ABBA Gold Anomalies - CD vs Record demo

[Filipjensen]

I think the reason the Tretow remasters sound overly bright may be that they were in fact eq'ed for vinyl. I don't have a copy of ABBA Gold on vinyl but if this sounds as it should, then you have the answer there.

[MarkPMus]

@Filipjensen I think ABBA Gold vinyls are rarer than hens' teeth. At the time there was not the demand for vinyl that there is today. They would have eq'ed the vinyl and CD separately I am sure. It may have been that the trend for CD's at the time was slightly brighter than today. Also it would have been a way of getting the songs to sound good on the radio without resorting to the crass loudness war techniques that are so prevalent today.

[mozpiano2]

Love to see this comparison comparing a dynamic CD version (which exists) and the original 1970's LP (not the dynamically compressed 2007 The Album LP for example)

[escillon1]

have you ever looked at the old sleeves of abba records(vinyl) you should notice that it states "epic".ok,now some years ago,sony bought the epic label and also the rights to muck about with any recordings issued on the old label.hence meatloaf,abba,and elo amongst many others fell victim to sonys newly developed "hypercompression"(look it up on wikipedia)that is part of the reason all sony re-masters sound crap..it just squeezes the life out of the original recordings.go buy early cd releases.

[mozpiano2]

@escillon1 ABBA is managed by Universal Music Group, not Sony.

[freqazoidiac]

Althought your A/B comparison is accurate, the actual test has a major flaw.

I see you playing this through your MD player/recorder. What is the pre-amp source ? That's very important for Dynamic range description. Some preamps have hot or terribly low levels with their phono preamp section. Depends on the circuitry. You have to depend on a flat source of input and then test through sensitive equipment, or even your Mac can show great results. Cheers

[freqazoidiac]

The fact a well mastered LP can go up past 35,000 cycles, and a CD is

clipped at 22,000 cycles, it's not hard to scientifically rule CD's as a loser.

They are a handy format though! I enjoyed that Mini disc format for field recording 10 years ago. If Cd's could be MD then all would be good..but they abandoned that idea. Oh, to get the most out of your LP's, make sure you get a quality cartridge/needle and don't pay more than $500 for the turntable. A technics 1200 mk series is perfect.

[trhisdone]

who is ABBA ?

[MarkPMus]

ABBA was a very famous swedish pop group from about 1972-1982. Their music was revived recently with the Mamma Mia film and musical - the best selling film and musical on the planet. If you missed the publicity etc... you were probably on holiday. On Mars or somewhere LOL!

[jongkongmas]

LOL!!! Thank god I'm not leaving the planet on my holiday...

[padawan23]

@trhisdone Who is ABBA? Ha ha, my God I'm getting old!

[garagecrap]

I've pulled out my old record player today. You guys would not believe the superb sound quality compare to CD. It's so full and crispy - well apart from the dust off course but tha's a part of it too.

[MarkPMus]

Well clean a few records and notice the improvement, Garagecrap!

[LogicDeLuxe]

Don't ever buy a remastered ABBA cd for serious listening! If you wan't the best sound, get the oldest CD's possible, like ABBA gold from 1992. Yes, there are some editing noticeable and also some glitches coming from tape dropouts. But its a whole lot better than any of those compressed to death remasters

Also, it's not about where the CD peaks (almost any CD peaks at 0 or close to it), it's about RMS.

For the worst experience, listen to the complete studio box.

[MarkPMus]

I agree with you LogicD! When I posted this video I was a tad ignorant about the different remasters. Even though the older Polydor/Polar editions are good, they still lack the sparkle and life of the vinyls - they sound a tad shut in. They don't sound the way ABBA did in the 70's. The Tretow mixes are overly bright, but in my mind the most "ABBA" sounding of the CD's. Astley and Jonsson are just awful remasters.

[JHOONREMEIN]

yeah its warmer on the vinyl and a bit sharper on the cd

[MarkPMus]

Sorry, what's CSR?

[mozpiano2]

CSR stands for The Complete Studio Recordings Box set, a 9 CD/2 DVD box set released in 2005. The audio was remastered by Henrik Jonsson of Masters of Audio, Stockholm.

[JHOONREMEIN]

yeah CSR is really good I have

[MarkPMus]

The "digital remaster" from the 90's.

[mozpiano2]

But which one? the 1994 or the 1997? I know that the 1997 is the most compressed of the two.

[MarkPMus]

1997. I didn't realise there were 2! I assumed that the ones after "Gold" was released were THE digital remasters, as opposed to the 24-bits! If you say it's more compressed then that fits with my side-by-side comparison with the vinyl. Maybe you could do a side-by-side 1994/97/24-bit video!

[easrth]

The 2001 is also remastered by the same sound engineer as the 1997 remasters, Jon Astley as well!! The 1992-1994 tracks remastered by Tretow were done in 20-bit, the 1997 and 2001 ones were in 24-bit, but it doesn't say in what bit-rate ithe CSR ones were done in. Yes, the 1997 and 2001 are more compressed than the CSR. While the CSR is louder, somehow it retains more of a dynamic range than the 1997/2001.

[easrth]

Sorry, mozpiano2 wrote the above comment about bit rates but was mistakenly logged into his sisters account!!!

[mozpiano2]

Which remaster did you use? (ie the 1992 Tretow, 1997 or 2001 Astley or the 2005 Jonsson)

[virgogreg]

Where can i get abba music original mixdown on wav CD?

[MarkPMus]

Do you mean the CD's that are closest to the vinyl mixes? I think the 1984 Polydor mixes are the closest. But nothing beats the records. Certainly all the attempts to "digitally remaster" or "24-bit remaster" that I've heard are unsatisfactory. Not because of the technology, but the people using it! They seem driven by making it louder, in order to make it sound the loudest on the radio and compensate for lack of volume on iPod.

[UltimateVenom]

good video :)