Pink Floyd remasters - is it me or are they a bit crap?

[Pigmy Pony]

In the last couple of years I fancied revisiting some of my old favourites (old copies having been given/swapped/stolen/lost) and amongst the stuff I bought were 'Wish You Were Here' and 'DSOTM'. The sound quality of these records seem to lack the 'sparkle' of the original releases - they sound a bit muddy and slow, and a bit of top end detail seems to have all but gone.

The set up I have now blows my seventies stereo into the weeds, but when playing the above mentioned discs I find that small details I remember hearing on the old pressings are now virtually inaudible. It makes the listening experience a bit tiring, if that makes any sense, like driving an underpowered car on a fast road. It's got so I don't want to buy any more Floyd reissues - I'll look out for nice condition originals instead.

Or maybe I'll buy a graphic equaliser, and leave the sliders in the smile position, like this :)

[Clive]

The remastered Pulse is excellent, as was the original.

[karma67]

my old early pressing the wall album,beats hands down the 1st issue jap pressing and the remastered one,much more dynamics.

[struth]

thought the latest dsotm was ok. waybe a bit more refined than the original, which is still my fav i guess but not by much. got 2 cds of it too.:doh:

[VanDerGraaf]

In the last couple of years I fancied revisiting some of my old favourites (old copies having been given/swapped/stolen/lost) and amongst the stuff I bought were 'Wish You Were Here' and 'DSOTM'. The sound quality of these records seem to lack the 'sparkle' of the original releases - they sound a bit muddy and slow, and a bit of top end detail seems to have all but gone.

The set up I have now blows my seventies stereo into the weeds, but when playing the above mentioned discs I find that small details I remember hearing on the old pressings are now virtually inaudible. It makes the listening experience a bit tiring, if that makes any sense, like driving an underpowered car on a fast road. It's got so I don't want to buy any more Floyd reissues - I'll look out for nice condition originals instead.

Or maybe I'll buy a graphic equaliser, and leave the sliders in the smile position, like this :)


Pardon me for the observation, but what you describe sounds like age-related hearing loss.


I don't know how old you are but that description of lacking sparkle is a (pardon the expression) dead ringer for the top-end extension going with age.


I remember listening to stuff 20 years ago on inferior equipment and it doesn't sound quite the same now. Exposure to bloody rock drummers and their cymbals can't have helped.

[Crackles]

I've got a recent DSOTM reissue and I think it sounds great. Pleasantly surprised when I first played it.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[Pigmy Pony]

Pardon me for the observation, but what you describe sounds like age-related hearing loss.


I don't know how old you are but that description of lacking sparkle is a (pardon the expression) dead ringer for the top-end extension going with age.


I remember listening to stuff 20 years ago on inferior equipment and it doesn't sound quite the same now. Exposure to bloody rock drummers and their cymbals can't have helped.

Rohan, I think you've hit the nail on the head there!

I've been looking at another thread over in 'Blank Canvas' (HF hearing loss) and so have done a couple of online tests. It would seem my hearing all goes pear shaped at around 7.5kz, so what you suggest may be the problem. Crap stereo + good ears = some detail, good stereo + crap hearing = rather less detail.

Would explain why my ancient copy of "The Wall" still sounds good - the gradual hearing loss has failed to hear any difference. If it had remained unplayed for the last 30 odd years, the difference today would be noticeable I suppose.

Sorry for wasting everybody's time. As you were, gentlemen!

[Barry]

The re-mastered DSOTM is a different mix to the original vinyl version. Maybe that is why you don't like it.

[DSJR]

I grew to love and then detest (for many years) DSOTM as we had a Dolby A master copy at work, which was played a fair bit. Rather more sparkle than I feel the current releases have - they used the vinyls as reference, so maybe smothered the sparkle out, I don't know.

For what it's worth, I like the Doug Sax (TML) digital masterings from the early 90's (Shine-On box set masterings) are my favourites and may be from different tapes (the original EMI and Shine-On masterings have different 'hum' in the background I remember, so maybe from different tapes, I don't know). The later masterings I have here on FLAC do tend to sound a bit more 'safe' than I recall and the stereo 'CD layer' on the SA-CD issue of DSOTM some years back was very underwhelming to me at the time.

Thing is for me, the original CD's sound better than ever using modern digital hardware and the 'differences' between the masterings don't seem to matter to me so much musically. Difficult one.

I know this album so well I can 'play it in my head' only too well. I should dig it out again to play again. Forget the vinyl though I'd suggest - totally pointless imo as things are done in the cutting/mastering to dilute an already dated recording I think.

[Barry]

I don't know about the first CD version of DSOTM, as I never bought a copy, but I can say the so-called re-mastered CD uses a totally different mix down compared with the original vinyl version: listen to the background comments made by the old man, to hear what I mean.

The same is true of the re-mastered CD of the Rolling Stones' 'Let it Bleed': the autoharp played is quite different to that on the original vinyl.

[struth]

i remember doing a comparison test a few years ago with a near original press, ie the same year, and the cd and the cd/sacd. the old vinyl won hands down for me. no idea why but it just sounded right.
the new remastered vinyl i got recently is pretty good but not put it up against the old one as of yet but will.

[alphaGT]

I recently purchased a new copy of The Wall, on CD. I’ve played the vinyl copy I’ve had since my teens a lot over the years. I even found the backwards message on side two! But being lazy in my old age I got the CD so I wouldn’t have to jump up and drop the needle 4 times to hear it. And while I don’t really think I’m missing detail, it does seem less involving.

Russell