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ironbelly

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kowalski
The Virgin remasters are probably the best choice if you want to listen to the Stones on CD. Bob Ludwig has managed to keep the original analog sound with a slight bump in the low end for the digital age listeners. At the same time they can sound rather "processed", like the ABKCO 2002 remasters of the 60's catalog. But still a very nicely done work.

The 2011 flat transfers are obviously closer to the original tapes but can sound a little anemic in comparison. They're great if you are after a more audiophile friendly sound.

And you should always add that Virgin remaster is dirt cheap nowadays on the secondary market. Even Collector's Edition can be found reasonably priced on ebay. While for Japanese SHM-CDs (not even SHM-SACDs) you'll need to shell off some $40.

I remember, after buying all 60s Stones SACDs in Boston in 2002 for half of what I had to pay in the Netherlands (great triple Stones concerts, by the way!) a store salesman back home tried to convince me that I needed to buy a SACD player for them. I, however, played them on my hifi DVD player and they sounded great. I heard stuff I never heard before on my vinyls. The sound was warm and pleasant (my mid 80s ABKCO CDs were mostly poor (sometimes annoyingly sharp) in comparison to my vinyls).


I'm a GHOST living in a ghost town

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georgie48

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ironbelly

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kowalski
The Virgin remasters are probably the best choice if you want to listen to the Stones on CD. Bob Ludwig has managed to keep the original analog sound with a slight bump in the low end for the digital age listeners. At the same time they can sound rather "processed", like the ABKCO 2002 remasters of the 60's catalog. But still a very nicely done work.

The 2011 flat transfers are obviously closer to the original tapes but can sound a little anemic in comparison. They're great if you are after a more audiophile friendly sound.

And you should always add that Virgin remaster is dirt cheap nowadays on the secondary market. Even Collector's Edition can be found reasonably priced on ebay. While for Japanese SHM-CDs (not even SHM-SACDs) you'll need to shell off some $40.

I remember, after buying all 60s Stones SACDs in Boston in 2002 for half of what I had to pay in the Netherlands (great triple Stones concerts, by the way!) a store salesman back home tried to convince me that I needed to buy a SACD player for them. I, however, played them on my hifi DVD player and they sounded great. I heard stuff I never heard before on my vinyls. The sound was warm and pleasant (my mid 80s ABKCO CDs were mostly poor (sometimes annoyingly sharp) in comparison to my vinyls).

Those are apples and oranges.
SACD-hybrids from 2002 cover London-ABKCO era. Remastered by Bob Ludwig. Although in places noise reduction was used, stereo stage was narrowed etc. But those sound great comparing to old ABKCO releases.

Everything from Sticky Fingers is Rolling Stones Records era and they were not remastered that way in 2002. For RSR era releases some Japanese SHM-SACD came with brickwalled 2009 mastering while the others with flat transfer 2011. One must be very careful with those multiple Japanese UICY releases. You can pay a lot of money and get crappy sounding disc.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021-05-03 14:51 by ironbelly.

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ironbelly

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georgie48

Quote
ironbelly

Quote
kowalski
The Virgin remasters are probably the best choice if you want to listen to the Stones on CD. Bob Ludwig has managed to keep the original analog sound with a slight bump in the low end for the digital age listeners. At the same time they can sound rather "processed", like the ABKCO 2002 remasters of the 60's catalog. But still a very nicely done work.

The 2011 flat transfers are obviously closer to the original tapes but can sound a little anemic in comparison. They're great if you are after a more audiophile friendly sound.

And you should always add that Virgin remaster is dirt cheap nowadays on the secondary market. Even Collector's Edition can be found reasonably priced on ebay. While for Japanese SHM-CDs (not even SHM-SACDs) you'll need to shell off some $40.

I remember, after buying all 60s Stones SACDs in Boston in 2002 for half of what I had to pay in the Netherlands (great triple Stones concerts, by the way!) a store salesman back home tried to convince me that I needed to buy a SACD player for them. I, however, played them on my hifi DVD player and they sounded great. I heard stuff I never heard before on my vinyls. The sound was warm and pleasant (my mid 80s ABKCO CDs were mostly poor (sometimes annoyingly sharp) in comparison to my vinyls).

Those are apples and oranges.
SACD-hybrids from 2002 cover London-ABKCO era. Remastered by Bob Ludwig. Although in places noise reduction was used, stereo stage was narrowed etc. But those sound great comparing to old ABKCO releases.

Everything from Sticky Fingers is Rolling Stones Records era and they were not remastered that way in 2002. For RSR era releases some Japanese SHM-SACD came with brickwalled 2009 mastering while the others with flat transfer 2011. One must be very careful with those multiple Japanese UICY releases. You can pay a lot of money and get crappy sounding disc.

Ludwig has done the entire Stones catalog up through FLASHPOINT. His Virgin reissues are and apparently will remain the best sounding remasters of the 1971-1991 catalog.

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GasLightStreet

Ludwig has done the entire Stones catalog up through FLASHPOINT. His Virgin reissues are and apparently will remain the best sounding remasters of the 1971-1991 catalog.

Actually he has done the whole Stones catalog as he also did the 2002 remasters for the 60's albums.

If you get the 90's Virgin remasters (from Sticky Fingers to Flashpoint) and the 2002 ABKCO remasters you should be set for the Stones original albums on CD. From Voodoo Lounge on, just get the original CD's.

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kowalski

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GasLightStreet

Ludwig has done the entire Stones catalog up through FLASHPOINT. His Virgin reissues are and apparently will remain the best sounding remasters of the 1971-1991 catalog.

Actually he has done the whole Stones catalog as he also did the 2002 remasters for the 60's albums.

If you get the 90's Virgin remasters (from Sticky Fingers to Flashpoint) and the 2002 ABKCO remasters you should be set for the Stones original albums on CD. From Voodoo Lounge on, just get the original CD's.

OK, so I'm a little behind post Exile. We haven't even gone near the MONO box set though, and what about GRRR on Blu Ray?...fabulous.