I personally just don’t like how he does things. I frequently hear distortion in loud parts, muddy bass, and really hard panning that sounds uncomfortable in headphones. Doesn’t matter if it’s CD or vinyl or streaming.
I know people will immediately come for me for my setup, but please, I know this isn’t the case because nothing else I listen to has these kinds of issues. I am a professional musician and I have worked in recording studios. I have sensitive hearing and perfect pitch that runs in my family. I have a nice setup that I love and enjoy thoroughly with other recordings. I have actually invested quite a bit of time and money into trying to figure out if it is my setup or not, and I know it’s not. The flaws are more noticeable in headphones (I’ve tried about a half dozen different ones to confirm), and I wonder if he doesn’t check to make sure his masters work well on headphones before signing off on them.
I know that he is often revered and I almost never hear anything bad about him. And I’ll admit that not everything he does is bad. But in general I actually get kind of frustrated listening to his remasters and the way they sound. And I’m curious if anyone else has heard what I’ve heard.
I was a professional musician before switching to academia. Lots of experience in the studio and very familiar with the production and mastering processes. It certainly does make a difference - you’re right.
My question about original masters was partly about sounds quality, but it’s also about the perception of “authenticity.” I’ve seen a lot of vinyl collectors spend bundles for original pressings based on the idea that they’re getting a more authentic experience (relative to the time of the recording), but this says very little about objective quality (to the extent that it’s quantifiable). Seems like there are cases where it crosses the threshold into fetishism.
Not making any judgments about you, personally. Just making some conversation.
Truthfully, there’s just some rock bands and artists I’d care about getting original albums, unless it was classical or Jazz. There’s not a big market for remastered classic or jazz unless more channels were added for surround sound
Otherwise, most of what I collect are modern artists and bands that would be classified as indi music in the USA.
But right now I’ve been exploring European indi music.