Thank you Mark for you interesting review.
I agree with you that album is almost similar with SME SICP-10083.
But there are some minor differences: Hemiolia has an aprox. 1.5dB lower level and they use a filter with cut off frequency of 22Khz with sharp slope.
SME SICP-10083, at track 1, has a single potential clipping problem (with level of 3dB) on Right channel.
If I understood correctly, the tape source is a copy of Hermitage tape (an original stereo donwmix from backup tape Reel D).

Thanks for your comments, EugenF. Yes, there was a hard filter used in the Hemiolia SACD mastering that is visible in the spectrogram in my PDF. Since that hard filter doesn't appear in any of the other SACD versions, I wonder why it was used for this release.

According to several audiophile reel tape reviewers, Hemiolia's source for the SACD and tape box set is a new tape mastered by Pietro Benini from a production copy of the original Columbia stereo mix. If that is actually true, then why does the SACD sound so much like the 2007 Sony Japan SACD, and so different from the HDTT256 download that was sourced from a 15 IPS copy tape?

The waveforms and spectrograms I compiled are not infallible proof one way or the other, but they do seem to show a very close similarity between the Hemiolia SACD and the 2007 Sony Japan version.

There is a relevant discussion here on a German site (some of it in English, the rest easily translatable), which states it (the Hemiolia) is derived from Job Reel C. Also includes discussion on its sonic qualities vs. the 2007 Sony edition & the MoFi one:

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/jazz/detail/-/art/miles-davis-kind-of-blue/hnum/12753663

Longjohns: Many thanks for the link to the jpc.de discussion thread.

In front of me as I write this comment is the MoFi Kind of Blue SACD. On the inside cover, there is a credit: Remix engineer: Mark Wilder

In the jpc.de discussion thread, the poster "plate saver" describes the MoFi SACD as sourced from an aged and, presumably, damaged original Columbia stereo master tape. He writes:

"The 2-track original master, however, used for the MFSL SACD version of KoB was so aged that I cannot listen to it without being distracted from the music by the funny unnatural wood sound of drums, piano, and even the trumpet."

But MoFi explicitly credits Mark Wilder, which means, as I interpret the credit, that the source was the Mark Wilder analogue tape remix. The MoFi SACD sounds warmer (or less vivid) than the 2007 Sony Japan SACD, but that could reflect mastering engineer Shawn R. Britton's choices, not the source tape.

If any site users own both the Hemiolia SACD and the 2007 Sony Japan SACD, please share your listening preferences. I'm also available to continue the conversation via the email address on https://www.hraudio.net/about.php.

I have both sacds Hemiolia & SME SICP-10083 and for my ears they sound almost the same (there are minor differences). I like them both.
I also have HDtracks (24/192) release (which uses latest Wilder 2013 remastering from the same tape 'Job Reel D') and it sounds more velvety and more transparent. Also has a very low tape noise.


Tape source, here is a quote from:

https://thereeltoreelrambler.com/2023/03/03/the-best-version-bar-none-miles-davis-kind-of-blue-on-copy-master-tape-from-hemiolia-records/

'Pietro confirmed that his source, the Ermitage production master, is in fact a first generation copy of the ‘back-up’ correct-speed original master.'


If I understood correctly it is about of a copy of the original downmix of tape 'Job Reel D'.

I think the guy 'Plattenretter' is wrong about the 'Job Reel C' on his review on JPC. From my knowledge,the tape 'Job Reel C' is very aged and cannot be used anymore.

P.S. I can confirm, after looking at mould SID code of Hemiolia's sacd, that the disc is glass mastered & duplicated at Sonopress /Gütersloh/ Germany.

Thanks to EugenF and Longjohns for contributing to this informative discussion thread. It helped to answer questions about the source of the Hemiolia SACD.

Several site users contacted me with requests to read the SACD waveform/spectrogram comparisons that I posted to Google Drive. Many thanks for your interest!

For those who would like to hear another remaster of the album: the 1995 Classic Records vinyl reissue of Kind of Blue (mastered by Bernie Grundman from original 3-track studio tapes), transferred to 24/192, can be played or downloaded here:

https://archive.org/details/Miles-Davis-Sextet-Kind-of-Blue-LP-192

Thank you again Mark for very useful infos about waveforms & spectrograms.

Just want to add another quote, regarding the tape source of Hemiolia's SACD:

'Hemiolia presents, for the first time on both the national and international stage, an edition that uses as its source an analog tape recorded at the correct speed from the very beginning. We did not have to perform any speed variation or restoration:
the source used is a first-generation flat Production Master Tape, derived directly from a different Session Tape than the one used by Wilder in 1992, recorded at the correct speed, the one originating from the backup three-track Ampex recorder utilized during the recording sessions. The irrefutable proof of the philological value of this source lies in the outro of So What: not having been shortened or manipulated by subsequent historical handlings of the Columbia tapes, the structure of the track extends here for a full 13 bars compared to the mere 5 present in all current editions.'

More infos here:

https://www.monoandstereo.com/a-new-reference-in-sound-hemiolias-limited-edition-vinyl-sacd/

EugenF: The article by Matej Isak linked to your most recent post provides a lot of interesting detail about the equipment used to master Hemiolia's releases, but it also contains a statement about earlier remixing and remastering of Kind of Blue that is not entirely correct:

"This defect, which altered the original pitch by about a quarter of a tone, was discovered in 1992 by the esteemed sound engineer Mark Wilder, who restored the correct speed by intervening, however, in the digital domain. From that moment on, the industry continued to draw from sources derived from that master or from subsequent digital corrections."

There were several different remixes done by Mark Wilder, one in 1992 (20-bit SBM), another in 1997, and a third in 2013. The 1997 remix, from 3-channel studio tapes to a new 2-channel master tape, was done in the analogue domain. This goal was to preserve the original recordings in a fully-analogue new stereo tape for archival purposes. (https://www.stereophile.com/content/fifth-element-34)

For the 2013 remix, Wilder created 24/192 transfers from the increasingly fragile 3-channel tapes. (https://soundworkscollection.com/posts/miles-davis-kind-of-blue-becomes-digital) The 2013 remix was done for the purpose of releasing the 24/192 HD download version of the album.

Isak fails to mention (or is not aware of) the 1995 analogue remix from 3-channel tapes done by Bernie Grundman for the Classic Records 2-LP set. The LP is in my collection, and the 24/192 needle drop on the Internet Archive is my own transfer from that release.

https://www.discogs.com/release/3841623-Miles-Davis-Kind-Of-Blue

The metal parts from the 1995 Grundman remix were acquired by Analogue Productions, and were used to press this more recent 2-LP set:

https://www.discogs.com/release/35666779-Miles-Davis-Kind-Of-Blue.

Another statement in the the Matej Isak article argues that the length of the speed-correct "So What" proves the provenance of Hemiolia's source tape:

"The irrefutable proof of the philological value of this source lies in the outro of So What: not having been shortened or manipulated by subsequent historical handlings of the Columbia tapes, the structure of the track extends here for a full 13 bars compared to the mere 5 present in all current editions."

Here are timings for the speed-corrected "So What" from several different audiophile sources. All the SACDs listed below contain the extended outro.

SACD
9:26 - 2026 Hemiolia SACD
9:29 - 2015 Mobile Fidelity SACD
9:27 - 2007 SMEJ SICP 10038 SACD
9:26 - 2001 Columbia CS 64935 SACD

VINYL
9:05 - 1995 Classic Records LP
9:06 - 2022 Analogue Prod UHQR 45 RPM LP

DOWNLOAD
9:07 - HDTT DSD256
9:07 - Sony 24/192 HD