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As revealed I favored E and all the time was questioning my hearing when the majority voted A
having said that , the up tipped balance is at first endearing, and as Mikey mentioned a plethora
of speaker manufacturers emphasize this range, for me it is as evident with certain well heeled
cable manufacturers

a master made in the digital domain sounds better in a digital format, vinyl rips have the deficiencies of both formats too so as you said something from the AAA vinyl is certainly lost in translation

What kind of doctor is Dr Toby Mountain? Did he also work on those horrible Zappa remixes from the early '90s (an example that echoes MF's comment that musicians should not be remastering their own work!)

I voted for A because it is the most detailed and airy, albeit bright and a little thin, thinking it was the Japanese reissue, but at louder listening levels I swayed towards C. Only listened on headphones via a Naim Unitiserve / Unitiqute combination. I guessed B being the new reissue as it sounds tonally close to the 2015 remastered CD but I only listened to that one on Spotify. E would have been my last choice. Next time I will shuffle the files before listening.

'A' was brash and in your face. Much "louder", if you prefer. The other four were closer. 'B' had the opening guitar slightly deeper in the soundstage, with space around it. The others seem to present the guitar a bit drier and more forward, parallel with the speaker. In any of last four, there was a roundness to the sound, whereas the 'A' was very, very bright.

Brightness is something people tend to notice right away, as did I.

I recently bought a Korg DSD128 DAC for my computer. At first I thought it a wonderful improvement over my ASUS Xonar ST 192/24 PCM card. So many more details!

After a few days of listening, however, I went back to my ASUS card. The ASUS presentation was not as forward which means I could not hear fine details as distinctly, which I love, but the presentation was more balanced overall. I believe I will return the KORG DAC.

Overly bright presentations are like the New Coke: in small doses you prefer the sweetest drink they offer, but that doesn't mean you want to drink an entire can of it.

Mike, I very much enjoy these A/B sessions. Next time I will play it on my vinyl rig downstairs with my mainspeakers. When played there, the easiest way to tell AAA from ADA or DDD is the size of the sound stage. A great AAA release will fill the room far beyond the speakers, especially the gap between the two.

I remember playing an Alter Bridge UK LP release. I was so excited to hear it like I would my other LPs. I had no idea about digitally sourced LPs at the time. But the moment the music started, I said to my brother, "This came from a CD."

I am a big fan of the Disney Afternoon soundtrack. As it was made in 1990 it was recorded on tape, and the CD has a wonderful dynamic range, at least for a CD. I found that there is an 1994 LP release but only in South Korea. A friend of mine traveled to a local shop in Seoul and is sending me a copy. I wonder if it's AAA or ADA. Given the era I expect AAA, but the only way to tell is to play it on my main rig. Perhaps I could record snippets in 192/24 and DSD128 for a neat comparison to the CD and cassette and post it here?

This is my comment after I listened to them. "I figure A will be popular because it was tipped towards the brighter side of things. I thought C was overall the best combination of tight base and revealing character." I do a lot of listening with a wide variety of other folks and it really doesn't surprise me. I hear "rich & well balanced" and most others hear "tubby". They hear "warm & detailed" but I hear "thin-ish & bright". You can say that the systems make a difference, which they do, but I found the same thing happens when I'm with a bunch of audiophiles listening in sessions on the same system at the same time. Not saying one is better, I just find this to follow exactly what I notice on a regular basis.

The results could be because people are listening on computer speakers rather than their turntable setup.

Knowing the brightness of A before listening, I listened in EDCBA order and I still picked A. I ranked them ABEDC, with prolonged listening I might have chosen B as "best". I thought E sounded fine, D and C slightly muffled in comparison. The percussion sounded so good in B I was expecting A to sound harsh - but the vocals sounded clearest in A. I know some people are sensitive to sibilance but A certainly didn't sound harsh (for 45 seconds anyway).

I own both Ryko and Virgin CD versions of the song and the Virgin is SO bright in comparison that maybe the Ryko vinyl rip more closely matches my expectations when I hear the song. I would certainly take all these vinyl rips over the Virgin CD brightness and I usually up the treble more than most.

I guess I'm not surprised the Mercury "original" scored so low. Just because it is the very first edition doesn't mean Mercury didn't tailor the cutting master to the target audience - Bowie was considered folk rock/soft rock at the time and most likely softened the sound.

