What are the best sounding Jimi Hendrix CDs?

Inherent issues?

 

Pops, clicks etc. No matter how good the rig and stylus are these are never eliminated completely for vinyl. Yes sometimes you get a record really clean and destaticed (is that a word) perfectly and you get an ultra quiet super run through of a vinyl side side but one little hick up here or there and crackle/pop etc. Of course tape has its own drawbacks as well. No medium is perfect so far in my book. There is a saying in the tech world that with every advancement something is lost.

I would say that is true about audio advancements as well.

Digitally I think I prefer Blu Ray even over SACD these days but pick your poison in the analog world. Analog items such cassettes, Reel to Reels and even Laserdiscs are showing aging problems that Vinyl simply doesn't have but at least its analog...... you can recover reels and cassettes as well I would assume any type of magnetic tape if needed via baking or there is another far more complicated method anadialog posts on youtube regarding cassettes. If Laserdiscs have the rot though nothing you can do about it. Something about MCAs tape formulations in the late 90s make those EH 97ish tapes a pain to get running well again. Every one I have has had to have some work done to them to get them to play well again.

 

EH seems to have all of the mono master tapes except STP w/ LSD (which still sounds like the Track 45 - poor quality) and the AYE album-only tracks (for which they have been relying on a poor quality copy tape used for the original US Reprise LP). The "Stone Free" mono master was found some time ago and used for an RSD 45.

French Barclay pressings of the "missing" mono masters rival the rest of the mono masters in quality, but the tapes used for them are either missing or EH is not aware of them. High quality needledrops are available in the wild that can be slipped into playlists as substitutes.

And the Prof Stoned fan download has even more and it sounds a lot better and it's not fake stereo.

One of the worst EH releases.

 

If you were referring to the BBC material I still lean towards the Douglas Rykodisc CD soundwise over my EH '98 2CD Set.

 

Except for my bootlegs, and a few Dagger discs, I got rid of all my Hendrix CD’s. I have it all on vinyl, which is how I like to enjoy Jimi. The most recent versions are just so harsh, and incredibly fatiguing that I had to let them go.

 

That picture looks like a 3" CD single, but you're referring to a minidisc? Would you clarify, please?

 

And, fake stereo.

 

It is a 3" CD single that reads fine on any CD player.

 

Unfortunately it's a fan comp all the way for me for the BBC material. True mono, sounds great and contains some intros (and one promo announcement) that it'd never heard on any official release. The only thing that sounds wonky is a take of "Drivin' South" that (to date) only exists as an off the air recording (at least, as far as we know).