Hopeful????

Buy it Geff, its worth every penny. Great job by Mr. Wilson

Yesterday, Blowitoughtahere briefly had the DVD edition on ebay for $14 & change + shipping. Unfortunately while I was deciding whether I could live the dvd rather than the blu, they raised the price by $6.00.

And it was still a bargain - you should have bought it!

Got it the blu from Barnes & Noble for $22.76 including shipping & sales tax with a coupon. Bad news is they don't expect to have it back in stock until December 20th. I HOPE this isn't a limited edition.

I thought seriously about the dvd, but the BR has extra content.

I finally found a very good deal on this last week, & I'm waiting for the BR I purchased to arrive in the mail. In the meantime, someone loaned me a flac version, & all I can say is Stephen Wilson is a bloody magician. If the entire set sounds as good as the little bit I've heard, this is probably the reissue of the year (certainly the physical disc reissue of the year). Wow. Love the instrumental version also.

A couple comments on mastering: While Wilson is not credited with being the mastering engineer on any of the prog remix/remasters he's been associated with, they all have a certain (very nice) sonic signature. I have to assume that SW is either in the room during mastering, or sends very detailed mastering instructions & has final approval. IMO, along with the HD tracks/Warner Brothers flat transfer 192/24 downloads & some of the AP SACD's, SW's work is the best sounding hi res out there.

Another comment: it wasn't always this way. I recently picked up a UK Porcupine Tree early years compilation on Snapper. Wilson obviously didn't have anything to do with the mastering on that one. Great music, mediocre sound.

I am looking forward to the actual disc arriving. I'm planning on doing a comparison between the Wilson "flat transfer" vs Hoffman's AF SACD, & a comparison between the SW Flat transfer & the SW remix.

Right now, I'm in musical heaven!

Btw....I finally got the DVDA version from Amazon (very delayed) but didn't get a chance to,listen. It is packaged differently from the Blu-ray version (more of a mini-box).

So now I have 3 versions.

Although he may not be credited, I believe that Wilson does get involved in the mastering of his projects.

I really think so.

WARNING: The blu-ray is in cardboard packaging with hard paper inner sleeves. For $30, they'd couldn't have spent 20 cents on KJapanese rice paper inner sleeves to protect the discs?

No scratches, I immediately put them in rice paper sleeves.

More to follow.

At least they have inner sleeves.

Double posting, as it could belong in either thread...........

Since I haven't read ANY direct comparisons between the AF (Hoffman) SACD CTTE & the Panegyric (Wilson) blu-ray here are some thoughts.

First The one major 1 negative on the Panegyric: The blu-ray is in cardboard packaging with hard paper inner sleeves.

The pop up menu is also a bit hard to read if you want to switch in the middle of one version to another.

Beyond that..........

This didn't take all that long. I've owned the AF SACD for quite sometime, & I've heard rips of the Panegyric; but I didn't want to do any direct comparisons out of fairness until I had the official blu-ray in my grubby little paws. They also have only 3 songs in common: the 3 original mixes of the original album.

And that was my 1st surprise: I planned to compare the Panegyric "Flat transfers" of the original to the Hoffman, & than the winner of those 2 to the Wilson remix.

Well to my surprise (Caveat is one is an SACD & one is a blu-ray; & I have no idea if the Oppo 95 uses different circuitry to decode the 2 formats) Hoffman did not even come close to doing a flat transfer. His version is much louder than Panegyric's flat transfers (& about the same volume level subjectively as Wilson's remixes); is brighter than any of the Wilson versions & soundstages better than Panegyric's "flat transfers".

That said, Wilson's remixes blow away both of the other versions.

My preference from best to worst is thus (all 2.0):
1. Wilson Remixes
2. Hoffman SACD
3. Panegyric "flat transfer"

I will state that any of the 3 is better than any other digital version I've ever heard; in fact I have no plans to play the Panegyric cd or to keep my expanded Warner cd. I haven't yet decided if I''m going to keep the AF.

I haven't even touched on all the other features on the Panegyric. First if you own a br player, buy the blu; the instrumental version of America is worth the price of entry all on it's own. Second as previously discussed here, both Panegyric's have tons of extra material not on any other version, with the Blu having a bit more. And for those unlike me into surround, the Panegyric also has numerous hi res surround options

I didn't necessarily expect to prefer the remix of an album I've owned since the early 70's, but this was the case, & by a fairly wide margin.

I've listened to the rest of it (or almost all, some of it is sonically not all that good).

