Art Pepper Meets... in three different editions

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I love this classic jazz album from 1957, and so over the years I purchased three different editions of it, in the never-ending search for the "holy grail", as it were.

In particular, I have:

- a basic CD version issued by Contemporary Records (Universal)

- a Japanese single-layer SACD version by Universal Japan

- the latest Japanese Blu-Ray audio version (24bit/192kHz mono)

I am also interested in trying the out-of-print Xrcd24 version, but I'm still on the look-out for a second-hand copy.

To try and keep the comparison fair, I played all three discs on the same Denon universal disc player, outputting the digital stream via HDMI through an SPDIF de-embedder and into the same TEAC UD-301 digital-to-analog converter.

Operating this way:
- the CD played at 16/44.1kHz (of course),
- the SACD was trans-coded to 24/88.2kHz,
- the Blu-Ray played at 24/192kHz.

To futher remove any spurious factors, all discs were played in "mono" by engaging the "mono" function of my pre-amplifier.

Here are my listening impressions so far:

DYNAMICS: 1) Blu-Ray, 2) CD, 3) SACD

Subjective tonal equilibrium: see attached pictures.

Overall, I must say that the humble CD version is VERY enjoyable.
The Blu-Ray is a bit more dynamic and probably more "natural", albeit slightly darker.
The SACD was a let down, honestly. By itself, it still plays nicely, but when compared to the other two, it was the least engaging.

I'll update this thread when (if) I manage to get my hands on the Xrcd24 version!

Cheers,
Marco
 

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