Best and Worst Reissue/Remaster CDs


Lots of remastered CDs are showing up these days. Some are wonderful, others only ok...

I loved the Dead's box set (Europe 72 is better than the record and lots of new stuff included). The remaster of Yes Album was great on EastWest (Japan LP type reissue), but their release of Close To The Edge was harsh. Steve Stills Manassas was much improved in HDCD, but still somewhat limited by the original tapes. Creedence never sounded better. It seems to me that it is all so unpredictable...

What reissues made you weep (either in agony or joy)?

eadese
I agree there are some very good EMI releases. But I also have bought some recent ones that were not as good as the earlier release. I bought the new one because the Penguin guide people thought it was a lot better. This has happened a few times recently with them, so I no longer use them as a source for recording quality only the performance quality. They must have budget equipment.
Say what you want about DG, but they had the artists and almost never had great sound. Yet , the Originals series was highly sucessful in my opinion. The Carmina Burana disc with Fischer-Dieskau (unsurpassed performance wise) has never sounded better. The same goes for the Schubert Winterisse disc. The Karajan Strauss Metamorphosen disc likewise. Perhaps its equipment that determines this, but on my setups the Originals series is sucessful compared with previous offerings
The worst I bought in 2001 was a "Japanese pressing" of Pink Floyd Animals and the remastered Led Zepplin Physical Graffiti. They are unlistenable and have no bottom end.

Best is Who Who's Next on MCA and Brubeck's Time Out.

Charlie