Reference Sound Edition - CD newly polished
Music lovers are true perfectionists when it comes to their hi-fi systems.
They pay attention to every little detail:
The exact placement of the speakers, the optimization of the room acoustics, the selection of the right rack and appropriate cabling - all this and much more.
But in order to exploit the full potential of this lovingly compiled chain, something crucial is still missing: the right music.
Do you really know the real potential of your system?
Conventional recordings are often unable to exploit the full potential of an audiophile hi-fi chain. There is often a lack of dynamics, spatial differentiation, powerful bass and transparency. But this is exactly where the in-akustik Reference Sound Edition comes in: A collection of exquisite pieces of music in the best mastering on high-quality recording media.
We have set ourselves the goal of developing a series that sets new standards in the digital age - both sonically and musically. Sophisticated RESO mastering (REference SOund Mastering) and high-quality production processes enable us to tap into previously untapped potential and meet the challenges of increased quality awareness.
Go to the RESO albums
RESO mastering for true audiophile masterpieces.
In RESO mastering, the sound is optimized and refined using digital and analogue methods. This is achieved in part by using a high-end analog equalizer, which has a unique combination of equalizer and integrated dynamics processing, as well as some less common tricks from analog technology. The result is characterized by a precise spatial representation, a more vividly perceived dynamic, a more substantial bass and more transparency. The radiant beauty of sound and naturalness are in harmony.
Tributes that spur us on in our endeavors.
"Some songwriter products only reveal their potential beyond their already excellent sound after RESO mastering.
On "Great Voices Vol.1", for example, this would be
"The Traveller" by Allan Taylor, whose voice can now be located more precisely in the room, while each guitar string is given a little more time to resonate.
Or "Lost" by Michael Schenker, whose acoustic guitar is now hard rocking without having to puff itself up."
Winfried Dulisch | Audio.
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More listening pleasure
The sound engineer mixing the in-akustik Reference Sound Edition at Bauer Studios. This is where RESO was developed, the REference SOund Mastering, which optimizes the sound of in-akustik's Reference Sound Edition.
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The tools of the sound engineer
A Manley tube compressor and the Lisa equalizer from Tomo Audiolabs Germany for analog processing. With its help and some unique features, the sound engineer edits the templates for the in-akustik RESO edition
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DMM pressing for vinyl
We use DMM dubbing out of conviction, as there is no doubt in our minds that it is superior to lacquer dubbing in every respect
The pressing
The music on a CD is stored in the form of pits (and lands), which represent the ones and zeros of the digital language. The laser optics must read these increases in the information layer. The more clearly the pits passing under the lens at breakneck speed can be identified, the more precisely the music signal is reproduced, the less the error correction has to intervene and the less the digital-to-analog converter has to interpolate - possibly incorrectly. Normally, a "stamper" negative presses the pits into a polycarbonate layer that is mirrored with aluminum.
Pits & Lands
As mentioned above, the music on a CD is stored through small depressions and elevations called pits (and lands). These represent the ones and zeros. The easier it is for the laser to scan the pits, the more accurately the music signal can be reproduced.
More clarity
Comparison of normal CD with Ultra High Quality CD: The improved flowability of the photopolymer applied in addition to the polycarbonate ensures better defined differences between the elevations and depressions of the information layer and thus a higher transfer accuracy of the UHQCD, particularly in the tangential direction.
CD pressing
The polycarbonate does not penetrate completely into the tiny recesses of the stamp, resulting in blunt edges.
UHQCD pressing
Photopolymer with high flowability can penetrate into every little corner of the cavities. For precise edge transitions between pits and lands
An HQCD (High Quality CD) is produced according to the same principle as a CD. However, a higher quality polycarbonate and a more reflective alloy ensure a more precise flow of information. The dreaded clock jitter of the signals in the data stream (jitter) is reduced and offers improved sound performance.
A UHQCD (Ultimate High Quality CD) is a definite improvement. It is produced using a completely new method of disc replication: The CDs are cast from photopolymer and hardened with UV light. An additional layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied as scratch protection.
This combination results in a significantly reduced reflection of the laser light inside the CD and an unrivaled precise edge transition between the pits and lands of the CD. This makes a UHQCD sound even rounder in the treble and a touch more detailed. Musically, the result is a sound image strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes. The dreaded clock jitter of the signals in the data stream (jitter) has been reduced even further and offers enhanced sound performance in every respect.
Vinyl: We use DMM overdubbing out of conviction, as there is no doubt in our minds that it is superior to lacquer overdubbing in every respect. The pressing is done using 180g Virgin Vinyl in Germany.
Some of our personal RESO highlights
Title: By The Light | Album: Voices Vol.1
Miller Anderson is one of the veterans. Born in Scotland, he actually played and sang with the Keef Hartley Band at the legendary Woodstock Festival in 1969. Since then, he has lent his characteristic guitar playing and his organ with a timbre somewhere between Bruce Cockburn, the young Mark Knopfler and Frankie Miller to numerous bands. Stylistically, he always stuck to blues and blues rock, never proving to be a "chameleon", as the title of his 2008 solo album might suggest. "By The Light" casts a spell with its crisply mixed and succinctly remastered band plus cool xylophone.
