[zybar]

If you are a U2 fan, this is a must buy.

Highly recommended.   

George

[launche]

Which one did you get: single CD, a double-CD set, a double-CD/single-DVD box?

Love U2, but the music is typically compressed (not that I am am stickler about these things.) But hoping someone unleashed the music a bit further. What are you hearing in that regard, any comparisions against the original release?

I was just in my way to the music store, forgot about this reissue.

Thanks

[zybar]

Which one did you get: single CD, a double-CD set, a double-CD/single-DVD box?

Love U2, but the music is typically compressed (not that I am am stickler about these things.) But hoping someone unleashed the music a bit further. What are you hearing in that regard, any comparisions against the original release?

I was just in my way to the music store, forgot about this reissue.

Thanks

I sprung for the deluxe version with 2cd's and 1 dvd.  I used a 25% off coupon + free shipping from Barnes and Noble so it wasn't too bad.

I agree that their older cd's are heavily compressed and not the best to listen to on a high end system.

The remastered cd is significantly improved in this area and the music is more clearly defined and jumps out at you (in a good way).

George

[launche]

Well to my ears, still compressed to death.  Nothing's jumping out at me. A big disappointment for me. The same old same old.  Easy listening for sure, I think I will blame Daniel Lanois for this subpar effort from day one.  His overly rounded, murky, sound in the clouds style does the band no favors...homogenized music.  When you want to hear Bullet The Blue Sky, you want to hear Bullet The Blue Sky.  From it's opening drum sequence it sounds like it's cloaked in a medium fog (the whole thing sounds that way to me), I lean forward and open my eyes wide to try to get more.  One would swear their system was tampered with or something, just another commmercial offering for more money, well hopefully the 2nd disc of additional material will warrant the money spent.  Crank this one in your car, it will be better served there.  Sorry to be so down on the material but this is just not acceptable for one of the major rock bands of the last 20 yrs, here you had a chance to do better but maybe did so only by a small amount.

It sounds pretty much like what I remember hearing when I had the album way back when and played it on whatever turntable I had on whatever crappy teenage system I had, in that respect it sounds heavenly warm and musical..."Red Hill Mining Town" is playing, memories are rushing back...O.K. I get it now, this is what it's all about.  Despite the production/mastering/remastering, still one of my favorite albums.

Today's system: Benchmark>>Modwright Pre>>Physics CS2

[zybar]

Well to my ears, still compressed to death.  Nothing's jumping out at me. A big disappointment for me. The same old same old.  Easy listening for sure, I think I will blame Daniel Lanois for this subpar effort from day one.  His overly rounded, murky, sound in the clouds style does the band no favors...homogenized music.  When you want to hear Bullet The Blue Sky, you want to hear Bullet The Blue Sky.  From it's opening drum sequence it sounds like it's cloaked in a medium fog (the whole thing sounds that way to me), I lean forward and open my eyes wide to try to get more.  One would swear their system was tampered with or something, just another commmercial offering for more money, well hopefully the 2nd disc of additional material will warrant the money spent.  Crank this one in your car, it will be better served there.  Sorry to be so down on the material but this is just not acceptable for one of the major rock bands of the last 20 yrs, here you had a chance to do better but maybe did so only by a small amount.

It sounds pretty much like what I remember hearing when I had the album way back when and played it on whatever turntable I had on whatever crappy teenage system I had, in that respect it sounds heavenly warm and musical..."Red Hill Mining Town" is playing, memories are rushing back...O.K. I get it now, this is what it's all about.  Despite the production/mastering/remastering, still one of my favorite albums.

Today's system: Benchmark>>Modwright Pre>>Physics CS2

hmmmm...

I created a quick playlist in my SlimServer so I could flip back and forth easily between the original and remaster.  To my ears, the remaster was more open and dynamic with better detail.

While it still isn't a great recording, I still think it sounds good.

I'll try it on my CS2's this weekend and see if I feel any different.

I totally agree with you about bringing back memories.  For me it was some good high school memories, as well as the first time I saw U2 live.

George

[Russtafarian]

Interesting.  Being a big Elvis Costello fan, I picked up some of the recent Hip-O digipak reissues.  I should have known better.  They were more compressed and audibly distorted than the mid-90s Rhino reissues I still have.  And they left off all the bonus tracks.

The sad fact is that the CDs mastered today (new music and reissue) are intentionally highly compressed since 95% of the buyers are going to MP3 or ipod the disc anyway. I would venture to guess that many of the CDs remastered in the 90s sound more dynamic than anything recently reissued. 

So be careful about replacing your old CDs with new reissues.  There's a good chance the old ones sound better. 

Russ

[launche]

I have no doubt it sounds better than the original but still falls well short for me, but again it probably wasn't done well to begin with and you can only do so much I guess. Al Jarreau's "Cold Duck" happened to be next on my playlist and you could surely here the difference in recordings, practically made "JT" sound like an MP3.
But the music is good, I knew it wasn't a great recording going in, I was just hoping...I did have a blast listening to it though and that's the point for me.

I have however wished "Mothers of the Disappeeared" would have been in the middle of the album and "Exit" to be the last song, so the album ends with fervor.

[Jumpin]

Thanks for this tip on JT.  Interesting article in this week's Rolling Stone on the death of sound quality in music.  Most mastering is done so the music "jumps out" of your Ipod. Recordings are compressed and volume is elevated so the tunes "stick out".

Mark

[launche]

Ahhhh, Rattle & Hum contains the version of "Bullet the Blue Sky" I like.  Rattle and Hum had a mixed reception but I thought it a good record and I remember many choice cuts from that record, the live stuff was good listening.  The live version of "I Still Haven't Found..." with the choir is just good blown out rock stuff.  I'll have to dig that one up.

Man the memories come back...bought Rattle & Hum at Specs music store in the Galleria Mall then went to the Gap and bought a shirt and then to The Fudgery for some chocolate and I think we caught something (may have been Rattle & Hum) at the IMAX theater. 

[2bigears]

    Darn Ipods,we need sweet mastering or we are spinnin' our wheels and might as well by Bose shit.