Hello,

I start a collection of my favourite albums.

Therefore I am looking for the best CD editions of some "classic", including:

• The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
• Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
• Pink Floyd - The Wall
• James Brown - Live at The Apollo
• Bod Dylan - Highway 1961 Revisited
• Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
• Etc.

Some help would be very appreciated.
So, this topic intends to be q place of exchange. Share your experience concerning the releases you own(ed).

regards,

lélé

Try to get CD versions of those albums that were released prior to 1994. I'm talking about the CD version being released before 1994, since all those albums were obviously in vinyl form in the 1960s/1970s.

CDs released before 1994 are often the best ones for "classic" rock, as they are usually not victims to the high dynamic compression of the loudness war.

Be wary of anything that says "Digitally Remastered". It doesn't automatically mean it sounds like crap, but that's often been the case. Anything that's been released (or re-released) on "digitally remastered" CD in the last 10 years should be suspect.


For Springsteen's "Born to Run", Amazon has the 1990 CD release of the album for $9 USD:

http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Bruce-Sprin...n/dp/B00000255F

For Sgt Peppers, you'll have to wait till 09/09/09. Then we'll see if the remaster will be indeed better than the 1987 editions.

For Pink Floyd, the 1994 remasters are excellently done and can be found easily at a reasonable price. I own both Dark Side and The Wall.

But if you're anal about finding the best pressings that you're unlikely to hear the difference unless you're paying full attention, take a look here.
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=157190
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=74933
They may be difficult to find and expensive.

I can add some brief info concerning the early Chicago and Genesis releases.

Chicago 1, 2, and Carnegie Hall are slightly improved with the (2002?) remasters; at least I think so. I was able to ABX 1 and 2 and believe I prefer the remasters. Chicago 3 and 5, also ABX'ed, don't sound as good to me as the original CD masters.

I have pretty much 100% German imports of the early Genesis (Trespass, Nursery Cryme, Live, Foxtrot, England, Tail, Wuthering, Three Sides Live, and Second Out) and they sound very much like the LPs to me. I've not bothered with the remasters; anecdotal responses indicate that they're not an improvement in overall sound quality.