38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
SACD Review, May 23, 2005
This review is from: Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & Spiders From Mars (Audio CD)
This review focuses on the SACD remix of this timeless classic. Presuming you already love this music and have wandered here looking for validation to purchase the music in the re-configured format, let me cut to the chase and let you know it sounds wonderful. Some albums from this era use the rear channels sparingly to fill the room with swells and ambience, see Goodbye Yellow Brick Road for an example of this treatment. Others like Dark Side of the Moon and T. Rex Electric Warrior give each speaker its own soundtrack. Ziggy Stardust falls in the middle, giving plenty of separate treats for each speaker, but never hitting you in the face with the "tricky-ness" of it or detracting from the listening experience. A great way to hear this great album.
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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best-Sounding SACD I Have Ever Purchased!, February 5, 2004
This review is from: Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & Spiders From Mars (Audio CD)
Although I don't have a gigantic collection of rock SACDs, this 5.1-channel digital remix of "Ziggy Stardust" is absolutely beautifully done, and if any of your friends are on the fence about SACD, play this disc for them. Also play this disc for them if they have somehow never heard it, say they do not like David Bowie much (!?), need to be cheered up--basically any excuse will do.
When you play "Ziggy Stardust" on SACD, you will hear many new instrumental tracks that got lost in the original stereo mix. For example, on "Suffragette City," you can actually hear the acoustic guitar track on the rear-surround channels! Many of the songs almost sound like new recordings of your old favorites, because there is so much new material you can now *hear* for the very first time.
But for me, the most impressive features of this SACD were the absolutely *visceral* response my body had to the music, and the truly outstanding quality of the digital re-mix. I have probably listened to the stereo mix of the vinyl and CD of the album many more than 100 times, and I obviously love it. But when I listen to this SACD, I can actually *feel* the music in the pit of my stomach, in my legs--in my whole body, really. It seems as if I have been transported inside a virtual musical snowglobe, and someone is shaking it up: Bowie's music swirls all around me, through me, and then back out all around the room. My heart starts beating faster--wildly almost--and it feels as if the music is pouring in through every single pore in my body. BTW, I do not use drugs, so this is not some description of a "freak-out" in a "moonage daydream" (in D.B.'s words). I also do *not* have an extremely high-end audiophile set-up; my SACD player is a modest Pioneer DV-563A, Infinity speakers, separate Klipsch subwoofer, Kenwood SS processor.
The "liner notes" are also very, very good, have all the lyrics, and contain many full-color photos I have never seen before.
Bottom line: Buy this SACD, intensify (or rekindle) your love affair with music, and have a near-religious experience in your living room.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Finally, a Great Sounding Ziggy, January 16, 2007
This review is from: Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & Spiders From Mars (Audio CD)
This review is for the CD layer only:
I was very surprised by this CD. A Ryko remaster more than 15 years old was the best version of this I could find, but the CD layer on this hybrid SACD smokes! Ziggy now has bass, dynamics, and depth! This is the biggest improvement to an old title that I've come across - even greater than the 2002 DSD remaster of The Rolling Stones Beggars Banquet. This is the Ziggy to get whether you have a SACD player or just a standard CD player.
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