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Deja Vu all over again

The Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young remastered album is available on Qobuz for streaming at 192kHz 24bit.  It sounds great.  I have the original vinyl that I bought in the late 70s.  This remastered version has a very crisp clean sound with good soundstage depth and width.  I especially like the song, "Almost Cut my Hair". The song seems almost comical to me at the beginning but the mood changes for me as the song continues into a serious and good discussion.
I believe this digital version has little to no compression since I have my preamp volume set at 50 for my normal listening level.  Compare that to some pop albums on Qobuz at 44kHz 16bit that I play at a volume level of 27-33.
I believe the compression level is proportional to the volume level I use for my normal listening level.  For example, ROON shows the dynamic range of each of my CDs that I have ripped as FLAC files into my Library.  I see dynamic range as low as 8 and as high as 18.  The 18 is for a Telarc CD and is exceptional.  I notice my volume level for normal listening level is correlating to this Dynamic Range value.  Of course the higher dynamic range recordings have some nice loud peaks.

128x128tonywinga
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 

Here 2 x Fleetwood Mac albums I listened to last night that I have a few re-issues/remastered versions of, and it’s definitely the earliest ones that have the better relaxed feel to them as they have the greater DR and quieter passages between the louder transients ones, which gives more "air" around the music.
(all green is good) red, orange, yellow compressed

https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=Fleetwood+Mac&album=Rumours

https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=Fleetwood+Mac&album=Fleetwood+Mac

Cheers George
tonywinga's avatar
tonywinga OP
844 posts
 
According to that database my 1970s pressings of Fleetwood Mac have a dynamic range equivalent to digital.  I didn’t realize that.  So my 50 year old records are a good reference. Good thing I’ve kept my analog rig up to date.  Heart’s Dreamboat Annie and Little Queen were some of the best sounding rock albums in the mid 70s.  The bass sounded great on just about any stereo.  Shops like to use them to audition speakers back then.  The hi res versions of these albums on Qobuz sound pretty good to me but I still prefer the vinyl- especially my London pressing of Dreamboat Annie.  
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 


Heart’s Dream Boat Annie (which I have the 1997 7243 8 19826-2) were all a little compressed (streamed/download a little worse), which means so were the masters, and there’s nothing that can be done about then.
https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=Heart&album=Dreamboat+Annie

Cheers George
jafant's avatar
jafant
19,618 posts
 
tonywinga

Thank You for the CSN&Y update.

Happy Listening!
tonywinga's avatar
tonywinga OP
844 posts
 
Art for the sake of art.  The Heart albums may be somewhat compressed but I still think they are some of the best sounding rock albums of that era.  I can accept them for what they are.  For example, the Cowboy Junkies Trinity Session.  I love that album and the sound.  Sure, it is imperfect but that is it’s charm and emotion.  If you read the story about the making of that album, the recording engineer was rushed for time and didn’t get the session set up like he would have wanted.  Recently, that recording engineer remastered the Trinity Session and tried to fix some of the problems with the recording.  I almost bought that new record but then I thought, no I love it as it is.  I don’t want some redone reimagined version.  
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