Impressions of the Stones SACDs


I bought the Hot Rocks compilation just to dip my big toe in the remastered waters. I don't have an SACD player, so the purchase was based on good reviews of the Red Book sound.

So far, I'm far from sold on it. The recordings do sound open and detailed and crisp in ways that I haven't heard before, but overall they sound too bright and very, very hard. Songs like Honky Tonk woman have a thin and glaring vocal quality that makes me run for cover. The guitars are edgy too.

Has anyone else experienced this? I'm trying to tell if this is just weekness of my system right now (It can sound bright and hard with bad recordings, but is usually pretty good sounding with good recordings).

Paul
paulraphael

Showing 2 responses by paulraphael

So strange that the production on Hot Rocks would be different from the others. Can you actually hear a difference between the same songs on Hot Rocks and on the individual albums? Especially curious about Beggar's Banquet.
What surprises me is that some people are saying the remastaered production is different on the individual albums than it is on the Hot Rocks compilation ... that Sympathy for the Devil, for instance, would sound different on the Beggar's Banquet CD/SACD than on the Hot Rocks CD/SACD.