I would say, grain of salt warning for any online blog source, but I think Fremer has good
connections in the record companies.
Beatles details:
http://www.analogplanet.com/content/beatles-vinyl-remastered-finally-coming-shipping-mid-november
note that the vinyl will be cut from a (high-resolution) PCM digital source
Who details:
http://www.analogplanet.com/content/who-14-lp-box-set-coming-mca
one man's opinions -- I thought Astley did a good job with "Tommy" and the early Who albums with the
late 90's remasters. The first-generation MCA CDs were horrible, just like the USA MCA LPs. I
especially liked the remastered "My Generation" and "Who Sell Out," also "Who's Next." The "Tommy"
surround SACD was very dynamics-compressed and over-loud but it was an interesting surround mix. I
also preferred the earlier deluxe 1CD reissue of "Live At Leeds" to the later 2CD reissue. What I
preferred about the earlier reissue was that they didn't throw in the kitchen sink, just kept the
really well-played songs.
Does anyone have the Rolling Stones vinyl box sets? I read somewhere that the Abkco (Decca) albums
were mastered from the DSD transfers made for the SACDs whereas the Rolling Stones Records albums
were cut from tapes. However, I also read (maybe in the same article or review) that the later
albums sounded bad, highly compressed and crunched, whereas the Abkco albums sounded essentially the
same as the SACDs. Those SACDs were a revelation to me because I grew up listening to the awful USA
London LPs. The first time I put on the SACD of "Let It Bleed" and followed the inner sleeve's
directions to Play It Loud, I immediately concluded, wow this really does sound better! That and the
Sony reissues of the Bob Dylan albums were major selling points of SACD to me.
-- Tom Fine
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