Value deminished edition

I think it is beginning to dawn on avid cd collectors and music lovers, the explosion of interest we have had since the formats launch in December 1982 is in steep decline.
One area where it is obvious is in the repackaging of older discs in budget bare bone packs of Five or  complete sets where shewn of anything other than front and rear art they are offered up at bargain prices to try to raise moneys from previous releases that otherwise they wouldn't of.
These sets are typically issued by Sony/Bmg and Warners with some from the formally independent EMI. Many stores report with even with new discs there's a few weeks brisk sales followed by a short sharp drop.
The other area is in sales of older out of print discs via speciality stores, Ebay or Amazon Marketplace where some titles appear to be almost worthless with a few where you might just get $3 in a trade in now.
Even the area of discs I do spend a fair amount of money on specialty Gold re-masters are not impervious to this drop with pricing falling around 40% or more although I suspect coming from relative high prices around 2006 through 2009 it may have a fair bit to do with the fall in peoples disposable income thanks to the economy as many titles being available "for free" on Torrents and other darker parts of the internet for people to download and play on music servers.
Perversely, it was made it easier for me to get some titles that even used were over $100 mark for a good deal less such as a copy of the MFSL gold issue of Sting's Dream of the Blue Turtles for $24. As depreciation doesn't concern me as someone who just buys music to play for pleasure rather than seeing them as financial assets it's no big deal.To me the rationale for buying them is just having great sounding copies of your favourite albums.
Does the cd have a future?

Wings gold

The origins of this entry go back quite a number of years when pre internet you found out about new titles being issued either in magazines such as Hifi World or by visiting your local record or cd stores when we had them(!).

Generally there are two types of record companies, those who are large, issue titles to the mainstream generally with little special care about sound quality and sources and those who issue limited runs of titles where they do track down the best sounding copies of each album and carefully transfer it to record or as with these titles, cd.

Many early cds didn't sound too good through a combination of not being careful over sources and also the technology that takes analogue sound to digital didn't sound as smooth as the format was and is capable of. Its that that lead me to start getting these Gold cds by the now defunct company DCC classics from the early 1990's onward.

Way way back in the 1970's the albums (and 45's) by Paul McCartney first came to my attention and this album Band On The Run was a favourite of mine owning it on the awesomely clunky 8 track form and fittingly this album with it's hit 45's such as the title track, Jet and as on this  US edition only Helen Wheels was the first I bought.

Apart from having the U.S. extra track which oddly enough I do prefer as with the rest of the series it has a very smooth rich sound while not fooling me to say an lp issue, does at least sound less 'digital' to the ears.It also has a poster.

Arriving soon to me is Red Rose Speedway, the home of My Love a song that can be considered a 'standard' which will be a bit smoother than my 1987 UK edition and also has the reggae based b side to Hi Hi Hi,  C Moon, which inexplicably was left off the mainstream UK cds bonus tracks. It's a song I rather like. 

My copy will be missing the card slip cover but as it was a lot cheaper as many of these discs usually sell for over $100 I'm not complaining about that.

At The Speed of Sound should be with me by the time this entry goes live replacing a much loathed 1989 Capitol cd that masks much detail in the quieter parts in an attempt to eliminate tape hiss. I'm so looking forward to tossing that one across the sidewalk!

This album was the home of the hit singles Let 'Em In and Silly Love Songs as well as enjoyable numbers like Cook Of The House. It was this album Wings toured with on the tour captured on Wings Over America recently re-issued.

I've a sneaking feeling many of us who around back then had at least heard this album Venus And Mars before, one of the best in the Wings catalogue with it's singles Venus &Mars/Rock Show (the single edit is on Wingspan) and Listen To What The Man Said (single mix again on Wingspan). 

One issue with this album is some heavy handed compression was locked into the mixdown tapes but although it's not entirely cured what mastering engineer Steve Hoffman did was carefully balance Venus and Mars so it's quieter than the energetic Rock Show that it segue-ways into for better effect. 

Strangely on all the mainstream releases Rock Show is noticeably less loud! It too has the original poster as featured on the lp and three bonus tracks.

I also was recently able to McCartney, his first solo album  that featured the hit 45 Maybe I'm Amazed and Teddy Boy in addition to  Ram, featuring the 45 Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey and the pro population song Too Many People  on DCC too.

