Need Tom Petty advice

[Joseph]

I have been listening to Tom Petty & Heartbreaker's Greatest Hits on MCA (1993) and found the sound quality to be quite good.

I understand that Steve Hoffman mastered You're Gonna Get It in the mid eighties.
Can anyone comment on the sound in comparison to the latest remasters.

What about the sound quality of the box set vs. original cd's vs. remasters vs. above mentioned greatest hits?

I have learned that the latest remasters do NOT always represent the best sound (more and more examples of this seem to be happening).

I guess what I'm hoping to find the best sounding versions of Tom Petty's stuff as I want to grow a good library of his material.

Thanks

[Rspaight]

The box set, remastered in HDCD, is very aggressive. Someone said that you don't listen to it so much as get beat up by it. I think the individual HDCD remastered discs are much the same way. It sounds impressive for the first few seconds, but gets old fast. The older non-remastered discs are serviceable but nothing special. I have the MoFi "Damn The Torpedoes" and I think it sounds pretty good.

I haven't heard the greatest hits, so I don't know how that compares.

Ryan

[Joseph]

Thanks for the heads up on the remasters. I hate aggressive, bright cd's and it sounds like the box and individual remasters have those qualities...seem to be more remasters sounding that way. What's wrong with the hearing of these sound engineers?

The 1993 Greatest Hits was remastered by Joe Gastwirt at OceanView, LA.
It is a very strong compilation and you CAN hear differences between tracks from different recordings. Overall a decent sounding compilation.

[Dave]

I swear by the MFSL's.

Damn The Torpedoes: UD1

Hard Promises: UD2/G

Full Moon Fever: UD2/G2 (Excellent!)

I haven't had the pleasure of listening to Steve's TP but I'm sure it's great. Everything else is too bright.

[SonicZone]

Originally posted by Dave
I swear by the MFSL's.

Damn The Torpedoes: UD1

Hard Promises: UD2/G

Full Moon Fever: UD2/G2 (Excellent!)

I haven't had the pleasure of listening to Steve's TP but I'm sure it's great. Everything else is too bright.
All of these Petty MFSLs are my choice, too, although unlike Torpedoes and Promises, I don't sense that much sonic improvement on Full Moon Fever versus the original MCA pressing -- but it's still my preferred disc. (I haven't heard the current remasters. I think I'll save my ears the abuse.)


S/Z

[Dob]

Originally posted by SonicZone
I don't sense that much sonic improvement on Full Moon Fever versus the original MCA pressing -- but it's still my preferred disc.

It's hard to hear a difference unless you do a synchronized A/B comparison (preferably with headphones). Listen to the high end, especially the vocals - smoother and more natural on the MFSL.

[lukpac]

Originally posted by Dob
It's hard to hear a difference unless you do a synchronized A/B comparison (preferably with headphones).

Is it really worth it that much then? If you have to listen that hard to hear the differences...

Not that I've never fallen victim to the same thing, but...

[indy mike]

Damn the Torpedoes is one of my favorite lp's - ran out and bought the vinyl the first time I heard Don't Do Me Like That - the MoFi is a great improvement over the original MCA CD - the MCA had sizzly cymbals and harsh mids - the MoFi does it right, although I still want Steve to tube it up!

[Dave]

Personally, I find the sonics to be hugely different between the MFSL FMF and the MCA. The sound stage is much wider on the MFSL.

[Sckott]

I have a big love/hate relationship with the HDCDs. I own the box (Playback) and heard the individuals. Yes, they're all done the same way. Agressive is a perfect adjective. Y'all might like the old MCA issues, and even the Gone Gators if that's all you can find. The original MCA's for "S/t" and "Git it" are around, but not very easy to obtain.

The MFSL of "Hard Promises" and "Torpedoes" are fairly excellent. Steve would be a perfect candidate to bring back the beauiful sound of the master of any of them.

[Todd Fredericks]

I agree that the MFSL "Full moon Fever" is much, much better than the standard MCA. It is very spacious with very good definition. I could hear the better sonics immediately when I first played it. I thought the MCA CD was great (listening to it since it came out) but the MFSL brings the quality up several notches. In this case, it does what an MFSL was "supposed" to do...

Todd

[Dob]

Originally posted by lukpac
Is it really worth it that much then?

Boy, Luke, is THAT ever a loaded question! I wish I knew the answer to that one myself, and it goes way beyond "Full Moon Fever". It goes beyond hifi, or even music, as a matter of fact.

For "Full Moon Fever", I did a headphone comparison and heard the difference easily. However, I never did a speaker comparison. What I was trying to say (and what I should have posted) is "if you're having trouble hearing the difference, try an A/B comparison using headphones."

[Vivaldinization]

Chiming in here (although I know nobody listens to me), the boxed-set is pretty good, IMO...aggressive, but not too bad. And the song selection's really excellent!

-D

[Andrew]

What about the recent 2-CD best-of? Better? Worse? Just curious.

http://gs.cdnow.com/graphics/COVERART/local/L/64/54/00386454.jpg

[lukpac]

Originally posted by David Goodwin
Chiming in here (although I know nobody listens to me

I would if I listened to the Zombies and Turtles!

[joelee]

Another vote for the original MCA's and MFSL versions. Kinda wish the box set wasn't mastered in HDCD. I really love the 3 discs of previously unreleased material. HDCD-Harsh Distorted Compact Discs.

[btomarra]

Andrew asked:


What about the recent 2-CD best-of? Better? Worse? Just curious.

I like it better than the greatest hits. I could gripe about the missing songs i.e. Runaway Trains, Insider.

But it has a more thorough track selection than the single disc with more tracks off of Southern Accents (even though it overlooks the single "Make It Better"). And it includes two tracks off of the album Let Me Up (which was ignored on Greatest Hits).

I also wished it had included Thunderclap Newman's Something In The Air (it was mentioned as a possibility in the liner notes). But that would have made Greatest Hits redundant. And we can't do that!

Oh, and lest I forget, Even The Losers is full length on Anthology. Greatest Hits cut off the 24 second intro.

Brian

:)

[Matt]

I think Anthology has the same sound of the box set and the new remasters; same mastering engineer, and supposedly HDCD as well (doesn't say it on the package, but I think HDCD's website and some other places say it is).

[RDK]

I didn't realize that the Playback box set was mastered in HDCD. Did they have HDCD in 1995 or has the box since been remastered again

Ray?

[Todd Fredericks]

I got the "Playback" box when it came out and it was "HDCD"...

[Rspaight]

The first HDCD I remember was Neil Young's Mirror Ball in 1993, though I'm sure there were some before that.

Ryan

[Todd Fredericks]

Yes, HDCD has been around for several years. Neil Young's "Mirror Ball"! I remember when that came out. Wow, almost nine years ago? My memory just bliped when I saw that title's name and it was '93. Where the heck is all the time going?? Everything seems like almost yesterday...

Todd