Mobile Fidelity - UDSACD2047 - SACD Hybrid Stereo

Numbered Limited  Edition - Plays On All CD Players 

Mastered on the Mobile Fidelity GAIN 2™ Mastering  for Ultradisc UHR™ Hybrid SACD

The Band’s Northern Lights—Southern Cross is, in nearly every respect, the group’s studio swan song. The group’s fifth album is also one of its finest works, a finely textured collection that at the time of its 1975 release marked the quintet’s first album of new material in four years. And what songs they are. Anchored by the standards “Acadian Driftwood,” “Ophelia,” and “It Makes No Difference,” the set finds the collective in peak form.

For the recording, The Band overdubbed its vocals for unrivaled smoothness and embraced the then-new technology afforded by a 24-channel console, allowing for multiple layering of keyboards and overlapped harmonies.

Mastered from the original master tapes, our limited edition hybrid SACD brings the beauty, intellect, and contours of Northern Lights—Southern Cross to life as never before. You can now hear the oddly tuned fiddling of bluegrass virtuoso Byron Berline seamlessly mesh with Garth Hudson’s bagpipe and Richard Manuel’s piccolo with unparalleled transparency.

 

Bliss.

 

1. "Forbidden Fruit" 
2. "Hobo Jungle" 
3. "Ophelia" 
4. "Acadian Driftwood"
5. "Ring Your Bell" 
6. "It Makes No Difference" 
7. "Jupiter Hollow" 
8. "Rags And Bones"

It is worth noting that Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab stands out as one of few record labels that independently invests in research and development of audio technology. With proprietary innovations such as GAIN 2™, general music enthusiasts and audiophiles alike have reaped the benefit of a higher consumer audio standard without investing in costly new hardware. Mobile Fidelity is pleased to work with a variety of engineering legends and companies including Tim de Paravicini, Ed Meitner, Pass Labs, Theta Digital and Sony Electronics. 

Our joint efforts to seek out the ultimate audio experience, has resulted in significant advances for the technology of music reproduction. 

GAIN 2™ Mastering Technology for Ultradisc UHR™ Hybrid SACD and Ultradisc II™ 24kt Gold CDs 

For over twenty years, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab has continually searched for the ultimate audio experience. During this search MFSL engineers and associates created The GAIN™ System, a proprietary mastering technology which brought warmth and ambience to the compact disc format. A few years ago - with higher resolution formats on the horizon - the vision of GAIN 2™ began. As it stands today, GAIN 2™ is one of the greatest technical advancements in analogue and digital technology in the last ten years. It consists of a series of critical modifications and new components to Mobile Fidelity's proprietary mastering chain. 

We feel that GAIN 2™ has come extremely close to meeting this goal. The key accomplishments of GAIN 2™ System are 1) the ability to extract all the musical information as possible through the Ultra High bandwidth analogue tape playback system with proprietary custom tape playback heads, reproducer electronics and 2) transparently capturing and storing that information with the Direct Stream Digital recording system.