Need Help. Best sounding Jimi Hendrix CD's

Citizan Dan, Your eloquence has convinced me of the follyness of my ways. The way that you express yourself, I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments.

 

Thanks for the kind words, Rocky -- and thanks for your thoughts on the Hendrix CD catalog, because it is valuable information for people who wants that great music in its most pristine form.

 

I've BEEN holding my breath. Ever since the announcement of EH JHE Box. Never brought the 'purple' box!
I was imagining, cause me think good, that if your going too all the trouble of collecting/mastering all these tapes (with the original engineer, no less), you'd want too drop them to the best digital format of the day. re: DVD-A (most likely) and/or SACD (there was no hyphen, at the time).
So now I'm blue in the face, and NO Jimi in HiRez!!!

 

AYE ? Different german "first pressings" !!!

Hi from germany
Last saturday i picked up a copy of AYE on a flea market. W.-G. Polydor pressing, black/red label, first print cover (Not the Mankovitz !!!). I checked it with another W.-G. (black polydor label, different order nr) , and the U.S. Reprise pressing I also have. I had to realize that I bought a copy which had 11 tracks but a completely different track selection. The one I bought last week has got the original european track selection (omitting "Hey Joe") while the one I already had over the years follows the U.S. tracklisting. Did you knew that folks, didn´t ???!!! So there are two polydor prints in circle which have the original "european cover", but only one which has the original european track selection. Take care, i will give the correct order numbers later.

Best regards

Frank

 

If you could get back with us and post the catalog numbers of both of your Polydor AYE with the track listing, that would be helpful to us Hendrix collectors, (assuming of course that you are talking about CDs).

 

Re the request for Polydor catalog number, I had my scanner cranked up, so what the hey . . . .

http://www.olympus.net/personal/uvl/AYE_cv_front.JPG

http://www.olympus.net/personal/uvl/AYE_cv_rear.JPG

http://www.olympus.net/personal/uvl/AYE_disc.JPG

 

I was just looking my version of AYE and I have the same one Tuco posted.

 

Well, this thread got me to pull out my copies of AYE and do some A/B-ing. And at least as far as AYE is concerned, I have to agree with Rockman: the EH is harsh and has an unnatural sound to it, while the W. German Polydor (original UK track listing version) seems to have more depth to it. The Polydor is a little bit sizzly on top though. That said, I still can't say that I'm really satisfied that we're getting the best possible sounding Hendrix on CD.

I want to disagree though with Rockman's statement that you're better off without if the EH version is the only option available. I agree with CitizenDan that the music is the most important thing. I grew up listening to Hendrix on my pitiful, portable, picnic player (a Magnavox with those "wing" speakers), but that didn't keep me from enjoying the hell out of his stuff. My musical heritage would have been considerably stunted if I'd been denied listening to Jimi.

 

Here are the correct order numbers and track selections of my AYE CD´s:

Polydor 825416-2 (Silver CD with red/black polydor label; Made in W.-Germany)
1.) Foxy Lady (3:15)
2.) Manic Depression (3:40)
3.) Red House (3:42)
4.) Can you see me (2:31)
5.) Love or confusion (3:10)
6.) I don´t live today (3:50)
7.) May this be love (3:09)
8.) Fire (2:41)
9.) 3rd Stone from the sun (6:40)
10. ) Remember (2:43)
11.) Are you experienced (4:11)

Polydor 847234-2 (Silver CD with black polydor label; Made in Germany)
1.) Purple Haze (2:50)
2.) Manic Depression (3:41)
3.) Hey Joe (3:28)
4.) Love or confusion (3:11)
5.) May this be love (3:09)
6.) I don´t live today (3:52)
7.) The wind cries mary (3:20)
8.) Fire (2:41)
9.) 3rd Stone from the sun (6:43)
10. ) Foxy lady (3:17)
11.) Are you experienced (4:13)

Both Polydor CD´s have the have same styled front and back inserts. The 825416-2 version has the order number in the upper right corner of the front insert. In 847234-2 this area has been overprint by the same green background, so this is the later version.

