105
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #249,270 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★☆☆☆
There's one reason you can't buy this...
I guess the big question I have is "why"? (Other than revenue). I used my new Cambridge Audio Azur 640C CD player, and my Grado Reference Series R2 headphones to compare this remaster with the 94 Virgin remaster.
This remaster is brighter and louder. The brightness is a tad annoying though because it's turned up so much that the highs are too "thin" -- the high-hats on Charlie's drums are tinny and have no pop at all. Upping the volume doesn't make the sound richer (my Grados don't lie folks). Mick's voice has a more resonant "separation" than the Virgin remaster -- it sounds less "muddled".
The packaging is a disappointment too. The Virgin "Collector's Edition" gives you the ACTUAL original album packaging (cardboard Goats Head Soup photo, and gatefold with "album" sleeve -- I have yet to see a better CD package for the Stones). This remaster groups all that together in a booklet, which makes you wonder again... why?
I bought all these remasters just to test out the sound, but I'm hoping Mick and the boys will take more control over their legacy before they let the record companies turn their catalog into the chaos that RCA has done to Elvis'.
And folks... whatever they've done to Star Star means the whole thing is corrupted. You cannot buy this as your only copy of GHS, because they've done some kind of censoring to Star Star. Why has this occurred? That alone means you need to skip this. I wonder... did the Stones OK this?
