darrenyeats;601809 Wrote: > A lot of these older CD masters are perfectly fine - I feel sometimes > they are criticised for being too accurate! The EMI 88 Beatles > recordings are a case in point. The earlier Beatles albums sound brash > and some of the later ones sound great e.g. Abbey Road, most of > Revolver etc. It sounds to me you get what went in. > > I don't know why things go wrong with most CD remasters. Maybe it's our > desire these days to "improve" everything? Or maybe it goes like this. > They do the transfer to red book with the more advanced technology. The > geeks are happy with their work but maybe a marketing guy comes along > and points out the new CD doesn't really sound much different to the > original CD. And certainly not on his or her system at home. "Can we do > something to the sound so we don't get sued for releasing effectively > the same recording?" Well, some tasteful dynamic compression might do > the trick? You might even hear hear more detail on the train or the > radio. > > Who knows what happens really. But I can tell you the result, that most > (not all) CD remasters in my experience are more dynamically compressed > than the earlier CD master. > > If you want remasters that are focussed on fidelity to the original > materials then, usually, that means specialist labels like Mobile > Fidelity. Also perhaps remasters for SACD or hi-rez - their buyers are > practically queuing up to describe all the differences they hear, even > when they don't exist (I'm being wicked again). > > This is why usually I go for the very earliest CD master where a choice > of CD masters exists. Where my definition of best is "they have not > messed much with it" rather than my personal conception of what sounds > good! (The old accuracy versus 'sounds good' debate.) > > What I have seen, heard and read so far indicates that EMI "messed with > it" less in 88 than in 09. > Darren
Case in point - The numerous Dark Side of the Moon "remasters" - I resisted most of them. I finally bought the 2003 SACD hybrid. Its 'ok'. Not great. Not as good as I remember the vinyl being. My ears were much better then. Who knows. What I do know, is the new Beatle remasters ARE an improvement. IMO. -- earwaxer9 System: modified Winsome Labs Mouse, modified Maggie MMG's, Transporter, HSU sub 12, MSB DAC to 500 watt sub slave amp, JPS labs power cords, Silver audio interconnect, Audioquest Granite speaker cable. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ earwaxer9's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=39527 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=72852 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
