Kinsekd,
Thanks for the reply, even if it goes against my claims. But I still stand by my ears. Here is why.
Green River 180g:
1. The vocal of Fogerty is really buried to the rear of the ss. It's very grainy sounding, almost raspy. The earlier version is much, much smoother and silkier. The vocal is more forward in the ss.
2. The drums are really forward in the mix, left side dominate and are not ceneterd as I would expect. They are most pronounced thoughout the LP and dominate the the lead and rhythm guitars. Drums should never be dominate over the stringed instruments like that.
3 On one cut inparticular, I forget at the moment which song, but the solo guitar comes in and you expect it to take over and just kick, but it is actually muted and very recessed. The early version is just as you would expect, forward in scope and dominating the music as it should.
4. The layering of the mix is quite obvious. What I mean is it sounds as if you have 5 separate tracks played together to represent the song. I read a review recently of a phono stage where it was said that the mixof the LP was more obvious and you could hear the separate tracks as they were layed down and combined. At the time I had no idea what he was referring to since I had never heard a LP sound that way. But as I listened to "Green River" it came to me that this was what I was hearing. As far as I am concerned it makes for a much less "musical" experience. Again, the earlier pressings sound as if all the band were recorded together in one room and not in separate rooms on separate tracks.
I found "Cosmos Factory" not much better.
While my system is goodand resolving it is not overly resolving/detailed as others I have heard. But it also shows when a LP has been recorded/produced poorly.
I really do not understand it either. I really cannot imagine why the earlier versions would sound so much better. I cannot imagine what would have happened to them that would make a copy defective. It certainly is quiet, no pops, etc.