JPN SHM-CD Blue-Spec

Just wondering if anyone has purchased some of these new SHM-CD,Blue Spec CD's from Japan.
I now have quite a few of them, and overall the sound seems to be far superior to a standard CD. It even betters a Standard lathed CD,and thats in it's standard form, which really surprised me.
Of course there big claim is the have a superior replay surface "Without Going into Detail". I can say this is the case,I can normally do a perfect copy of a lathed CD using my Philips CD880 CD Recorder,provided the CD-R is lathed. Surpise,surprise for the first time,I cannot get a CD-R to sound as good as an original Blue-Spec/SHM-CD, so there must be some truth in the sales nonsense.

Anyway,just wondering anyone have Lathed,Nespa,Frozen one of these CD's?

 

where does one buy these from to try?

 

www.cdjapan.jp

or ebay

 

Jesus wept.


These are cd's that are made on the same press as the bluray dvd's, that's it. There is no new technology at play here, no blue light laser, no better pits, absolutely **** all. The machine even has two heads bluray/dvd and cd.

Just someone in marketing coming up with a name to explain why they have thrown away the old tired cd only presses and replaced them with bluray/dvd/cd presses to save floor space.

The manufacturing process is identical in every way, ie red book spec.

you are deluding yourself with this, unlike the cd lathe which can have a positive effect on cd's where the outer edge isn't concentric with the centre.

 

Have you tried them,or are you guessing?? What disc's have you purchased?
BTW The manufacturing materials are different, certainly SHM-CD seem to have longer/wider pits,which you can see with the naked eye.I also have access to orginal lathed copies of some the SHM-CD/Blue-Spec discs, so I'm certainly not deluding myself. I remember forum members saying the same about Lathed CD's not so long ago in regards to them not making a difference.

One of the problems,for me is all the SHM-CD/Blue-Spec's technical information is written in Japanesse,and whats written in English seems to be pretty basic, mainly the compound they use to press the CD is more reflective,by reducing errors. I will try to post a Image of the Technical Data of a SHM-CD,perhaps someone can shed some light on it, as I get the impression that theres more information there,but it's getting lost in translation.

 

I bet they sound even better if you put them in the freezer first

 

Ha Ha such a "Cool" reply, I'd thought I'd get a cold reception !

 

I am glad you are enjoying your cd's and no i havent heard any. Just a pity the "*****" who do reply with snide remarks dont try first before commenting. This is the reason i dont frequent on here as much now.

 

l know what you mean in regards to some of the posters on the forum, some seem incapable of what would be classed as normal behaviour in there replies. Anyway,I find humour in there comments, just don't rise to the bait!:MILD:

 

in many cases people can't accept certain ideas or effects because if it did there whole audio philosophy would come crashing down round there ears...

don't jump on sq25917 to hard ...he does actually try new things !

both he and jimbo have both heard the blue light .... it even caused sq225917 sinus pain ...by the way its nothing to do with the light [I suspect] its a variety of schumann resonator with bells and whistles or so its seems from the wave forms being propgated by it.

I've not head these blue discs ...but if stella says he can hear something then I believe him he was right about the black roms and the cd lathe

 

"don't jump on sq25917 to hard ...he does actually try new things ! "

yes, squ's has been ok...

 

I wasn't really jumping on SQ25917,I was just interested if he had listen to these disc's,as he seemed to have a strong opinion on the subject,and l was wondering if it was based on experence.

I may be wrong, but i don't think these disc's are a simple "Re-Badge" there must be something in the hyper sales talk, as wouldn't it be against trading standards in Japan ?

I will send you one up Zanash,if you want to have a play, and you can check my santity! For me, a SHM-CD sounds similar to when you lathe a CD, better separation,timing etc. Of course it makes you wonder,will it improve further if you lathe a SHM-CD/Blue Spec

 

No, we weren't refering to you.

