Your Go-to Hendrix CDs!

Needle drops of the French Barclay and UK Track mono versions all the way.

 

They are nice as a period curio but Hendrix music was made to be heard in stereo IMO

 

I have a RE-1 AYE, I'm looking for a non RE-1 Axis:BAL, wanna trade

 

I know most people here are unbelievers, but my favorites are the SHM-CDs.

 

Rare that EH gets such a thumbs-up ...

 

If you don't like the revised front cover, simply turn the booklet round, and put in back in the jewel case - there you go, original artwork restored.
I happen to like the '93 CDs quite a lot - they are smooth and uncompressed, a nice listen unlike the EH which make me switch off after a few minutes. The sleevenotes are great too.
Besides I have Track and Polydor vinyl when I want to hear the albums 'as is'

 

I knew that about the switching booklet around but those stamps were the shiznit.

On a merchandising standpoint, customers don't like the revised covers, it sometimes confuses them.
It's the same deal with the R&B group The Whispers when the SOLAR catalog was reissued, their albums came out in different covers (and bad ones at that). People remember those jackets and skim over those thinking it's a different album from the one they're looking for. "I want the one where they're standing in front of a red backround and these all have fireworks on the front". It's the same deal where the customer is looking for "the brown cover with them in a circle, I forgot the title." You can show them the '93 disc front and back but the customer thinks your handing them the wrong album. The MCA discs weren't that bad, the were a improvement over the No Noised Reprise discs.

 

That's not the case with Stone Free...no true stereo exists. The mono mix of Purple Haze is better than the stereo mix, especially because the cough during the intro isn't there.

 

I agree, but the cough to me I always thought was an integral part of the song and very much meant to be in the intro !!

 

My go-to Hendrix CD is the West German Polydor of Electric Ladyland that accidentally placed sides 1 & 4 on CD 1 and 2 & 3 on CD 2 based on the record changer coupled original LPs. Fantastic sound.

 

Mine too.

 

Funny this old thread pops up - I've been using my iPod on shuffle a lot lately to get a variety of music I haven't listened to in quite awhile. There is a huge SQ difference to my ears between the '97 Hendrix releases of the regular albums, and the more recent live (Miami, Winterland) and jerryrigged "new" albums such as P,H and A and VoN. The latter sound so much better and fuller, even on an iPod at 320 AAC. Does anyone else think that? Anyone else want Kramer to remaster the original albums again? I used to think the '97 ones were okay but now I dislike them.

 

.....and NOT from the original master tapes - a quick comparison against the EH proves that.

 

FWIW I happen to like the new EH vinyl, particularly EL. The CDs and Mp3s are awful though IMO, they have wrecked the sound.

 

An out-of-the-blue question here, as someone mentioned SHM-CDs. Are there any Jimi SACDs? I don't think there are but would there be any possible improvement?

 

Time to resurrect this thread!

Something that is not clear is the comparison of the 97 EH and the 2010 EH discs. Are they using the same tape sources? Similar mastering? (Did Eddie Kramer do all of them?). If you have the '97 version is it redundant to get the 2010 discs?

Of all of the discs I have, here are my faves:

AYE - EH 97 (do not have a non RE-1. I have an RE-1 and yes it sucks)
AXIS - EH 2010
EL - WG Polydor, with the EH 97 in close second

I do love the Classic vinyl pressings and the new EH pressings too. Have to say I have a soft spot in my heart for the Canadian pressing of EL. In fact, and this might be thread crapping, but I prefer Hendrix on vinyl to CD.

 

ALWAYS play this on New Years Eve. Disc 2 when the countdown begins.

Rick A.

 

The 97 and 2010 discs are the exact same mastering.

 

As far as Hendrix on CD, the recent Cry of Love and Rainbow Bridge are superlative. Would that Bernie Grundman gets a crack at remastering War Heroes and a re-issued In the West with the original track selection.

 

Can't believe the EH cds are rated so highly (and yes '97 and 2010 are the same mastering). They're too loud and squashed. Except for Cry of Love and Rainbow Bridge.

I prefer the Reprise cds, noise reduction or not. You can't hear they are nr'd, that's just typical snobbery. They sound great.

 

They are only rated highly because a lot of people do not have the originals, if they did they would think differently

 

A lot of people would disagree with you here. Even Joe Gastwirt backed down on the NoNoise between the Reprise RE-1 releases and the Gered Mankowitz versions on MCA, so something must have been said about it. The Reprise non-RE-1 versions do sound great, the RE-1 versions less good, the MCA not so good as the masters don't appear to have been used. The EH versions NEED to be redone without compression and they will be unbeatable, but getting Reprise non-RE-1 versions is the nearest thing to that.

 

I'd like to go to my non-RE1's, but all I have is the '97 EHs.

 

I have actually not heard the first Reprise cds from 1986; maybe they are even better. All I know is I much prefer the Reprise RE versions of Are You Experienced and Smash Hits to the EH cds and the MCA Are You Experienced is really terrible.

 

Different strokes for different folks, seem to be the the answer given to the OP's question.

I'm curious are some of the preferred CDs, based on headphone listing, or listening through computer speakers or listening through a home stereo unit? I like to listen to my Jimi loud and through pretty descent speakers. A buddy of mine only listens through his headphones, so he like the consistently of the EH, especially when shuffling around the different CDs he has ripped to his computer. I think that because of the headphones the anomalies stick out and bother him more than me.