New remastering of Steely Dan's Katy Lied review by Fremer

What I’ve read is that DBX noise reduction was to blame, not tape machines, but in the liner notes, FWIW, there are no complaints to back this up.

In the liner notes, Fagan and Becker do mention "our splendid double Magneplanar monitor. system and newly acquired and fabulously expensive Audio Research D-76 tube power amps", which would reinforce the assertions about Becker at least being an audiophile.

I've only heard the 1999 remastered cd of KL and have never found the sonics detract from enjoying the music.

@hilde45

There is still some problematic aspects to the original recording...

A shame, indeed. KL is one of my favorite SD albums.

I mean, really, 1 in 100,000 people have a system like that, so it’s a terrible baseline for making a record.

Again, yes. And, hardly the sort of "ruthlessly revealing" gear typically employed in studios. In fact, I bought my Silverline monitors from a guy in NYC who had a recording studio and opted to sell them for this very reason -- he found them too colored. They'd seen very little use -- practically new. His loss was my gain.