Remastered Cars: Heartbeat City & More

Audio Fidelity issue Heartbeat City



In March 2009 as part of the relaunch of Audio Fidelity the 1984 Cars album Heartbeat City got re-issued and re-mastered from the original 30IPS master tapes by Steve Hoffman. This event created an awful lot of posting on the SH.tv forum as you'd expect for the resumption of the 24karat audiophile cd format. From what Steve said this is the first time since the original lp was cut in 1984 that these tapes had been used as all the CD versions used copytapes with equalization applied to aid vinyl cutting and the best of these is the WG Target which was one of the first CD's issued around the time of the lp issue (pressing capacity was a real problem back then).


Above is my copy showing the 'Target' design.
This was in many respects the last good Cars album and a staple of FM radio featuring the smash 45's Drive, You Might Think and Magic. It sure wasn't off my tape player having back the original on chromedioxide tape - that happened to sound rather good back then but both it and the target cd always sounded a bit bright which took away the edge from Ric Ocasek's vocals.
The following is from my review at SH.tv: "The equalization on this transfer is very good - those of us who lived through the era know it was a bit light of bass and that tended to emphasize the keyboard sound which could be a touch piercing. That was certainly the case on the Chrome Cassette issue and the Target cd isn't free from this either as much as I love my copy. The area around 3-5khz is much smoother to listen to at high levels and this disc is one you can crank up."

There was a storm blowing because the tapes as give to Steve had oxide free tape "leader tape" applied between the tracks so where as the songs kind of butt together on the original, this cd doesn't.
There has been much speculation concerning why it was issued like this.
Steve maintains he didn't wish to either remove them by physically cutting out the leader tape or by electronically trimming in a Digital Work Station prior to cutting the glass master for cd manufacture. His justification for the latter is he feels it would affect the sound. Several members some whom are mastering engineers themselves respectfully disagree with that idea and I would agree with them.
That said "for the most part I didn't notice them apart from a seven second countdown before You Might Think - the lead off track for side two of the lp - this might be leader tape. There is no detectable gap at all between the end of I Refuse and the start of Heartbeat City. If there was I would be having civil words."
Some did report issues with the HDCD encoding that only affects players suitable equipped (it offers potentially higher resolution).
My comments: "HDCD encoding. No chirps or pops on my NAD C541i. Several tracks do have brief periods at the fades where the lights go off but I heard no reduction in sound quality. While this is something Steve may wish to look at in the future, on my player at least this is a non issue. For reference here's a lights out list. Last four seconds: Looking For Love, Magic,Why Can't I Have You Last three seconds: It's Not The Night Last two seconds: Drive, You Might Think.I would conclude by saying I did not regret buying this Cd - it sounds great - and will be main listening copy for now on.

The Cars Greatest Hits DCC CD GZS 1123

Shortly afterwards I was able to get this CD also re-mastered by Steve Hoffman with a 19.99% reduction at a price I could just about afford as it's been out of print for just over a decade

This also uses the "original mastertapes" and is quite useful having all the top 40 45's from the first five albums on as Steve only tackled Heartbeat City for AF and The Cars S/T for DCC which is well out of print commanding three figure prices.
It does sound really good although I should note Steve used the album versions of I'm Not The Only One - a 1986 '45 and Heartbeat City rather than the remixes done by Elektra - the bands label - for the original Greatest Hits lp/cd.
A real step up from my regular German cd.

I also got the Joe Gastwirt HDCD re-master of the bands 1980 Panorama album which in Europe remains in a murky sounding version with very little top response. This had to be imported.
While in every respect the finest version of this album remains the US original lp, the re-master is a considerable improvement obviously sourced from a good quality tape for anyone needing a cd.
The only negative is it is slightly bright on my system - with tone controls you need to turn the treble back to about 11 o'clock.
If you have access to an equalizer or care to burn this to a CD-R use a program - the sound effects - Equalizer function of Nero would be okay for this and take down the 5 or 6 Khz settings by about minus 1.5db for each track remembering to Apply it. That should fix it.

In November of 2009 Mofi issued this remastered version of the bands fifth album Shake It Up in goldplated UDII form with a mini lp style package.
Remastered by Rob LoVerde this is the best CD I've ever heard of this title and although it's a limited edition it is highly recommended.
CD catalogue number UDCD788

Also See Cars: Candy-O entry