Something that I’ve been doing is trying to collect the best sounding cd version for all of queens studio albums.. including sound quality, loudness and compression.
If you guys can tell me your best opinion please let me know! Thanks guys! So far these are the versions I have that are the best to me..
A Night At The Opera: Original Master Recording (Hollywood Records)
NOTW: Original Master Recording (Hollywood)
Live Killers: 1986 EMI
A Kind of Magic: 1986 Capital
Live Magic: 1996 Hollywood
The Miracle: 1989 Capital
Innuendo: 1991 Hollywood
Made In Heaven: 1995 Hollywood
Best CD's
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DCC (Steve Hoffman) : ANATO
1992 Mobile Sound Fidelity Lab UltraDisc:
- NOTW
- ADATR
- The Game
Elektra / West Germany (TARGET) (first cd pressings):
- NOTW
- The Game
- Greatest Hits
2011 Remasters: Queen II
All the rest: Original pressing CD (Japan CP32, Uk - CDP74, Holland - CDP74)
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With good reputation:
2005: Anato 30th Anniversary (Bob Ludwig)
2011: Remasters (Bob Ludwig)
Usually with bad reputation:
1994 Digital Master Series (UK)
1991 Hollywood Records Remaster Series
Some people dont like them but I do (Peter Mew):
1998 Crown Jewels
2001 Queen Digital Remasters Series(Japan)
To be fair, unless you have very high end equipment you cannot tell the difference. Try different ones and stick with the ones you prefer, or just buy the cheapest you can source, there's no difference. Unless you are one of those saddo's that runs stuff through a sound editing programme and goes by how the music LOOKS :/
mooghead: "To be fair, unless you have very high end equipment you cannot tell the difference. Try different ones and stick with the ones you prefer, or just buy the cheapest you can source, there's no difference. Unless you are one of those saddo's that runs stuff through a sound editing programme and goes by how the music LOOKS :/"
Well, do you have some problems with your ears? ;-)
So when my ears hurt from compressed and distorted audio clipping, I'm just pretentious. Good to know.
They don't though. It is your brain saying 'I shouldn't like this because someone on a fan site told me it has been compressed so I shouldn't like it'. If no one told you it had been clipped or you weren't looking at the soundwave you wouldn't have a fucking clue.
i think you'd be happy with the 2004 Japanese mini vinyl CD's. They are very good, and the mini vinyl album sleeves look wonderful. I managed to collect the lot earlier this year.
For example, here's Sheer Heart Attack. Each CD has the grey and white diamond OBI. The best way to find them is to put "TOCP" in the search bar on Discogs and then the album name.
Here: link
Here's a video of the sleeves that I found on YouTube. link
The look of them being an added bonus to the sound, of course.
The '91 Hollywood remasters and the '94 Digital Master series aren't generally highly thought of.
I didn't rate the 2011 remasters, and I respectfully disagree with Ozz above on the thread, I wouldn't say the 2011 remasters have a particularly good reputation. Generally, they suffer from too much bass, being too loud, and too compressed. Queen II however, was mostly well received, and A Night At the Opera was almost identical to the 30th anniversary Ludwig remaster. That's fine too.
The Target CDs are very expensive, but a great alternative for The Game - which a lot of people consider to be one of the best versions - is the CP32-5318.
Here: link
That's very close sounding to the original UK vinyl. That's good.
A version of Sheer Heart Attack that's very close to the original UK vinyl is EMI– CDP 7 46206 2.
Here: link
But back to what I said before, if you want to collect a whole matching set of reissues that sound fine, I would go for the 2004 Japan mini vinyl.
Personally, I'd say that some of them sound better than the original UK vinyl even (News Of The World and Jazz spring to mind).
Wanting to find the best sounding version doesn't make one pretentious, nor a saddo. Perhaps the poster of this thread does have high end equipment. But even if not, it doesn't necessarily take expensive high end equipment to be able to hear the difference.
mooghead wrote:
The best sounding version is the original LP. Boom.
For the most part, yes. But the poster is after the best sounding CD versions (some CD versions come very close to and - to my ears in some cases - beat certain LP's. As I mentioned earlier, NOTW, and Jazz).
So when my ears hurt from compressed and distorted audio clipping, I'm just pretentious. Good to know.
They don't though. It is your brain saying 'I shouldn't like this because someone on a fan site told me it has been compressed so I shouldn't like it'. If no one told you it had been clipped or you weren't looking at the soundwave you wouldn't have a fucking clue.
So clipping audio isn't an audbile issue, unless you've seen the waveform? False.
mooghead wrote:
The best sounding version is the original LP. Boom.
Which one is the "original"? The UK pressing? The US pressing?