Golden Ear reviewers cant even get album reviews right!!

[fatoldgit]

/ START OF RANT

So was listening to a Nick Moss album on Qobuz in my office and it sounded BAD!!!!!... so out of interest I checked it against my Deezer and Tidal accounts.. still real bad

I use the streaming services to find new blood while working in my office.

Did a web search to see if anyone had complained and low and behold I see the "Absolute Sound", that bastion of all things hi-fi, rated it a 4 out of 5 for sonics.

So I did the naughty thing (purely for science of course) and hooked up my pro studio Denon recorder (used for my vinyl rips) to my Slimdevices Transporter and recorded the album.

Here is the first track inside some Denon supplied software.. basically a solid slab of sound:

Ran foobar DR against all the tracks (noting the first track is the worst with a DR of 3.7)... album average DR is 6. At least they didnt hit 0bdFS Peak!!!!.

Checked the first track to see if this was some bastardized MP3... but no:

Summary:

Now the sound aesthetics might be deliberate (i.e. going for a low-fi feel) which is the prerogative of the artist but any review of the album should note that.

So not only is the Absolute Sound crap at being objective in their equipment reviews but they are shit at knowing a well recorded album from a cesspit of over recorded tracks.

NOTE: This album is also available in red vinyl... in case you were wondering!!!.

Peter

/ END OF RANT

 

[Greenman]

/ START OF RANT

So was listening to a Nick Moss album on Qobuz in my office and it sounded BAD!!!!!... so out of interest I checked it against my Deezer and Tidal accounts.. still real bad

I use the streaming services to find new blood while working in my office.

Did a web search to see if anyone had complained and low and behold I see the "Absolute Sound", that bastion of all things hi-fi, rated it a 4 out of 5 for sonics.

View attachment 396034

So I did the naughty thing (purely for science of course) and hooked up my pro studio Denon recorder (used for my vinyl rips) to my Slimdevices Transporter and recorded the album.

Here is the first track inside some Denon supplied software.. basically a solid slab of sound:

View attachment 396035

Ran foobar DR against all the tracks (noting the first track is the worst with a DR of 3.7)... album average DR is 6. At least they didnt hit 0bdFS Peak!!!!.

Checked the first track to see if this was some bastardized MP3... but no:

View attachment 396037


Summary:

Now the sound aesthetics might be deliberate (i.e. going for a low-fi feel) which is the prerogative of the artist but any review of the album should note that.

So not only is the Absolute Sound crap at being objective in their equipment reviews but they are shit at knowing a well recorded album from a cesspit of over recorded tracks.

NOTE: This album is also available in red vinyl... in case you were wondering!!!.

Peter

/ END OF RANT

1. this is a great album if you can get over the recording.
2. I believe the LoFi aesthetic is deliberate (I guess from the cover you sort of get the gist)
3. the review of this album in Uk Guitarist magazine does mention the lofi nature.

Nick Moss’s other releases are somewhat better sound quality wise. If you like him as an artist I have found his releases very consistently decent standard

 

[MoreWatts]

Hats-off to another SlimDevices Transporter user. Mine is goin' strong since 2007! I did replace a power supply-related IC a few years ago, after it tried to die, with a ~$10 component. My fumble-fingers broke-off a display board capacitor during the install, but everything seems to work okay.

Nice info about the Nick Moss album. I am currently in a heavy modern jazz (sheesh, who listens to that... ) phase, and I haven't noticed any bad recordings. With advances in recording and acoustics technology, you pretty much have to make an album sound 'bad' on purpose. Which still appears to be an issue in 'rock' recordings especially.

 

[fatoldgit]

Hats-off to another SlimDevices Transporter user. Mine is goin' strong since 2007! I did replace a power supply-related IC a few years ago, after it tried to die, with a ~$10 component. My fumble-fingers broke-off a display board capacitor during the install, but everything seems to work okay.

