Vote

Even with the same person and the same set of ears, if you handed him a pair of grado SR80s, a pair of audioquest nighthawks, a pair of Polk buckles, or earbuds, one pressing could sound better than the other because of the tonal presentation from the headphone/monitor.

I have not been able to download yet but will soon chime in (if anybody cares, ha!)

I liked A, open, good separation, airy, but D comes in second to me.

Stay 407's are pretty revealing. There was plenty to reveal in A. The rest sounded like they were coming from another room.

I don't think that the quality of the masters make worrying about the quality of remastering or which format makes it better. Tone control it and move on, at least for me.

My last remaster of Billy Joel and The Stranger did it for me. I'm not buying this remastering thing, but I'm not that big a fan of MFS work anyway. The labels better start saving their old vinyl in a hurry if often what I from remasters is any indication of how badly some tapes are holding up.

Don't mean to be so negative about this remastering trend.

You are right about the remasters. 90%+ they suck heroically. In almost every case it is a ProTools DR snuff movie with treble push. And quite a few even have digital clipping. Just found this today, if fact, of the Velvet Underground Reloaded ("45th Anniversary") from HDHacks - it's present on every 24/96 and 24/192 track, but not on the Super Deluxe CD release.

When the dust settled I'd have go with E. It sounded dynamic, vibrant, with great textures, and it wasn't muffled, flatulent, and too shimmering as some of the others.

A is very interesting and I liked it a lot, but in the end... too much treble and not enough bass. I don't know these record issues well enough but I see this a lot with Land of the Setting Sun remasters. Or maybe it's a digital source...I dunno.

C Sucked the most, well none sucked per se but it was the most congested dynamically and sounded muted to me without as much life as the others.

The flatulent, rich, sloppy, shake you booty bass on B was what stood out to me.

D was good but in many regards but the bass was blubbery.

Did I pass?

At first listen i prefered A, because of its detail , but the bass lacked all punch and i wouldn't like to listen to this forward sound a long time.
C has a thick heavy sound. not only on the bass but also on the strumming guitar.
D has a uuuh prominent bass, i like bass-guitar, but other instruments too.
E as fine as B

I prefer A overall. The instruments were the most distinct and powerful, and I could hear a lot of fine details. E was pretty close and had a tad more base and was "warmer" sounding so it was a tough call between the two. Ideally I'd like "A" with a tad more bass. I'm listening on my headphones with a 192/24 sound card. I wonder if my preferences would change if I listened on my main rig downstairs through my loudspeakers?

I didn't spend ages on this, but definitely B and E were most natural sounding to me, and I gave the nod to B. B and E seemed to have more pops/clicks, so I suspect they're older. A was an ear-bleeding experience for me, though certainly it conveyed detail. C was bloated and the highs too lacking in sparkle. D was better than C but too similar to compete with B or E.

I chose D as having the most detail and I found it easier to follow the bass line in D. A had greatest overall clarity and better HF extension, however it sounded a bit lean and lacked the LF weight of the others. I would be happy with either. I found fault with B-C-E. HP PC Win 7 and Foobar2000 ; original HRT streamer into a Musical Fidelity A3.2 int amp and NEAR 10M speakers. I did not touch the level and I made sure to keep my head in the same place for each sample.

Michael - we're waiting for the revelations of which file is from which source!
I assume they're all vinyl?

Please post the sources!

Oh, and it's B followed by A then E for me.
I think A is the Ryko.

Nevermind - I see you posted the results in another thread.
I really appreciate your doing this Mike. What an awesome vinyl rig you must be using.
And no de-clicking software?! Incredible.

Could you please post results in the same thread as the original thread in the future?

Comparing the first 5 seconds, file A delivers the best sound of the rythm guitar.

Sorry, first post. I tried to post this last night, but it didn't seem to take. Where do we go to find out which files are from which sources please?

Thanks!