demos or anything, just the album that many people own and love. My only hope is that STAMPEDE the great fifth album is just around the corner. How awesome it will be to hear Neal's Fandango and I Cheat the Hangman in the same treatment as the band got here. I suspect that if it hasn't been done already CAPTAIN AND ME will be next, but that would be okay too. Definetly a buy.
Best version of this Great Album!
And I never heard it this good. One of the best pop albums of all time.
I have the Nautilus NR 18 vinyl; I think I ran through two copies of the cassette. One of those albums you listen to so much that you have to take vacations from it.
But I never heard the bass drive the first track, Here to Love You, like it is here.
And the vocals on You Never Change, amazing. Outrageous. Reminds me of Red Streamliner, off Little Feat's Time Loves A Hero, first time Patrick Simmons and Michael McDonald harmonized. The best.
This Audio Fidelity 24k Plus is great. Really superior soundstage. Everything really pops up at you in the best way, great individual tone, yet totally part of the whole. THE BEST!.
You can see a complete list of all The Doobie Brothers discography, or go back to the The Doobie Brothers tabs
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