What's the worst sounding CD/vinyl you ever bought?

[Accudazed]

I've had it for a while, but today, I finally got round to playing my 'Grind Ya Down' CD by Motorhead (1991 compilation by Castle Communications Plc).

Aaargh! Yeuch! No! Terrible! Stop it! No, no, no, no, no...It is a shocker, by far the worst sounding CD/vinyl I have ever heard.

The almost total absence of anything even approaching half decent sound quality took my breath away. In some passages I could barely tell what instruments were playing - everything is just mashed together into a wall of unbearable noise. It reminded me of some of the cassette recordings I made back in the 70s when I wor a wuss. You know the ones, "quiet please, I'm just recording the Friday Rock Show" as a tape recorder is placed next to a Fidelity 'Record Player' speaker (about the size of a Field Mouse's ear but with less bass...).

I've got other Motorhead stuff on vinyl which sounds superb, but this one ? How did Castle Communications get it so wrong?

Still, I've only myself to blame; there is a clue in the CD's title. Pity really because Motorhead are a great band (if you are into that kind of thing).

Oh, when I state "worst sounding" I basically mean very poor quality reproduction of the sound 'emitted' by the band during the original recording. That kind of thing.

I would love to hear from other members experiences of awful Cds, records, tapes. For all I Know, I may just be the owner of the world's worst sounding CD.

Cheers

Steve

[PaulStewart]

I've just been sent the Blu-Ray Audio of White Light / White Heat for review while the BRA (if you'll pardon the expression) reveals every nuance of the sound, the legendary crap SQ of the original is there for all to hear. It really does lay bare all the short comings of the original recording in a way that I is near to the original vinyl copy I own You would think if Universal Music wanted me to write a piece about how good BRAs are, they would have sent something melodic. The worst record I own is a CD of Black Lace's Agadoo the Greatest Party Album, it came in a lot that I bought at a jumble sale and I keep it to frighten people with

[MartinT]

If we're talking pure SQ, I can nominate two:

Elkie Brooks - No More the Fool has vocal processing on her gorgeous voice that has to be heard to be believed.

Coldplay - X&Y is so terrible in every way that the engineer should have been taken outside and shot.

[The Barbarian]

Can really say, i think you may have to judge by best pressing.. I have had early 70's pressing Vs 80's pressings of the same, both have been worlds apart.

[Gordon Steadman]

The CD release of Rumours. I already had it on vinyl but found a copy for 50P at a boot sale. Played it once and never again. The copy on the Mac was done from vinyl as it was so much better.

[Joe]

Two contenders, both vinyl:

Blondie: Parallel Lines. A German pressing, that sounds like it was recorded through several layers of thick blankets. No dynamic range at all.

Lou Reed: Lou Reed. Simply awful production, drums mixed way too far forward. A shame, because there are some great songs on it, but the production makes the album almost unlistenable. The better the system, the worse it sounds.

[Macca]

I don't buy new music and have very few re-masters so I don't have much that is truly bad either in mastering or production but I do have a best of the Bee Gees CD (Sainsbury's £0.99) that is a shockingly bad master with everything turned up to eleven. Totally unlistenable.

[Jimbo]

U2 Joshua Tree on CD - what did they do, it sounded very very thin, BUT then I heard a re-released Vinyl version the other day and it wasn't much better! Was the original OK or am I listening through rose tinted ears!!

[Macca]

No it was always a crap production IIRC

[Haselsh1]

The worst thing I ever heard was that 'Vienna' album by Ultravox. Dreadful midrange with no bass and very little treble.