My first DCC CD's!

DCC Audio Classics is the other company that produced audiophile CD's other than MFSL that I know of. I first became aware of these when I started visiting the Steve Hoffman Forums (Steve was the remastering engineer for DCC), and noticed that people would, for example, recommend the DCC for the best sounding McCartney CD. "What the heck is DCC?" I would ask myself, until I realized they were out of print, hard to find expensive gold CD's (of course). My experience has been that these are harder to find (and more expensive) than the MFSL discs. As with the MFSL's, I'm not looking to build a collection or anything, and there are a few DCC CD's that I would definitely like to have. There are tons more that I would like to have, but don't need to (like Deep Purple's Made In Japan). In the past few days, I've managed to get three DCC discs. Two were unexpected surprises and I got them for cheap, and one I sought out and was not really cheap (but not a bad deal).



The first one is Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited. Way back then I had the cassette Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits and pretty much liked all the songs. I got it because I knew The Beatles were fans, so I figured I should give him a try. I got a couple of his earlier albums and liked them even more (when it's just him and his guitar). For a kid learning English, listening to his early songs was a hoot! I later got a live album with Dylan and The Band but I didn't like it so much. I discovered that my preference for Bob Dylan is his stuff prior to his motorcycle accident. I had never had this album before, so when I got a chance to get it cheap, I jumped at it and here it is! It does sound good, but then again, I don't have another CD with these songs that I can compare it too, so I'm satisified that I have the best sounding CD version.



The second one is Paul McCartney's classic Band On The Run. If you know me, you know I'm a big Beatles / McCartney fan. In 2002 I went to five of his concerts, including the Los Angeles show which was videotaped for the DVD release. I had seats close to some celebrities who made it to the film, but was my arm even in the DVD? Of course not! Anyway, I have all of Paul's official albums and then some. Since I've liked his music since I was little basically, I had a lot of his discography in mostly LP's and some tapes. When I finally decided to get CD's, I got all of his 1993 remasters. These remasters are not well-liked by a lot of people who frequent the SH Forums. They always recommend getting the DCC's or the Fame pressings, or first pressing Japanese CD's or something, and of course, not only are they impossible to find, they're expensive too, so 1993 remasters for me it is! DCC released several of McCartney/Wings CD's and I would like to have them, but I'm not going to spend a lot of money getting them. As you can imagine, I was pretty happy when I saw this one in the used bin at the price of any other used CD, so I didn't think twice about getting it! This one came with everything! The slipcase, the poster and the lift-lock case! I haven't gotten a chance to give it a spin yet, but I have high hopes for it. As for other McCartney DCC discs, if I see them and the price is good, then I'll get them, otherwise I'll have to live with what I have! One of this days I'll write a Beatles / McCartney post.



Now, this is one that I definitely wanted and actually put a little money aside so I could get it. It wasn't cheap, but the price wasn't back breaking either. Definitely for a lot, lot less than what they go for on E-Bay. What can I say about Master Of Puppets that hasn't been said already? Must have classic. This one is a good representation of the Metallica I grew up with (Cliff Burton era). The other one I want is Ride The Lightning, and I shall patiently wait until one pops up at a reasonable price. I don't know why, but in my opinion, Metallica never got their bass recorded right, even up to the present day. This one puts it a little bit more upfront (but just a little).

So there it is. My first DCC discs. There is one more I would like to have and it is Van Halen's first album. My only issue is that the inserts are glossy and it's easy for them to get soiled with prints. As my discs are used, there is not much I can do about that. When I tried to use a CD cleaning cloth to wipe the label side, it got streaks, so if you know of a good way to clean these discs, let me know.