Hey Michael,

Just wondering what Japanese reissue was used in file B..?

'B' and 'E' were heads and shoulders my favorites.

'A' was impossible to listen to for me. 'C' and 'D' just sounded muddy / ill-defined.

Cheers,

Fish

Never would have guessed that I'd have picked the digital remaster > now I think I should pick up the the Rykodisc vinyl lol

I commented it might not be what I'd like listening long term. I thought E was a close second, which doesn't surprise me because I personally enjoy listening to needle drop digital.

1. Ask everyone to play it on the system where they do most of their vinyl listening.
2. Ask everyone to create a playlist with the files and hit shuffle so there's no order bias.
3. Ask everyone to listen to the playlist a couple of times before deciding.

I didn't listen to this through my system. Honestly I haven't spent the time to figure it out....and I'm using a Devialet 200! All my listening is done via my TT.

So just off the computer with a pair of Sennheiser 580's, right away A steam rolls you. It was very flat and not engaging. It came down to D and E for me in the end and though that E sounded a bit more obscured.

So not being done on a high resolution system may have completely skewed the results.

I like that analogy you gave about the speaker switch boxes and how our ears tend to gravitate towards brighter sounds. Our gravitation is based on science and unfortunately slick sales people use it to their advantage. You know they do the same with TVs in the stores. They set them all on dynamic and sometimes if they are really pushing a particular brand or model they will set that one on the brightest most dynamic setting and set the rest on standard or something making it appear that one is better than the rest when it's really only settings.

I wouldn't draw such broad conclusions from the test. These were 30 second samples, and to be honest I compared them without listening to the complete 30 seconds of each one.
I picked A, but I'm pretty sure if I owned that album it would have sounded fatiguing on extended listening. But that's not how I listened for the test.

I agree with firedog,as I also voted for "A", may not like it for long listenings but in a short snippit I liked it. Now my computer listening system is not all that good and even my cds sound better on my Oppo 83 SE than my cd rips on my PC. Now if I had the albums and could compare em on my rig my conclusion my well have been totally different. Again the interesting thing to me was how different the pressings sounded. A friend gave me a mixed cd he burnt and on it was a song off of Bowie's Low album, so I compared it with my Canadian Lp and Low and behold I liked the cd rip better. Imagine how I felt being a vinyl fanatic and having a cd rip sound better, that was until I came across a British pressing, which blew them both away! The ballance of my world was restored!!!

I hesitated between C and D and voted for D at the end. D had a subdued, almost gentle sound, everything was nicely balanced (at least to my ears). File A had an in-your-face sound, too much separation between the instruments, sound was too crisp, it reminded me of a CD sound. I find it interesting that file D is the new box set issue. I’ve noticed this “subtle and balanced sound” on a few other audiophile—mostly jazz—reissues as well. I don’t know if it is intentional, a calculated attempt to get things right or a result of a haphazard mastering. Some people find that new sound “muffled” and label the new pressing as a failure, but I kinda like some of them I must say.

But I just listened and liked D&E.

Would have chosen C by a wide margin. Followed by A and then D. B had some strong points but also some overwhelming flaws. And then E.

The real disappointment is that the labels didn't do whatever it was that Mikey did. Of course, I wanted the remaster to be the best but despite the resources they had on hand, Mikey's rip clearly sounded better.

I took your advice and listened for the "air" around the instruments. Based on that criteria, I found B to be a very rich and deep sound, and it was what I ended up preferring over the others. Compared to A which did at times seem more crisp in some ways, but also more dry. The final decision was made by turning up the volume and listening to B and A, which I felt showed the richness of B more. This was a tough test to train my ear, but it was fun!

The problem for me with the '71 UK was that it got dipped into a vat of late '60s/early '70s transistors. On vocal and left-channel percussion I heard too much sibilant brashness.

What bothered me about the Mercury original was sort of the opposite. A bit too much mush, especially in mid bass.

The Japanese and new box offered the best overall balance here, without giving up the finer qualities of what the rt-channel rhythm guitar, organ "pulses" and vocal flanging was doing. You CAN'T retain all of that without legit high definition.

The less said about the Ryko the better. Quite plasticky and one dimensional.

What a fantastic song.