Watch out. This is going to be a bit of a rant.
I begin to cringe every time I read/hear from audiophiles: Was it made from the master tape?
Or..., It can't possibly sound very good—it wasn't from the master tape.
Yes, I'm talking about reissues. And, yes, I'm talking about audiophiles being brain-washed into thinking that a great reissue has to be made from the master tape or it can't be any good.
Let's take a moment for a reality check.
All things equal, I firmly believe that a reissue made from the original edit master has the opportunity to sound better than a reissue made from some source several times removed from the edit master. (We'll come back to this below.)
But, there are so many additional variables involved in the process of reissuing a recording that we can't stop here. We get so hung up on the source (provenance) that we completely ignore all the other variables, such as:
- Equipment properly aligned and set up—meticulous care is the word here
- Electronics at the highest level of transparency and accuracy of reproduction
- Electrical power that is clean, without noise, at the correct voltage without sagging
- Interconnect cables that are neutral and transparent
These are variables to which we pay extraordinary attention in our home listening rooms. Yet somehow we give all these variables a miss with this obsession over the provenance of the source from which the transfer was made, as if that was the only thing that matters. It is not the only thing that matters, and is perhaps one of the lesser variables.
Vinyl LP reissues have been fortunate in this respect with many excellent remastering engineers doing outstanding work. Just read the recent reviews from fellow Positive Feedback writer Tom Gibbs about the various series of vinyl reissues he's been sampling (search link).
But this care and attention to detail seems very frequently to have gotten lost when it comes to making digital reissues. One might almost come to believe that neither the original labels nor the remastering engineers are listening to their reissues.
Here's a quick case-in-point: the recent HDTT reissue of Pops Caviar, Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops (1958). Originally released by RCA under their Living Stereo moniker, it has been an audiophile darling for decades. And rightfully so—the original LP sounded great.
Back in 2006, BMG/RCA reissued this album along with a slew of other Living Stereo albums in the big push to release SACDs. The Pops Caviar SACD reissue at that time (combined with another album, Russian Orchestral Fireworks) was and remains a sonic travesty. Dull and dim and somewhat congested, it was a complete disappointment. Was it transferred from the master tapes? One would think RCA had the tapes available to use. Had the tapes degraded in the vault? Hmmm, possible. But many other vault tapes continue to sound terrific.
Compare that sonically disappointing SACD reissue from the original label to this HDTT reissue. HDTT certainly did not have access to the master tape, but their reissue is transparently clear and clean, with extended frequency response and broad dynamic range.
And the HDTT reissue is not sourced from a tape—not the master tape, not a production master, not a courtesy copy of the tape. It is rip of the LP. Says the HDTT webpage, Transferred from an Original RCA Shaded Dog Pressing.
I talked with Bob Witrak about why he thought his release from the original LP sounded so much better than RCA's SACD. He didn't think the difference was a result of a degraded tape. He says he sees too many tapes that are in great shape even after all the years of storage.
So we both wonder what care was put into that remastering of the SACD. Did the engineer making the transfer even listen to the source and compare to the transfer? Was a high quality outboard preamp used, or did the engineer just use the 30-year-old internal electronics in the tape deck? What cables, what power supply? From the sound of the SACD release, it seems likely that the studio making the transfer for this SACD would completely underwhelm any discriminating audiophile.
This Caviar Pops SACD versus HDDT reissue comparison is not an isolated outcome. This album is simply a convenient example because I recently finished listening to it. Virtually every time I listen to an HDTT reissue and then compare it to the label's own digital release, the HDTT release sounds superior. Sometime they are close, but the comparison has never worked in favor of the label's own commercial release of that digital reissue.
And, yes, there is almost always a difference in resolution: DSD64 versus DSD256 and DXD. But the difference I hear are not resolution dependent. They are more fundamental.
On the other hand, there are other independent firms also making digital reissues of some of the classic era recordings. I have found many of the Analogue Production reissues to be excellent. And they had access to the master tapes. But, in most cases they still don't match up to the standards of sound quality that HDTT regularly achieves from tapes that are still a generation or more removed from the master tape. The 2xHD label makes quite a few reissues of classic recordings, and their releases are uniformly quite excellent, as well.
All of which causes me to repeat: it is NOT the master tape that makes the difference. It is the care of the engineer making the transfer. It is that engineer's meticulous attention to detail, to setup, to alignment, to transparency of associated electronics and cables and power. It is all the things that we as audiophiles obsess over in our home listening rooms, but fail to demand that those mastering the reissues have in place in their mastering studios.
And as to provenance... Another reality check: the original releases of the recordings we treasure were never made from "the master tape." In the heyday of vinyl pressings, records were pressed from "production masters." Second and sometimes third or even fourth generation down from the "master." And the "master" itself was always an "edit master" copied from the session tracks which were the first generation. But even a tape third or fourth generation down from the edit master, in 15ips 2-track tape, will sound immensely good. (I said we would return to this topic.)
And then there are "safety copies"—typically one-to-one transfers from the production master. And "courtesy copies" which might have been copies of a production master or a safety copy given to an engineer working on the production. Or perhaps even a one-to-one copy of the edit master. So, there is a lot of tape floating around out there that is of very high quality. But none of it is the "master tape." (For a further discussion of analog tape provenance, I refer you to Harold Tichener's article on categories of tape.)
And a final comment about "master tapes." Many of these master tapes are stored at Iron Mountain in Pennsylvania. Almost all the releases that companies claim are from "master tapes" are actually master dubs from Iron Mountain, because the original tapes rarely leave that facility. That's why they are stored there. And that dub is made by some technician at Iron Mountain using who knows what quality of equipment, attention to alignment, electronics, etc.
Concluding note... Sorry not to offer free downloadable samples for comparison with this article. I don't think I could get permission from one of the major labels. Instead, I encourage you to find a digital reissue in your library (DSD64, 96k, 192k) from an album released during the golden age of stereo. Then find that same album in HDTT's catalog and make the investment to hear the HDTT reissue in DSD256 or DXD resolution. Let me know what you hear.
Here are some albums from HDTT's catalog that, in their DXD and DSD256 iterations, will knock your socks off. And, no, they are not from the master tape. I have reviewed all of these in Positive Feedback and for many of them I've included comparisons to other digital releases.
Postscript
Over coffee this morning discussing this master tape obsession, Ann says, "It's not where it comes from—it's what it sounds like. You've got to listen, Folks!" Then added, "And it all sounds better with a fresh cup of cappuccino. Or for Dr. David, a good cigar."
