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All Things Must Pass - Including the recording Industry

kchap

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I just purchased the 50th anniversary edition, of George Harrison's All Things Must Pass. It is unlistenable. I do make copies of my CD's so I can stream them. This is Track1, CD1:

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It sounded like my amp was being overdriven; even at low volumes. Track 2 is worse but subjectively it did not sound as bad, less clipping?

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I know we are all unwilling participants in the loudness wars. I expected a some compression and the tracks to sound louder than the original album but not clipping.

Recommendation: DO NOT BUY.

BTW here is a track off Van Morrison's Into the Music. My copy is nearly 40 years old:

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restorer-john

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Original CD, 1983 Tom Jung DMP Digital (Mitsubishi X-80) of Flim and the BBs, Tricycle.
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Not a single clipped sample. Be careful with this one, even 500W at 4R per channel is not enough on the peaks...
 
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kchap

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I do understand the marketing pressures, people equate loud with better. I think most people who would buy are old and grey. I'm sure there are younger aficionados of George Harrison but I think most of the demographic would be closer to my age. We are not that keen on the loudness wars. The mastering was not only executed badly, it is also bad marketing.

Maybe it is good marketing after all. By making the CDs sound so bad the industry hopes to increase the sale of LP records.
 

daftcombo

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All equally loud is just perfect for listening on the motorway.
 
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alex-z

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Interesting and depressing at the same time. Over 16000 albums! Someone has a lot of spare time.

Users measure albums themselves and upload the results, not the work of a single person.
 
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kchap

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I just purchased the 50th anniversary edition, of George Harrison's All Things Must Pass. It is unlistenable. I do make copies of my CD's so I can stream them. This is Track1, CD1:
While the album is still not a great recording, I have solved problem of clipping. I have used SoX to reduce the gain by 3dB. It appears my DAC is the "problem". You can argue that the DAC should not have deal with the source signal and I'm only what should have in the mastering studio. For those interested my system is:

Streamer: Raspberry Pi 4B
DAC: Topping D10 balanced
Amps: MarchAudio P451 monoblocks
Speakers: B&W Nautilus 803s
 
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