Soundgarden, Superunknown

I can tell you the 320 German press is in a league of its own but the EU 2014 will work till u find the 320

 

I've always accepted that Soundgarden was good, but for some reason never really gave them a good listen. Thanks for jarring my memory. I'll be playing this album tonight. I love it when band play with time signatures. It really adds that extra dimension that so much music leaves out.

 

As far as I read on these forums, 320 in the deadwax is a reference to a vinyl factory in Hannover, Germany where actually McKee was working.

As for the reissues - yep, I totally agree with you and that's why I tried to warn everyone about 2014 and 2019 "remastered from original tapes" Superunknown reissues. Somehow Badmotorfinger was remastered a bit better with a little higher DR.

 

Makkee is a tough spelling to remember when auto-correct keeps wanting to step in! Lol

Yeah there is a pretty good rundown on 320 and 3 20 in the upcoming link, pressings date back to the 1950s and Makkee went to PRS Hanover / PDO / whatever in ‘73.

Dead Wax / Deadwax List Full Length…Continued from Main “Day” Page// – Christmachine

 

I've got an original German copy of Rainbow's Finyl Vinyl with the same 320 stamped in the deadwax. Ironically the sound is pretty mediocre.

 

I’m hoping that the Analogue Master tapes weren’t destroyed in the fire which is all over the news today?, if the Makkee pressing is so brilliant (which I’m sure it must be given the reviews of those who own it ) why hasn’t it been re issued since it’s a no brainier for me to own this, if I could only afford it!.

 

I've always been fine with the original '94 CD. For me it falls within the range of acceptable levels of compression. I dunno, maybe it has some hard limiting I'm unaware of, but then again I'm no audiophile. Unless I'm hearing ear bleeding distortion and/or the thing is brickwalled, I don't stress about it too much. But yeah, Superunknown is a fantastic album.

 

The original cd sounds great! It's the most balanced master, but for vinyl addicts that 320 pressing is the ONLY piece of wax truly worth spinning. It has a bass, low-mid extension & little extra sparkle up top that the cd master didn't (maybe that's what added to the dynamics,) but at the expense of drowning out the mids & guitar detail a pinch. Apples & oranges on preference there, but since it is a hard rock record, a master w/ more punch is usually more impressive to most.

 

I’ll have to revisit my original Superunknown on cd but if I remember correctly it gets to be a harsh, fatiguing listen when cranked, same as my US blue vinyl copy did.
That’s what separates the German 2004 vinyl apart from those two ‘94 originals, at least on my set-up, the more volume you give it the better it sounds, very similar to let’s say, the UK Vertigo Black Sabbath - S/T LP.

 

I think the original 94 CD sounds great. Much better than the hi-res digital download, for sure, even if this sounds larger than the room.

 

Absolutely right the 320 does sound more awesome the more ya crank it! Now you're reminding me to crank my ol' Vertigo Sabbath too Been too long

 

Definitely revisit the original CD, although it's got some peak limiting the actual dynamic range compression is extremely mild compared to the heavily slammed 2014 remaster and it can be enjoyed cranked up...pretty tame EQ too and my preference is to boost the highest frequencies just by 1-2 dBs unless I'm really cranking it and then it's fine. lol

DR10 - Album details - Dynamic Range Database

But yeah, the German Makkee cut is the only vinyl worth spinning IMO.

 

Might as well try this thread since it's active: Anyone ever a/b the Badmotorfinger 2016 pressing vs the 320?!
Been thinking of getting the 320 since it's so cheap... I do remember thinking the 2016 had a great sound to it, some good weight in the master; although in my memory it sounded a little too smoothed over/not enough bite...

 

The 320 does have good sound but at almost 30 mins/side clearly leaves a lot of potential on the table. The 2016 is digitally mastered but has much less drc than the Superunkown remaster and sounds good being spread out a little more over 3 sides.

I personally still love the original CD and haven't taken the 320 out of its cover in years, I know it's described as thin (the 1991 CD) in some circles but with so much dynamics I find when you really crank it up, it sounds fab. Also BMF is the only 5.1 mix Adam Kasper didn't totally butcher, serious LFE levels but decent surround mix.

 

You're the maaaaan thanks for the reply! I'll just stick to the og cd & 2016 vinyl then. Someday I'll hookup a 5.1 so I can hear that version of BMF (among other beauties like Downward Spiral, DSotM, Close To The Edge, etc....)

 

Be warned, it's extremely hard to go back to the stereo version of The Downward Spiral once you've heard the unbelievably brilliant 5.1 mix. One of the best of all time IMO. In fact that was the first album I heard in 5.1 and was the driving factor to my buying a DVD-Audio player so I could hear the Advanced Resolution layer vs. the Dolby Digital DVD-V playback, some 15 years ago. Zoinks.

 

Spiral is likely my favorite album of all time, since the day it came out. I SERIOUSLY need to dive into the 5.1 sometime. I don't have a system to support surround yet, but I'm likely selling my home & upgrading within the next couple yrs... Then IT'S ON!
Sorry to hijack the thread from Superunknown everybody... I'll say it's a related topic tho since they both came out the same day! What a beautiful day in rock history right there...

 

I have this fantastic CD single :



My wife has the album.

 

That was exactly how I felt about it and I also like the mid-range detail that the cd provides. I guess I'm a tough customer. I wasn't nearly as impressed with the Zeppelin II RL cut as most say I should be.

 

Could someone explain to me why the highly sort after 320 version hasn’t been re issued?. I understand that Mr Makkee has unfortunately passed on now, a great shame as he must have been a a very talented man with a great ear. Will his work be stored somewhere perhaps, I’m not that knowledgeable about these things?. It seems a big shame that such an allegedly brilliant re evaluation of this album hasn’t been widely re released and would be a good tribute to this talented audio engineer. Also soundgarden themselves at the time surely must have been aware of the quality of this cut and one would have expected them to consider putting it out at some stage?.

 

That's Universal for you! It's not only "Superunknown", Makkee had cut several highly sought after albums - Cardigans, Pulp, Sonic Youth, Monster Magnet, Nirvana etc - during that time period. Why anybody would let these carefully mastered and manufactured titles - Pulps "Different Class" even had the original gimmick cover - go oop at short notice, is beyond me. Looks like Universal really made an effort shortly before the mainstream vinyl revival but soon after switched back to poorly pressed records with anonymous in-house mastering from digital sources. Costs? Contracts? A shame, really....

 

The Nevermind 320 has been re-released a few times so it's possible that metalwork could still be kicking around for the other titles I guess.

I'm curious to hear the 320 Superunknown, I've had the original clear blue pressing for many years but it's not great really.

This was the first album I ever personally owned on CD as a kid so it's pretty close to my heart.

 

Just about time to crank "4th Of July"!!

 

Perhaps not, given the overly aggressive mastering of so much of their material that's come out in stereo since 1995. The only stuff that's escaped being hyper-slammed is the pre-1994 albums that were originally DR13 or so, they've still lost around 5dB of dynamic range with their reissues.

 

☆ Sept.4 Kim Thayil is 59 today .