worst sounding great lps

Eric Clapton "The Rainbow Concert" super good album and super poor recording.
No pressing I've found sounding great neither German or UK...
CD actually sounds better.

psag, the sound on Born To Run is quite intentionally (what an audiophile considers) "bad". Bruce has said he wanted the album to sound like Roy Orbison as produced by Phil Spector. Spectors' "Wall Of Sound" recordings are a real mess---lots of echo chamber and reverb plate, and mixed and EQ'd to sound "good" on a car radio. Oy!

Is the original US edition (Reprise?) of Hendrix´s  Axis any good ? The UK reissue (Polydor) from 1983 is too trebly /peaky to me.
As the original UK editions of "Electric Ladyland" go for astronomical prices, what later editions (UK or others) would you recommend ? Thanks in advance.

Fresh Cream.  Ugh!  But what a great album.

+1 on Layla--jeez, what were they thinking?

Needs to be qualified: original versus reissue, country, label. For example, "Are You Experienced" sounds great on an original British pressing, not so great on the American version.

Iggy- Raw Power: The Bowie mix is underrated- sounds great to me.

Springsteen- Born to Run- originals sound poorly mixed and recorded to my ears.

Anyone who thinks the Black Sabbath LP's are mud, most likely has NOT heard the original UK Vertigo pressings. IMO, these are some of the best rock recordings available. Comparing to the later US reissues is simply doing them an injustice! 
Personally, i think some of the Santana LP's could be so much better recorded. The potential is there, but the original tape masters must have left a lot on the cutting table. The new MFSL Abraxas 'one step' must be interesting, because IMHO the original master probably wasn't that great to begin with...so why pick this LP to start your series; unless you wanted something that had wide appeal! ( But not great SQ to start with....???)

Anything on Roulette, and sadly they had some great artists in their stable at various times, including Mel Torme', Sarah Vaughn, etc.

I agree and think it's sad that Derek and the Dominoes, Born to Run, and Exile are not great sounding.  Each of these sounds muddy and veiled to me.  

I disagree on Queen.  Most of their stuff was superbly recorded--at least to my ears. 

GENESIS "BBC Crymes" on vinyl. GENESIS LIVE in studio in 1972 !? They were in top of their game, they were 22, they were bold and beautiful. Young Gabriel & other lads. Go figure.
Yes, it´s the best GENESIS LIVE quality ever captured on record.

Bootlegs sound bad ? Not all. Many bootlegs CDs are also great from their pinnacle. The Pound tour 1973-74 in particular. The power of GENESIS LIVE magic is right there. And I´m talking about CDs here. Think of the original analog recordings... there must be many gems hidden in the vaults I strongly believe...  

@redglobe The Chicago Transit Authority reissue(Rhino believe it or not!) is outstanding sounding, demo quality and a visitor favorite here. Cheers,
Spencer

every audiophile MUST have at least 6...7 version of each pop album in order to share the recording quality on audiogon.

we were just talking on another thread about how bad-sounding springsteen's classic stuff was--just listened to born to run and have to agree. graham parker's "stick to me" was also terribly produced by nick lowe, who's own records are very well done.

Aqualung

The early Chicago albums, especially the live album.

REM Green... over overdubbed and layered into oblivion.

Blue Öyster Cult is NOT a metal band, their 1st NOT a metal album. The debut is a PSYCHEDELIC HEAVY ROCK album, the BEST both in musically & thematically ever recorded in that genre and sounds fantastic and very heavy in fact, on decent stereo system of course. The best debut from 1972 & "Then Came the Last Days of May" is the best ballad played by a rock group without unnecessary string arrangements. It was heavy stuff back in the day, when Buck Dharma ruled the World.

Black Sabbath is very different music really, it´s HEAVY METAL BOOGIE. There is 1 thing they both are similar: the dark mustached lead guitarists play the mighty Gibson SG. The gentleman in white suit Buck Dharma plays white SG, the sinister riff master in black leather Tony Iommi plays the black SG. 

Evidently new remaster of Trout from zappa.com...original performance great...Sonics not so much.

What's wrong with "Trout Mask Replica"? Is it the sound quality or are you put off by the music? I've listened to it countless times on great systems and think its sound quality is fine.

I have found that some pressings are far better than others on some of the records mentioned.
The first four Sabbath records on UK Vertigo Swirl are very impressive sounding (Vol 4 is the least good sounding in my estimation- not talking about the music, but the sonics).
Aqualung- agree it is basically a lousy recording. I do have the single sided Classic 45s on Clarity. My go-to, however, is a WLP Reprise, which is far easier to find and cheaper.
Zep- yeah, too bad, huh. I've got a lot of different pressings and the best ones one get you to subpar sound:
LZ 1 - CC Piros/Monarch circa '74
LZII - 'RL' or plum
LZ III- Classic or plum
LZ IV- Porky/Pecko Monarch (or plum).
On Machine Head, I have a UK purple label- need to see what it is- not a bad sounding record.
Layla pretty much sucks.
The first UK of Blind Faith improves what is an ugly recording of some great music.
And so on....

