A Guide to the Stones Remastered SACDs

By the way, I bought Let It Bleed, and the sound is quite impressive.

I'm wondering if they actually used the master tapes in the 1986 CD. I doubt it, even though the cover of every album in the old series boasted they were transferred from the original master tapes...

Anyway, Let It Bleed seems to have greater dynamic freedom, more warmth, clarity and "air" around the instruments--and that's just the CD layer. Doesn't sound quite as compressed. The bass seems to have been boosted with EQ, but was done well.

 

Well, I re-listened to Mother's Little Helper last night, & it IS a fold-down. I was fooled because the right channel is now much further to the right than the left channel is to the left. In other words, much of the band & bass from the left can be heard on the right now, where it previously was just the sitar & vocals, but very little of the sitar was bled into the left track with the band. The entire Aftermath seems to be done like this, so the balance is hard right & not-so-hard left. How this can be considered a remastering and not a remix is beyond me!
Another issue I haven't seen mentioned anywhere is the severe EQ change on the stereo Heart Of Stone. On the UK Hot Rocks & the old CD of High Tide the right channel is EXTREMELY bright, with the echoing tambourine overwhelming the entire track. The new version on Hot Rocks has been bassified & dulled to get rid of the tambourine's prominence, but taking all of the "snap" out of the track!
Also, as far as the loss of hiss on Miss Amanda Jones, it looks like we have a case of "audiophile bait & switch" here. This track was the one most quoted as having been played in the early public demos. Apparently it was to get people like us "on board" and behind the reissue program before they commenced with the futzing around!
Always remember--"Beware of ABCKO" (George Harrison)

 

I'm getting the sense that the remasters are much better than the ABKCO CD's of the last two decades, but some earlier ones like Aftermath and Between the Buttons are not as good as the Mofi-mastered import CD's (the good ones) that were available until the early 90's.