Fairy Tales by Radka Toneff

It’s a good album except for track 2. There are several places where she is screaming at the top of her lungs and the distortion is obvious. I have focal Maestro Utopia speakers, McIntosh 1.25k monos, and the best preamp and SACD player. On SACD, I can’t stand when she starts screaming. I moved the disc to my Krell Martin Logan system and it’s the same thing if you listen at normal room volumes.the distortion is in the recording, not from the speakers or system.

So I compared the original Norwegian CD to the MQA SACD which is a remastered version. No comparison. The original CD sounds so much better. The 2018 SACD adds a layer of graininess to the vocals. They boasted the gain and hence took away some of the headroom, space, and ambiance of the original recording. They boasted the level of her vocal and now she is screaming in your face instead of gently singing like she is on the terrific original CD. this was nothing but a money grab and MQA TECHNOLOGY IS LOSSY AND TERRIBLE. That SACD is going in the garbage or being sold on eBay. I have a $14K McIntosh SACD player.