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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
13 responses Add your response
brulee
564 posts
 
The Band. I love their music but the remastered discs are terrible. I was very dissapointed but I listen to it anyway.
danvetc
527 posts
 
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
pops
2,273 posts
 
For Stones fans - Goats Head Soup and Sticky Fingers. Excellent...
platt6
7 posts
 
The WHO- Who's Next on MoFi.
frap
213 posts
 
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
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
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.
subaruguru
1,375 posts
 
I agree, Sugarbrie!
eadese OP
27 posts
 
Thanks folks. I knew this would pay off... Just ordered Nilsson Sings Newman and Zappa One Size Fits All. I decided against Dave Clark even though I wanted my wife to experience it. Hope to hear more!
gregm
3,405 posts
 
Sugar, as you say, Decca, but many of EMI's "great recordings of the century" are also good contenders. Sony's reissues are quite good, too. DG's early digital recordings invariably sound disastrous but I find their "originals" are somewhat better (less inaudible, if you will) glass violins & all...

Another terrible re-mastering is D. Purple "Made in Japan" -- I have the vinyl and, any comparison is a waste of server space!
timunderc011
1 posts
 
Dave Clark 5 ,remastered by Dave Clark his ownself.Sounds like it was remastered by a deaf guy,which it was(in one ear anyway).My 36 year old vinyl that I used to toss around like a frisbee sounds better than this digitaly remastered piece o junk.
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
These are the wrong kind of music for you, but any classical people reading this thread, the worst IMHO are the DG "Originals". The ones where the CD looks like a mini LP record. They are really bad, unless you want some CDs that sound good in the car or boom box.


The best are any of the London Decca. The current crop are called "Legends". The earlier ones are just as good called "The Classic Sound"


For Leonard Bernstein fans, the "Bernstein Century" CDs on Sony are very good. Also the "Mercury Living Pressence" and "RCA Living Stereo" releases are excellent.

cornfedboy
1,645 posts
 
eadese: i quite agree on the gd box; great stuff, available for $119 @ media play. it's hard to beat most ryko reissues/remasters, tho my fave over the last couple of years is the 30th anniversary editition of "nilsson sings newman." "i'll be home" and "snow" on the bonus tracks make my neckhair stand at attention every time. -cfb
natalie
404 posts
 
I think the talent of the person doing the remaster has more influence than the format its done in.
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