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?
thegoldengoose
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?
Huh? They use Dolby when? Surely they don’t use Dolby routinely on all original recordings since a great majority predates Dolby. If they use Dolby during digital remastering would that be innocuous to the listener?
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