The 1995 CD Remaster’s I like better than their 2.0 channel SACD 2007 counterparts. But the DTS 96kHz/24Bit 5.1 mixes are very good.
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I have the 1993 Complete Studio Recordings Boxed Set. It’s still my “go to”. Other than the bonus tracks (which are 16/44), I can’t hear a real difference between the 96/24 0r the 1993 CD’s. Both were Jimmy Page remasters.
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I have a ‘leaked’ DolbyA copy of something more current (still ancient.) I found a Cars CD that has the same ‘DolbyA’ smell 
as what I am used to. So, I ran it through a few more tests – I think that this is a perfect example of something that was probably released correctly on vinyl, but ‘mastered on the cheap’ for digital. I’d like to see remasters, but remasters done without the beancounters saying ‘don’t spend any money.’ I’d rather them say: do it correctly!!!
Gotta listen carefully – listen for the flatness and lifelessness of the compressed, undecoded copy. And then, after the DolbyA decoding process – the life and image is back in the recording… It might take a few listens – but it is there.
Here is the undecoded copy – DIRECT from the CD (well, some rate conversion):
Here is a ‘decoded’ version, processed from the CD copy:
Dropbox - File Deleted - Simplify your life
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I recall a thread on the Hoffman forums where dudes were intensely debating the sonic merits of one version or another, including remasters, of the Dead Kennedy’s Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. One guy could hear this or that in his finely tuned system and another guy could say with great certainty the remaster sounded terrible with it’s compression and level boosting. This went on and on, all the while I laughed out loud. Then, finally, the engineer (I think it was the engineer) posted and said we recorded that record to sound sucky… so all the editions suck and no remastering can fix it. He was polite about it, but, yeah, that record is one of my favs from my teen years and it sounds sucky on vinyl, CD, and remastered.
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QUOTE:
I recall a thread on the Hoffman forums where dudes were intensely debating the sonic merits of one version or another, including remasters, of the Dead Kennedy’s Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. One guy could hear this or that in his finely tuned system and another guy could say with great certainty the remaster sounded terrible with it’s compression and level boosting. This went on and on, all the while I laughed out loud. Then, finally, the engineer (I think it was the engineer) posted and said we recorded that record to sound sucky… so all the editions suck and no remastering can fix it. He was polite about it, but, yeah, that record is one of my favs from my teen years and it sounds sucky on vinyl, CD, and remastered.
END QUOTE…
You are so right about the quality of SOME original recordings. Some material is a ‘diamond in the rough’ and only need cleaning up (which is what my project does.) The DHNRDS does NOT ‘enhance’, but rather picks out the actual/desired recording signal very carefully.
I have also been SUPER disappointed – and it would almost be a waste of time to worry about some recordings – but it is sometimes difficult to predict what will sound good and what is really worth spending a little bit of time. One thing about this – I have a super strong opinon that since mastering/remastering has caused a lot of damage, the less mastering is usually better. There is a LOT of detail lost in almost any fast attack/release dynamic gain control process.
Just found a Cars (Complete Greatest hits) CD that needed a little bit of ‘cleanup’ – it is a DolbyA copy that got distributed instead of being processed (happens a significant number of times on older material.)
I usually think of the Cars as having MTV like compressed sound (I do have a copy of that kind of CD also). But this one seems to have very minimal mastering modifcaiton, including no DolbyA decoding. It does seem like they did a shelving filter of -3dB@3k/Q=0.707. Since the material seems ‘virgin’ there is a possibility that it can be cleanedup.
Below is an example of a simple decoding experiment – no other processing and ZERO additional EQ.
I have supplied flac versions of the mp3, because mp3 even at 320k and the highest quality does smear the sound very noticeably (even for these old ears.)
Snapshots of some of the material on the album are provided – compare with any old Cars CD – notice the choral effects are much cleaner on this version, and the impulse kind of sounds are super distinct (but not overly so) - the processing is NOT enhancement, but instead it is recovery of all information that it can find on the CD.
Even though there is a lot of cr*p out there – there are also ‘diamonds in the rough’ as in the link below:
Comparing the .flac files with the highest quality (lame, preset insane, -q 0) available to me – the lossage of mp3 is not subtle. (cut 13, “I am not the one” shows the smearing of the impuse/drum emulator on .mp3, for example.) I was amazed with the Cars quality and clarity.
