andy1249
Distinguished Member
One similarity I noticed between CDs and LPs, are how the same piece of music can sound different on the same format. What I mean by that, is that duplcated pieces of the same piece (even album) can sound different on different CDs and/or LPs. I often wondered why, and in these more recent years, have "uncovered" pretty poor-sounding CDs of an album, and much better examples. I hope the above makes sense, and that I've explained myself well enough.
There was a rush to get material onto CD and into the shops when the format took off.
So there are some truly awful CD versions of big selling titles from that time , usually "mastered" ( quick and dirty dump to cd ) by "Barry Diament" ..... shockingly bad , and I am very specifically talking about Led Zeppelin here , who have never really had a set of CD releases that have been mastered as good as the Vinyl , not even the recently released box sets.
Judging by the content included in the hardback books , there never will be as the original multitrack tapes are decayed to the point of being unusable and only the analog stereo masters are available.
So Vinyl is still the best way to listen to zeppelin if you can find a copy in good condition.
I bought a 45rpm road case collection of these albums and had them "digitally captured" at 24bit 96khz , and these are the best versions I have.
I have a copy of just about every zeppelin release cycle on CD , and the vinyl captures beat them all !
Another favourite of mine is Jimi Hendrix , and again , CD versions vary wildly in quality.
Japanese P20P versions from 1989 are good , but rare , and a set of these will cost you a small fortune.
The 93 masters had new covers and were "tweaked" sonically to better fit the grunge scene at the time , so sound nothing like they should.
97 masters are better but the 2010 masters are probably the best.
Interestingly , as its not usually the case , the analogue productions recent SACDs are quite poor , the stereo phasing got seriously messed up !!!
Pink floyd also varies wildly on CD , and there are tomes of material to read as to which catalog numbers are better than others , the SACDs are generally excellent though.
Another album that as far as I know does not have a decent digital release is Let it Bleed by the rolling stones , in particular , a version of Gimme Shelter that doesn't sound like the volume has been turned down at the start when the song kicks in properly making it lose its power !!
Good Vinyl versions do not have this problem.
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