CD Shoot Out! SHMCD vs CD.

Any body here a Zeppelin fan?

This started out as a little conversation with The Wise One, whom contributes his thoughts here frequently. Ever the music lover, especially the Rock variety genre, he passed me 2 CD packs of the same album, titled The Songs Remain The Same by Led-Zedppelin. One, a pristine Japanese pressing, the other another Japanese pressing with a little gold SHMCD label in front. Both albums appear to have similar packaging quality but the SHMCD version uses textured surface board instead of the usual variety.

I started by listening to both CDs casually in the car just to get a feel of the music in the past few days. The Led-Zedppelin group was at their creative peak when this live concert was held in Madison Square Garden, New York in 1973. The concert had a raw, energetic feel to it, and especially on the long solos on the second CD, that'll be sides 2,3&4 for your analog fans. Of all the songs featured here, I loved Daze and Confused the most!, for reasons only known to me. It's a half hour extravaganza of solo guitar rifts, feed backs and synthesizer display. Moby Dick is my next favourite, featuring a long solo drum roll quite like those from the good ol' Dave Bruback's Castelion Drums in Live at Carnegie Hall!, only with electric guitars blazing full on panning the left and right of sound stage! Then of course every one's favorite Zedppelin song, Stairway To Heaven.

Spot the SHMCD? the one on the left, note the little gold label with a big "S". The one on the right is a high quality Japanese pressing of the same recording.

When I played both CDs in my main hifi rig for comparison. The sound quality of the SHMCD was startling! It had a certain quality that is very close to a well set up high end analog rig sound. The sound had body feel and most importantly emotional content was presented "full on".

The bass is more robust, well filled,tuneful and very analog like. The mids are projected a little more forward in to the sound stage, making the vocals stand out and every word highly audible and intelligible from the rest of the music. The highs on first listen seems a little rolled off, but on closer inspection proves not the case. Gone are the Cd's dryness in the highs, replaced by airy sound stage.

The transparency factor of the SHMCD is way,way ahead of the normal CD version. I heard so much more spatial cues, vocal details and sound staging and imaging space missing on the regular CD. I could say the CD data loss or compression is as high as 30-40% compared to the SHMCD. However, I do suspect that if played back on a, lesser system, one would probably not feel such a big difference, and would think that I am high on certain substance to make such a statement. I'd admit to being high on the substance of music!

I also felt the sound from the normal CD seemed thin, shrilly high mids, especially when the lead vocalist, Robert Plant screams his lungs out! Bass is hollow and the mids recessed in comparison to the SHMCD.

Now, The Wise One tells me that the SHMCDs cost about 40% more than your average audiophile CD release! If even a music lover/collector of his magnitude complains, then it must be expensive! But I would say, at most, the price is similar to new vinyl releases.

There is now XRCD, HDCD, SHMCD, and HQCD(of which I am told is very similar in sound quality compared to SHMCD) in the market. The now more quality choice than before when it comes to software recordings.

Audiophiles and music lovers, rejoice!, for I think there's never been a better time when it comes to choices.