Prokofiev: Piano Concerto 3 / Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto 1

This legendary recording was made in Moscow in June 1962 when Byron Janis performed concertos by Prokofiev and Rachmaninov. He had first captured the hearts of the Russians when he toured there in 1960, and the Moscow concert prior to this recording was given on 13 May 1962 and was his first return visit. This was a monumental concert in which Janis played both the concertos featured in this recording and sandwiched in between was the Schumann Concerto!
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EMI Records will be re-issuing 14 Genesis studio albums in three stages during 2007. All the releases will be SACD/DVD double disc sets featuring newly re-mastered 5.1 surround sound and stereo mixes.

The release schedule is as follows:

March 2007: A Trick Of The Tail (1976), Wind & Wuthering (1977), …And Then There Were Three…(1978), Duke (1980) Abacab (1981)

June/July 2007: Genesis(1983), Invisible Touch(1986), We Can’t Dance (1991), Calling All Stations(1997)

Late 2007/Early 2008: Trespass (1970), Nursery Cryme (1971), Foxtrot (1972 ), Selling England By The Pound (1973), The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway(1974)

The first tome is already available at these stores:
Amazon USA Go to product >>

Amazon UK Go to product >>

Interesting article at avreview.co.uk

Three years ago, I attended the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas where I was informed in no uncertain terms, but with suspicious unanimity, that the game was over for SACD, that henceforth the future of high-res two channel and multichannel audio would be DVD-Audio all the way. My suspicions were well founded. Indeed I subsequently became engaged in a follow-up email conversation with a US-based recording engineer who it later transpired was linked very firmly to the DVD-Audio camp. But I found out about this from third parties, not the man himself.

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Stockfisch Records : Closer to the Music – SFR357.4003.2

For more than 30 years, the German recording company Stockfisch has been releasing the work of well and not-so-well known artists from the European guitar scene, the 70’s Folk revival and has paid special attention to the singer/songwriter scene.

This is a compilation of music from the Stockfisch Records label with music from Allan Taylor, Sara K, Chris Jones, Mike Silver, Steve Strauss, David Munyon, Paul Stephenson and David Roth. Although these are European artists, many of them have a distinctly American country style.

This is actually the best sound of all so far and gives a taste of what is available from this Stockfisch. Unfortunately not all the albums from the artists on this disc are available on SACD. That makes this SACD all the more precious.
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Review of the Pioneer PD-D6-J SACD Player

Well, this IS a surprise. Pioneer has given us SACD enthusiasts in Europe a great gift in the form of the chic looking Pioneer PD-D6-J!

Price UK : £399
Price EU : €499

Still no word as to when or if it will be available from Pioneer USA.

Of course this isn’t the first time Pioneer has offered audiophiles a proper disc player for music. In the 80’s they brought us the beautiful Pioneer Elite PD-73 with its huge transport that had to have the disc inserted upside down. The PD-D6J is made with the same spirit of a real music playing machine, but the disc goes in right side up now.

The PD-D6-J is strictly an audio player. It is compatible with CD and SACD as well as CD-R, mp3 and wma on an ISO9660 finalized disc.

One of the things that makes this a special affair is that Pioneer called upon the expertise of the British recording and audio fine tuning experts Air Studios of London.

The AIR Studios logo means that they have been involved in the design since the prototype. It is their guarantee that some of the best ‘ears’ in the world have approved the product.

The PD-D6-J is a young thoroughbred player for CD and SACD. Although that sounds limiting compared to all the mega format DVD players out there, when it come to music there are some very audible advantages to having a player for music only. The first thing to note is that all the video circuitry causes a lot of digital noise in the audio stage. It requires some very sophisticated (and expensive) additional circuitry to clean that up and keep it from running through the power supply and the audio section. So by removing the video circuitry, the cost is lowered (less parts) and at the same time the sound quality is improved. Hmm, it kind of makes sense.

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Well it looks like these babies really exist ! For the first time in history, you can buy a car stereo that will play SACD!! We are thoroughly jazzed here at SACD Central.

The MEX-DV1000 and MEX-DV2000 are single disc players with the slot hidden behind the faceplate.
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So what is the best place to find music to feed to your SACD player?

The online market is diverse, and there are stores that are serious about providing a decent selection of SACDs. But the fact is, there doesn’t seem to be any one store that has all the titles that are available. The site www.sa-cd.net lists 4540 titles! But the length and breadth of the selection is only part of what makes a good online store. The navigation for categories and the search capability, the information on the discs, the comments, and the sound samples are equally important.
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According to SA-CD.NET:

SONY BMG Masterworks and Zenph Studios announce the release of a breakthrough in the history of recorded music. Zenph’s re-performance of pianist Glenn Gould’s renowned 1955 rendition of the Bach Goldberg Variations lets listeners hear this celebrated work like never before and provides for a sonic rediscovery of an iconic recording.

The Goldberg Variations by Gould is one of the jewels of the Masterworks catalogue, continuously in print for over half a century. Zenph’s new technique lets the performance be heard for the first time in state-of-the-art sound on a new SONY BMG Masterworks hybrid multichannel SACD/CD disc, which includes versions tailored for surround sound and headphone listening.

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Groovyness comes in pairs, and Yamaha seems to have found the groove with this pair of Universal players.

First, the most excellent DVD-S1700
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Sony Electronics headquarters in Japan.

Sony is bringing out three Car Stereo players with Super Audio CD, according to a news story from the company’s HD World newsletter which focuses on Sony’s High Definition or HD products and technologies (such as Super Audio CD, Direct Stream Digital, High Definition TV Sets and the Blu-Ray Disc)
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