Bowie – "Heroes": Blind listening test

About every three months, I go re-hunting for this Hoffman-approved comment from 2003:

Oh no! I've given into the dark side (David Bowie Ryko's)

With the Ryko's, I'd take off 1-3 dB around 16k and 8k at a slope 6, add 1-2 dB around 500 and 100 cycles (slope 6), and add 2-3 dB at 50 cycles (shelf). It kind of varies, depending on your tastes, but I think you have to take off some of that top end so it isn't as grainy or bright, and you really need to restore that bass cloud, especially on the glam-rock era material.​

I should find some way to personally pin it or something.

 

I search for the same post about once a year.

I need to take a two week vacation this year, not travel during it, and do a bunch of stupid chores around the house . . . including a re-EQ project on the Rykos.

 

Thanks for re-posting that.
Now, I just need a thread explaining how to do it in Adobe Audition.


We have people doing more complex things with The Beatles. Someone here must be able to tutor us.

 

Can you open the results for the rest of your threads please? You've abandoned all your listening tests. There are currently three open Bowie listening tests with pages and pages of wasted replies.

 

They're not "abandoned", and the results have been posted in some of the threads where you're pasting this (like this one, see the previous page).

I'm kinda busy for personal reasons, I can understand the wait, but words like "abandon", "wasted", or "it will never happen" don't motivate me spending some of my (currently) limited time for this.

 

Hi everyone,

The results have been posted to all the existing blind-test threads.

A new test is up for Space Oddity:
Bowie – Space Oddity: Blind listening test

Cheers.

 

I just checked the 2017 remaster. Oh. My. God.

What a garbled mess! TV, go home, you're deaf or drunk, or both.

It's even more compressed than the godwful, i-have-all-this-digital-equipment-and-i'm-not-afraid-to-use-it 1999 remaster and it's one of the most tasteless use of bass in recent memory. The whole album is hammer-fisted into an ugly pulp.

 

Compressed is not that issue on 2017 remaster. We should consider various aspects like Master tape condition, Noise reduction, EQ, Dynamic range etc. 2017 Remaster is surely better than previous releases.

I heard that more bass can reduce dynamic range. I think that Low 2017 Remaster has relatively low dynamic range because of that.

 

Sorry, but this is a preposterous statement. It's the worse one yet. This record never sounded as bad, unless people are judging by laptop speakers.

 

At least 2017 Remaster is not ruined by Noise Reduction or bad EQ. I hate Noise Reduction...

 

It's not like I would recommend the 1999 remaster to anybody, but at least it's clear and (slightly) more dynamic. The 2017 remaster sounds as if somebody had a personal vendetta against this album and decided to strangle it to death. The record now sounds like it's choking. I was put off so much that it's almost like a trauma, especially since this is probably the last time this albums gets a remaster on CD. In other words, this awful version will probably be circulating for the rest of our lives.

 

I've only heard the 2017 "Heroes" in its entirety on vinyl, but I strongly disagree that it's the worst remaster yet. I find both the 1999 and the Ryko to be much worse. It could be that the vinyl sounds a little better than the CD or digital files, as is sometime these case, but I have a hard time imagining those formats sound worse than the 1999 or Ryko.

 

The Rykos are divine when compared with the 2017 remaster. However, when it comes to the 1999 remaster - while I think it's still better than the 2017 choking of this record - I'd rather not have to pick between the two because it's like forcing somebody to pick between vomits and dog ****.

 

Um, yeah, we'll definitely have to agree to disagree here.

 

I voted for "Can't Decide" because for me, B (2017 remaster, for the money), C (RCA Germany) and F (RCA Japan/US) are all great. But i'll break them down singularly.
I listened to the samples before reading the results (what the actual sources are), here are the thoughts that popped in my head during listening.

A - Sounds off, weird and shrill in all samples.
B - Sounds congested and a bit fatiguing, but I was really impressed (after reading the results) at how well it compares to the RCA Japan/US CD.
C - This is my pick. While I didn't like the way Beauty and the Beast sounded, I was overall amazed at the level of clear, and fine detail. I really dig its darker sound.
D - A complete and utter disaster. Horrible artificial processing in all samples. Very noticeable No-Noise. Easily the worst.
E - Shrill and lacking in depth, but not completely atrocious.
F - While i prefer the West Germany sound, this is easily the 2nd pick. Excellent, smooth sound with a defined bass (Sounds like the 2017 cut but without the compression).

If I had to rank them all, that would be:
1 - RCA West Germany
2 - RCA Japan/US
3 - Parlophone 2017
4 - Ryko/EMI 1991
5 - Ryko AU20
6 - EMI 1999