Nice info about the Nick Moss album. I am currently in a heavy modern jazz (sheesh, who listens to that... ) phase, and I haven't noticed any bad recordings. With advances in recording and acoustics technology, you pretty much have to make an album sound 'bad' on purpose. Which still appears to be an issue in 'rock' recordings especially.

Yep...my original is from 2006 and have two backups from the Logitech "no-knobs" era. Never had an issue but have spare screens and screen power supplies (the later tending to be the part that dies the most).

It's the combo of hardware (still competitive) and software that makes the ecosystem so compelling and if they all turn to crap you still have squeezelite to pump tunes out ALSA to a DAC

As a programmer and audiophile that believes philosophically that "less is more", the LMS ecosystem is so lightweight it has to be good. Compare its footprint to say Roon... slim and trim verses fat and bloated and yet they are, feature wise, at about the same level.

I am a Jazz Head but from the classic stereo period from 1957 to 1969 (I feel Jazz went all fusion after 1969 so not my bag)... so I am spoilt for choice with regard to great sounding albums from this period.

And there are so many lessor known artists (not Miles or 'Trane or Sonny R) to discover. I came across Shelly Manne the other day... great music and great production, even stuff from the dawn of stereo in 57, 58.

My other love is Blues and I dont have a hard stop on an end date but its a crap shoot with regard to sound quality even stuff from the 60's and 70's.

Modern Blues recordings tend to suffer from bad compression and I put that down to Blues artists having to use no-name labels where the skills of engineers is on the low end. Some exceptions exist like Little Charlie and The Nightcats...great tracks that are well recorded.

Sadly Charles "Little Charlie" Baty died at young age...he was in my opinion one of the greatest modern Blues guitarists around...wonderful technique and tone and a great writer of witty songs.

Peter

 

[fatoldgit]

1. this is a great album if you can get over the recording.
2. I believe the LoFi aesthetic is deliberate (I guess from the cover you sort of get the gist)
3. the review of this album in Uk Guitarist magazine does mention the lofi nature.

Nick Moss’s other releases are somewhat better sound quality wise. If you like him as an artist I have found his releases very consistently decent standard

Agree on all the points and yes, I got the same vibe from the cover re the "lo fi" sound being intentional.

But why....he has the chops, the original tracks musically are great so why screw up the sound.

Peter

 

[AnalogSteph]

I checked on Amazon Music. The recording generally sounds fine... except for the vocals, those are trying their best to make my ears bleed (almost like they were treble-heavy to begin with and then clipped). The TAS reviewer must have severe hearing loss in the treble to not notice that. There is nothing "retro" about this to my ears.

I am not convinced it actually is the mastering that's the problem. Usually when it's that egregious it takes things upstream to have gone wrong. I am no stranger to albums around DR6 and even DR5 that absolutely do not make me want to stab my ears out with an icepick. Take, for example, the current Telenova album, Time Is A Flower, a DR5. Warts - yes, absolutely. But it's serviceable. (I don't know why the Aussies are so anachronistic with their mastering levels at times. It's like they have to keep up with Japan or something. Meanwhile, Kiwiland next door has given us the Beths with perfectly reasonable, at times exemplary mastering levels... my Amazon MP3 version of Jump Rope Gazers is a DR11. The Expert In A Dying Field video gives some hints as to why.)

 

[kemmler3D]

I checked the album out of curiosity - my take is yes, it's really slammed, but the tonality and stereo image is decent. I have to agree that it kinda works for the style, as far as it goes. I'm listening to this pretty turned down, so maybe it's mixed for casual listening. Basically you can only hear one instrument and the vocal at any given time, but I think that's intentional.

Will agree with @AnalogSteph that there is some unpleasant sibilance on the vocals, so minus 2 points for that.

 

[Greenman]

But why....he has the chops, the original tracks musically are great so why screw up the sound.

Peter

Got to admit i agree. As I said I quite like most of the Nick Moss catalogue, solo with band and with Flip Tops, and although I like this album it’s one I’m less likely to listen to due to the recording quality. What I have done with this album is transfer it to my in car system where the recording quality doesn’t quite matter as much.