Remaster?

You may want to rephrase that Tan. I assume you mean are there any remasters that sound better than the original?

Well, IME very few. It also depends on the format and the age of the recording. I only listen seriously to vinyl and that is what my experience is based upon. The quality of any remaster is very dependent on the age and quality of the original master tapes and also whether they are still in existence. Tapes degrade with age, some more than others, depending on the type of tape used and how it is stored. It's for this reason that it is very rare to find a remaster that is better than a mint original 1st press LP for SQ.

The recent vogue for 45rpm LPs has improved SQ quite considerably and it is with this format that I've heard the best results. IMO the MOFI 45rpm issues of Freewheelin' Bob Dylan and 'Bringing It All Back Home are better than the original copies as are some of the Blue Note 45rpm reissues from Music Matters and Analogue Productions.

I've yet to find any 'single' 33rpm reissue that is better. I'm currently listening to Steven Wilson's remaster of Benefit and it's as good as one could expect but it's not quite as good as the excellent 1st issue copy I have. There are some, like this one, which are very good and can be used for everyday listening in order to keep the more valuable 1st presses for special occasional listening.

I'm not a fan of CD and I have very little experience of high res downloads so I won't comment on these formats. I will one day explore high res streaming but I will never go back to CD replay. 

Steve

Thanks Steve. Point taken

I love vinyl myself but didn't even know 45rpm LP's existed!

worth posting to learn that anyway

Tan,

Another point to make is whether the remaster has been digitally transferred/tampered with, sorry, remastered or whether it has been fully analogue remastered. The difference is very obvious to me. In addition to the Music Matters, Analogue Productions etc there are also other companies like Pure Pleasure who do analogue remasters. From my point of view I will always buy an original first press copy if it's cheap rather than a remaster/reissue and reserve buying these for when the 1st press is too expensive or to use for everyday listening to preserve valuable 1st press LPs as I mentioned above. I still buy lots of original vinyl, my wife may say too much.  I bought 3 more today at the market which are waiting in the car for when my wife goes out shopping. Shhhhh.  

ATB

Steve

I bought 3 more today at the market which are waiting in the car for when my wife goes out shopping. Shhhhh. 

I wonder of she'll have 3 pairs of shoes hidden in the car to be retrieved when you go and listen to your LP's

Mums the word 

One of the guys who used to work at Sound Advice in Loughborough in the early 80s sawed the bottom off the door to his front room so he could slide classical box sets into the room on the way to the kitchen so his wife wouldn't realise he'd bought more LPs. Why he couldn't just open the door is beyond me.

Couldn't tell you about the La's set but it varies from album to album as some  originals are better than remasters and some remasters are better than originals. If you name a few albums that you like  I will see if I can tell you which are generally reckoned to be the best sounding

I have quite a few 12 singles which obviously run at 45 rev/min. Often wondered if the increased linear speed at the outer part of the record has an adverse effect on the cartridge, possibly causing premature wear.

That's good to know, I have the original.

I have a 1969 Mono reissue of Pepper, I'd say it sounds better than the original 1967 Mono.

Todd Rundgren's "A wizard a true star" remaster is better than the original.

On the other hand, Joan Armatrading's Gold Remastered sounds awful.

Couldn't tell you about the La's set but it varies from album to album as some  originals are better than remasters and some remasters are better than originals. If you name a few albums that you like  I will see if I can tell you which are generally reckoned to be the best sounding

Hi, thanks for your post. This came about because I was talking to a friend (also manager of my local audio T) and saying that I couldn't listen to the La's at any kind of volume as it sounded so sharp and shrill it was unpleasant. It was then he suggested that I might be listening to a remastered version and I should get hold of the original recording.

So I just wondered if others had found the same with that or other recordings.

I just find it a shame that a lot of the music I enjoy (namely indie type stuff) have very compressed sounding recordings.