Go to the album with audio samples
Title: Clocks | Album: Great Voices Vol.2
Die-hard music lovers need no further introduction to the fantastic duo Constanze Friend and Thomas Fellow. The Welt am Sonntag, for example, speaks of a "world-class duo" and the Süddeutsche Zeitung of "a firework display of grooving virtuosity". Ms. Friend is not only able to turn her own compositions into great art with her Great Voice with a small cast, but is also able to charge foreign mega-hits with new emotion and soul. For example, "Clocks" from Coldplay's megaseller "A Rush Of Blood To The Head". Voice and guitar still benefit from RESO precision.
Go to the album with audio samples
Title: Grace | Album: Great Voices Vol.3
The busy backing choir, which further ennobles the title track of Lizz Wright's 2017 album "Grace", creates a great effect. For her sixth studio album, the African-American, born in 1980, covered songs not only by great colleagues, but also by less famous ones such as Rose Cousins, who wrote "Grace". Lizz Wright turns it into a gripping pop ballad, which she performs with her own Great Voice full of fervor. The great producer Joe Henry tailored a predominantly acoustic arrangement that RESO spreads out in every detail. And then there are those wonderful choral songs.
Go to the album with audio samples
Title: Peggy Lee | Album: Great Men Of Song
This "Great Man Of Song" is now entering his 70th year. That's why Otis Taylor deserves the honor of the starting title. but "Peggy Lee" is also one of the strongest tracks by the trance bluesman, as the African-American calls his style. The number originally appeared on his 2015 album "Hey Joe Opus Red Meat", his 13th album. Of course, the old master's husky voice is in the foreground, but the instrumentation also has a lot of interesting details to offer. The banjo on the left and the acoustic solo guitar on the right, the unpretentious drums with a very distinctive bass drum, plus the discreet female background vocals.
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Title: Sympathy For The Devil | Album: Great Cover Versions
You can even create a "Great Cover Version" of one of the Rolling Stones' greatest songs. At least if you put your own unmistakable stamp on it like the Dutchman Hans Theesink. With his profound bass, he leads us hauntingly and much more slowly than Jagger & Co. in 1968 into the hell of Jesus' crucifixion, the murder of the tsars, the Blitzkrieg annihilation and the Kennedy killing. Over the course of the trip, the accompanying acoustic (slide) guitar plus unwavering footstomping are joined by the harmonica and a gently drilling electric guitar, even more insistent in RESO, like the little "HuHuuh" chorus at the end.
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Title: Albatros | Album: Great Guitar Tunes
Ever since the days of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, "Albatross" has been one of the Great Guitar Tunes. The dreamy theme over floating sounds and gently dotted rhythm challenges every rock guitarist to rise above the beaten blues path. Todor "Toscho" Todorovic, head of the Osnabrück Blues Company for decades, is only too happy to do this. He lets his six-string fly to the swelling cymbal sounds and delicate chords of the second guitar. The instrumental hymn to the wide-ranging seabird comes from the 2013 album "X-Ray Blues". Thanks to RESO, it has even more width.
Go to the album with audio samples
Title: Happy Together | Album: Great Great Women Of Song
Few great women of song combine pop and jazz as casually as Christy Baron, who grew up in Pittsburgh. The accomplished singer and pianist studied music before embarking on a tour of New York jazz clubs. There they were discovered by the people in charge of the legendary high-end label Chesky Records, for whom they also recorded "Take This Journey" in 2002. It features a wonderfully "Latinized" cover version of the Turtles' old hit "Happy Together". Thanks to RESO, the syncopated guitar, the crisp percussion and the saxophone are well distributed in the room, which is filled by the somewhat more voluminous voice.
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Title: Hallelujah | Album: Reference Sound Check
And this is another way to cover an absolute classic: The trained jazz trumpeter Thomas Siffling has taken on Leonard Cohen's great song "Hallelujah", which inimitably combines religion (criticism) and love (suffering) in its poetic lyrics. Before he embarrasses himself with imitation, Siffling dispenses with vocals altogether and leaves the lead voice to his trumpet, accompanied only by drums and electric bass. That sounds really special. The recording technique is close to the soloist and thus picks up all the "background noise" of his tone. Because RESO also chisels out the accompaniment with sharp contours, "Hallelujah" becomes a detailed sound sculpture.
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Title: Lost | Album: Great Voices Vol. 1
From pop to rock ballad. The English singer Gary Barden has exactly the right voice for them: a sonorous baritone and assertive high notes. Barden has worked with the exceptional German guitarist Michael Schenker from time to time. For a while he was the frontman of the Michael Schenker Group. For "Gypsy Lady" in 2009, the two of them traded as Michael Schenker & Gary Barden, although of course a band was also on board here - preserved in the rich, acceptably compressed power sound typical of the genre. "Lost" gets so much RESO power. One year later, by the way, there was the Schenker/Barden Acoustic Project.
Go to the album with audio samples
Title: She Walks In Beauty | Album: Great Voices Vol. 3
Eric Andersen, born in Pittsburgh in 1943, has been flying the flag for North American folk music for decades. Equipped with a true Great Voice, in which the immediacy of a Woody Guthrie mixes with the abysmal depth of a Leonard Cohen and the poetry of a Bob Dylan. For his 2017 album "Mingle With The Universe", he was inspired by the English arch-novelist Lord Byron and his writings. The delicate instrumentation with piano, guitar, violin and restrained rhythm section further emphasizes the magical effect of "She Walks In Beauty" - the voice becomes even more magical in RESO.
Go to the album with audio samples
