Heartland

* Japanese-only limited edition SHM-CD.
* Digitally remastered with superior sound quality.
* Complete obi-strip & Japanese introductory/lyrics sheets included.
* SHM-CD (Super High Material CD), fully compatible with standard CD players, enables greater transparency, more open sound, lower distortion and better resolution that leads to more sound details.
* SHM-CD achieves higher quality audio through the use of a polycarbonate plastic with improved transparency derived from LCD display manufacturing technologies.
Release Date 2011/6/22
Notes Limited Edition

http://www.cdbanq.com/search.asp?keywor ... +E+A+R+C+H

hmmmm... tempting

Does SHM-CD actually make any difference though?

robertzombie wrote:Does SHM-CD actually make any difference though?

especially after it's been ripped to mp3...

robertzombie wrote:Does SHM-CD actually make any difference though?

No

I've ripped quite a lot of CDs recently (~200) using EAC plus AccurateRip to verify the results. Just a very few discs put out some checksum errors because of scratches - the rest has been transfered 100% accurate/bit-true.

Maybe there's a difference becasue of the (re-)mastering process - that's the question running around in my mind regarding this topic.

robertzombie wrote:Does SHM-CD actually make any difference though?

Most importantly for me,will they be any louder ? Even th 2006 remastered versions just don't seem loud enough to me,especially once transferred to my sony walkman.

I actually like the sound in terms of dynamics (compared to todays dynamics compressing madness).

In case you like to have a loude release you can make it on your own, like (very simple) using winamp and set "disk writer" as output (configure the output path). Then simply load the CD into the playlist, set all EQ levels neutral but add ~4dB general gain (maybe 6dB). Then click "play".

The disc writer will put out a set of wav files you can burn or convert to mp3.

There's also a tool called "mp3 gain" you might want to check out (I just heard about it so I can't explain how that one works)

ribbons69 wrote:

robertzombie wrote:Does SHM-CD actually make any difference though?

Most importantly for me,will they be any louder ? Even th 2006 remastered versions just don't seem loud enough to me,especially once transferred to my sony walkman.

If you pull up the WAV files for Vision Thing, in particular, you'll see they didn't even normalize the files - IE, make them as loud as possible without changing any of the dynamics. It's embarrassing. It is usually the last thing you would do in the mastering process and it's as easy as hitting the -normalize- button.

Yeah that's right. I'm using "replay gain" to get the levels between different tracks/albums half-way even (without changing the dynamics within a track). It's a nice feauture if you play music in random mode.

http://www.replaygain.org/

Unfortunately not many hardware/software players are supporting this feature.

oh go buy some new ears!

Chances are that your Sony has EU volume limiting crap enabled on it.

Ordered anyway.

mh wrote:Chances are that your Sony has EU volume limiting crap enabled on it.

It does,which is why I invested in one of these.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/FiiO-E5-Headpho ... 434&sr=8-1

Money well spent.

There's normally some kind of hack you can do to disable it. What's your model number?

mh wrote:There's normally some kind of hack you can do to disable it. What's your model number?

One of these.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-NWZA845W-C ... 270&sr=8-3

I got mine. I love it.

Whilst we're waiting for the box set to arrive...

Just listened to the Floodland SHM-CD. Hmm. Seems to me that the standard old CD master was used, with a bit of peak limiting added to bring the overall level up. I checked the EQ of 1959 and Dominion against an original CD and the frequency analyses were identical. The added compression on Dominion does bring some song elements up and perhaps makes for a more stable low end, but it's hard to say. The digital glitch in the opening beat of Never Land remains (it's on all digital versions), so I think it's safe to assume that nothing major was done regarding sources for this "remaster".

The added compression is, of course, completely unnecessary. This release is for fanatics only (or for those that like their music in graph form).

Dynamic range values: http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/98121

Hopefully Rhino's forthcoming box set will be the last word on all this, if it ever gets released!