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Explorer-eighth View Drop Down
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Points: 39 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: CD sound quality problem
    Posted: April 27 2006 at 19:17
I used to have a record player and I would regularly play Soft Machine Volume one on it.  The balance of treble and bass was perfect.  When I bought a CD of that same Soft Machine one, the sound quality was very poor.  To achieve the same sound on the vinyl, I would have to turn the treble to zero and the bass on to full.  A few other CDs have the same problem of too much bass and not enough treble such as Magma by Magma and Soft Machine volume two.  I press the different sounds (pop; classical, etc) on my CD player, but it doesn't help me.
 
Why is the quality so poor on these particular CDs? 
 
I have just dug out an old cassette of Soft Machine volume one (recorded from the vinyl) so that I can listen to it.
The music I enjoy is complex; varied; deep and well played.
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Barla View Drop Down
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Points: 4309 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2006 at 21:45
I didn't have that problems with any of the bands I listen to. Maybe some records have poor sound quality, but it's listeneable
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Points: 20035 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2006 at 07:31
I guess it depends what master they used for the CD. Record companies are often too lazy to use the original (or perhaps can't even find it).
Or perhaps it's just poor quality mastering.
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MikeEnRegalia View Drop Down
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Points: 21634 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2006 at 07:37
There are indeed huge quality differences - you should try to find some reviews on amazon.com which say something about the sound quality.

BTW: If a remaster has less bass than the original vinyl it doesn't mean that it's bad - maybe it's just different. It could very well be the case that the original mastering cut off the high frequencies ... in that case a remaster (presuming the original tapes are in good shape) will naturally sound much brighter.
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Points: 6308 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2006 at 08:55
Originally posted by MikeEnRegalia MikeEnRegalia wrote:

There are indeed huge quality differences - you should try to find some reviews on amazon.com which say something about the sound quality.

BTW: If a remaster has less bass than the original vinyl it doesn't mean that it's bad - maybe it's just different. It could very well be the case that the original mastering cut off the high frequencies ... in that case a remaster (presuming the original tapes are in good shape) will naturally sound much brighter.


Ther's no absolute rule.
But indeed, there's a bad trend these days which consists to overbump the low.
    
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MikeEnRegalia View Drop Down
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Points: 21634 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2006 at 09:07
the funny thin is: I don't use equalizing ... at all. At least not when I'm listening at home - which is sort of my reference "situation" for judging audio quality. At work I'm listening at really low volume, with the mids and highs all cut off and some serious volume normalizing. It doesn't sound good, but it's necessary so that it neither distracts me or my collegues from work. When I'm listening to the mp3 player I essentially cut off all high frequencies and boost the bass - apparently these days the mobile headphones are made for nearly deaf people. I can only recommend to anyone to reduce highs dramatically when listening via headphones - or you'll soon have a hearing problem.
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mystic fred View Drop Down
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Points: 4252 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2006 at 10:04
apart from cd's, i notice some old albums (led zeppelin 1, early stones f'rinstance) are very piercing and brittle, one reason may be in 1969 the low frequency playback systems we played these records on required this level of frequency to compensate. they need quite a lot of adjustment on modern systems to make them listenable. any one else noticed this???Confused

Edited by mystic fred - April 28 2006 at 10:05
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Points: 138 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 29 2006 at 18:12
my dad comented on how harsh sound chaser on relayer sounded on cd as opposed to vinyl and as mystic fred said led zep i is harsh and difficult to listen to . is this to do with the warmth that vinyl is supposed to have or is it something to do with the remastering?
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