drjazz: I’ve been looking for new ways to listen to our favorite recordings. I’m the guy who remastered the warner demos and many other boots listed on our vhboots.com.
This is what I came up with for best versions so far, and I’ve been comparing by what sounds best on multiple speaker sets, nothing else.
1st 3 albums – undecided, will get back to you.
Fair warning – Japan forever young is absolutely amazing. The new 2015 remaster is distorted and bland compared to this. I’ve listened to it on multiple speakers, the new version is a mockery imo. On the forever young, The bass is tight and the balance is the best I’ve heard. Far better then the 2000 remasters as well. The 2015 is a waste of money! The forever young is a wet dream.
Diver down – I’ve not yet heard the 2015 remaster. Until this point the 2000 remaster is best. I have the forever young and the target cd from 1987. The 2000 sounds best to me. Well balanced and remastered appropriately for the title.
1984 – the 2000 remaster is horrible. The original target version sounds very good and better than the 2000 remaster.
However, I have to go with the new 2015 remaster on this one. It’s very clean, up front, and solid. Very good quality. It seems like a lot of time went into this one.I’ve not yet heard the Van Halen 1 version of this, but my speculation is that it will give the gold 1998 version a run for its money.
0U812 – the original and the forever young series are clearly different. I cannot pick a favorite. The forever young series has more bass, but not really for the better. I agree with previous statements that this album needs a remix. If I has to choose, I would go with forever young, but not by much.
I plan on getting all of these versions, so I will do a complete analysis when completed. I hope you appreciate these opinions.
VH forever!
Are you comparing the old CDs to the 2015 CD remasters? Have you heard the 2015 remasters on vinyl or 24-bit/192kHz HDTracks files? The new CDs, as well as HDTracks 24/96 uses a different mastering than the others. They are much more dynamically compressed (louder) than the vinyl and 24/192 files. Check out the HDTracks 24/192 files, they are the bomb!
As an example, here are some dynamic range numbers that compare the 2015 versions of Diver Down. The CD has a DR of 7, while the 24/192 files are DR 12:
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/92643