In comparism:

Reprise 6261-2
1.) Purple Haze (2:49)
2.) Manic Depression (3:41)
3.) Hey Joe (3:28)
4.) Love or confusion (3:11)
5.) May this be love (3:09)
6.) I don´t live today (3:52)
7.) The wind cries mary (3:20)
8.) Fire (2:41)
9.) 3rd Stone from the sun (6:42)
10. ) Foxy lady (3:17)
11.) Are you experienced (4:11)

So the “later Polydor” is quite the same as the Reprise Version (The time codes printed on the the back insert of the reprise disc are wrong). I hope that helps.
Collectors should take care of the correct order numbers in order to avoid buying the “US – Version” in a european outfit.

An here is another one for you Hendrix collectors: I have the double CD Version of “Electric Ladyland” (Naked Cover) as a “Club Sonderauflage” with the POLYDOR order number 582072. I haver never seen a second copy. Should be rare ?!

 

in regards to Dan's and Rockman's perspectives. I think as the general type of fans we are, that is important to balance between the power and purity of the experience of listening to music (whether on a toy record player or high end audiophile system) and the importance of preserving heritage properly.

Because some folks have listened to every possible variation of a release and know better about what is the purest archival representation, I admire and support their zeal to do what is right for a legacy from a fan's perspective. This a crucial time to start doing transfers and remasters with an archival, as opposed to commercial, intent before the tapes are gone forever.

I have been a lifelong music fan, and considered myself a closet audiophile--at least in the sense that I thought I knew what sounded good. The one thing this board has taught me is that as consumers we are often taught what sounds "best"--bigger, louder, compressed, more, more!!! The JHE CDs are a perfect example.

I admire fans who research, educate themselves, and take it upon themselves to write the labels and proclaim their opinions on boards like this. While the energy it takes to do that can make folks sound like overzealous snobs, they are speaking from an important standpoint--as people that truly care about an artist's legacy, and the hope that in the future others will be touched the way they have been touched.

 

For the record, I want to appoligize to the entire forum for these very rude comments that I made at a very disheartening time in my life. I can honestly say that I have have spent some hours enjoying some of the EH remasters and I feel that if these remasteres are all you can get, go ahead and get them and enjoy them. I also believe that the Hendrix collecting community is being short-changed when it comes to Hendrix on CD, I know that they must have the ability to give us better copies than what we have now, (think Miles Davis style remasters). But my present sentiments are that the EH remasters are fairly decent, and a person can find real enjoyment in these discs.

 

This really needs to be bumped. So the Beave is a doin it.
Hey listen, has any word gone out of EH redoing/remastering properly the Core Hendrix Studio cd's??

Over this past weekend I did some a/b'ing of my New/Old Japan made 'Jimi Hendrix: The Singles Album'. I specifically a/b'd Hey Joe and 'All Along The Watchtower' with the newest EH issues on cd. Oh Brother-it's Dog Nuts Crazy how 'Harsh' the elevated mid-range Freqs sounds compared to the 'normal' Japanese issue. I've never done the a/b before because I never had a Japan P20 issue to compare it with, but now I can easily see that the EH releases are FAR from what they should sound like.
The should sound like 'Cry Of Love' and 'Rainbow Bridge'. But with this said I can almost bet that EH are going to Re Re Re RE issue the core remastered by Bernie because there's almost nothing else they can do with the catalog. So, do we have any fly's on the wall at the EH offices?????????
Now, the Japan 'Singles' isn't perfect, there is at least one track from ELL on there with distortion/siblence (?) distortion that sounds pretty bad. But it's just one song which I just forgot which one it is. But overall The Japanese cd sounds really close to perfect as far as freq balance, the bass is nice, mid bass is nice, midrange sounds natural and not harsh and the treble is very natural sounding, not over eq'd sounding, so now, I'm looking at like 25 hendrix cd's going........'Really'??
the beave

 

Forgive me if I missed it in this thread but what the general consensus on the 1993 MCA "The Experience Collection" four disc box set.I looked for the word Mankowitz on these and they list a Gerod Mankowitz for the photography or art.

 

People tend to dis them due to the use of no-noise. I tend to feel the same. I have all 4 for the artwork. Very nice alternate artwork but not as replacements.