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Roxy Music SACDs due next month

By Paul Sinclair

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15

roxy_tape
Roxy Music Avalon tape box (side one)

The Japanese Roxy Music SHM-SACD reissues are being worked on as we speak and all the eight albums – Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure, Stranded, Country Life,Siren, Manifesto, Flesh And Blood, and Avalon – will feature a brand new 2014 DSD remaster, using the UK original analog master (see tape box images of Avalon, courtesy of Universal Music Japan)

All releases will feature the usual exacting mini-LP CD cardboard sleeve vinyl replica artwork, and an OBI strip will faithfully replicate the design from the original Japanese LP. These will be available in SACD, Platinum SHM-CD or SHM-CD variants.

If you don’t want to order from Japan, then there are newly added links (below) to the European JPC.de store which offers decent prices and perhaps more importantly if you’re in the EU, no chance of import duty!

These will all be released on 28 January 2015.

roxytape2

roxymusic_

Roxy Music

Roxy_Music_-_For_Your_Pleasure

For Your Pleasure

Roxy_Music-Stranded

Stranded

Roxy_Music-Country_Life

Country Life

Roxysiren

Siren

Roxy_music-manifesto

Manifesto

Flesh_and_Blood_album_cover

Flesh And Blood

Avalon_album_cover

Avalon

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Will

Neat photos of Avalon’s master tape boxes. Under the liquid paper, you can see an abandoned track list (with some songs in a different order than what ultimately appeared):

Side 1:
More Than This
The Space Between
India
Avalon
True To Life

Side 2:
The Main Thing
While My Heart is Still Beating
Take a Chance With Me
To Turn You On
Tara

0
Will Cullen

Does anyone know if there will be 5.1 SACD versions available this time around or should I go ahead and buy these stereo ones?

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SDE Hall of Fame

No 5.1 SACDs coming to my knowledge!

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jack

It may be wishful thinking, but I have several SHM cds and they all sound superlative on a good system (ie, not computer speakers). They sound very bright and “full” in the stereo spectrum, and in the several instances where tape hiss is present it sounds quite detached from the recording itself. I’m looking forward to the Platinum editions of these Roxy albums to hear what else is revealed.

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b.l.

The 1st Roxy Album is getting a deluxe re-issue next year and perhaps more will follow. This makes these sacd releases a somewhat dubious proposition.

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Mark

Any chance of these getting a blueray PCM release or DVD-A real ease?

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Tom M

The platinum SHM-CD’s use that metal for the reflective layer instead of gold or aluminum. It has a lower reflectance than either of those other two which is why your player must be compatible with CD-R discs, which also has lower reflectivity. An expensive metal as well and it shows in the price,

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Abby

Drat, I was hoping for a re-release of the 5.1 Avalon (or the others). Somebody needs to get that back in print.

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Steven

Thanks for all of the useful info around the Japanese formats. I have bought some of these while recently in Japan (for example, the Venus and Mars and Blue Nile in SHMCD and new Jackson Browne in BSCD2) and had not quite understood what I had!

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Friso Pas

I have the very excellent Roxy Music boxset from 2012, which has great sound quality on all albums, plus a double cd with bonus tracks, and…very cheap compared to these SHM-SACD’s. It’s still available from some sellers online.
If Avalon would be a 5.1 SACD, with the previous surround mix, maybe I’d buy that, but I see no info on that one.

0
Fatoldbloke

Why not BluRay Audio ?

0
probablyrustin

what is the difference between CD, SHM-CD and platinum SHM-CD in terms of sound quality? does it matter much? they formats pop up here and there (with platinum SHM and SHM-SACD being totally new to me) but they don’t seem to have grown beyond Japan yet. can anyone enlighten us?

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Rareglam

As I understand it, The SHM (Super High Material) discs uses a different form of polycarbonate to a standard CD. This form supposedly allows the laser a clearer reading of the digital ‘bits’ and results in a more stable reading, with less laser wobble and hence a clearer sound. Opinions differ on the sound quality. Some find it emphasises the treble at the expense of the bottom end. I suppose it depends to some extent what you’re listening to the discs on. I have always liked them myself I don’t know about the Platinum discs, I assume this is something like the gold plated CDs of some years back that makes some positive discernable difference to the playback.

You may also come across Blue-Spec and Blue-SpecII CDs from Japan. These use the blue laser for cutting (i.e. like ther technology for making a Blue Ray disc) rather than the standard CD red laserand is again allegedly of a higher aural quality than a standard CD. I have some of these and like them also. I do thinks both Blue-Spec and SHM discs do or at least can have a sharper presence than standard CDs (I listen on a Bose portable CD player), but others may disagree.

Both SHM and Blue-Spec Cds can be played on standard CD players. The technology is Japanese and it would seem not something JVC / Phillips whoever developed it there, are willing to license to other manufacturers.

I wonder if these Roxy Music CDs will be Hybrid SACDs (ie playable on a CD player as well)? Also, I wonder if the rest of Roxy Music’s albums will be reissued here with a bonus disc’s worth of extras which their first two albums are supposedly being made as early next year? Which format will you plump for, or maybe both?!

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Adam

All of the additional CD “formats” mentioned here (except for SACD) conform to Red Book audio, which means that any difference in sound is from remixing or remastering of the music, not the materials used in the making the disc. Those materials might have some impact on the longevity or durability of the physical object, perhaps, but are irrelevant with respect to the sound. For the sound to be different, the data has to be different.

I believe it was already announced that the SACDs are not hybrids. The CDJapan listings seem to back that up.

0
SDE Hall of Fame

Yes, don’t think any of the Japanese SHM-SACDs have been hybrids. The data is different. The SHM-CD and Platinum SHM-CD use the same remastering as the SACD. The Sticky Fingers SHM-CD was stunning and sounded almost as good as the SHM-SACD thanks to amazing remastering.

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