There are both ‘Diamonds in the rough’, and ‘just bad’ sounding. I was very disappointed in the Carpenters sound – and the distortion of vocal sibilance, or some past singers/groups use of the Aphex ‘exciter’ (I call it ‘distorter’.) Unfortunately, the DHNRDS shows that distortion very clearly (all of the audio filters above 80Hz are linear phase – no phase shifts where they are really important, unlike almost any audio filter before CCD delay lines were available.) The 80Hz filters on the DHNRDS are the normal analog emulating filters because of the need to create the 100Hz hump. (Q approx 1.1) That hump that is very difficult to emulate with linear phase filters, so I used a normal IIR filter for the 80Hz band.
John
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Most frustrating “remastered” experience for me:
John Zorn’s “Naked City - Complete Studio Recordings”
5 discs - 3 of them totally unlistenable!!!
I seldom write reviews, but on May 25, 2005, I did (on Amazon.com):
"I’m not rating the music (that would be 5 stars!!!), I’m rating the audio quality. Though the overall sound quality is good (not as aggressive as the original discs), the entire “Radio” album and parts of the “Absinthe” disc (most obvious on the track “Leng T’che”) suffer from unacceptable distortion in the left channel (in the low mids, depending on volume). At least my copy had this defect, so I returned it. I suspect that a mistake was made during the mastering process as my original Avant-Discs are not distorted at all. Or could it be an individual manufacturing issue? No other reviewer has mentioned this problem so far.
If you care for perfect sonics, I recommend listening to the following portions before buying. Pay attention to the left channel. Is it distorted?
Track 01 on “Radio” - time: 01:06 till 01:13
Track 10 on “Absinthe” - time: 04:16 till 04:40
These are only two random examples. The mentioned discs are distorted throughout. If others have clean sounding discs, I might just have had bad luck with my item.
Otherwise this expensive set is absolutely not worth it’s high price. Tzadik should take it back and correct these mistakes first. Then I will be happy to buy it.
As for the book: nicely made, but lots of testimonials, no real information on the band and the music.
The package is hyperaesthetically designed.
If the abovementioned problems were nonexistent, I would not hesitate to rate it with 5 stars."
In case anyone here has the set WITHOUT the distortion problem… Please let me know! I will give it another try. Thanks…
From what I have heard (and haven’t heard all master tapes in this world), a lot of problems are due to playing with too many knobs. In my super limited experience, it is so very easy to make mistakes (I play with ‘mastering’ because of my project, never doing actual mastering.) I am a pretty smart guy – and most of the time I make a mistake…
Why can’t they (the distributors) just do a neat, clean, complete and simple job of mastering?
John
They are to heavy on the hand. 
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Here’s an interesting (and lengthy) article about the multiple remasters of Peter Gabriel’s “So” album.
Just ordered the 2016 Lp - thanks for the info.
The NYT article today about Universal’s fire 11 years doesn’t help the situation WRT to are we listening to the master tape or is it just a 2nd or 3rd generation copy. I’d read the story when it first broke in 2008 knowing there was more to the story than what Universal wanted the public to believe. Oddly SACD & DVD-A sales were in a slump but HiRes downloading wasn’t really a thing at the time.
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I’ve read some audiophile support for the new Kate Bush remasters. I haven’t heard them all, but Hounds of Love CD is disappointing sonically compared to the 1997 CD remaster, whereas the 1997 CD remaster is sonically superior to previous CD and vinyl versions which suffered from this or that problem. That said, no version is “audiophile” since it has that thin 80s mastering sound that so many releases had back then. Merely my opinion here as a Kate Bush fan and audiophile.
I tried an experiment similar to yours. I had purchased a new vinyl copy of the Wailers Burnin and was underwhelmed, just no dynamics and flat not what I remembered it. I decided to look for an older version original, repressed or reissue. I found a reissue copy on Discogs from a vendor I can trust for grading. What a difference it was so much better more dynamic felt live. I’ve now only buy remasters if I’ve heard it first or can’t find a RE or RP.
Mike
The Audio Fidelity Hounds of love is the best remaster and better than the original.
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You have to experience which remastering companies to trust…then it’s easy and nearly always better than the original.
I can’t speak for vinyl but I have experienced many CD more specifically SACD remasters that are not as good as the original in my opinion. Personally I’d feel better if the remasters sounded the same instead of worse! I’m sure like everything in our audiophile world this comes down to ones taste. I have purchased several discs from Analouge Productions and have been extremely impressed. I also bought some that I’ve read rave reviews and have been let down. Most of the AP stuff is top notch, the titles that have left me less than satisfied are much less than the ones that blew me away!
I’m listening to The Best of Impulse on Qobuz. 44.1/16, but sounds wonderful. Old favorites and many new to me tracks. My martini 
even tastes better.
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