New Springsteen Box "Album Collection '73-'84'" (Part Two)

I agree that the added bass did not help with definition overall. The slower songs have always sounded fine imo, and it was the rockers that sounded tinny. Where we don't agree is that I don't think the entire album ever sounded bad. Point Blank, Fade Away, The River, Stolen Car, these are knockout recordings imo. But they are the slower songs.

BITUSA is for sure warmed up and sounds better for it.

 

Really knocked out by the new River CD. I never imagined this album would sound anything but harsh and overly bright. On headphones I could actually hear a bit of Gary's "finger attack" on the bass strings during Cadillac Ranch! Who knew??

 

Are you saying that Bob Ludwig did a separate mastering just for vinyl? I don't think that's the case.

 

I was reading the thread yesterday and by chance had the radio on last night tuned to the local Classic rock station.

Sure enough, they play a block of Bruce. I noticed that the songs sounded a bit more clear but as also a bit harsh.

Now...it's hardly scientific. I'm not even certain they played the new remastered songs. But...I thought it may be a bit of information.

 

Would the CD's and vinyl sound exact the same? If so why did you spend the extra money on the vinyl? Do you have any links to posts that mention judging the sound of the vinyl by the CD DR #'s, as I don't remember seeing any and I am curious about who did. Or was that never the point you were making? If not what was it?

 

The vinyl will sound different for many reasons but the mastering wouldn't be one of them. One big reason for it sounding different however would be that they cut the record directly from the hi resolution digital master this alone can improve the sound quality on a good setup.

 

Today I have bought the cd box because Amazon Germany is selling the box for 37.95 Euro at the moment:
http://www.amazon.de/Albums-Collect...&keywords=bruce+springsteen+albums+collection

 

I bought the vinyl because I like records.

As for the rest of your post, I'm still not sure what you're going on about, so carry on.

 

I'll have to admit I've never really given Springsteen a fair chance. I think this box sounds excellent and it's given me a new appreciation for the genius of this man. A couple of the LPs have minor noise issues that don't interfere with the listening experience, for me anyway. To my surprise, my favorite may be Nebraska. I love it's simplicity and this mastering really does it justice IMO. As I look at the liner notes I notice nearly every song on every album was written by Springsteen himself. I should have known that but didn't. He also wrote enough songs between 1976 and 1978 to make probably two more albums and those songs ended up on The Promise. So the best part of this set for me, aside from the sound, is the new found appreciation I now have for an artist who deserved it long ago.

 

That ties what I paid through Amazon.ca (once they adjusted off shipping because of delay and my phone call). Great price. Mine arrives Monday.

 

I was a Springsteen late bloomer, too - actually came to him based on my wife being a big fan (which is not an entirely musical interest on her part). Of course, he was ubiquitous when I was in high school in the 1980s, which probably led me to underestimate him. When the Seeger Sessions came out, I really enjoyed it and I started to dive into the back catalog. I consider both BTR and Darkness to be masterpieces, but I actually enjoy the first two albums more than those two.

 

You alluded there are those who prejudged the vinyl based on the DR #'s of the CD.s. I find it hard to believe anyone would do that and myself have seen no evidence that supports your claim. I was curious to see if you have links to those posts as I wanted to see who would think that. Let's just forget the whole thing.

 

I actually read folks doing that a lot around here. Well maybe more precisely bypassing a recording just by viewing the DR #

 

$60.99 at Amazon.com right now

 

What he actually says in this interview is "The irony is that rather than adding more manipulation into the mastering with equalisation and compression it actually needed less because you can hear things more clearly"......it possibly might be a bit out of context as he is talking about the plangent process and then says the first two albums are the most improved-I'd need to check back but I think those two have the highest DR numbers too -all fine and dandy but that quote doesn't really explain BITUSA, BTR and Darkness........just to repeat I'm not complaining as I really really like the set- it just seems a bit confused the message-on one hand he is saying you need less compression etc but even in relation to the last remasters the DR levels are the same and that's not even going into the high DR numbers of the original CD's.......

 

No, I said there are people who prejudge the sound based on DR numbers. You see this attitude all the time around here. People look at numbers and then say they will avoid the remaster because of it.

I assume the vinyl box has the same DR numbers as the CD box, since it's the same Bod Ludwig master. Whatever the number, they don't sound overly compressed or brickwalled, apart from the compression that's baked into these since their original release. They all sound great.

 

Interesting note on the Nebraska vinyl: They moved 'State Trooper' to side 2.

I assume this was done for sound quality reasons, since the original album was top-heavy: Side 1 ran about 25 minutes with side 2 around 15 minutes. Having State Trooper open side 2 (instead of closing side 1) balances out the side lengths a bit.

 

That would bother the crap out of me if I cared about vinyl.

 

He wrote all the songs to every album in there; that´s just how old school Bruce worked and still had room to leave out gems like "Loose ends; and, well, most of the "Tracks" box...

 

So far I have only listened to Born in the USA (vinyl box set purchaser) and it is the best version I have heard--vinyl or cd (I have the 30th anniversary cd box). Looking through everyone's reviews and comments, most folks haven't commented on what I think is the biggest issue here. Remastering can only do so much with an original recording, and if the original wasn't recorded well, new technology will only take you so far. The River and Nebraska were recorded so poorly that only so much could be done with them. Born in the USA, given the instrumentation, was recorded quite poorly as well to my ears. My original lp never sounded great--it was so muddy. The Half Speed master was worse. I heard a Classics Records 200 gram which sounded ok to me, but not a great improvement. This new vinyl version beats them all hands down to me. And I am not someone who prefers remasters to original recordings normally, but I suspect that a lot of care was taken into making this box. I plan on listening to the rest of the vinyl pretty soon, but so far, so good--given that Born in the USA I suspect was probably the most difficult to engineer properly, given all the string arrangements (this is a guess but I suspect some truth to it).

 

pilcrow ¶

 

I assume you're talking about Born to Run here.

 

Must be.

Unless the poster means to write "synthesizer" everytime they write "strings"?

 

You know what this set reminds me of? It reminds me that "Darkness" is the best frickin' thing the man ever did!

 

In my experience the numbers give a good indication of the sound. I have yet to hear a great sounding CD with a low DR but I admit that a high DR does not guarantee good sound. I have listened to many CD's with low DR values and you can hear the compression stifling the sound, this does not mean that they are unlistenable to it just means they do not sound great.

DR numbers are also miss leading when it comes to vinyl records as the DR numbers for dreadfully compressed masters can have a high DR number on the record.

Please advise me of great sounding records/CDs with a low DR and I might try one.