Best Sounding Hounds of Love CD

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by auralden, Sep 8, 2017.

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  1. HiFi Guy 008

    HiFi Guy 008 Forum Resident

    Location:
    New England
    I'm comparing the 1997 EMI remaster (Australia with bonus tracks) to the early US DIDX 1100 and later US EMI Manhattan.
    So far the 1997 sounds great... and the bonus tracks are wonderful.
     
    auralden likes this.
  2. Mirror Image

    Mirror Image 200 Years Of Anton Bruckner

    Location:
    United States
    I’d love to get a better opinion of the 1997 remaster. To those that own it, what do you think about it? Better/worse than the original master from the UK? I’m listening to it now and it sounds slightly louder than the EMI UK master I own (from the This Woman’s Work box set), but I’m not sure if it’s superior. I would probably say ’no’ as the original sounds warmer to me. I’m going to have to do a side-by-side comparison. I will say I’m liking the amount of detail in the 1997 remaster.

    Edit: Okay, and this very well could be in my own mind, but Cloudbusting told the tale rather quickly. The 1997 remaster is a bit louder and has good clarity, but it’s lacking the warmth of the original UK mastering and it sounds a bit ‘cold’ for lack of a better adjective. It’s cool to have this remaster and I’m certainly not going to say it wasn’t worth the money (as I’m huge lover of this album and all things Kate Bush), but the engineer Chris Blair did a good job, but I’m quite anxious to hear how well James Guthrie does because as it stands right now, the 1997 remaster doesn’t displace the original UK master.
     
    Last edited: Oct 10, 2018
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  3. auralden

    auralden Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Singapore
    Looks like the upcoming remaster will use the single ver. of Big Sky - read here.
     
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  4. Yost

    Yost “It’s only impossible until it’s not”

    Trust your own ears. Only you can determine what you like.

    PS. I have 2 early ones and the 1997 remaster which I keep for the bonus tracks. It’s not my favourite version at all. The early ones are the Japanese Black Triangle and the EMI Japan for EU disc. I haven’t decided yet which one to sell…
     
  5. Mirror Image

    Mirror Image 200 Years Of Anton Bruckner

    Location:
    United States
    I don’t really need the bonus tracks as I own the This Woman’s Work box set, but I did want to hear a remaster of the album. Looks like I’ll get my chance to hear another remaster after the release of that new box set in November. How does the Japanese Black Triangle issue sound?
     
  6. Yost

    Yost “It’s only impossible until it’s not”

    The BT sounds very nice, balanced, refined with smooth bass. But I do think I slightly prefer the JPN4EU in this case. What bothers me though, are the 100% peaks in the JPN4EU. And based on the BT mastering, which has lower peaks, some tracks might have some limiting. I still need to ask a friend to help me with a blind comparison, otherwise I’m influenced by more factors than just the sound I hear.
     
  7. ParanoidAndroid

    ParanoidAndroid Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bournemouth, UK
    Is the Japan for EU a different mastering to the standard EU mastering (i.e. what you find in the This Woman's Work box set)?
     
  8. strippies

    strippies Forum Resident

    Location:
    Netherlands
    Japan for EU is the same as EMI Swindon or Uden
     
  9. jeddy

    jeddy Forum Resident

    Is the JP4UK the same as the Supermasters Series
    from Japan? TOCP-6547 EJ-2403841
    1990 I think?

    Cause it sounds lush and sweet
     
  10. Yost

    Yost “It’s only impossible until it’s not”

  11. auralden

    auralden Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Singapore
    I just managed to get the Black Triangle version and I like it the best compared to the UK This Woman’s Work boxset and the Japan MLPS versions. It just sounds more solid in terms of imaging. The UK version has more air but sounds ‘light’. The MLPS sounds closer to the Black Triangle but is the least dimensional of the 3. Btw there is no pre-emphasis in the Black Triangle. So, up next will be the latest remaster out next month. Will just get it individually instead of the box. Note that Big Sky will be the single version.
     
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2018
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  12. oldtinears

    oldtinears Forum Resident

    Location:
    san diego ca
    I have the original UK CD from Sept. '85, disc marked Made in Japan. Is this the same mastering as the "Black Triangle" version?
     
  13. strippies

    strippies Forum Resident

    Location:
    Netherlands
    No, it has mastering 2. See post #9.
     
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  14. auralden

    auralden Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Singapore
    Has anyone heard the new remaster of Hounds of Love? Am thinking of getting either the download (highest and only resolution is 24 bit 44.1 kHz) or the CD. Much appreciated if you can share your views on sound quality, esp. in comparison to what's available before.
     
  15. MikeManaic61

    MikeManaic61 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Virginia
    Check out this thread. Around page 90-100 they talk about it and give their opinions on it.

    Kate Bush Remasters 2018.
     
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  16. peter

    peter Senior Member

    Location:
    Paradise
    The BT and the orig. JPN. for UK are both amazing sounding discs. I have not heard the others.
     
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  17. Plan9

    Plan9 Mastering Engineer

    Location:
    Toulouse, France
    By all accounts the remaster is the best it has ever sounded.
     
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  18. JoshM

    JoshM Forum Resident

    Could someone point me to which CD contains the original album version of "The Big Sky"? Thanks!
     
  19. Yost

    Yost “It’s only impossible until it’s not”

    All the original CDs from the 80’s and early 90’s.
     
  20. JoshM

    JoshM Forum Resident

  21. Adular Zech

    Adular Zech Forum Resident

    FakePlasticDunk and JoshM like this.
  22. Uncle Miles

    Uncle Miles Wafting in and out of Forum

    Location:
    Phoenix, AZ USA
    That was pretty good. I admit I skipped a few of the prelim paragraphs to get down to the graphs quicker, but it's still a very good post.


    Could I ask, have you done a similar review of The Dreaming? The remaster sounded good to my ears, but I noticed in the DR database it has a little bit less dynamic range than the old U.K. CD.
     
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  23. JoshM

    JoshM Forum Resident

    Thank you. I haven’t done one for The Dreaming, which is one of my other Bush favorites. I’ve liked the remaster, too, but I haven’t done the type of critical, loudness-matched listening where I’d want to say definitively that it’s better than the original CD.
     
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  24. kevnhuys

    kevnhuys Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    For what it's worth....on TOP here is the title track from the 1997 remaster (which I bought in Japan, in its own little box) and below that, the same track from the 2018 HDTracks download. Nice to see some engineers stepping back from loudness wars...

    [​IMG]
     
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  25. Yost

    Yost “It’s only impossible until it’s not”

    I didn't remember I posted the above earlier, but I came back to the thread to remark that I like the JPN 4 EU slightly better than the JPN Black Triangle. Recently I did an elaborate comparison, and the JPN 4 EU sounds a little bit warmer, a little bit more detailed and less "processed". Findings are confirmed by my son, who was the blind listening test guinea pig.

    I also need to mention that I have the second Black Triangle release from 1989, not the original one (from 1985). And, of course the Black Triangle's disc face still is the more beautiful one of the two. :love:
     
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