 

Even better than the real thing?

http://www.teac.com/esoteric/Software.html



This ESOTERIC-JVC collaboration brilliantly revived the original recordings helping to create a new DSD/PCM re-master. The CD layer used XR-CD encoding. The production was done without compromise throughout the entire process. The best quality master tape was chosen and the best equipment was used. ESOTERIC D-01 digital to analog converters, the ESOTERIC G-0Rb master clock generator and ESOTERIC MEXCEL interconnect cables and power cords were used for both the SACD and CD layers to make this re-master. With this uncompromising production process, one of the best recorded sources is now available in a SACD/CD Hybrid disc providing true master tape audio quality!

 

I have 'ghosts in the machine' on the 'new format' and guess what, a data burst rip, (single read with reed solomon) an eac rip using paranoid settings and itunes none error corrected all rip exactly the same file. And they all rip exactly the same file as my 2003 reissue cd, bit for bit.

And guess what, they sound the same.

It's just a cd with dvd polycarbonate on it, making it 99.999% optically transparent makes no difference when the spec only calls for 99.99% The laser doesn't read any better.

Maybe the SHM's toggle de-emphasis code in the dac chips, i however don't hear it.

 

One would first have to have an 'audio philosophy'.

ISTM you are particularly vulnerable to your own argument.

What on Earth/Ionosphere are you talking about?

Paul

 

Hi, Folks,

Someone maintains that their car performs better if they wear odd coloured socks.

Someone else comes along & says that this must be nonsense, pointing out that there cannot be any cause and effect relationship between the colour of the drivers socks & the performance of the car.

A third person comes along & refutes the second persons argument by pointing out that the second person can have no opinion on the subject until he has tried driving his car whilst wearing odd coloured socks.

The difference between the second person and the third person is that the former rejects effects which cannot be explained by any possible rational causal relationship. The latter is willing to entertain a supernatural/mystical causality.

We haven't really progressed much since Galileo's day have we?

Regards,

Chris

 

Jesus did indeed weep!

Nietsche had the ights of it...."Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain".

Chris

 

How well you summarize the story of High End.

 

Very Interesting, as I also tried the same test using Lathed CD's back when the debate was hot,to see if they made a diffference,and although I could clearly hear that the Lathed CD sounded better to my hears,the tests on EAC didn't make any difference, both lathed & standard disc's came up with the usual 99.99% quote. Don't take my word as gospel, but I believe the difference,is not only based on errors alone,but on jitter levels as well, which is were I believe EAC falls flat on it's face, as it has no way of measuring them. IMO the problem lies with the fact that all PC DVD/CD-R as designed for data extraction and not audio,most can only read as slow as X 8 speed,and being that audio ripping programs are not concerned on jitter or speed,they focus on errors only. Cyrus have recently been bragging about there new SE CD-Players, and the change is all transport based,and in which way the data is read from a CD, this is why some old CDP transports sound better IMO than modern ones.

What I can say from experience, is that after using a number of IDE CD-R drive "Pioneer,Sony, Yamaha CDR-FW1 that uses Audio Master,which burns longer pits" I can never make a perfect copy of an original CD using a PC, very close...yes, but not the same,even using the Yamaha Audio Master setting at x 1 burning.

If I go over to the HI-FI method,which is CDP to Philips CD-R880 Stand alone Recorder,I can make perfect clone of an original,and provided I use a Lathed CD-R, I can match that. However,I can't do the same with the SHM-CD/Blue-spec disc's, I have about roughly 20 of these new formats,and like all transfers, some disc's stand out more than others,but generally they all show improvements.

I can recomend the Black CD-R against a Normal CD-R, as it's a pain free test that most people can do on a PC, just like the lathed CD test,it shouldn't make a difference, but on replay,you will find find "IMO" the black CD-R to sounds better,but you try and prove it using EAC !

I guess I will have to get a SHM-CD/Blue-spec lathed at some point,and see if I can hear a further improvement.