I'm looking for opinions on what's the best Hank Williams Sr. Greatest Hits set out there, in terms of mastering/sound quality. Thanks...
The best sounding sets are probably the Original Singles Collection boxed set mastered by Dennis Drake or the Complete Hank Williams boxed set but 40 Greatest Hits or the new Ultimate Collection may be sufficient if you are a casual fan. There are lots of Hank Sr. comps out there, the only Hank collection on CD to avoid is "The Legend Lives Anew" which uses overdubbed stereo strings that sound terrible (a reissue of an MGM LP). If you can play 78s, hunt for them.
There is only one IMO. It came out, oh, ten years ago I guess. 2 CD set on Polydor. Yellow cover with Hank standing there. I can run upstairs and get the number if you need it. Taken straight from the old MGM tape copies of the 16" discs and metal parts. No EQ, no limiting, no noise reduction.
FWIW, the cuts common to The Singles Collection and the big Complete Hank Williams set sound exactly alike. OTOH, the Luke the Drifter selections, which are omitted from the Singles box but included on the Complete, sound better (less NR). Looks like they used the transfers from the Singles box in the Complete box where applicable. I was disappointed to discover this when I bought the Complete box, since I was hoping for better transfers. A new "greatest hits" collection (yes, yet another one) was recently issued (just last week): "The Ultimate Collection." Anyone heard it? MK