Review for the Audio Fidelity release AFZ 058
Timmothy R. Acheson | Denver, CO | 11/24/2009
(1 out of 5 stars)
"UPDATE: I used to agree with two stars, but now one. The artwork, while an attempt to recreate the LP, is stretched. So glad I jumped of the AF train!!
I actually think the packaging is pretty cool as it recreates the style of the original LP. However, I rip all of my CDs to FLAC, so I don't need to take the disc out every time I want to hear the music. The packaging almost made me think AF was kicking it up a notch and starting to release some high quality products. That was prior to discovering the clipped peaks on this disc.
I was a member on Steve Hoffman's forum (under the name Dream Operator) and I noticed posts from people wondering if this release sounded better than the Dennis Drake master. I decided to put up some samples from this version so people could get an idea of the sound. I opened the first track (True Blue) in a sound editing program and created a 30 second sample. Then I opened the second track (Lost Paraguayos) to make a sample of that. It was then that I noticed the end of the song had consistently leveled peaks. I zoomed in and found the peaks are actually clipped (flat-topped). Other songs on the album have clipped peaks as well, but Lost Paraguayos was the worst offender.
I sent Steve Hoffman a private message about this (after issues with other discs, he asked me to contact him about AF issues in the future)and he told me they don't have peak limiters at RTI. He said he would have his copy in a week.
I then emailed Marshall Blonstein (President of Audio Fidelity), but I did not receive a reply. After a few days, I posted on Steve Hoffman's forum about the clipped peaks. The post was mild and did not make any accusations. The post was removed in less than a minute and I was soft banned (my account appears active, but I cannot access anything on the site when I log in).
I sent another email to Marshall [...], but this time I received a reply from Heather. She said he was out of the country and would be returning on Monday (11/16/2009). I sent Marshall another email on 11/19 and asked if he had a chance to read my previous email and asked what his thoughts were. I still have not received a reply.
I don't think the disc sounds bad and the dynamic range is quite good. However, the disc does not live up to the promise on their website: "The original dynamic range of the recordings are not maximized, brickwalled, limited or compressed in any way during remastering." (also printed on every CD, though slightly different). Clipped peaks are the result of some type of compression. Whether it was a peak limiter or perhaps the analog-to-digital converters were simply over-driven by accident, I do not know.
This is the third CD from Audio Fidelity's 2009 releases to reveal compression (The Doors - The Soft Parade and The Pretenders - The Pretenders being the other two discs). Sad for that company that attempts to build their reputation on producing albums without additional compression.
For the record, Kevin Gray is credited for remastering this, not Steve Hoffman. Steve was credited for the other two Audio Fidelity discs that have compression. These guys appreciate dynamic music, so it's hard to say why these issues are happening.
[...]"
Never a Dull Moment - Audio Fidelity Gold CD
Dwight Frye | Douglasville, GA | 11/19/2009
(2 out of 5 stars)
"I received my copy of the Audio Fidelity remaster of Rod Stewart's 'Never a Dull Moment' today. I give this item only 2 stars due to the poor packaging. Normally, this is not something I care too much about. But, in this case, I feel that it does have an impact. The CD itself is in a slimline case with the spindle on the front, rather than the back side. The disc it put in backwards to make the title visible. The actual cover is separate and is over sized in the respect that it would not fit into any jewel case, let alone the backwards slimline provided. While the idea may have been to reproduce the original album packaging (can't say, since I never owned the original vinyl), I don't feel it adds any value. Overall, it looks like perhaps this is some kind of packaging experiment that gave no consideration to practicality. I prefer to be able to store my discs with their packaging and with the disc right-side up and on the right side of the case when it is a single disc. The cover does have a pocket that may be intended as storage for the disc, I don't really know. I do know that I'm not going to store this kind of disc in such a way as to invite damage. As to the remaster, it's not bad, but nothing to write home about either (as I have found with many of the Audio Fidelity titles). Like others I have purchased, it requires a bit more volume to really bring the low end out. So, two stars from this customer. A passable remaster and, in my opinion, some unfortunate packaging decisions."
Track Listings (9) - Disc #1