Remasters
Posted by: jamesfuge on 09 January 2011
Just bought the Fleetwood mac Rumours Remastered 2 cd thing, as i have had the original for years, and i cant believe the difference in quality! Listening to Oh Daddy makes actually sounds like the band are in the room, its unbelievable, and it is the same story with the Tusk album too...
What are the best remastered albums you have heard? And equally what are the worst? Mothership?
James
Posted on: 22 January 2011 by GraemeH
An update - It is indeed far superior to the 'remaster'. Greater dynamics and texture and front to back placement. £5.00 well spent!
Posted on: 22 January 2011 by Klout10
In my limited experience, the Mobile Fidelity released are among the best.
Does anybody already listened to Stevie Ray Vaughan - Texas Flood ??
Regards,
Michel
Posted on: 22 January 2011 by ianmacd
Quote:
Harry K
"Good luck with that Ian"
After a bit of research and parting with a reasonable amount of cash I now have the Transformer CD you recommended. The sound quality is awesome.
At the same time I picked up the two very rare Bowie RCA disks Hunky Dory & Ziggy, they also sound great and much more analogue sounding than the latest Remasters which are a dreadful effort - shame on the engineers responsible.
I also have the 1990 RykoDisk/EMI versions which I can thoroughly recommend to anyone looking for a decently mastered copy of these great albums, the Rykos will be easier to find than the RCAs.
Interestingly, the RCAs don't suffer from "volume wars remastering" and the 252 volume needs to be tweaked up to be similar to the Ryko/EMIs. However, there is great dynamics and I am glad that I control the volume rather than having it imposed on me by a badly mastered disk and all the compression that comes with it.
Thanks again Harry for pointing me to a great CD.
Ian
Posted on: 22 January 2011 by Max Bass
Portrait in Jazz Bill Evans. 24-bit Remaster on the Keepnews Collection with added bonus tracks. This one could definitely be recommended as an introduction to jazz. It has so many great tunes from the American Songbook. "Blue in Green" is so hauntingly beautiful, alone worth the price of admission. Uncompressed, dynamic sound on this CD.
Max
Posted on: 23 January 2011 by Bananahead
I suspect that I may be in a somewhat small minority in thinking that they have done a fine job for the re-release of Penis Envy by Crass.
Posted on: 23 January 2011 by slimjim
hi guys ,im new to naim and forums but i bought the beatles remastered peppers and the red and blue cds ,i dont know much about sonics and hifi hyperbole but they had me singing like the lost beatle,is this the sign of a good remaster or good music ,anooyone else have these ,the mono box set is 200 gbp and i cant afford it
so if anyone has them id be really interested in your thoughts on these
ps if these were recorded in mono ,is it pseudo stereo or real stereo,,,,,,,hmmm i dunno
Posted on: 23 January 2011 by Harry
Congratulations Ian. I'm glad you scored. Helen is a big Bowie fan and we've had some fairly good scores but more duds trying to find good remasters. thank you for the pointers.
Jim. I'm not a huge Beatles fan but I recognise their status in and contribution to development of the music that entertained my generation. Not to mention the enjoyment their radio play brought to me as a sub teenager. I recently bought reissues of remasters of the Red and Blue albums. I have nothing to compare them to but I like them very much. I was surprised at how easy it was to sit and listen to them, gaining insight into the compositions which were more clever than I previously thought. Very engaging and life like. I don't know if the remaster brings any more musical enjoyment than previous releases but like you, I can highly recommend these.
Posted on: 23 January 2011 by Big Al
Reference:
And a bit of a cheat - the recent(ish) Doors re-issues that are excellent remasters, though partly because they've also been re-mixed. There aren't that many major differences in the mix but the first album now runs a bit faster (they found the original was mastered a tad slow and flat), which is a bit of a shock,
I was listening to a few of these on Spotify (premium), and I have mixed feelings about them.
They are certainly clearer, with the instruments having more separation, yet feel that part of the Doors' "package" was the opacity of the recordings...
Posted on: 23 January 2011 by Max Bass
Slimjim-
Welcome to the Naim forum/madhouse
. I was a big fan of the Beatles when growing up . . . still am, though not like back in the day when I could wear out a 45 (single) listening over & over.
Short answer to your first question would be
Both! The Beatles recorded their first three or four albums on a two track machine. I believe not untill Sgt. Pepper was there true stereo tape recording equipment being used. Still, Pepper being the exception, the main focus when producing these albums were on the mono mixes. George Martin would leave the entire Abbey Road album stereo mix in the hands of his assistant engineer.
The Mono box set, for me (and I susupect many other music fans) is nothing short of astonishing. The sound is far superior compared with the dull, lackluster original Parlopnone CD's originally issued, and have since been replaced in my collection. The packageing is beautiful quality with additional photo's, liner notes,, etc. Well worth it for me.
