Dio Audio

Ronnie James Dio is one of the most beloved figures in rock history. His gifts, both as a singer and songwriter, are instantly recognizable, whether he was with Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell, or leading Dio. Sadly, Dio lost his battle with stomach cancer in 2010, but his towering voice and legacy live on. To celebrate Dio's life, an all-star group of his friends and fans recorded 13 of their favorite tracks for a tribute album, entitled "This Is Your Life," to raise funds for the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund.

I have never been much of a classical music fan (on recorded music anyway) but hearing this Fone recording it actually makes sense for the 1st time! Listening to the SACD layer the music has striking 3-dimentional naturality but more importantly, PASSION! I have never felt that classical music had passion in a CD recording, & I always felt vinyl had too low SNR for classical music. The difference between the SACD & CD layer is quite obvious, & not subtle like on some discs. Listening to the CD layer (which is very good for a CD) results in a massive loss of coherence & passion – just the reason I never enjoyed classical on CD.

Following the extremely warm reception given his self-named band's well-deserving debut album, Holy Diver, Ronnie James Dio figured there was no point in messing with a winning formula, and decided to play it safe with 1984's sophomore effort, The Last in Line – with distinctly mixed result…

Although relatively strong sales at the time of its release would appear to refute this claim, Dio's third album in three years, 1985's Sacred Heart, was a terribly divisive affair, and is largely viewed as a disappointment in retrospect. This is because, although many brand-new yet fickle-minded fans were attracted by the album's noticeably more commercial hard rock songwriting, almost as many of Dio's most loyal, long-serving supporters were turned off by this new direction – as well as the already stagnant clichés being recycled from prior triumphs…