Are re-mastered CDs worth it?

[Eric S]

OK, over the past few weeks, I've become increasingly frustrated to see so many "remastered" CDs showing up when I already own all of the originals. Examples include Billy Joel, Dire Straits, Sade, etc, etc. It really pisses me off that I've already spent money on these and now there are newer disks claiming to be "better". I already think the Dire Straits disks are superior in recording quality to many, many others. Do the re-masters really improve upon this?

Has anyone purchased any of these newer disks and critically listened or compared these? Is this worth spending more money on disks I already own?

Thanks for your help!

[JonMarsh]

Hi Eric,

This is one of those damned if you do, damned if you don't scenarios, it seems. I can understand your frustration at the concept of re-purchasing many of your CDs. I ponder that thought a bit even when considering the notion of re-purchasing titles on SACD that I already have on CD.

It depends, I think, on your listening practices and system(s), regarding what you should do. Maybe also your means and other priorities.

I've had some fairly decent vinyl rigs in the past, still have one acceptable one (Denon platter, Lynn Itok arm, moving coil cartridge, self designed and built MC step up transformer, etc.). I've often been very disappointed with the sound on many CD's, particularly ones introduced in the first ten-fiften years of CD production. They generally rarely matched up with the original record in quality. The assumption by many is that CD isn't as good as the vinyl, but the reality is that in many, many cases inferior tapes and mastering were used.

First class CD's mastered well can sound quite good, though they can't compete in some areas with the best vinyl, and they can't compete in any area with SACD (my opinion, your mileage may vary). However, most of the recent "re-issues" and "re-masters" are considerably better than their originals.

Do you remember the Sony Super Bit Map series of premium issues? This was in the early nineties, and through a comination of better down conversion (SBM) and using first generation masters for a change, the resulting sound on disks from Jeff Beck, Weather Report, Boston, Pink Floyd, etc., was quite good, and a big step up from the originals.

Other more recent "re-masters" I can recommend inlcude the likes of the new Dire Straits re-releases, the Joni Mitchell re-masters, the Yes re-masters, and the re-issue of "Hotel California" (the first CD version to approach the original album sonics). Most of these new releases are HDCD also, which even on an non HDCD player sounds pretty good.

Other CD disk remasters which demonstrate what CD is capable of include the JVC XRCD2 process disks, such as the recent Patrica Barber "Companion", from First Impressions Music.

On anything from what I would call a quality midrange system on up (well executed 7-8" two way), with good electronics, the differences are audible. Are they worth re-purchasing large amounts of your existing disks? Only you can answer that. Thank heavens the record companies haven't figured out that if they re-issued all my favorite disks on SACD, I'd be out a fortunte.

Best regards,

Jon




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[Eric S]

Jon, Thanks for your usual thorough answer! I was just trying to make sure that there is a difference. My current audio chain is thru my home theater system: Adcom GCD 700 cd changer, Marantz AV600 & MA500 pre&amps, and Atlantic Tech 350 speakers. Not quite "high end" but pretty decent.

I'm in the very beginning stages of building a Pass Labs class A amp and eventually hope to get a Northcreek or Bamberg Labs speaker kit to with it. I suspect this will show a significant difference over my current amps & speakers.

I'll be out of town until next week, I'll check back in then, so don't get upset with me when I don't answer for a few days...

Thanks!

[Brandon B]

How much better would you say the Yes remasters are? (however one would quanitfy that.)

I got all the older albums when they were released on CD in the late 80's, and noticed they sounded somewhat weaker than my UK imported vinyl copies. It did appear, however, that they were made from the british master tapes, not the US 2nd generation ones (some small noises in the production that were on my UK LPs that were not on the US ones show up in the CDs).

The one exception to this appeared to be Yessongs, which as it was recorded live in the US, seemed slightly better than the UK LP. For that reason, I didn't buy the CD at that time.

BB

[JonMarsh]

The US remasters of the older Yes titles are well worth the expense. My reference for comparison, as yours, is the original vinyl, and in that regard the first US CD's came up well short; sounding like they were prepared from 2nd or 3rd generation tapes; lacking in dynamics, midrange transparency, etc.

I'm still not sure that the US remasters do the original tapes full justice (might take SACD to do that!), but they're much better- particularly disks like "Close to the Edge", "Tales from Topographic Oceans", "Relayer", etc. On my Sony player they're quite enjoyable, particularly with the DF3 filter setting (roughly speaking, Wadia emulation).

The differences are obvious even on a "small" system at home- like the two way speakers my daughter and I built for her a few years ago (Scanspeak Kevlar 7" drivers, SEAS H400 tweeters, SBB4 alignment ported box)- this is with a Sony XA20ES CD player.

If you're a Yes fan, and given the system you're putting together, it would be a no brainer were I in your shoes.

Best regards,

Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....