Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Remastered CD thread

Should we be starting a remastered CD thread for all to post their findings in of said remasters?

I picked up a few MFSL cd's a while back that are pretty good sounding. I dont have original masters of those albums but I have mp3 versions which sound quite a bit worse. And not because of the Mp3 format.

I have remastered Van Halen 1 and II cds and they are much better than the originals. I picked up Pink Floyd DSOTM(my original disappeared some time ago) and it doesn't say remastered but digitally mastered right on the CD and it sounds amazing on the M80s. I have the remastered, The Wall, on my Christmas list as well.

Although I don't have the original CDs for comparison, I was surprised by how the Van Halen CDs sounded. The only frame of reference I have is the original LPs from way back. Those are long gone now, along with my memories of how they sounded.

speaking of pink floyd, I'd love to see/hear a HD DVD version of The Wall.

I have a $10 gift card from amazon I got when I took a zune survey a while back... thinking of putting it towards a cd or perhaps that HD DVD that someone mentioned a while back.... the weird funky 7.1 mixes.. off to find that thread.

EDIT: after a little help from the custom search engine I found the thread
http://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=181933

hmmm how should I spend my $10 coupon?
I could get the Pink Floyd DSOTM for under $10... decisions decisions

I just picked up Boston & Boston-Don't look Back - both remastered in 2006. I compared them to my original cds and about all I could tell that was different was there is more bass and a little more mid range and it was louder; but all of that just pushed Brad's vocals farther back, but the guitar work sounds very nice. I would say these are not a must have to add to your collection unless you don't already have them. I think the originals sound very good incomparison, even a little better IMO, as the vocals are a little more in line with the rest of the music and not hiding a little behind.

I'm finding many remastered CDS over the last several years are sounding compressed and lack the dynamic range of the originals. With MP3 files being all the rage many recording engineers are reallocating space by compressing the range to get more volume. While at first it may sound better, I've noticed vocals, quiet passages, drums and cymbals don't sound right and bass soumds overcooked. The recent Mothership remastered Led Zep collection and Bryon Ferry's Dylanesque are just two recent examples of this misguided technique. I'd rather just raise the volume myself and keep the dynamic range. For this reason I'm no longer buying remastered CDs.

John's comment is well-founded with respect to many pop CDs. Fortunately I've found that with the classical CDs that I listen to remastering is beneficial in many(most?)cases. Just one example would be the RCA Living Presence items from the 50s and 60s which have been remastered in connection with SACD, and sound very good, SACD or regular CD.

Yes it does seem to more prevalent with pop cds. Most SACD jazz and classical cds are well engineered with the intent to keep them as close to the original master tapes as possible. When it comes to Mercury,RCA Living Presence, Decca Stereophonic or any of the Speakers Corner Records the SACD, CD or DVD-A sound very good though not as good as the original vinyl. Its impossible for any digital format to capture all the dynamic range of a great vinyl recording. On the other hand its nice to have a remote to program tracks.

I think buying remasters must depend on whether or not you have a poor original, as is the case for many classic/hard rock cds I have. A number of them have very little low end and the upper frequencies have been recorded so high it sounds garbled or at the very least the whole cd sounds hollow. I have had good luck in the past with remasters so I am now only going to buy the ones I know need help or I don't already have.

I do agree the downloading of MP3s and such are killing the dynamics for those of us that still buy cds.

We can only hope some of the petitions for better dynamics will sink in.