Most disappointing purchases, music wise?

Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run.   Totally compressed and no dynamics, even on vinyl.

I've got the "Definitive Collector's Edition" of Born to Run on a gold disk CD.  20-bit digital transfers using Sony's "Super Bit Mapping" process.  I was disappointed in the SQ, as well.  I think that's just the way that album sounds.  Several tracks are flat, congested, and wall-of-sound ish.  A few are ok, but nothing great as far as dynamics.

Probably the most disappointing have been Led Zeppelin's Mothership and TSRTS but I have had better luck with other vinyl reissues. One good thing about the forum is you often get a heads up on SQ of a reissue before you buy it.

Steve

+1 on Mothership great packaging but absolute rubbish mastering by Page.

Deep Purple 30th anniversary edition of Burn CD. I was hoping that the drums on mistreated would have been given a boost but they still sound like cardboard boxes.  

'Hounds of Love' CD remaster.  A crime against humanity in comparison with the original pressing I have.  G

Another +1 for the Mothership and TSRTS CDs and LPs.

They really are poor, I'm quite shocked that a supposed perfectionist like Page did such a bad job...

Warners did quite a good job with the 2007 Joy Division re-releases but the New Order ones were absolute rubbish.

> New Order ... were absolute rubbish.

+1 Agreed ... something I have often been chastised for saying on this forum 

However great music that disappointed because of the engineering included Mary Chapin Carpenter's "The Calling" .... somebody ruined the songs by making the quieter moments too *&^%$£ loud.

Of course man producers have all but ruined a good album by trying to put their mark on the recording ... Phil Spector comes to mind, but there are many others.

Problem is the old age ... for most companies it is all about making money and artistic integrity takes second place.

However, it is getting better and more and mor groups can record, produce and release their own music on the Internet ... it is easy, it is cheap, go and do it ... as those wonderful, but Desperate Bicycles used to say. 

Naughty boy. Editing my words so that they take on another meaning.

Have you ever been a journalist?

BTW, the only good bits of Mary Chapin Carpenter are the bits you can't hear, so if someone made them audible that is indeed a disappointment.

ABKCO'S Records of 'out of our heads' ( DSD- not sure what this means) Remasted 180gm vinyl. The sticker on the cover proclaims”The Way They Were Meant To Be Heard"  I disagree its rubbish even on vinyl it sounds thin, compressed and very, very, digital. Which is a shame because it is a very well produced Stones album on the original vinyl. Very disappointing.

Regards Graham.

I enjoy listening to old jazz records, and usually have to turn up the volume in order to account for their wide dynamic range.  But even back in 1957, there were exceptions.  Bought a pristine looking copy of this mono album yesterday...

...and the quiet portions of songs are noisy.  Also, Barney's guitar, which normally has a nice bite to it, sounds like it was being played...under water. 

At first I thought it was surface damage -- quite often an old record can look great but sound crappy -- but now I am starting to think that the volume was leveled and the highs were cut off in a deliberate attempt at making the album sound extra smooth and inoffensive.

Hook

The worst production on a relatively recent CD that I ever had.  The music has about as much clarity  as this poor res image of the CD cover does.

And in my vinyl days I remember stocking that anything on MCA records was of poor sonic quality (as in the recorded disc itself seemed noisy and poorly manufactured), which unfortunately included some important artists in my musical pantheon.

I've never been journalist, but I once worked in a chip shop. I only missed one word 

I think Chapin is wonderful, but each too his own ... I thought I had at last found a fellow forumite that detested Blue Monday as much as I do (part time goths, as the Television Personalities might have proclaimed them). 

Still at least we are both Bauhaus fans ..... 

Ah, but the word you missed out was the most important one. It's all about quality, not quantity.

New Order were many things, best band of the 1980s (not that there was much competition) among them, but they were never goths, not even part-time. The Cure were part-time goths though - and fat ones at that.

Have you been over to the photo thread and seen the JD oven gloves?

Last Kate Bush album. 50 words for slush.

Mainly dull and occasionally daft. High expectations dashed.

Bruce