Review by Audio Ed December 17, 2014 (7 of 7 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics: |
I heard a definition of audiophile that seems fitting. One who is kept up at night wondering if they have the definitive version of a particular release. Up until recently my go to version was the SHM CD from Japan. I recently received the Blu-ray and upon first audition it seemed no better than the CD. I had to turn the volume up on the Blu-ray before an improvement over the CD revealed itself, it is definitely there though. There are 3 listening options and it took a little while to determine what sounded the best. All options are stereo. There is DTS HDMA 24/192, LPM Stereo 24/192 and Dolby TrueHD 24/192. The LPCM option is the one that sounded the best. Upon seeing the bit rate this confirmed why the LPCM sounded the best. For DTS HD the bit rate was 7.4 Mbps, for LPCM is was 9.9 Mbps and for Dolby TrueHD it was 6.6 Mbps. Overall I was not blown away with the Blu-ray but it was an improvement over the SHM CD so I thought it was money well spent. Then I started to read on the SA-CD forum page that the FLAC download was a big improvement. Once again I had to make the purchase because I just had to know. So off to Acoustic Sounds website I went and downloaded the new FLAC file. I was skeptical of it's difference since it suppose to be from the same source but it only took a few seconds of listening and it was very clear. This was a vast improvement over the Blu-ray. There was no question. The difference was bigger than the SHM CD to Blu-ray. I do not know why this is, it just is. So if you have the ability to play the FLAC file, don't waste your money on the Blu-ray. Thank you to all the writers on the Forum for letting me know about this option, I would have never thought it would be the way to go.
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