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Many will know that over the last 20 or so years the average level of recorded CD's has crept up to the point that the source material is purposely distorted in order to raise the apparent loudness of the CD you buy. This has shifted some folks impression of what sounds both good and normal.
Whilst mooching around on Youtube watching mixing and mastering videos I came across
I have both the LP from 1986 and the CD from 2006. The LP is way better.
Oh dear. The settings on my Beomaster 8000 are: Bass +3, Treble +5 and Loudness ON. Sometimes I even switch in a Cona from the Speaker 2 outlets...
Does this mean I'm cloth-eared?
It depends - do you have the filters set to off! 😂
Surely one listens to music as one wants - I prefer level playback and lots of dynamics. If you like lots of bass and treble, that is your choice. I like midrange - that is why I have the speakers that I do. Plenty of midrange, no top or bottom! 😁
My B&O Icons:
I have no problem telling the problem on these Lenovo SL500 speakers (far from the worst laptops in that area, though). The cue points don't quite seem to match between audio & video.
Bought the CD in 1985 as one of my first. Sad to hear that even that has been ruined.
Surprised no one has come up with the marketing ploy of selling remastered CD's in separate categories for listening to on Hi Fi equipment (with dynamic contrast) and on MP3 players (loud and flat)!
Graham
Old school man myself. Just had a quick listen to Puncher's link and even on the iMac the difference is quite big...
Enormous differences.
A lot of info at this link:
Abba, The Visitors. First DDD (Digital recording/Digital mixing/Digital mastering) CD in 1981. Great dynamics, full range, just put up the volume and enjoy. The 1997 remaster was bad, the 2001 remaster worse, the 2005 remaster a total disaster. Flatter sound, less dynamics and even added noise reduction on DDD masters! The first years, transferring analogue masters to cd's was a direct dubbing proces of the old tapes, not much fiddling with the sound. Nowadays they just throw to much ''digital enhancement'' over the old material. The first years of CD production also delivered much better quality in durability. Better plastics used and better reflective coating. They last forever.
Yes, I have quite a few CDs from the 80s which I'm pleased I chose to hang on to, and I'm doing what Tim Jarman describes here: going hunting for older CDs of my favorite artists. (Not all are better, but as you describe, don't trust the remasters).
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