“The girl from Ipanema” on different formats:

What the hell is an audiophile record?

Is it possible to judge the intrinsic qualities of different musical formats listening the same music published on these different formats?

These and similar questions moved my audio research to compare different editions of a music which I (and my friend Griff) like very much: the “Getz/Gilberto” record and in particular “The girl from Ipanema” track. The different versions of this “must” which I have compared are:

Verve 2304071 “Special Price” (very cheap) vinyl, pressed in Holland some 10 years ago;

the Speaker's Corner reissue of V6-8545 (0098545) on fold out 180g vinyl (relatively expensive);
the 8 year old Verve SACD 314589595-2 reissue (not hybrid, relatively expensive);
the new and quite expensive “K2 HD” First Impression Music reissue LIM K2HD 036, made from a 24 bit 100kHz digital version of the original tape.

Of course, the sources used to play these different musical formats were... well -obviously- different hardware. What I want to point out is that in my judgement there is also the contribution of my analogue front-end (Kuzma Stabi/Stogi, CJ EF-1 phono) and of my digital player (a heavily modded Sony XA5400ES SACD player), which are indeed very different. During these shoot-outs my analogue front-end had a small problem, meaning that everything was fine-tuned for my Benz LP, but that cartridge had recently an accident and then was replaced by my Koetsu Red, which is quite a different beast (5 Ohm against 38 Ohm). I just fixed the VTA angle and run the Koetsu for all the repairing period, using the very good 1:20 MC step-up chosen for the LP.

I started my listening sessions always with the Special Price LP, because I thought it would be a benchmark easily beaten by the modern and more expensive versions, of course... I was wrong! The sound of this cheap LP is... disarming “natural”. There are no fascinating highs, nor impressively strong bass, but the voice of Gilberto and the sax of Getz are simply “materically” present in my living room. All the “limits” of the recording were clearly apparent: the voice of Astrud was stacked on the right speaker, with the Jobin piano just below her and the Gilberto's guitar close to her left side, while the Gilberto voice is on the centre, like the Getz sax. On the left there was the drums, but its highest cymbals were recorded on the centre. That is not one of the best audiophile recording, but the Getz sax and Gilberto voice are simply wonderful and that is what appears from this “simple” light vinyl.

Then I moved to the new “top” of the Red-Book (16 bit 44 kHz) CD world, which is considered to be the FIM K2 HD technology. At first glance, the sound was much more “audiophile”, with a much stronger bass line, a more focused Gilberto voice. But as much as I listened it, every time I was more convinced that the sound has been in some way “manipulated”, with a probable filter of some high frequencies and in particular on the Astrud voice. It was also if the right channel was a little smoothed respect to the left one and the image moved slightly from the centre toward the left. In some way the result was “pleasant”, but I think one can call it a “re-interpretation” of the original recording work.

Then I moved to the Verve SACD version and immediately I was aware of the musical details which were populating the high frequency domain. The bass were present, but not so much present as in the K2 HD CD. The “tone equilibrium” of the music was very similar to that of the Special Price LP, but there were much more resolution and added details, in particular in the high frequency region.

Lastly I listened the 180g reissue, which I thought would be the winner of the shoot-out (yes, I was biased, but I was conscious of that). At the very beginning I was satisfied by the great black background silence, with beautiful colours depicting the Gilberto voice, but after few lines... I was blown away by a great surprise. First: the track (but it is true also for the other songs) is recorded with the left/right channels reversed, that is the drums is on the right while the Astrud voice and the piano are between the left speaker and the centre (with a total soundstage width smaller than in the other cases). Even more surprisingly, the Gilberto guitar is in the centre, just below his voice. But what scared me the most was that the Gilberto voice had some terrible “sibilants”, and sometimes also the piano seemed distorted. So, I have found two type of problems with this vinyl. The first one was on the soundstage: if the K2 HD record was re-interpreted, that seemed to be completely “re-invented”. The second was on some sound distortion which I found unacceptable on an “audiophile” reissue. I'm not sure if this problem is only in the copy I was listening or in all of them. In the past have found I many Speaker's Corner LP with distortion problems (e.g. the Oscar Peterson “We get requests” to remain on Verve house, or -even worse- the Mozart Notturno for four Orchestra SXL-2196 to speak of the DECCA catalogue) and I never know if I was unlucky with my pressing copy or if the problems were more general. What I know is that on Classic Records reissues I never had such distortion problems (while I have found many “bent” vinyls...).

At the end there is not a clear winner. The cheap vinyl is a best buy if you have a good analogue front-end. The SACD (on a good player!) is even better as details and resolution, but when we had to compare the male voice of Gilberto... the vinyl was damned realistic in comparison with the SACD. I wish I can listen the original (1964) Verve vinyl in good conditions...

In conclusion, I can't judge from this single shoot-out (maybe other will follows) which format is better, but I can advise you that when you try to do it you must consider the possibility that the different records have been remastered by different sound engineers and each one can reinterpret the original sound. So you are not only listening different formats, but also different hardware (if you compare analogue and digital formats) and different human tastes. Apparently, the more an edition is considered “audiophile” the more bass (and surround effects) you would expect to find, so, if you are a true audiophile, try to look for the normal “edition” of truly good recordings!