Bruce Springsteen/Born to Run Original US SBM

Bruce Springsteen’s famous album “Runaway” has been reborn through advances in technology. Introducing a title that is a reprint of the high-quality disc “CK 52859” using the high-quality sound technology “SBM CD”. [SBM technology that suppresses digital deterioration due to 16-bit conversion] DSD, Among these, SBM (Super Bit Mapping) CD was introduced in 1991 and was a pioneering new technology. At that time, the release of classic analog records into CDs was at its peak, and listeners’ ears were beginning to become more discerning. The blind belief that CDs = high quality in the late 1980s has faded, and we have gone beyond the stage of superstitions such as “Putting it in the freezer will give you high quality sound” and “If you cut a straight line with a cutter, it will become clearer”. People began to talk about the good and bad of transformation itself. Therefore, Sony introduced SBM technology. Although it is a basic CD standard, it achieves a natural sound that is on a different level from conventional CD production. Its success became the beginning of a new technology CD competition among various companies. To avoid any misunderstanding, “SBM CD” is not a remaster using so-called equalizing processing. To begin with, “SBM” is a technology that reduces loss when converting to CD. Even if you digitize from analog at a high rate of 20 bits or more, the CD standard is still 16 bits. You cannot record unless you drop the audio data. Normally, when converting to a CD, it is digitized in 16 bits from the beginning, or high data is reduced to 16 bits, but this is where “SBM” comes into play. Rather than randomly cutting off data when converting to 16 bits, this technology adjusts the waveform curve to match the characteristics of human hearing. In other words, if analog’s smooth waveform is a “mountain”, digital’s is a “staircase”. With 20 bits or more, each step of the staircase is detailed, so the sound quality is high, but normally with CDs, the steps are uniformly large, creating a rough sound. On the other hand, “SBM” selects a waveform that is omitted in line with the human ear, making it sound like a more detailed staircase. This may sound a little obvious, but let’s compare this to animation. Let’s say that analog’s smooth waveforms are a so-called natural sight, and digital’s are like a flip book. 20-bit has a large number of pictures, but 16-bit eliminates pictures, resulting in jerky motion. Normally, the number of CDs is uniformly reduced, but with “SBM”, the speed of movement and colors that tend to leave afterimages on the human eye are selected and omitted, so that it does not feel like there are fewer pictures… ( (This is just a metaphor for the image.) Moreover, this “SBM” is not a relic of the outdated past. Although it was first put into practical use as a CD in 1991, it became common after that. It has also been applied to video technology and is now included in Blu-ray. The question that arises here is, “So, is it the same as modern CDs?” The key point here is the deterioration of analog over time. Even if the master tape is precisely preserved, it is inevitable that the magnetism will disappear as time passes, and the earlier the tape was recorded, the more the audio from when it was recorded will remain. In other words, CDs digitized using SBM, which was developed early on, still retain their brilliant sound even today. [“A Runaway Without Tomorrow” where you can even feel the presence of the vibrating piano strings] The great masterpiece revived by SBM has a truly fresh master sound. Its beauty is completely different from the famous piano intro of “Thunder Road” at the beginning. Of course it is more glossy than the initial CD at that time, but it is overwhelmingly fresher than the current remastered CD. The piano is an instrument that tends to emphasize the onset of the strike of the strings, but the current remaster emphasizes only that, although the striking sound is beautiful. However, in this work, the reverberations produced by the hitting sounds are preserved beautifully, and even the rapidly weakening reverberations and the momentary vibe that disappears can be clearly understood. This is not just an echo feeling. Not only does the sound have an elongation, but the natural disappearance of each note is so clear that you can even feel the presence of the vibrating piano strings. When I listen to the current CD after listening to this work, it almost feels like a synthesizer that samples piano sounds. Of course, they cannot have been replaced, and both are real piano sounds, but in this work, you can feel the natural original sound and the presence of the instrument itself. Of course, the piano is just one example. The horns of “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” have a visible metallic luster, the drums of “Night” can feel the presence of bouncing skin against the tough beat, and the vividness of “Backstreets” stands out even without the sound pressure being raised by equalization. Hammond in “Born To Run”, and the guitar in “Born To Run” which is as real as a live performance even though it was recorded in a studio… And of course, the boss’ singing voice. You can almost feel the microphone’s breathing passing through the wire mesh. As expected, the sound pressure is lower than the current remaster, but the subtleties remain, making each note stand out, and the vividness and three-dimensionality are more than equal. This is the world of sound that only a master sound can create. After this CD was released, Digilima, which processes the sound itself, took the world by storm, and even an outrageous loudness war broke out. In modern times, we have passed the era of such processing and have begun to seek the “original sound”, but it is precisely in these times that the true value of the early SBM CDs shines. Early SBM should be reevaluated because it has returned to a natural orientation. Taken from the original US SBM/Super Bit Mapping CD (CK 52859), Master Sound Series released 1. Thunder Road 2. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out 3. Night 4. Backstreets 5. Born To Run 6. She’s The One 7. Meeting Across The River 8. Jungleland