Max
Posted on: 23 January 2011 by slimjim
hi guys thanks for replying to me,i like the doors too and will be checking out the redone first album,i didnt know george martins assistant was left to mix the stereo pepper ,pah .that means il have to get the mono box set if this is how it was meant to be .its not cheap is it this hifi game ?
any pointers to any suprising good quality recordings ,i find that now i have a decent hifi i have some cds that are hard work to listen to and im constantly turning the volume down mostly rocky poppy music .does anyone else find this
Posted on: 24 January 2011 by Salmon Dave
I think about the best remastering job I have - compared to the original CD, some remastered CD 45s, and the original vinyl - is the 3CD box of Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Mesmerising.
The Pentangle box also sounds better than any other release of this group (apart from a couple of the original LPs)
Mention also for the early Little Feat albums on Mobile Fidelity; expensive but worth it.
Posted on: 24 January 2011 by Harry
The 3 CD release of Piper was something I thought I ought to have. No complaints but I wasn't as thrilled as I thought I would be. Hand on heart I don't really know what I was expecting. If you're sad like me and collect these editions like some people collect books, the sound quality is by no means poor. (Only of albums I like I hasten to add - sadness has some bounds).
Posted on: 27 January 2011 by GraemeH
Just replaced the first Dire Straits studio albums 'remastered' in 1999 I think with 800 series 1980's West German pressings, the latter being much better.
Posted on: 28 September 2011 by Renzo
Is there a website out there that gives us any sort of clue which version of a particular album is worth buying from an audiophole point of view?
I'm looking at the Yes and Floyd catalogues and haven't got a clue which to buy.
Posted on: 28 September 2011 by graham55
You may care to look at the Steve Hoffman Music Forum, but note that the contributors are seriously obsessive.
Posted on: 28 September 2011 by graham55
Originally Posted by Renzo:
I'm looking at the Yes and Floyd catalogues and haven't got a clue which to buy.
Good gracious, I've just dug out and played my original 1972 pressing of The Yes Album: extraordinary! They certainly don't record groups playing like that today, and they don't have a replay medium that presents the sounds to the listener the way those old LPs did!
Posted on: 28 September 2011 by Harry
The Yes Album is a case in point. I had to wait for many years for a CD to come along that got even close. Happily the MFSL Gold CD has put that to bed. Ditto Fragile. In addition the 24/96 version of Fragile is worth it if you can play it.
The Yes Rhino remasters aren't half bad and cost sensible money. And there's the rare HDCDs, which sounded very good on my CDX2 but have become unappealing ripped to 24/44.
Posted on: 29 September 2011 by Salmon Dave
Originally Posted by graham55:
Good gracious, I've just dug out and played my original 1972 pressing of The Yes Album:
1971 !
Posted on: 29 September 2011 by Renzo
Thanks Graham, went onto Steve Hoffmans forum, had to laugh at some of the posts.
Was also looking at The Lamb lies down on Broadway thread and couldn't make head or tail of what they were talking about.
It was an eye-opener for me though.... I didn't realise there were SO MANY versions of albums out there! Not good, I can see myself wasting hours researching a CD before I buy it now, was so much simpler when all I looked at was the price!
Posted on: 02 October 2011 by Harry
Originally Posted by Harry:
The Yes Rhino remasters aren't half bad and cost sensible money. And there's the rare HDCDs, which sounded very good on my CDX2 but have become unappealing ripped to 24/44.
I have to take that back - at least in the case of Fragile.
I had occasion to play the 24/96 download back to back with my home made HDCD rip to 24/44. The latter has better separation and detail, plus a stronger, more tuneful but not over blown bass. You can argue which is the most "accurate" given the sampling rate but it's obvious to me which I prefer.
Posted on: 02 October 2011 by Renzo
Just ordered Tales../Close to..../Relayer from Rhino. Curious to see how they are, and as you say they're a good price too.
Posted on: 02 October 2011 by DenisA
Has anyone tried the first four Black Sabatth albums on Rhino, or elseware?
I'm mainly interested in the Vinyl, but will accept good CD's as second best 
Denis
Posted on: 02 October 2011 by Harry
Relayer on Rhino is a cracker, a whole new album. Tales I thought was the weakest of the Rhino catalogue but no worries, it's still a good remaster and better than anything this side of the HDCD - which is itself probably an acquired taste.
The Revealing Science Of God has a short intro glued on which I assume was originally part of the piece but snipped off prior to original release. And as you've probably ascertained already all the Rhinos come with alternative versions, and/or rehersals and run throughs. Some scoff but I love these little curios.
Sabbath. Sorry. I can't understand why I never got into them, particularly early on. But I didn't. If Paranoid and SBS come out in 24Bit I'll probably have a punt because I know and like most of the material - although not in the order it was put down. Rhino have a good rep. You're on to a good bet but I can't personally recommend.
Posted on: 02 October 2011 by Gale 401
Originally Posted by DenisA:
Has anyone tried the first four Black Sabatth albums on Rhino, or elseware?
I'm mainly interested in the Vinyl, but will accept good CD's as second best
Denis
Denis,
look in your in box.
Stu.
Posted on: 02 October 2011 by Thorsten_L
I have the first four Sabbath albums as 1st pressings on the German SWIRL label (original) and they are considered the second best after the UK-SWIRLS.
So, compared to those the Rhino-Sabbaths really suck big time, at least on vinyl.
I had bought Master and Volume 4 on the Rhino-stuff and boy thery were really bad and I sold them.
