專輯英文名: Kent Poon Audiophile Jazz Prologue III
專輯中文名: 爵士原音3
歌手: Various Artists
音樂風格: 爵士
資源格式: FLAC
版本: [Studio Masters 24bit/96KHz]
發行時間: 2009年
地區: 香港
語言: 英語
專輯介紹:

《爵士原音 3》高清限定版 (DSMV 24/96)
《爵士原音 3》高清限定版系列是發燒界著名頂級錄音天碟，早在華人發燒圈享有盛名。由 Design w Sound 的 Kent Poon 錄音兼製作，《爵士原音3》獲（「Audiophile Jazz Prologue III」）日本「 Stereo Sound」、《發燒音響》、 computeraudiophile.com、MY-HIEND.COM、 HiFi Review、 AV BiWeekly、 《明報周刋》、《音響技術》等大力推崇。全碟由來自美國及澳洲國際級爵士樂手演奏，在音樂上、演奏上與錄音方面都十分超卓。

HifiTrack 取得《爵士原音3》高清限定版的正宗錄音室原裝母帶 24Bit 96kHZ 版本，絕對不經任何轉化與壓縮，真正 24Bit 96kHZ，直接傳到你的家中，絕對難得一聽，不可錯過。由於是24Bit 96kHZ無壓縮WAV，檔案容量將十分大，大家下載時請稍有耐性。不過可聽到如此高質素的靚錄音，等多一陣又何妨呢？

凡購買下載整張 "Audiophile Jazz Prologue III" 可免費得到精美數碼PDF版圖冊。 "Audiophile Jazz Prologue III" 資料圖冊有大量圖片，歌曲及錄音資料齊備，設計優美。散買個別曲目者則不獲此優惠。

演出者 - Kent Poon (Executive Producer)

Kent Poon是亞洲著名Hi Fi唱片錄音工程師及監製。他於1993年於北美開始音樂製作，參與了大量mastering 項目，由古典到 jazz、 hip hop、 electronic、 country 到 dance 或 pop 都有。Kent Poon於2003年回到香港，錄製了《爵士原音》("Audiophile Jazz Prologue")，於發燒界大受歡迎。 1997年Kent Poon成為國際音響工程學會(Audio Engineering Society, AES)正式會員，是該會最年青會員之一。Kent Poon 由2003年至 2007年是威達音響公司顧問。現在是瑞士Weiss Engineering顧問及其產品的亞洲區代表。

《爵士原音 3》高清限定版("Audiophile Jazz Prologue III")是 Kent Poon 2009年監製兼錄音的出品，推出後在世界各地大受好評。

Kent Poon's Audiophile Jazz Prologue III

Kent Poon is known to many readers from his association with Design w Sound. Regarded as one of the best recording engineers in Asia, Poon is a consultant for Weiss Engineering, and is in demand for his superb abilities. He's enthusiastic about the digital music revolution and setting standards that will affect many others, yet in corresponding with this young man about his latest project, Audiophile Jazz Prologue III, I found that Poon exhibits a humility that eludes most in this profession. Perhaps this is because what's most important to him is the music. From this set of discs, my impression of Poon's attitude is that if the music is great enough to begin with, it should be recorded in the best manner possible, and not the other way around.

Many audiophile jazz recordings sound tight and dry, with performances to match. They're clean, but seem to have little to do with the real world of music. Not so Audiophile Jazz Prologue III, which is, first and foremost, a musical experience. The musicians show just what a global community we've become. The vocals are by Marcia Seebaran, of Montreal, Canada; Hong Kong resident Peter Scherr plays double bass (and also co-produced the recording); New Yorker Bruce Huron plays saxophone; and Hong Kong artist Mat McMahon plays keyboards. Saxophonist Blaine Whittaker, trumpeter Toby Mak, guitarist Kenneth Rose, and drummer Simon Baker all hail from Australia. When they play, the sound is pure late-night jazz, so cohesive and personal that it sounds as if they've been playing together since childhood.

The sound is warm and intimate, but without a trace of unpleasant harshness or angst. It's as if you were sitting in the perfect small club with ideal acoustics, at a table near the center, with all the annoying sounds of talk, clinking glasses, and scraping silverware whisked away -- a private concert by the musicians, just for you. Some of the greatest ballads are included -- "April in Paris," "Lush Life," "I Should Care," "You've Stepped Out of a Dream" -- balanced by such upbeat excursions as "Barbados," "Afro Blue," and "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To." In fact, that last tune is a sweet little tour de force for all concerned. It begins with the best-recorded bowed double bass I think I've ever heard, and continues with plucked bass and guitar under the vocal. Seebaran sings it relatively straight, with subtle expression that really puts the words across, and with only a little ornamentation on repeats. She shines on this tune, and on four others in this 13-track set. My measure of a great recording is when you can follow each line, no matter its relative unimportance at any given moment. You can do that on "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," and with every other track on this set. This is not just another good jazz recording -- it's a great one.

Audiophile Jazz Prologue III has been released as a two-disc set. The first, a CD-R playable in any CD or DVD player, is at the standard CD resolution of 16-bits/44.1kHz. Each disc is individually numbered and comes with a corresponding PlexTools graph that shows the exact measurements of that disc. The CD-R would sound good enough for most folks, but also included is a DVD-ROM on which the album has been encoded at both 24/96 and 24/192. I played around with these files in many different ways, converting them to 24/48 for my Logitech Squeezebox to play through my main audio system (my MartinLogan speakers seemed to almost say "thank you" for this mix) -- and then, because the soundcard in my computer can handle anything up to 192kHz but the Squeezebox can't, I burned DVD-Audio discs that allowed me to hear the higher sampling rates.

