Remastering

[CN211276]

The remastering of Revolver attracted a lot of attention and Slinger started a thread on it. I was impressed with what I heard on Qobuz and recordings from the mid 60s can benefit a lot. In the mean time two of my favourite albums from the early 80s and early 90s have been remastered; Black Sabbath Heaven and Hell and Guns n' Roses Use your illusions I&ii. I have listened to both on Qobuz.

It is no surprise that the Sabbath album sounds considerably better because the previous Qobuz stream sounded sub standard. I think and hope the follow up Mob Rules album will receive similar treatment. The situation with the GnR albums was less clear cut and I found myself comparing a track with the previous version. This left me in no doubt that the remastered version was superior with a greater sense of space an ease. The remastered version has a sample rate of 48kHz whereas the previous one is 96kHz (705kHz as opposed to 765kHz with Mscaler). This goes to show that mastering is more important than sample rates, at least where the difference in sample rates is not great.

To these ears modern remastering is on the whole bringing old recordings a new lease of life, but the extent of the improvement is relative to the quality, or lack of it, of what was there before.