I have always wanted a definitive cd copy of "house of the rising sun"....(the Animals)..anyway, after looking at several cd's that featured the song, I bought "the animals retrospective" cd that just came out.

When I got around to opening the cd, I discovered it was a hybrid sacd-cd. (the package didn't have the usual big stickers on it).
Turns out that it is an Abkco cd release..(same company that released the Rolling Stones cd's ).

The sound is amazing!.......I mean, much of this was recorded in 1964 originally!

The disc is dual layered, regular cd, with dsd streaming, and sacd, with dsd,....all with super bit mapping.
To top it off, the disc itself is gold,...(no pin holes like "silver" discs, or oxidation)....a nice booklet, full of information about the band, the songs, and mastering.
Finally, I think they (the industry) have got it right....unfortunately, not too many titles yet, (except by the Stones) and they come in those digi-packs, but.....all this for......$13.98!

All things considered, IMO , the best cd product to date.

I'd like to get one. Where did you find it?

I was a bit dissapointed in the Abcko SACD releases of the old Stones albums. They were poorly recorded to begin with and still sounded poorly recorded in DSD. How do you think the Animals Retorspective sounds when compared to the Abkco Stones releases?
MC

I bought it at Circuit city,........I have "Get yer ya ya's out" on both original, and Abkco.......the Animals cd has much better sound IMO,.......but to be fair, the Stones cd is a "live" recording.

I have Through The Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol.2). I just went back and listened to several cuts and yep, it still sounded bad. As to be expected from older recordings, there is a [censored] load of tape hiss and a general lack of dynamics (especially bass, I suppose due to compression). Most of the songs sound honky and shouty and are very fatiguing to listen to even at normal volume. However, suprisingly a few of the cuts such as: 2000 Light Years From Home, and Dandelion were quite listenable.

Thanks for the heads up on the Animals. They were one of my favorite groups way back when. Every time I hear House of the Rising Sun, I just have to sit down and listen no matter what I'm doing. I just ordered it from j&r.com (12.99 + shipping).

Larry,

I received my copy of "Retrospective" yesterday and you are right. It does sound amazing to be such an older recording. Even the mono tracks sound good. A helluv a lot better than the stones recordings. Maybe Abkco is getting better at this DSD thing. BTW, I have the hybird SACD of The Zombies Greatest Hits from Musical Fidelity. It sounds pretty darn good too.