BMG CD's ARE worse

go purchase 2 copies of any CD somewhere now go a/b the 2 "identical" disks. Are they different? I always hear slight differences. I believe nothing man makes to be exactly identical is impossible.

If the discs are from the same final Digital master, they will be identical. Jitter is a different issue.

I finally got two identical CD's, one is BMG version, brand new right out of the case; of Steve Winwood's "Arc of a Diver". The other is from the library.
The library CD had minor scratches all over it. It also had two thin metal detection strips taped to the back of it. So I would expect the library CD to sound worse.
First I put the BMG in my Marantz CDR-500 CDR (better) drive and the LIB (library version) in the CD drive.
The BMG version sounded "better" by quite a noticeable amount. I put in quotes because the clarity seemed to accentuate the "digital nasties".
- Listening the BMG was subjectively louder but the output level meters on the CDP showed identical output levels.
- BMG was clearer and more dynamic. This is probably why it accentuated the "digital nasties".

Switched BMG to CD drive and LIB version to CDR drive. Same results but perhaps BMG was TINY bit worse than the first time due to worse quality CD drive.

Put Auric Illuminator on BMG CD and digital nasties reduced by 10%. I'm calling the difference between the two CD's was 100% so A-I reduced the difference by 10%.

After 20-30 minutes of this my ears got fatigued and I couldn't really hear differences anymore.

My conclusion - compilation CD's not BMG CD's are worse.

An example: The Heart Greatest Hits CD is remastered but the single album CDs are not. The sound on Greatest Hits is better.

I mentioned in my post that there are two newer compilation CDs of Rush material than Chronicles, released around the time that they upgraded the single album CDs. I don't think MCA updated the sound quality on Chronicles because they were putting out the two newer compilations.

If you check out the newer compilations, I think that your conclusion might be that older version CDs, not BMG CDs or compilation CDs, are generally worse than remastered CDs.

Be careful when generalizing the superiority of Japanese CD's. True, there are some truly amazing recordings to be had there, but most of this is of "classic" status (regardles of genre). Listen to past and current J-Pop offerings and other material as well -- most of it will make your ears bleed. What dreck (from a fidelity standpoint)!