On 1/06/2017 4:18 AM, Dave Platt wrote:
In article ,
wrote:

Interesting anecdote: I had an Aiwa bookshelf
system set up in the store and playing a Stevie
Wonder CD. A guy came over and started playing
with it, listening to different tracks etc. He said it
sounded great, and he bought it.


Next day, he came in, saying he had the "same
disc" at home, but that the system did not sound
nearly as good as when he played with it in the
store. Since he said he had the disc, I asked him
to bring his in next time he visited.


The next week he came in with the CD, and I
compared it to the copy in my inventory: His was
a REMASTER....

And, some remasters are dreadful. Not infrequently the remastering
engineer has been of the "louder is better" school, and the remastered
disc suffers from serious signal compression and (more than
occasionally) actual clipping. The dynamic range of the remaster is
often poorer than that of the original CD.

The spectral balance will also often be "played with".



**Indeed. That little trick was used by Mobile Fidelity back in the
early 1980s. I found some of their limited edition, heavy duty, virgin
vinyl, very expensive LPs, unlistenable. I recall the damage MF did to
my favourite female artist - Crystal Gayle, on her seminal LP, Don't It
Make My Brown Eyes Blue. The bog-standard LP was a glorious thing. The
MF was something else entirely and a good deal more expensive too. I
never purchased another MF product. Well, except my UHQR Pink Floyd -
Dark Side Of The Moon. It is still unopened and the last figure I saw
was about US$1,500.00. A nice return on my 25 Bucks.

--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au