First, regarding Wilson's work: Back in the day, in the USA there was once only 1 stereo magazine (Stereophile) who actually believed there was more to sound quality that just waveforms (Stereo Review was the #1 magazine of the day & they 100% believed that all transistor music equipment had to sound identical, lol!). Stereophile's motto was "J Gordon Holt (their founder), in who's ears we trust". That needs to be changed to Stephen Wilson. Mr Wilson is doing amazing work. From a sound quality perspective, I haven't heard anything where he's had responsibility for the mixing &/or mastering that's been less that superb.

That's the case of all the 2.0 2013 mixes here (I haven't heard the 5.1, I only have a stereo).

HOWEVER............... The UK LP transfer (done by "John Kimber") SUCKS. Those into hi-rez probably know that the trend of the week is 96/24 needle drops done by fans. Most of the fan's work is far superior to this; either the LP chosen was worn out (significant inner groove distortion) or else the turntable/cartridge they used for the transfer was poorly set up, causing the distortion problem. That was not going to be my "go to" version no matter what, but I didn't expect this lack of quality.

Also, the single versions seem to come from several different sources, & the most unacceptable is the incredible difference in volume between the mono & stereo single versions of And You And I. The mastering engineer should have fixed that. All it takes is turning up or down the freakin' volume control during mastering (or ideally during the a/d transfer). AY&I stereo also is obviously from a 7" vinyl single; there's a big very audible scratch near the beginning. Maybe it's the only copy left in existence, but in a project this involved, some liner notes about the transfers would have been helpful..........

The single version of America is almost certainly from the same tape as the early American CD version on one of the greatest hits; & I am not as sure on the other 2 single versions.

The "Flat transfer" I complained about the thin sound in the last post is apparently by "Neil Wilkes". Interestingly, both it & the HD tracks "flat transfer" version are a "DR11" (dynamic range score), so makes me wonder.......... though I have not done a comparison. On the other hand, the HDTracks Warner hi-res flat transfers don't usually sound at all thin; in fact, they usually sound superb.

The other interesting part is the "alternate album". While similar to the 2003 Warner CD edition, musically it's quite interesting, & sonically it's closer to Wilson's work then that of the other 2 engineers; though again no credit is given & no explanation of source material is given; so it may just be a 96/24 archival transfer that was made in 2003. While I own the 2003 cd (at least until I sell it!), I never paid much attention to the alternates, & I'm not going to do a comparison now; but I definitely enjoyed the "alternate album" on this. Obviously, the final master of the real album was spliced together from various takes; the alt album sounds to me like a combination of alternate takes, guide vocals, & some spots they used in the final version except that they're missing overdubs. Shows what a great band the Howe/Wakeman/Buford version of Yes was!

All in all, this is the version to own, though I personally doubt I'll play anything again except the 2 Wilson mixes (vocal & instrumental) & maybe the alt album.

Only other (minor) complaint is I wish they would have tacked America on to the main album, rather than giving it it's own menu.

And as I mentioned above, buy the blu for the instrumental versions. Squire should be down on his knees thanking SW for making his bass sound this amazing!

Great thorough review Geff.

One final comment: I think my favorite part is Wilson's instrumental mix. Don't get me wrong, I really like Jon Anderson's singing. But without the vocals, the detail is staggering. & Wilson is one of the few digital engineers I'm aware of who can give music a ton of high frequency & upper mid range energy without making it painful, brittle & bright.

I've bought this album at last 7 times (all for "upgrades") , & I am hearing a ton of detail that I've never heard before.

I have to remember to throw on the DVDA tomorrow. I have all three versions now and hope to find the time to rye them all at one sitting.

The flat transfer in 96/24 in stereo sounds incredible through my vintage JBLs. I can't praise it enough. It kills any CD or vinyl version I have.

I am waiting for my 5.1 of CTTE. They are doing a tour in the spring and will be performing, The Yes Album, CTTE, and Going for One in their entirety. According to the website Jon Anderson is listed. WIll get a ticket for that show in Kelowna

Not bloody likely.

This tour already happened in 2013 unless this is an extension.

Jon Anderson is NOT in the band.

Here is the link for their 2014 tour. I guess in my looking forward the their tour I didn't notice Jon is not in the band. . I didn't read the whole band listing. Thanks for the heads up.

http://www.yesworld.com/

That aside I did recieve my 5.1 mix of CTTE and look forward to when I can hear it on bluray. The 2 channel remix sounds great.

Don't miss PROG magazine!!