I was listening to the Universal remaster of IORR album the other day, and was struck by the amount of distortion towards the end of Time Waits For No-one, during the loud extended solo parts. Anyone else noticed? Seems like they didn't do a good job with these remasters. I know this is already known about but the above example seems pretty bad, almost unlistenable. I might have to track down a Virgin CD version.

My IORR sounds fine.

We discussed the Universaal remasters a lot.

In my opinion they are the best digital version of the Stones catalog.

We can discuss for ages if they sound better or worse than the original LPs. They are different, that is sure.

Back to IORR, I played Time as I was writing this, but I don't hear any distortion that was not in the original LP or the Virgin reissue.

C

Hi C,
I wouldn't quite agree with "they are the best digital version of the Stones catalog." - there is a lot of mastering compression applied to the remasters, I remember others mentioning this also. But that aside, I would still expect a clear sound, however I'm not hearing this. I can definitely hear distortion in TWFN. I'm listening to a 256kbps MP4 download of IORR (yes I know it's not the CD but it should still yield very good quality sound) and I'm using a decent pair of Phillips HiFi headphones...... and I can hear definite distortion during the end part of the song. I have EQ settings completely flat. It sounds like digital clipping from too much loudness maximising / limiting during mastering. I'm not talking about minute differences between versions - I'm referring to harsh clipping and it doesn't sound good.

I value your opinion C but would like to hear some other opinions as well

Thanks
WLY

"Digitally Disaster-ed" is how how I hear the lot of 'em ;^)

I have both the Virgin and UM EOMS remasters, and I prefer the Virgin. most peoples opinions on amazon prefer the Virgins over the UMs. To be fair I'm going to do a cut to cut comparison on EOMS (blind listen). I did this with the Beatles remasters and it was no contest, unless you compared the early Beatles cuts, where the mono was much punchier and vibrant than the 2009 remasters. I don't like too much of the murkiness taken out of EOMS. That's how the original albums sounded to me, and I like 'em like that.

>>I might have to track down a Virgin CD version.<<

How about trying a heavy vinyl on a good record player?

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WeLoveYou
I was listening to the Universal remaster of IORR album the other day, and was struck by the amount of distortion towards the end of Time Waits For No-one, during the loud extended solo parts. Anyone else noticed? Seems like they didn't do a good job with these remasters. I know this is already known about but the above example seems pretty bad, almost unlistenable. I might have to track down a Virgin CD version.

I had EXACTLY the same problem with my copy. Sticky Fingers and Goats Head Soup are even worse.

My advice is to stick to the Virgin CDs for the first three albums. From Black & Blue onwards the Universal reissues sound great - but don't ditch your Virgin CDs.

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Nikolai

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WeLoveYou
I was listening to the Universal remaster of IORR album the other day, and was struck by the amount of distortion towards the end of Time Waits For No-one, during the loud extended solo parts. Anyone else noticed? Seems like they didn't do a good job with these remasters. I know this is already known about but the above example seems pretty bad, almost unlistenable. I might have to track down a Virgin CD version.

I had EXACTLY the same problem with my copy. Sticky Fingers and Goats Head Soup are even worse.

My advice is to stick to the Virgin CDs for the first three albums. From Black & Blue onwards the Universal reissues sound great - but don't ditch your Virgin CDs.

I have the Virgin version of SF, but not GHS and IORR - I used to have these two on cassette tape, recorded from borrowed vinyl. I may download these from torrents then, seeing as I have already paid for the (distorted) MP4 downloads from iTunes. Failing that then I'll buy the CDs on ebay.