Ten Years of Harmony - Japanese 2020 Hi-res Reissue

Many thanks Wata.

I’m curious enough to try to track down an affordable copy!

Great find, Mosh!

In case this ends up being a hard find, the catalogue is available in Master quality on Tidal - not as high as the version Wata’s found, but not to shabby.

Ooh, good question - I can dig mine out to see, but the US CD version included the album mixes for several songs, where the original LP and the EU CD used single mixes. 

Jargon buster:

24bit - bit depth of the track. So each sample of information has 24 bits.  CD formats are usually limited to 16 bits per sample, although HDCD (the twofers were HDCD) was able to achieve a depth of 20 bits per sample

352.8khz - this is the sample rate of of the track.  So the track was sampled (recorded/transfered from a source, ie the analogue tape being played back) 352,800 times per second.  CD is usually 44,100 times per second.

DSD - stands for Direct Stream Digital, and a method of storing and playing back HiRes audio.  It's a propriety format developed by Sony and Phillips.

MQA - Master Quality Authenticated.  It's a lossy 44.1 khz codec that if decoded via an MQA piece of hardware, will playback at the same quality as the original master tape.

So, what does it all mean?

It tells me, that this CD edition is a 16 bit, 44.1 khz version (standard resolution) that uses the HiRes remaster as a source BUT it will only play back in High Res if you have hardware that supports MQA.

If you don't, it won't sound much different to the existing CDs unless the mastering is something to die for.

Corrections welcomed of course.

The thing about the US version of the Caribou Ten Years of Harmony CD -- it used album mixes instead of single mixes, unlike the original release, and because it used essentially the same masters as the stand-alone albums on CD, it used that alternate mix of "Come Go With Me." There's the short answer right there. The European pressing of that CD had all the correct single mixes and didn't use the alternate "Come Go With Me."

That's a fact, Jack Frost.  LOL.

It's a shame that Oppo are no longer producing their all singing and dancing players that could handle about any format you could throw at it, including SACD.

MQA is a bit controversial in the audio world (lots of skeptics).

I'm waiting for direct to your frontal lobe crystal radio feed technology to get through the patent gate; I have a patch-in point shaved and ready to go.

Also, these titles will be reissued on the format MQA/UHQCD.

UHQCD stands for "Ultimate Hi Quality CD", which is advertised as sounding better than conventional CD and playable on any CD players(columbia.jp/uhqcd/).

Intrnational postage rates are killing music!

Don't need 'em. I have all those songs already in many different kindsa formats. Even 8 track and Beta. I'm not going to subscribe to the marketing ploys anymore and change my hardware every time there's new software. I was going to pick up an Oppo player a couple of years ago but never got around to it. Now that I know you can't throw everything at it, forget it, unless I can get it for around two hunderd.

Just bought two laptops that set me back 3K and I have to save my dimes for these now:

www.tomsguide.com/news/sony-wh-1000xm4

P.S. And I don't do effing Twitter, Discord, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, or Tiktok either. Shoot me now!

These six reissues are on CDJapan.com now, priced £20.82 and £28.25 for TenYoH. Postage for one disc starts from £6.47 and goes up to £19.24, depending on how fast you want them to land in your sweaty palms.

And Jpc.de has it at €43. Someone here will know what that is in pennies.

At my age, and with my ears, it could be inscribed on 17 Edison cylinders and it would sound exactly the same. A release for people who listen to the signal path, not the music.