Black Sabbath CD's - 86 Castles vs. 2016 Remasters

I think for TE and NSD I will stick with my 96 and 2016’s as those are two titles I rarely revisit....although original WB’s are a dime a dozen around here for all Ozzy era titles so they are readily available if I want to get them. What was the consensus with the best version of Vol 4 on CD?

 

WB CD of "Technical Ecstasy" sounds horrible !!!

 

Vol 4: As usual, no consensus. The Japan SACD is my favourite, Sanctuary 2009 and Castle 1986 are also good IIRC. Castle 1996 and WB 2016 are far behind.

But then again, it depends on your taste and system. If you like bright over dark sound, you'll probably prefer the 2016 over all of my favourites.

As always, consult this thread:
Roland's favorite CD versions of Black Sabbath albums (part2)

 

Thank you for reminding me about the link. Time to go down the rabbit hole lol

 

You can’t go wrong with the 2009 Pearce!

 

Seriously? While I do prefer the sound of the 2016 over the WB, the Warner Bros. disc is very quiet, and is generally well regarded here. It’s a disc that you can really crank!

 

So that would be s/t, MOR, Vol4, SBS and Sabotage. I agree those range from decent to great, but my favourite digital versions for s/t, MOR, Vol4 and SBS are the SACDs.

 

If I remember correctly, it sounds dull and dead...I don't care about a quiet mastering if it sounds bad...

 

The SACDs have the same mastering as released on the 2016 regular discs...right ? Narrowed stereo image in the bassrange - not for me....

 

If we're talking about the japanese SHM-SACDs (the only Sabbath SACDs to my knowledge), then not at all. They are unique masterings (alledgedly flat transfers from the tapes).

 

Which mastertapes ??? The original UK mastertapes ??? Or the US cutting tapes ???

 

Let me check:

Black Sabbath: UK ??? (transfered at FX Copyroom London)
Paranoid: possibly Japanese copy ??? (transfered at Universal Mastering Studio by Hitoshi Takiguchi)
Vol.4: UK ??? (London)
SBS: UK ??? (London)

 

And where is the confirmation that they really used the original mastertapes and not any vinyl cutting / copy tapes ???

 

The lack of summed bass and roll-off or any tell-tale sign of a vinyl cutting tape ???
As for being flat copies, as with any project, we can't be 100% sure.
Usually SACDs in this series mention when they have been (flat) transfered from either copies or masters. There are no such mentions either way here. But all the other SHM-SACDs transfered at FX Copyroom London have been from (alledgedly) the masters, and sound like it.

 

I listened to PARANOID SACD some time ago and I think the EQ was much better, compared to the 2016 remasters...but it was full of hiss, compared to older CD versions (Castle, Japan two-fer etc.)...

 

It's always been a somewhat hissy album (Planet Caravan...).
I don't remember the SACD was particularly more hissy than the '86 Castle, but it's been years and I would need to compare them directly to be sure.

The Paranoid SACD being the only one of the series transfered either in Japan or the USA would indicate that it's possibly from a copy. Maybe the original UK master is/was missing, I don't know...

 

The SACDs are completely different to 2016 CDs.

 

The SACD versions have much more hiss...trust me...

 

Thank you, I have to check it again as soon as I am able to borrow the SACDs again...

 

All of them? That's not my recollection.

 

Paranoid is from a Japanese copy tape and not nearly as good as the other ones.

 

Definitely PARANOID.

 

That's strange, because the 1989 two-fer Japan CD doesn't have that high amount of hiss...

 

It's possible they are from different Japanese tapes or maybe the brighter EQ on the SACD is making the hiss more noticeable.

The packaging for all of the Sabbath SACDs actually claim to be from "analogue master tapes" but CDjapan has translated Japanese text which gives details on the tapes. "Japanese original analog tape" for Paranoid and Heaven & Hell while the rest are "UK original analog tape". I don't see mention of the transfer/mastering details, though. That might be among the Japanese text in the packaging.

 

You're welcome.