What's the worst sounding CD in your collection?

There are a few discs where I am disappointed with the sound. These would include:

The Bangles - All Over the Place (dull) and Different Light (thin)

Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run (standard and Mastersound)

Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow (stereo mix)

Sly & the Family Stone - Greatest Hits

Elton John - Greatest Hits Vol 2

Jethro Tull - M.U. - The Best of Jethro Tull

Whitney Houston - S/T

Def Leppard - Pyromania (stock issue)


The winners for worst-sounding would be a toss up:

Wings - London Town (heavily no-noised)

John Lennon - Mind Games (thin - original not the remixed version)

 

How about anything from the 1993 Paul McCartney UK remasters series?

 

THAT has got to be the most absolute worst major release I have EVER heard this side of those 80s Priority FDS CDs! What's worse is that it is a boxed set!

 

I didn't like those, either. They all sounded dull and a bit no-noised.

 

Pretty much so. Once I heard the DCC Venus & Mars, I realized just how screwed up those remasters were.

 

But there's lots of people who swear by them...

 

My worst sounding CD by far is, or was I should say...MFSL's S/T Heart. The grossest over use of eq. that I've ever heard.

Please excuse my off-topicness here.One thing that I don't understand with some of the posts in this thread that the original WB Van Halen CD releases sound bad. As far as I can tell the original CD's, up to and including 1984, are sourced from the lp masters or analog sources and have no added eq. or overuse of compression unlike every other issue of these albums on cd (S/T DCC excluded of course)

 

Any CDs pressed by Digital Audio Technologies Australia is an invitation to get out the ear muffs. The Three Dog Night Greatest Hits is only for when I'm working down the other end of the house. The mess that Astley made of Abba is enought to make me very sad.

 

Maybe not the absolute worst, but Bruce Springsteen's 'The River' drastically needs a remastering - totally thin and trebly.

 

Yup! have that one...succity...any decent sounding JATA out there?

 

Not sure...that's the only one I've tried. I'd bet there's a budget CD of some sort out there that's decent. Certainly wouldn't take much to beat the EMI. Somebody oughta start a Jay & the Americans thread to see if anybody has something that's any good.


__________
AC

 

Have you heard the remasters? I like them and prefer them to my old 80s CDs.

 

Yes I've heard the remasters and ouch in the treble.

 

I have the same "24-bit" JPN remasters of "Oranges & Lemons" and "White Music" and they indeed sport the most tasteless mastering I've ever heard. Hard to believe someone would prefer this kind of sound. Dreadful!

I'll stick with the MoFi (Oranges & Lemons) and original LPs, thank you.
Dan C

 

Then I'll swear right back at them!

 

My original Van Halen 1984 has NO BASS to it. Can't stand listening to it hardly.

The original mid 80's A&M pressing (and subsequent early 90's Rebound clone) of Brasil '66's Fool On The Hill. Noise reduction SO heavy that all the life is sucked out of it.

Brian Setzer '68 Comeback Special, Ignition: it's a compress-o-rama, which is a damn shame since I like the music on it so much. And I should probably add the Brian Setzer Orchestra's Va-Vooom! for the same reason.

Miles Davis, Kind Of Blue--Columbia's first two CD version were piss-poor. The first edition was from an LP master, identical to the hissy reissue LP I owned. The second went in the opposite direction--too much noise reduction. I skipped the gold Mastersound, but got the fourth version, which used the Presto deck for playback. World of diffference. I still have all of these versions. It's incredible to hear how bad the first one was!

Plenty of 80's CDs I could complain about, but I'll skip 'em for now.

 

There's plenty of 80's CDs I could rave about, but here's some of the worst...

The Beatles - Beatles For Sale
Wings - Venus and Mars (Columbia)
Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced (Polydor w/UK track listing)
Paul Simon - Greatest Hits, Etc.
Stephen Stills - Right By You

 

Agreed, "1984" sounds good to me.

 

From the A&M world, two candidates: Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 CLASSICS VOLUME 18 and the Japanese-only Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass' SRO. The Mendes is dull and lifeless, while the Alpert is full of dropouts and distortion.

Many '80s-issued MCA discs sound pretty bad, but the worst I've found is Richard Harris' A TRAMP SHINING, which contained the big hit "MacArthur Park." It's less than lifeless.

The first attempt at a CD sountrack for 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (also from MCA) was really bad too. Not only did it sound bad, they used the wrong album art (from the old Volume 2 album). Subsequent re-issues have been much better, though still not perfect.

 

Listening to "Tug of War" literally gives me a headache.

Along "What were they thinking?" lines: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication

 

Interesting, I think just the opposite. I thought MCA had some of the best sounding 80's discs.

 

That's my pick too.

 

Toss up between "Spaced Out" the William Shatner/Leonard Nimoy thing and one titled "La Tour (sounds like Nimoy)!

 

There is a 10 Best Jay & The Americans CD out there, Michael.

 

cbsolson,

Would that be from the "10 Best Series" issued by CEMA Special Markets? Those are decent budget-priced compilations but they usually leave out one or more essential hits (e.g., the Johnny Rivers CD omits "Summer Rain"). But maybe on the JATA title it's got everything a casual fan will ever need.

Jim W.