All of them up through 1984. I don't care for the Hagar-era stuff much. The darned remasters from WB are just too tweaked in the high end for my taste, but they're okay. They are all HDCD, but I don't have an HDCD player/decoder, so I can't comment on how they sound played back in HDCD mode.
Van Reply to Golden Boy Van Halen All of them up through 1984. I don't care for the Hagar-era stuff much. The darned remasters from WB are just too tweaked in the high end for my taste, but they're okay. They are all HDCD, but I don't have an HDCD player/decoder, so I can't comment on how they sound played back in HDCD mode. __________________ Cheers, GoldenBoy 'It ain't why, it just is.' - Van Morrison I bought all of them and they sound horrible. I thought about smashing them in their jewel cases and sending the remains to the individual who remastered them but I didn't want to waste any additional money. They are truly unlistenable trust me. Ferg
Yeah, they ARE fairly horrible. 1984 sounds WORSE on the new HDCD master. Think it's a lot of midrange brightness with no real dynamics? Try the HDCD and be ready to feel true dissapointment. Take the HDCD and the DCC Vh1 and it's like a taste test between used dish water and a fine wine. There are differences in which a DCC (or other things) are a noticeable improvement. You could drive a large semi between the difference of the 1st issues, the DCCs to the HDCD discs, and it ain't good. The VH remasters are possibly the worst mastering job as of lately, or in the past year or so. Definately an obscene waste of money. I've just EQd the stock issues a bit and burned them. Violla!! More money for wine
Maybe it is not the mastering but the fact that this music just sounds plain dated. I thought the original WB LP sounded terrific in '78, but I went back to it recently and it sounds rather old and antiquated. Did anyone compare the sound of the tracks from Best of VH Vol 1 with the tracks on the HDCD versions? It's the same mastering engineer but the Best Of tracks are not HDCD. Maybe I'll do the honors...
Well there you go. I think the 1984 HDCD remaster is *far* better sounding than the original CD pressing (or the LP). If nothing else, there's at least a sense of *bass drum* now.
Van Halen 1984 I need to go out and find the original 1984 pressing to take one more look. I don't remember Van Halen sounding so bad- I had gone to the 1984 concert and remember listening the CD for countless hours in the car. The Hot for Teacher Video sounds better coming out of a 3inch speaker on my small TV than the Remaster on my sound system. If you want, I can send you my remasters for free, that is what I think of them. Ferg