Which set to buy? (CD's)

[masqueraded]

Hey guys,
I'm in need of rebuying my Carpenters collection as I had to throw out most of my old cd's (mostly because of being warn out and scratched, etc). I'm sure this has been talked about before on here but is there any differences between the Japanese pressings to the Remastered classics? For example if I were to choose this pressing of Lovelines over the remastered Classics:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Carpent...369?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a4b86d681

 

[Harry]

The Japanese SHM discs contain the exact same masterings as the older US-issued Remastered Classsics, it's just the material that it's pressed on that's different. There are those who think that an SHM-CD sounds a little better - but if it does, it only sounds that tiny bit better on a standard CD player. Any attempt to rip the SHM-CD or play it on a computer or iPod or mp3 player will result in it sounding exactly like the same rips from a standard CD. At least that's my take on the SHM stuff. You might get different results or different explanations elsewhere.

Now, will that $43 copy of LOVELINES make you feel better than a standard $9 copy? Hard to say. That's for you to determine. It will make you poorer.

Harry

 

[Rudy]

I"m with Harry, but I would take it one further--SHM is a marketing gimmick, nothing more. "Super High Material" is supposedly a plastic that is clearer than standard plastic used in CDs, but if the CD is flawless, the error correction will take care of any issues. Now, if a CD cannot be read in one spot, the player has to use interpolation, which is a guess at the correct by looking at the data both before and after the glitch to recreate what it thinks is the proper value. That can degrade performance. Error correction, on the other hand, is an absolute, correct fix. The CD format was designed with a lot of redundant data to assist with error checking, including additional "checksum" bits which can mathematically restore a missing bit of data correctly.

SHM theoretically makes the data easier to read. Whether or not this actually translates to an improvement...I don't think anyone really knows, except maybe the record company's bank account. The original CD format was already quite robust in terms of error handling.

 

[Rudy]

Short version: get the Remastered Classics where you can, and fill in the rest with the SHM imports.

 

[masqueraded]

Thanks a bunch guys. I see it's hard to come by TTR for the remastered classics on ebay that's why I asked. But I see a few of the SHM copies floating around of the same album.