Good Achtung Baby CD? I got a bad one.


Achtung Baby is probably my favorite US album. When it first came out I had it on cassette tape. Then, years later acquired it via iTunes. Always listened to it on OEM car stereos or low end systems.

Now that I've got my high end system I do not like the SQ of the standard compressed iTunes version. So I did a little research on the dynamic range web site dr. loudness-war and purchased a cheaply priced copy of the Island Records CD (314-510 347-2, cat # D125174) that rated pretty highly on that site in regard to dynamic range anyway.

Well, it does not sound good. Way too bass heavy and bass is a muddy wall of background noise, midrange and vocals seem lost in it all, treble is okay. It seems like the dynamic range is concentrated in the high and low ends. I noticed on the CD that it was "Manufactured for BMG Direct Marketing, Inc." I'm assuming this was a club CD. It was new (old stock). Don't know if that might be part of the problem or not.

I compared it to Tidal's high res version (but just from my laptop to pre-amp via RCA cord, no DAC) and even that sounded better than the CD but still not great in my opinion.

So I'm wondering, who has a CD of this album that they like? I do not have an SACD player or BluRay. Or do all the CD versions sound so-so? That would be surprising for a band like U2 but still possible I guess. Any recommendations much appreciated.

George


n80
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.