Digital Remasters, Tapes & Records


I grew up listening to the Rolling Stones on transistor radios of one kind or another - a very low-fi world, until recently. I now live in a Hi-Fi world of tubes and am left wondering how did we get to that sound?

It’s not just a better system. The music has changed - it’s better. No tape hiss, not hum, no static, and better dynamics.

I like my Bluetooth HugoTT connection better than many of my records.

What was the frequency response & stereo separation of an LP? I guess that depends on the pressing, but a lot of my old records are not high quality.

No doubt the digital equipment has improved dramatically in the last 30 years so it makes sense to remaster.

I recently heard a reel-to-reel tape in an audio shop that was running at high speed, but even that had a bit of hiss and not sure it had the dynamics of digital. It also seemed to magnify details in the singers voice in a hyper-realistic way (like listening to a high speed photo.)

Are the digital remasters (on iTunes) higher fidelity than the original LPs?

Are reel-to-reel high-speed tapes better than the best LPs?

I always wanted a reel to reel rig & still do, but where the heck do you buy source material from this century?

I’ve also heard some remaster I don’t like because the songs are altered to much.

What are your thoughts?
128x128thegoldengoose
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I meant tape hiss from tapes played on reel or cassette, not LPs. I have an audio-technica table & MC with a Cambridge phono amp. & a CJ PV12, 140 watt rev.3 atma-sphere amps, ZeroBox autoformers, Vandersteen 3a sigs & Chord’s Huggo TT.
Question: why don’t we hear tape hiss on CDs? You know, the tape hiss from the original master tape. Has is been removed?