Do new vinyl pressings tend to sound a bit on the dark side?

That's good to hear. I feel relieved now. To be honest, I was getting a bit concerned that the new breed of vinyl lovers prefers darker, more muffled sound, after being fed a constant diet of trebly, harsh mp3 playback. People tend to go from one extreme to another, and now that vinyl is gaining traction among the hipster generation, they may sway the trends toward their particular preferences. I hope that's not the case, but us old fogeys are in the minority here, and the market tends to go where the large numbers are.

 

Not everything sounds dark. Only those new remasters I've mentioned above. The good old LPs in my library all sound awesome, bright and crystal clear and full of sparkle and a very deep, muscular bass.

 

So on your system, if you listen to the 2012 180 gram "Abbey Road" remaster, and then listen to the original pressing of the same album, the remaster doesn't sound darker?

 

Ah, well that's because the stereo Beatles remasters are terrible. This is what launched the AAA mono vinyl releases.

Which doesnt help for Abbey Road

 

I have noticed that vinyl looks much darker than CDs in most cases...

 

I think quite a few new pressings are mastered lower or with less treble than older pressings. I've noticed it on quite a few new pressings, not all though. I tend to turn up the volume or treble on those pressings and they sound fine usually.

I just purchased an original UK pressing of "All Things Must Pass" and was amazed at how much more treble that mastering has compared to the most recent vinyl issue. I quite like the new pressing but the older one does have a much more open sound/mastering.

 

So, it's just recent heavyweight ones, as indicated in your original post?

 

Yes.

 

The keyword here is 'sounds'.

 

I've noticed the same problem with the 2012 remaster of the "White Album". So the mono remaster is not as dark as the stereo?

 

I notice this, too. I have to increase volume for vinyl and decrease for CDs.

 

Interesting. In my case, most LPs sound at seemingly the same volume as CDs. At least my ears cannot detect any change in loudness when I flip back-and-forth between LPs and CDs.

 

Take this with a grain of salt as I am by no means an audiophile and learning stuff as we speak (researching about high res downloads now), but if they are remastered could it be from a digital source.

 

It's hard to tell from reviews, too, because a lot of what we hear is so system and room (and ear) dependent.

About a year and a half ago, I upgraded my entire vinyl front end. I went from a very good VPI Scout, Benz Micro Ace SL, and PS Audio GCPH, to a VPI Prime, Ortofon Cadenza Black, and Rogue Ares. I had the Billy Joel 52nd Street reissue (Cisco I think?) in my pile to sell for being way too muddy. On the new rig, the better setup was able dig out all of that detail, and I realized that it's an amazing pressing with no harshness whatsoever. It's like switching a consumer grade f/5.6 zoom lens to a professional f/2.0 on a good camera. All the music was there, crisp and clear. I think it was mostly the Rogue Ares that made that improvement, although the Ortofon didn't hurt. I went through my entire "sell" stack and kept more than half.

You may be able to play some with your VTA to see if that may help...

 

I have the AAA mono Revolver, Sgt Pepper, and White Album. I think they are amazing.

 

As I was improving my hi fi system, I started noticing how the better the components are, the less need there is of EQ-ing the sound. Early on, when I had a so-so stereo, I was always forced to twiddle the EQ in order to compensate for the substandard sound. But then as I was getting more serious and buying better equipment, the overall sound quality started improving significantly and the need to mess with EQ-ing disappeared.

Today, I'm using very simple, high quality components that don't even come with any EQ controls. So it's now pretty much down to the quality of the source material -- the mastering and the pressing. Same as I wouldn't want to endlessly mess with EQ controls, I wouldn't find it acceptable to keep messing with VTA.

Plus, I do have a number of 180 gram pressings that sound just fantastic, so I don't think that it's the thickness of the LP that is producing darker sound on those remasters I've mentioned.

 

I have mono Revolver, original pressing, which sounds like a rocket launcher! If the remaster can top that, it must be truly amazing!

 

Two things come to mind. First the old scratchy pressings you reference add treble chatter which will tilt the sonics to subjectively brighter. Second, new pressings often have a bit more bass than older pressings mastered when the labels geared bass rolloff to whatever their 9 year old kids TT could handle. More bass creates a darker tonal balance through a phenomenon called perceptual masking.

 

But the funny thing is, my old pressings have stronger and deeper bass than the remasters. Overall, I'm not only talking about the highs, I'm talking about the sound being much more vivacious and perky on the old pressings. Including the bass. The bass on the remasters sounds sluggish in comparison.

 

Without being able to hear the records on your system, noise in the groove will tilt the tonal balance higher. Adding treble noise is a well known factor to make the treble sound airier. If we are talking about a remaster of an older tape, then there is always loss of higher treble through age. The degree of loss will depend on how well maintained the tape was. There is also the possibility ,even probability, that the tapes were digitally transferred for editing. Very few records today are straight AAA. Lengthier sides common today reduce volume and dynamics leaving aside the whole issue of imposed dynamic compression.

 

I dont have any original, except for a US revolver that isnt any good, so I cant make the comparison.
But go read Micheal Framer's reviews if you want additional opinion. I think it's great.

 

These are all great points. However, rather than speculating, it would be better, I think, if you could somehow get a copy of the 2012 180 gram "Abbey Road" remaster and also a copy of the old "Abbey Road" pressing. Then listen to both LPs side-by-side, and see if you can hear the differences I brought up.

I think that would be a good starting point for this discussion. Of course, providing that you could actually get both copies in your hands.

 

Our systems are different. I cannot reliably troubleshoot whatever issues you are experiencing over the net. There are many variables affecting relative tonal balance of a recording and they interact with the audio system it's played on. As I indicated reissues will have upper treble losses unless the engineer tweaks those frequencies in mastering. I have not noticed any blanket problem like you are stating although on a certain percentage they do indeed sound more veiled for the reasons noted above and more besides.

 

Says you

Here we go again!!

 

Comedians..
Comedians everywhere.