I only just found a short but nice thread that discusses both Wicked Woman and the Paranoid quad mix as cases of master tapes being sent abroad and staying there up to today: Cases where record labels sent their master tapes abroad and use inferior sources on reissues?
Did a little more listening to Paranoid, picked Electric Funeral. I actually rather like the 1991 Japan TECP-23893. See samples above.
...and btw, the 1991 Japan TECP-23893 does NOT sound like the original WB CD or the original Castle CD, as sometimes has been claimed here. To my ears, the SACD and the TECP are quite similar to each other; the TECP sounds slightly better than the SACD. Both are closer to the Intercord than to the Castle CD (IMO of course). At least for this track, both the TECP and the SACD are much stronger contenders than I had expected, given that the TECP gets rarely even mentioned and many people here strongly dislike the SACD. Anyway, all in all the Intercord is still the winner for me because it has the fullest sound. The 2012 remaster is by far the brightest-sounding of this lot. EDIT: The 1986 Castle CD is too dull for me. One question I am still undecided about is if the 1991 TECP is a slight improvement over the 1987 33PD, or if it sounds slightly worse because less 'natural'. The 33PD sounds a tad 'boring' (I don't know how to put it better) compared to the Intercord.
I still think TE and NSD are great albums Not sure why but nobody seems to point out these two albums kind of show where Ozzy was going to go with his solo career!!! Just like Presence and ITTOD shows where Plant was going to go in his solo career!!!
If you read through older posts in this thread, I am sure you will find several other people praising TE and/or NSD too. I actually find Ozzy's solo material very boring compared to most of Sabbath's output, so yout theory would explain why I don't love TE and NSD as much as the first six Sabbath albums. ;-) Not bad albums at all, just not as great as the first six IMO.
TE is a good album, but NSD is really dated comparing to Ozzy's first two solo records. But I agree the last our Ozzy's are in the same category as Sabbath's Forbidden. Unlistenable!!!
For vinyl freaks and anyone who wants to compare audio samples from the Japan SACD, the first UK LP pressing and several early Australian LPs (incl. the first pressing) of Sabbath's s/t debut album, I posted samples here: Which was really the 1st Australian Fontana LP pressing of Black Sabbath's 1st, self-titled album? Which was really the 1st Australian Fontana LP pressing of Black Sabbath's 1st, self-titled album?
Finally did a shootout for Technical Ecstasy, listening to "All Moving Parts": original US WB CD vs original WG Vertigo vs 2016 Rhino-WB CD. My quickest shootout ever: the original WB was clearly and very quickly the winner. Not because it is great, but because I found the other two to be awfully bright. I am not very familiar with this album, so I threw LP-rips of the original UK and US LPs in. The US and UK don't sound very different from each other IMO. Now, interestingly the CD that matches most closely the LP-rips (according to my ears and system, of course) is NOT the original WB CD but the original WG Vertigo CD. Looks like this album was originally mastered much brighter than I prefer. The 2016 CD, however, is even brighter than the original LPs. Another 2016 CD I really don't like After some more listening, the original WB CD is starting to sound a little dull to me. So at this point I am undecided between the original WB CD and the original WG Vertigo CD. Basically, in this case I have not yet made up my mind regarding whether I want to go with my uasual preference for darker-sounding masterings or with the brighter sound of the original LPs. EDIT: 10 minutes later again, I prefer the original WB CD. I may change my mind at some point, but at this moment the other two CDa, and the LPs, are simply too bright-sounding for my taste.
Never Say Die (song) shootout: Completed shootouts: 13 Individual test results from among 4 possible files: "A" chosen: 2 times (15.38%) (file: D:\Uploads for Filehosting\Samples OK\1978 Never Say Die!_1987 USA_3186-2_Warner_Never Say Die_01. Never Say Die - track gain applied.wav) "B" chosen: 2 times (15.38%) (file: D:\Uploads for Filehosting\Samples OK\1978 Never Say Die!_2016 USA_RR2 3186_Warner-Rhino_Never Say Die_01. Never Say Die - track gain applied.wav) "C" chosen: 5 times (38.46%) (file: D:\Uploads for Filehosting\Samples OK\1978 Never Say Die!_1993 Germany_550 131-2_Spectrum_01. Never Say Die - track gain applied.wav) "D" chosen: 4 times (30.77%) (file: D:\Uploads for Filehosting\Samples OK\1978 Never Say Die!_1987 West Germany_830 789-2_Vertigo_01. Never Say Die - track gain applied.wav) So apparently I am still leaning towards the Spectrum, though the original WG Vertigo CD is close, and overall the results don't look entirely unambiguous. I will have to do this another time, where I am planning to compare to 1 or 2 early LP-rips as well. Anyway, I already did that several years ago, and the Spectrum CD clearly turned out to be my preferred digital version back then.
Once again it turns out that the 2012 remasters (2016 CDs) are not really needed. My winners for TE and NSD are of course OOP, but used copies are available. Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy (CD, US, 1988) For Sale | Discogs Black Sabbath - Never Say Die (CD, Germany, 1993) For Sale | Discogs
I just compared the song "Never Say Die" from these 4 CD releases to Pbthal's LP-rips of the original UK and US pressings: The differences that I hear between between both LPs are rather small and subtle. Both are pretty close to each other IMO. The original WB CD sounds already brighter than both LP-rips. The 2016 CD sounds significantly brighter than even the WB CD, and thus MUCH brighter than the LP-rips. The WG Vertigo CD isn't bright-sounding, but it does sound 'off' some other way. Not sure what it is. Too bassy I think, and maybe something's not quite right with the mids too. To my ears, the Spectrum appears the closest to the LP-rips, but at some points of the song it is not quite as full-sounding.
I agree. When I first heard TE and NSD, I thought they sounded like two great Ozzy solo albums. That was my impression for what it is worth. I love the first six Sabbath albums and I love those last two but they are kind of an apples to oranges kind of comparison if you ask me.
I disagree... the bass overpowers everything else. I’m all for bottom end, but imo the Vertigo takes it too the extreme. Granted, I’ve never heard the original LP, but I have a hard time believing it sounds anything like that.
I have to agree with you that to the best of my knowledge, the best CD version of NSD is the Spectrum. Please correct me if there’s anything better out there CD wise...
Unfortunately, Sabotage is still vexing me... I thought that the 2009 won out, but now I’m not so sure... I had another listen to the original WB, and it sounds pretty damn good.
If there were, it would certainly have been brought up somewhere in this thread. Yep, after countless reissues and remasters, the IMO best-sounding (or least bad-sounding) digital copy of that album was indeed released 26 years ago. So you finally got to listen to the Spectrum? What's your thoughts?
