Madonna: The Immaculate Collection
Sire - 13th November 1990
16/44.1
DR: 5
I haven’t listened to this album for a very long time.
I had forgotten what a great track ‘Vogue’ is…
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I know that album well, but I listened to it mostly on a radiocassette recorder around the time it came out. Apparently (from the internet again) it was recorded at the 16 bit & 50 kHz that you mention, on 3M equipment. When I bought the CD (and SACD) years later I felt it had an overly clean sound without much aural interest, although superficially impressive, if that makes sense. Great music though, and perhaps in some alternate universe there is a better sounding version of the record.
I know what you mean about high quality digital playback providing (or not) a magic touch to less than great recordings: a positive experience for me has been what Vivaldi can do for Art Tatum piano music from the mid 50s. He was never well recorded, but Vivaldi gives it a significant lift in realism. I suppose there are subtle elements in those old analog recordings, and their digital transfers, that are still waiting to be extracted.
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I was 12 y o in 1978 so my own thoughts on ADC were somewhat nascent, and dCS was founded in 1987, so moved into digital when at least what we now think of as standard resolution (16/44.1 and 16/48) was starting to mature and become quite well understood.
Nevertheless, here are some of my own reflections. I’ll also ask around internally and see if any of the “old guard” have other thoughts on the subject.
As you know dCS pioneered what we now think of as high resolution (bit depths and sample rates higher than the above) audio, and specifically how to use the headroom higher sample rates offer to move low pass filters away from the audio band. We also pioneered the use of upsampling to take standard resolution program and “retrofit” that headroom, providing a pathway to the same sorts of benefits for material recorded at standard resolution. Both these innovations addressed constraints of early digital and were viewed by many as delivering better sound quality.
One of the consistent themes throughout the evolution of dCS’s product generations has been a quest to reduce noise, and, possibly more importantly distortion. Noise can mask low level signals which are where we find things like timbre and soundstage information, while distortion, particularly odd-order, can provide the unnatural edge to sounds that listeners often describe as “hard” or “glassy”, criticisms often leveled at early digital.
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When I’m running demos I generally ask customers what they want to hear, at least when the audience is, say, 5 or less (that approach breaks down badly as the number of people increases). However last night at Paragon several people responded “you choose”. This is always a challenge because while I have a very good idea of what I like, I usually have little or no information about the customer’s tastes or preferences. So unless you spend time interrogating them (which isn’t really possible as people want to listen to music, not educate you about their tastes) it’s a bit of a crapshoot.
But this album always seems to please. Last night there were some pretty loud bumps as chins hit the floor when I played this on Paragon’s Varèse system.
Sara Bareilles “Brave Enough: Live at the Variety Playhouse (Live at the Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA - May 2013)” 2013, Qobuz 24/96
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I am sure that you are correct. In fact on several occasions I have even listened to pre-electric recordings where, despite all sorts of sonic issues, I still can hear some kind of authenticity. No doubt there are those now thinking " Poor old Pete has now really lost it" 
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Hi @AndrewS ,
What a dream job you have!
I modestly do the same at my house when some friends or family not into our hobby and intrigued by my hifi system come visit.
The “wow” effect is clearly duplicated when you allow people to listen to something they know and like, but to the question “what do you want to listen?” the “you choose” is by far the most common answer.
For ones not into this hobby I think there’s somehow a fear to get judged regarding their musical tastes and/or musical knowledge…
I always tend to reassure them, saying I listen to many music genres: Classical, Jazz, Electro, … actually almost everything but Reggae that I really don’t like…
Then the second most frequent answer I have in this case is: “could we listen to some Bob Marley?”. But it’s a clear win for me there, as:
- I can stand Marley records nevertheless
- Seeing some jaws drops is always a pleasure…
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Spot on.
I had some friends over a few days ago. They had never heard my system before.
They chose various tracks, of different genres.
To say that they were wowed by what they heard would be an understatement. 
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Superb choice.
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Daft Punk: Random Access Memories
Columbia - 20th May 2013
24/88.2
DR: 7
I haven’t listened to this album in a while…
Excellent mastering by Bob Ludwig.
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Requested by a customer at last night’s event at Paragon. Beautiful playing and an outstanding recording.
Daniil Trifonov, Philadelphia Orchestra, Jannick Nézet-Séguin ”Rachmaninov Variations” 2015, Qobuz 24/96
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A tip from our friends at Transparent. They use the first track, Marche du Soldat, as a test track as it’s a great recording, the programme showcases all the standard musical ingredients (timbral, temporal, spatial etc.) and, most importantly, it’s only 2 minutes long.
Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Paavo Järvi ”Stravinsky: Suites and Concertos” 2003, Qobuz 24/96
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Russian Ballet Suites:
Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet
Khachaturian, Spartacus
Shostakovich, The Bolt
Alexander Vedernikov, Russian National Orchestra
PentaTone - 27th April 2004
24/96
DR: 17
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Mahler: Symphony No. 5
Semyon Bychkov, Czech Philharmonic
PentaTone - 14th October 2022
24/96
DR: 21
This is a marvellous performance of this iconic symphony, and an excellent recording/mastering by PentaTone.
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Bill Evans Trio
Haunted Heart: The Legendary Riverside Studio Recordings (Remastered 2025)
Jazz
Craft Recording - 2025 (originally recorded in 1959 & 1961)
24/192 - DR: 9dB
This remaster was just released this week. Excellent SQ.
3h33mn of sweet delicacy and pure happiness.
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Bela Fleck & The Flecktones: Flight Of The Cosmic Hippo
Fusion, Progressive Bluegrass
Warner Bros. - 11th June 1991
16/44.1
DR: 9
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Hi Simon,
I don’t know if you remember this fascinating series of podcasts from a few years ago, but I think it also speaks to your question (particularly the second episode).
https://dcsaudio.com/edit/trust-your-ears-exploring-the-history-of-mercury-living-presence
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