The CD-R sounded perfectly good, but the extended sampling rates, and particularly the extra bits, took a tiny bit of varnish off the sound, letting me hear greater detail. I think most people could tell the CD from any of the 24-bit versions in an A/B comparison, but distinguishing among the various sampling rates will depend on one's equipment and ears. All sounded better than average, and served the music rather than just stopping at the sound. In other words, without these marvelous jazz performers playing with such soul and purpose, there'd be no reason for better sound. But they are so good that you want to get every nuance possible.

Don't take my word for this -- go to Poon's site and download some free samples at different bit and sampling rates and prove it to yourself. If you're like me, you'll then want the entire album. If you don't want to order the discs, there are HD downloads of the entire project. You can also go to hifitrack.com, where you can download the recording in 24/96. While there, look around for a wide variety of Hong Kong music in HD. I'll be writing about this exceptional website in the future; for now, whatever method you use, you simply must hear Audiophile Jazz Prologue III, or you'll have missed something significant. It's one of the great ones.

. . . Rad Bennett

引用
From Computer Audiophile

Music and Sound Quality

My disc-less MacBook Air was the only computer I brought to CES this year. Thus I couldn't even listen to Kent's album until I arrived home after the show. Granted another laptop with a disc drive wouldn't have allowed me to listen under audiophile conditions, but I would've at least been able to evaluate the musical content. By the time I arrived back in Minneapolis to -20 degree Fahrenheit temperatures I was a little less excited to listen to the album. I thought this was probably going to be another well recorded, well mastered, and well packaged "audiophile" album with substandard musical content. I leisurely imported all three versions of the album into iTunes as AIFF files. In total I have about 8GB less free space on my NAS drive after the lengthy import process. To my pleasant surprise I thoroughly enjoyed the music on the album after the first listening session. In the days since I arrived home from CES I've listened to this album countless times in high resolution from my music server and in standard resolution from my iPod and in my car. This is an awesome acoustic jazz album that every audiophile and jazz aficionado must own. One of my favorite instruments is the double bass. I really enjoy hearing the strings pluck on a great recording. Peter Scherr's double bass Audiophile Jazz Prologue III is absolutely wonderful. The rest of the band, including vocals by Marcia Seebaran, are equally impressive. Every track offers something a little different but the sound quality remains unchanged. From start to finish there is never a sense of that "audiophile sterility" present on so many great sounding recordings. Every time I listen to Audiophile Jazz Prologue III I want to listen to the whole album. So often we prefer to skip around from album to album listening to that one terrific track or even part of a track like the drum solo in Patricia Barber's song Company. I don't know how many times I've heard just that solo demo'd at shows or in showrooms. I'd love to recommend a couple tracks as the "best" but I would be doing everyone a disservice. This whole album must be heard in its cohesive entirety.

If your still a little unsure about purchasing Kent Poon's Audiophile Jazz Prologue III, you can listen to some free high resolution samples downloadable from Kent's website.

Samples available include:
PCM Wordlength: 24Bit
Sample Rate: 96kHz (200.5MB) /192kHz (300.7MB)
DXD: 384kHz (601.4MB)
DSD**: 1Bit/2.82Mhz (184.2MB)

Wrap Up

Kent Poon's Audiophile Jazz Prologue III is easily my favorite album of the last twelve months. I don't have one negative comment about the music or the sound quality. Audiophile Jazz Prologue III is clearly a CASH List album that I encourage every one to purchase or a least download and listen to a free sample. If you appreciate quality and attention to detail you'll appreciate Audiophile Jazz Prologue III. If you're on the lookout for great recordings that sound fabulous you'll want to keep an eye on Kent Poon. He's a hit in Asia and I suspect the U.S. market will soon understand why. Now when I think of Kent I can't help but compare his work to releases by First Impressions Music. I certainly don't want to put any undue pressure on Kent, but in my opinion he may be a young Winston Ma in the making.

More details about Audiophile Jazz Prologue III and purchasing information can be found on Kent's blog.

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/Kent-Poon-Audiophile-Jazz-Prologue-III-Review

"Audiophile Jazz Prologue III" shows the world that Hong Kong is capable to produce the best quality recording. It is an ambitious Jazz project featuring musicians from New York, Sydney, Melbourne and Montreal. The worldwide feedback & reviews on "Audiophile Jazz Prologue III" are truly outstanding. Computeraudiophile.com, MY-HIEND.COM, HiFi Review, AV BiWeekly, Ming Pao Weekly, AudioTechnique, CD Bible are among those that have praised this great recording by Kent Poon.

Musicians:
Marcia Seebaran, vocal
Peter Scherr, double bass
Bruce Huron, saxophone
Blaine Whittaker, saxophone
Mat McMahon, piano
Kenneth Rose, guitar
Toby Mak, trumpet
Simon Barker, drum

專輯曲目: 

01. You've Got A Friend (4:30)
02. Barbados (2:21)
03. My One And Only Love (5:18)
04. Freddie (6:46)
05. I Should Care (5:09)
06. Lush Life (4:33)
07. You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To (2:20)
08. Something Real (5:08)
09. April In Paris (7:06)
10. You've Stepped Out Of A Dream (6:47)
11. Nica's Dream (9:14)
12. Afro Blue (4:04)
13. Share And Share Alike (6:35)

Total Time: 01:09:43