Digitally remastered vinyl record? Seriously?

"Well, I might be to nit-picky but doesn't that defeat the purpose? We love vinyl because it's an analog source which has all the beauty and vibrance of analog recordings. If you run it through an A-D converter, remaster and then run it back through a DAC (who knows what hardware they're using?) and press it in vinyl, you might lose the analog kick, don't you?"

I would agree with that. Once digital enters the chain, it just sounds like better digital (at best). I'm not familiar with the U2 recording. If it was recorded in analog, I would just get a regular LP original version. If it was a digital recording, then maybe a remaster on something high rez digital like SACD.

Of course you could just listen and decide which one you like best. I have a lot of vinyl, CDs, SACDs, DVDAs, and digital rips and hi res downloads. I have some fabulous recordings in all formats.

Examples: I recently bought the Analog Productions reissue of Junior Wells and Buddy Guy's Hoodoo Man Blues. It sounds shockingly good. I also have Beck's Morning Phase in 24/192 and it's wonderful. And I bought the aforementioned Famous Blue Raincoat for $5 in a used record bin, got a nice copy, and it sounds great too.

It would be interesting to hear the digitally remastered to vinyl version. I've been listening to my first release Masterdisk DMM Joshua Tree I bought the day it was released and comparing it to the the 20th anniversary deluxe edition remastered cd. I mention which version of the lp I was listening to because there has been some online forum complaints about the sound of the lp in its later pressings. The first DMM release is wonderful sounding however. The first issue seems to bring a considerably higher price on Ebay. The digital remastering sounds good, but different. The treble of the remaster is a tad crisper with better articulation and separation of little high frequency nuances. The mid bass and bass are less bloomy and the general sonic picture is tighter, less atmospheric. All in all, I prefer the vinyl to the remastered cd. My Luxman digital playback is pretty well matched tonally to the sound of my vinyl rig, so I think most listeners would hear things the same way.

"01-07-15: Austinbob
Of course you could just listen and decide which one you like best. I have a lot of vinyl, CDs, SACDs, DVDAs, and digital rips and hi res downloads."

How? The only way to compare all of those formats is to go out and buy them.

Many Rock albums in the 80s were still being recorded on analogue tape. Look at their corresponding CD and see how many say ADD or AAD (AAD...using an analogue mixing board and tape).

I don't know how U2 with their budget would record back then, but my point is when a CD from that time period is remastered, using the analogue sources can provide a very good digital master.

Usually the record label will just remix the digital sources and we get a crappy sounding new CD and LP. Jimmy Page used the original sources in the recent LZ remasters and IMO, the vinyl sounds terrific. Another outstanding remaster is Pink Floyd's DSOTM.

In a case like the "Joshua Tree" LP, the "tell-tale" sign of a questionably sounding product is the term "Digitally Remastered"
which is so vague that it usually means they did some tweaking to the digital files and the end result is a record that you'll never play again. "Digitally Remastered from the Original Sources" is the one to look for.