Troutmask replica

pink floyd bootlegs.

Van Hager is van Hager...boo

Van Halen - 5150

If memory serves me, pre Sheer Heart Attack was really recorded badly with Queen 2 being a great recording.

A lot of Queen I hear is recorded quite well.

Days Of Future Past? I can't agree on that one either.

Another one bites the dust has world class production...it is disco Queen which may turn some off...but stellar sound.

"Aqualung...dreadful production."
-You've obviously never heard the Classic Clarity single sided 45RPM set of Aqualung.

"Anything from Queen"
-Try "Jazz" and "The Game"

Second U2...outside of Achtung baby...not real sonic marvels.Boy remaster is an improvement. Never been happy with JT.

MB days of future passed...innovative production, strings, etc...but very veiled, murky results.

New Morning.

Great to see the distinction made between the sound and the music; and, the idea that an album can be great even if it suffers from questionable sound. Questionable because I think it's important to remember (in keeping with the above comment) that in some cases the sound is a deliberate choice as an expression of the artist's aesthetic; in general or for that particular record. Crappy sound by audiophile standards is not always a result of bad production and can in some cases be another dimension of the music; like it or not.

The first JT Aqualung released on CD is the worst I own in 30 years of collecting. I've heard that studios, in a rush to get things to market, would use phono equalized masters to make CDs. I think that's the case here...

U2 records are all pretty bad except joshua tree

Zep IV

Anything from Queen

Phasecorrect, are you referencing "Aqualung" by Jethro Tull? If so, I strongly disagree! I believe there is a group called Aqualung, so maybe you mean them. JT's "Aqualung" is just an outstanding album in every way-including production. I have many versions and prefer the original UK vinyl and the 40th Anniversary Edition CD. I don't know what you are hearing but I consider the recording quality on my two versions above just outstanding. Don't take it personally.

I do agree with Mattmiller that the Led Zepplin recordings are pretty uniformly awful. Fortunately, the songs on several of the albums are so memorable that you can forgive the poor quality recording. Also, for the record I love ALL the Steely Dan records...especially Katy Lied.

I respectfully disagree on the Cheap Trick Live at Budhokan--I find their studio albums to be really flat and Budhokan finally has some life to it. Great record! Agree with Katy Lied. Derek and the Dominoes is great but just kind of muffled. Bop to You Drop (the first digital R&R record!)is okay and Ry is always great.

Aqualung...dreadful production.

Cheap trick at Budokan...historic concert with mediocre
sound.

Aqualung...dreadful production.

Radiohead "The Bends"

Don't get your hopes up on Katy Lied, Ghosthouse. I have a re-issue vinyl copy and the 1999 CD, MCAD-11916 copyright 1999, bar code 08811 19162. Don't know if the CD is remastered; there is nothing in the jacket info about that. Regardless, the CD does not sound as good as the vinyl when I use my PL-15D II / 2M Red rig. I consider the vinyl unplayable on my Sota / Graham / XX2 MKII rig. Good luck and happy listening anyway!

Paraneer - My experience matches yours on Katy Lied vinyl... "the blanket effect". Just ordered the 1999 re-mastered CD ($5 new w/shipping from Amazon). Supposedly it was re-mastered right with Fagen, Becker & Nicols all involved. We shall see (or hear, I guess).

I have a first pressing vinyl of Cat Stevens' Foreigner and it sounds great.

All the comments about Katy Lied are interesting. I forgot about this one. If any LP can make your speakers sound like they are covered by a blanket, this one can.

I have three copies, original, MoFi and a recently acquired new sealed one and all three are unlistenable. Yet, listen to tracks from this album on Steely Dans/Greatest Hits mastered by Robert Ludwig, and the difference is night and day. Especially Doctor Wu, one of my favorite Steely Dan tunes. Thank God for this Greatest Hits compilation. And Robert Ludwig too!

I have a first pressing vinyl of Foreigner and it sounds great.

Hey Loomis. Hello again. That link didn't work (at least for me).

Try this one (also interesting re Katy Lied).

http://www.steelydan.com/dennys3.html

Cat Stevens "Foreigner"

All Steely Dan albums but "Aja". Though Aja in CD is terrible.

Last Donald Fagen "Sunken Condos"

Stones - Exile

good thread--interesting and controversial responses. katy lied had a whole checkered history--apparently the original mix was botched due to dbx and had to be remastered--there's an interesting article about it here: http://www.steelydan.com/dennys3.html. i still think it sounds pretty good, though flatter and not as expansive as their other stuff.
gotta disagree with zep and derek and the dominos--love 'em.