I have a decent music collection, and in general I am quite happy with what I have in my CD cabinet. I also own a turntable, but hardly ever use it, because my albums are still buried underneath a pile of boxes with stuff in them that I don't really need but don't want to throw out.
I discovered a long time ago that the mainstream CD manufacturers seem to only care about pushing the recording volume all the way up to 11, no matter what the music is. This is also known as "The Loudness War".
The past few years I find myself looking for "not the standard versions" of CD's. Often first pressings, Japanese versions, the earlier MFSL, DCC etc. sound much better than the "regular" edition. I have replaced about 10% of my collection with the better versions, and feel that I finally get to appreciate the recordings the way they were meant to be heard (unless we're talking Metallica of course, they only want deaf fans).
Have you ever discovered that another version (label, mastering, etc.) of one of your favorite CD's sounds a lot better (or at least very different) than the one you're used to? If so, how many and which replacements do you have in your collection?
