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Wow, just wow! Listened to my all time favourite album, Beggars Banquet by the Stones. It is not only the best but its sound quality is also exceptional. It easily blows any of today’s recordings out of the water. That bandwith, that bass, those snappy drums, sparkly cymbals, the sound of guitars with the noise of strumming and the fingers sliding on the strings, those dynamic peaks. It was recorded in ’68. 60 years ago soon.

There are only two minor shortcomings – both were limitations of the times. The high noise floor and the fake stereo? Things many times come too much from one side, even though Jagger is very convincingly put in the middle and even higher than where the singer in most recordings is. He is singing from an imaginary stage between my speakers in my living room. His vocals sound so lifelike that I could easily picture him there. The album was originally recorded in mono, me thinks. I have a mono Decca copy. (Edit – I’ve just checked it and it was recorded in stereo.)

I can never get enough of this album. It is one of those rare ones, on which all the tracks are bang on and they are so special and unique that you don’t want to skip any but listen to the whole album from beginning to end. It also sports such a variety of instruments and musical genres. And the words! Simply nothing comes close. Why don’t we have songs and albums like this any more?

“Oh help me, please mama, I’m sickening
It’s today that’s the day of the plunge
Oh, the gal I’m to marry is a bow-legged sow
I’ve been soaking up drink like a sponge
Don’t you worry, get dressed, cried my mother
As she plied me with bourbon so sour
Pull your socks up, put your suit on
Comb your long hair down
For you will be wed in the hour”

“Oh, there’s twenty-thousand grandmas
Wave their hankies in the air
And burning up their pensions
And shouting, “It’s not fair!”
There’s a regiment of soldiers
Standing, looking on
And the queen is bravely shouting
“What the hell is going on?”
With a blood-curdling “Tally-ho”
She charged into the ranks
And blessed all those grandmas who
With their dying breaths screamed, Thanks!”

It is a remastered SACD version. DSD format sounds best anyway. I even changed the selected filter in my DAC, not sure if it contributed as I can’t hear any difference switching back and forth but I firmly believe that not all differences can be heard by switching between two settings or system components. There are many subtleties that are not straightforward and work similarly to the vibe between artist and audience as in they can’t be measured or directly perceived. I don’t believe in A/B (blind) tests. If you had two lovers (only in theory) could you blind test who you love more by switching back and forth between them in a quick succession? I don’t think so. It’s just stupid.

On the other hand class A clearly sounds better than class AB even though I’d have a hard time describing the difference. It is the difference between live and played back music. Everything gets more focused, more 3D, more real, more believable, less artificial, less plasticky, more precise, more fluid, more natural, less flat, probably even higher res. Sometimes when something gets a bit shriek due to high energy but low res peaks (not enough information for the energy so the transients can’t be precise enough but must be approximated) or the music gets too congested, switching to class A mode helps. Uber-interesting. That has something to do with fluidity and speed and reserves.

These experiences are what justifies every penny spent on hi end audio. If it was only for this 40 minutes, it would already have been worth it, but luckily, the experience is repeatable. Unfortunately very few recordings sound good enough to give you similar joy, let alone the music…