It just so happens I was listening to Who's Next this week via Qobuz. I loved the balanced mix of the remaster. Keith Moon's drums killed. And there was enough separation to hear Entwistle's bass.
What's up with lousy bass on classic rock recordings?
Few examples: ACDC Back In Black, Van Halen 1, Boston (1), WHO's Next, Def Leopard Pyromania.
The low end is almost non-existent. Digital and vinyl.
It's not my system, I listen to a lot of jazz, other classics like Janis Ian Breaking Silence - bass is rich, full, has slam when appropriate.
Compression? Or were the low frequencies never there? Pretty disappointing.
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@lowrider57 Looks like you have a nice system - I don't disagree with you - in hind-sight "lousy" bass was a poor choice of words. What's missing is deep, lush bass that I've come to really enjoy that is present in many other rock recordings (and other genres of course). |
You are correct there is no low level sub bass in older hard rock. I’d say it’s not much below 80hz. Try recordings with a prolific bassist like Phil Lynott, Jack Bruce, Felix Pappalardi etc. Or Beatles - Come together. If you are running Roon there are 779 recordings of Come Together to try :) Musica Nuda makes a fun version. |
There was a lot of variation on LP pressing in the 60's, 70's and early 80's. There was a bunch of different pressing plants just within the USA and there could be a number of reissues the same year as the original release and up to 10 years later due to the large volume of sales. I find most of my earlier LP pressing to have a more balanced mix than some of the remasters today but rarely lacking on the bottom end. I have some fantastic new pressings from Analog Productions and MFSL and also remasters from some of the original labels like MCA and Columbia but I do find some of the new remasters to be a little heavy on the bottom end. I'm sure a lot of people like the amped up bottom end but I prefer the more balanced attack of the old original pressings. It's all a matter of personal taste in music. |
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