Audiophile Masters Volume I

All but two of the tracks on Volume One of Audiophile Masters were recorded at Animal Lane Studios in Lyons Colorado. Don Grusin's Willow Dance was recorded live in Moose Studios, while Saffron, from The Color of Sound, was captured in Boulder's Immersive Studios in pure DSD. Equipment used to record are a myriad of some of the world's finest electronics including, Manley Vacuum Tube microphone preamplifiers as well as preamplifiers from Michael and Eben Grace and Fred Forssell's pure class A all FETs. All microphone feeds are sent directly into their preamplifiers and then straight into the Sonoma multitrack DSD recorder via Meitner ADCs. No mixing boards or intermediate stages are employed in the recording process, getting as close to a DSD version of the classic Direct-to-Disc technology of the 70s and 80s. Mixes were all performed on pure analog consoles including Euphonix, Trident, and Studer. A/D conversion is handled exclusively on classic hand-crafted Meitners, and D/A conversions is processed by a combination of Meitner and PS Audio DirectStream DACs. Microphones included Royer 122, Sound Deluxe iFET 7, Sennheiser 421, Tim de Paravicini modified stereo AKG C24 vacuum tube microphone (on loan from Dan Schwartz), vintage RCA 44BX ribbon, Neumann M49, and U47 condensers, and DPA 4009 among others. Captured in pure DSD on the Sonoma Recording System.

Download the recording booklet

• One pressing Austrian gold pressed dual-layer SACD
• Pure DSD + PROMastered CD layers
• DVD data disc containing DSD64, DSDDirect Mastered 192kHz 24 bit, 96kHz 24 bit, 44.1kHz 16 bit PCM
• Pure DSD mastered by Gus Skinas on the Sonoma mastering system
• DSD64, DSDDirect Mastered 192kHz 24 bit, 96kHz 24 bit, 44.1kHz 16 bit PCM download
• No compression in the mastering process
• CD layer of SACD playable on any CD player
• Mastering monitored through the PS Audio DirectStream DAC
• All tracks hand-curated on the Infinity IRSV in PS Audio's Music Room Two
• Limited edition one-pressing physical media

There's a certain magic vinyl brings to the listening room: a magic unlike any other. Where DSD captures every nuance in the music, a vinyl release directly from the DSD master is on yet another level altogether. Octave Recordings features limited-edition collector's vinyl on most releases. Each of these albums is built to perfection on 180-gram virgin vinyl, individually numbered and exemplifying everything great in the art of producing world-class vinyl. When you strive for perfection, every detail counts. The finest pressing equipment: In order to ensure maximum quality and perfection in every numbered disc, the pressing plant we use spares no expense by employing a state-of-the-art closed-loop heating/cooling system and programmable logic controllers to precisely temperature control the vinyl molds. This attention to detail is unlike just about any plant in the world where differing temperatures and times of day can change the final discs. Materials matter: Not all records run the same way during manufacturing. In order to maximize heavy gram-weight vinyl pressings, using the highest quality vinyl grades available from Neotech. Plating is critical: An essential step in producing vinyl discs is the electroplating of the masters. Our manufacturer has an exclusive agreement with world famous NiPro Optics as an electroforming partner. This provides noticeably superior sounding masters as a result of using the best metalwork from the most technologically advanced and modern electroforming facility in the world. In addition, a proprietary reverse-osmosis (RO) water system is used, versus the more traditional deionization (DI) water systems in use at other plating facilities. GrooveCoated Stampers: NiPro Optics and Gotta Groove Records also co-developed and provided the first new form of record plating technology in the past 30 years, called GrooveCoated™ stampers. This combination of superior electroplating and groove coating dramatically increases the lifespan of the stamper, and reduces high-frequency loss as pressing cycles continue over the course of manufacturing so that our short-run single pressings are perfect from number 1 to number 500. Limited edition single pressings: To ensure that every Octave Record's vinyl release is as close to perfect as the current state of the art allows, we limit our runs to 500 pressings per stamper and offer them in individually numbered albums, each hand-inspected for perfection. QA at an unprecedented level: At our vinyl pressing plant of choice, Gotta Groove Records out of Ohio, one of the reasons we chose them is they have more quality control workers than any other pressing plant in the U.S. — one quality control employee per every two pressing machines listening to approximately every 25th record off the press during every shift. If you know the magic of vinyl, then may we suggest you've yet to hear what a remarkable combination of pure DSD recording and single pressing virgin vinyl collectors’ vinyl can sound like. Available exclusively at Octave Records.