Streaming: Remastered vs. General/Original recordings…

[adamdea]

Yes, no further information. However, my experience of re-mastered releases of reasonably recent vintage classical music recordings (e.g., 1950s-1960s opera) is that sensitive modern re-mastering techniques can remove annoying defects from the time without introducing too much of their own signature; and can reveal remarkable elements hidden in the original recording.

I have, however, heard recent re-masters of 1950s classical music that IMHO go too far and either introduce their own signature or reveal defects that might better be left submerged within a benign noise floor.

But in non-classical music the DR database reveals a lot of level compression that to my ears is highly undesirable. So, IMHO it depends. You have to pick your sources carefully.

Hi John
As a matter of interest , have you tried any of the Pristine classics -which employ according to the website quite a strong level of intervention on old recordings based on trying to restore/boost the missing frequencies lost by the original process. They have some real classics their books including the Furtwangler Tristan and his Rome radio Ring. The individual purchases are quite steep but it seems you can get the whole lot for £1k which has set my mind thinking....

 

[mellow_yellow]

Interestingly a friend of mine was involved in the remastering process of that album. He said that firstly that it felt like absolute sacrilege to be doing such things, but ultimately his mortgage wasn't going to pay itself. And secondly that at the end of the project, no matter how much love they put into it the team still thought the original was significantly better. But what the record company is paying for, the record company gets...

That’s a useful insight – much appreciated. As stated in an earlier post, my default action was always to use remastered versions. I’ll be checking from now on…
Although my source is limited with Spotify [320kbps] and an entry-level streamer, I have to say the sound quality on certain albums/tracks is absolutely amazing, hardly any difference to my CD source.
Tidal MQA on a high-end streamer must be nirvana!

 

[Rockmeister]

That’s a useful insight – much appreciated. As stated in an earlier post, my default action was always to use remastered versions. I’ll be checking from now on…
Although my source is limited with Spotify [320kbps] and an entry-level streamer, I have to say the sound quality on certain albums/tracks is absolutely amazing, hardly any difference to my CD source.
Tidal MQA on a high-end streamer must be nirvana!

Not always or for everyone.
It looks good on paper but in reality I never got on with Tidal's SQ. It just sounds wrong to my Vinyl and CD trained ears. Spotify is certainly 'less' but a nicer 'less' IME.

 

[John Phillips]

Hi John
As a matter of interest , have you tried any of the Pristine classics -which employ according to the website quite a strong level of intervention on old recordings based on trying to restore/boost the missing frequencies lost by the original process. They have some real classics their books including the Furtwangler Tristan and his Rome radio Ring. The individual purchases are quite steep but it seems you can get the whole lot for £1k which has set my mind thinking....

Hello Adam. No, I haven't tried any of these. I know of them (but I was not aware of the complete set as a product - thanks). I have listened to parts of the Furtwangler Rome Ring on Qobuz in the past (I am not sure which mastering, but it was good enough to not detract from the music) and recently I have seen there's a very interesting re-mastering (2022) by Alexandre Bak's "Classical Music Reference Recording" project. I have listened to some of that series and think I will try more.

 

[darrenyeats]

I will write my usual spiel about digital headroom. A bit of digital attenuation - e.g. digital VC (volume control) below 100% - as early as possible in the chain, works wonders for brickwalled music. Many up/re-sampling processes, including those in many audiophile DACs, benefit from digital headroom, with brickwall waveforms.

This is a reason for complaints about modern music sounding worse on the big hi-fi than in the car, on the phone etc.

PS: About earliest in the chain. Have recently taken to setting at most 90% VC in Spotify, Disney+, Prime, Netflix etc. and leaving Windows/Linux VC on max.

PPS: Obviously the ideal digital VC (for audiophile obsessives like us) works at high bit depth, uses dither etc. A 1 bit shift is even possible with computer audio. I use such with local/internet streaming in the main system. But when I have a brickwall waveform I see lack of digital headroom as more of a worry than a potentially basic digital VC.