Bruce Springsteen – Born In The U.S.A. – Review – (Test: Japanese vinyl, 2024 remastered, CD and streaming) Should you buy remastered vinyl records?

[Jean.Francois]

Hello,
40 years ago, Bruce Springsteen released his album “Born in the U.S.A.”, which catapulted him to mega stardom. For his 40th birthday, the album is being re-released in a special remastered edition on red vinyl.

This album begs the question: should I buy a remastered vinyl edition?

So we can only hope that the vinyl master will be different and offer better quality.
A comparison of the original 1984 Japanese vinyl with the remastered 2024 vinyl reveals several discrepancies.

Cutting level comparison Vinyl 1984 vs vinyl 2024

The first and most important is the difference in level: the 2024 remastered version has a sound level 5 to 6 dB lower than the original vinyl. This difference is enormous, and means that the sound level has to be turned up considerably to achieve the same intensity and rendering as the original version. This also makes surface noise more present.

This low engraving level, accompanied by a DR lower than the DR of the original version, shows that the master used was based on the dynamic-compressed digital remastering.

The waveform of the Tidal Max remastered below is limited in dynamic range to increase the loudness of the album. This is confirmed by the DR9 dynamic range measurement!

The original vinyl version remains more pleasant to listen to, with a more dynamic and precise sound. To restore the sound balance of the remastered version, simply increase the bass level on the amp's control.


You can find samples from the vinyl discs, and a digital version to compare the impact of compression on listening, as well as all the measurements (waveform, spectrum, spectrogram, Dynamic Range) here.

Enjoy listening

 

[Doodski]

Penny pinching substandard stuff.

 

[MRC01]

Thanks for the note and analysis.

... The original vinyl version remains more pleasant to listen to, with a more dynamic and precise sound. To restore the sound balance of the remastered version, simply increase the bass level on the amp's control.

That might help, but falls far short of "restoring the sound balance". I'd phrase it as, "To make the remastered version sound less bad, increase the bass level. Better yet, reduce the mid/treble instead because increasing bass is likely to cause clipping on a recording that is already so loud and compressed."

 

[markstein]

Hello,
40 years ago, Bruce Springsteen released his album “Born in the U.S.A.”, which catapulted him to mega stardom. For his 40th birthday, the album is being re-released in a special remastered edition on red vinyl.
View attachment 395377

This album begs the question: should I buy a remastered vinyl edition?

So we can only hope that the vinyl master will be different and offer better quality.
A comparison of the original 1984 Japanese vinyl with the remastered 2024 vinyl reveals several discrepancies.
View attachment 395378
Cutting level comparison Vinyl 1984 vs vinyl 2024

The first and most important is the difference in level: the 2024 remastered version has a sound level 5 to 6 dB lower than the original vinyl. This difference is enormous, and means that the sound level has to be turned up considerably to achieve the same intensity and rendering as the original version. This also makes surface noise more present.

This low engraving level, accompanied by a DR lower than the DR of the original version, shows that the master used was based on the dynamic-compressed digital remastering.

The waveform of the Tidal Max remastered below is limited in dynamic range to increase the loudness of the album. This is confirmed by the DR9 dynamic range measurement!
View attachment 395379


The original vinyl version remains more pleasant to listen to, with a more dynamic and precise sound. To restore the sound balance of the remastered version, simply increase the bass level on the amp's control.


You can find samples from the vinyl discs, and a digital version to compare the impact of compression on listening, as well as all the measurements (waveform, spectrum, spectrogram, Dynamic Range) here.

Enjoy listening

Sick "remastering". Sad.

 

[Jean.Francois]

Thanks for the note and analysis.


That might help, but falls far short of "restoring the sound balance". I'd phrase it as, "To make the remastered version sound less bad, increase the bass level. Better yet, reduce the mid/treble instead because increasing bass is likely to cause clipping on a recording that is already so loud and compressed."

Thanks.

Yes, there's a mistake in my text, I meant to say:
The original vinyl version remains more pleasant to listen to, with a more dynamic and precise sound. To restore the sound balance of the original version like the remastered version, simply increase the bass level on the amp's control, and thus preserve the original dynamics.

 

[MRC01]

Yes, there's a mistake in my text, I meant to say:
The original vinyl version remains more pleasant to listen to, with a more dynamic and precise sound. To restore the sound balance of the original version like the remastered version, simply increase the bass level on the amp's control, and thus preserve the original dynamics.

But that won't restore or preserve the original dynamics. Nothing you can do with tone controls will reverse dynamic compression.

It's true that dynamic compression can make the music sound perceptually brighter, and turning up the bass (or better, turning down the treble) can help offset that brightness and bring it closer to the original tonal balance. But it can't restore the dynamics.

 

[Jean.Francois]

But that won't restore or preserve the original dynamics. Nothing you can do with tone controls will reverse dynamic compression.

It's true that dynamic compression can make the music sound perceptually brighter, and turning up the bass (or better, turning down the treble) can help offset that brightness and bring it closer to the original tonal balance. But it can't restore the dynamics.

What I mean is that you need to correct the original version using the tone corrector to get more bass like in the remastered version. You then have the dynamics of the original version and a “more up-to-date” sound balance.
Indeed, when dynamics are lost, they cannot be recovered by correcting the tonality.