Vinyl review needed: The Essential A.R. Rahman

rcathik

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Hi Everybody,

I came across the title The Essential A.R. Rahman in Vinyl ( https://www.amazon.com/Essential-R-Rahman/dp/B0749P2CV1). Has anybody listened to it ? how is the quality - if anybody has listened, can you please comment your experience.

Thanks,
Karthik

P.S - yes, Rahman's composing is fully on digital, but has any body own any Rahman's vinyl recording ? if so some recos please.
 
Hi Everybody,

I came across the title The Essential A.R. Rahman in Vinyl ( https://www.amazon.com/Essential-R-Rahman/dp/B0749P2CV1). Has anybody listened to it ? how is the quality - if anybody has listened, can you please comment your experience.

Thanks,
Karthik

P.S - yes, Rahman's composing is fully on digital, but has any body own any Rahman's vinyl recording ? if so some recos please.

This one is a different one from the group buy although is by Sony and is a 2 LP set !

https://www.discogs.com/AR-Rahman-The-Essential-AR-Rahman/release/11544901

except for song B2 it seems to be a good collection
 
Dear FMs,

Many a times it has been discussed here and on another forums.

What is the purpose of buying a LP that is pressed from Digital sources ?

how could a vinyl pressed from a digital source sound different than a CD ? In fact its bound to sound far from original sound as there is RIAA equalization when it was pressed and than opposite RIAA equalization when played.

Wouldn't it change / alter the SQ ?

A CD would in fact carry the most accurate SQ in cases where the music was natively recorded digitally in studio.

I'm not comparing CD and Vinyl

Calling all veterans to throw some light over this.

Be fun to understand and know.
 
Dear FMs,

Many a times it has been discussed here and on another forums.

What is the purpose of buying a LP that is pressed from Digital sources ?

how could a vinyl pressed from a digital source sound different than a CD ? In fact its bound to sound far from original sound as there is RIAA equalization when it was pressed and than opposite RIAA equalization when played.

Wouldn't it change / alter the SQ ?

A CD would in fact carry the most accurate SQ in cases where the music was natively recorded digitally in studio.

I'm not comparing CD and Vinyl

Calling all veterans to throw some light over this.

Be fun to understand and know.

You definitely have a point. It can never sound like something pressed from an analog master, which never existed for any of these recordings and may not be a relevant point here. Many LPs pressed from a digital source still sound great and better than CDs for various reasons. Here are a few:
  1. Sony may have the high resolution studio master for many of these songs, which is not sold to us directly (as yet, but some can be bought at http://www.hdtracks.com/music/label/view/id/507/ now). I am sure Sony records in 24bit/96KHz or higher (but few of these songs were recorded by other studios too). The best digital copy that we could get today for the songs on this LP is the down converted 16bit/44.1 KHz version (on CD or download).
  2. The DAC Sony uses in their studio may be better than what many listeners could afford to buy for their homes
If you could buy the studio master digital recording and had a great DAC at home, then it would not make much sense buying the LP. Right now, this LP looks like the best you could get.

Most of the new vinyl pressings are from digital sources. So the ones sourced from new high resolution digital masters (like the Sony original recordings), are actually a better bet than the older analog recordings originally converted to 16bit/44.1KHz WAV or MP3. I hated some of the Saregama LPs that I bought.

On the original topic of this thread. The Rahman LP created for HiFiVision forum sounded great on the well recorded songs like "Mujhe Rang De".

Regards,
Sharad Medhavi
 
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Dear FMs,


how could a vinyl pressed from a digital source sound different than a CD ? In fact its bound to sound far from original sound as there is RIAA equalisation when it was pressed and than opposite RIAA equalisation when played.

Wouldn't it change / alter the SQ ?

A CD would in fact carry the most accurate SQ in cases where the music was natively recorded digitally in studio.

This is not a vinyl/CD thing, but which has a better mastering process . This means that the CD/LP quality will primarily depend on the master created for the LP or the CD. ie if the CD was mastered with the high quality CD master then the CD would be very good. Now if the Vinyl master is done better or worse would mean the Vinyl would be better or worse than the CD
 
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Finally - i got my hands on the Vinyl ! . Some of the songs are really good. Please find my review for each song below

Side A:

Tere Bina - Full bass blast, synonymous to A R Rahmans style. it was a bit turn off, but on the whole, not a bad song.

Jashn-E--Bahaaraa - Nice cues ! - loved the mastering on this song, but again, a bit a bass boost is not my favorite.

Raanjhanaa - Meah !

Mithwa - Not bad, once again, Bass boost is a turn off for me.

Mehendi Hai Rachnewali - No comments

Side B :

Chhoti Si Aasha - The best song ( looks like Rahmans old songs is much better than his current recording ! )

Chinnamma Chilakkamma - NIce one, ( looks like Side B is better )

Hosanna - Bass Boost, but good Midrange and vocal made it interesting

Rang De Basanti - NICE !


Side C & D - will be posted as per your comments :)


Over all experience - If you are looking for a nice analog hearing experience, this may not be the one, but if you are willing to trade off here and there ( like me ) - you may like it. Over all - its not a bad choice !

Cheers
K
 
I have experienced a lot of difficulty in listening to some of the new LPs recorded from digital sources. Unfortunately, the original master copy of some of the older songs are not available with the companies. I have been discussing with Sony for bringing out a Malayalam record but they have not been able to get the copyrights from some companies.
 
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