Good Achtung Baby CD? I got a bad one.

Great to hear N80. An old trick to get rid of or at least dampen some resonant bass from big speakers. Socks do fine as long as you don't see them. Maybe different socks have different effect on the sound, I don't know :-).

Like to say that I (again through Tidal) discovered a fine band The Guess Who. Lots of great music, both sweat and hard, good solos, good singing with harmonies and some really beutiful airy recordings in the "old" way. Dynamic "real" drums.

Have been a Guess Who fan for years and even bought some Burton Cummings 45s when I was a kid, 'Stand Tall' being one of them. Was crazy about Bachman Turner Overdrive when I was a kid. Randy Bachman was a former member of the Guess Who. I think the first LP I ever bought was Not Fragile by BTO.

Will look back into the Guess Who as I have no music from them or BTO right now.

Dear n80,
I have two copies of AB, a Canadian (https://www.discogs.com/U2-Achtung-Baby/release/2393394) and a 2011 20th anniversary US remaster (https://www.discogs.com/U2-Achtung-Baby/release/3238634). Having listened to both in the last couple of days at both moderate and loud volumes, I can't say that the bass is / was overpowering or a 'muddy wall'; in fact, at certain points I would prefer it stronger. To me the treble on this album seems to be in greater danger of becoming jarring or harsh at higher volumes than the bass does. On 'So Cruel', for instance, Bono seems more forward than the kick drum (which may simply be a matter of imaging, for all I know). Adam Clayton's rolling and propulsive bass lines on tracks like 'Until the End of the World' and 'Ultra Violet', while very firm through my system, aren't unduly alarming or overly forceful. And yes, the bass notes on both 'Zoo Station' and 'Even Better than the Real Thing' are quite distinguishable.

However, my system is very different from yours - an Ayre VX-5 and KX-5, a Metronome CD8-t S and a pair of ProAC Response D30Rs, together with Shunyata cables and a Triton v2. The room's about 24 X 13 X 10 ft., the speakers about 3 ft. from the wall and almost 7.5 feet apart, the listening chair about 8.5 feet from them. I did walk around and even right next to the speakers I did not find the bass overpowering. The D30Rs' downward-firing ports significantly affect the way bass comes across, of course.

I agree with gosta that while U2's albums are still eminently enjoyable with 'inferior' equipment, many nuances and finer aspects of these albums' recording, mixing and mastering only become appreciable with more sensitive and resolving equipment. AB is one album that practically shocked me (in a good way) the first time I managed to listen to it through a good pair of headphones. Perhaps the naughty Mr. Lanois and Mr. Eno's production was such that my current system does not (quite) do justice to this album?

I do hope that you can obtain better results with this CD, or other CDs of this album, in future. I, too, consider it a wonderful and powerful work.

obergaiman, thanks for the response. I have not listened to this CD much since I posted this thread. Will have some time this afternoon to play around with speaker position and blocking the rear facing bass ports. Will have to mark current speaker position because it is just right for virtually everything else.

The original CD was in a paper gatefold jacket, that should be the best one.