I've now listened to Moonage Daydream 3x2 times with my Grados, alternating between the Rykodisk and EMI versions. The song sounds fantastic with the Grados, irrespective of the version. I don't personally find the treble to be overly boosted on the EMI. Instead, I think the track has a bit more weight on the EMI CD, and, as with the rest of the album, sounds better to me than the Rykodisk. There are some parts of the track, for example between about 0:53-1:00, where it sounds a little bright on both of the CDs, but I'm unable to point out anything in the EMI version in the way of overly done treble when compared against the Rykodisk.

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The David Bowie remasters have more compression than the originals, which is easy to check with many wave file analysis programs. In the range of 10% to 20% more which isn't that big a deal. For instance, just a quick comparison between one of my favorites "Black Country Rock" using the Advanced Normalize/Compression function in Audiograbber shows the Rykodisc version with an average level of 64% and the Virgin at 81%, both normalized to a max of 100%. The Rykos don't seem to be much different than the originals in compression, but I don't have much overlap to compare. Many remasters are compressed much more than that, especially if the originals had a lot of dynamics, which the Bowie albums didn't for the most part. Most people seem to like the sound of more compression because it does tend to bring out all the attributes you listed. I find the late 90s Bowie remasters to not only sound more compressed compared to the original vinyl or CDs, with the punchy, somewhat bloated bass, but the worst offense for me is the cymbals that sound like a wash of white noise. The originals (even though not from the masters), and the Rykos, just have more airiness, and sound more natural to me. But not as big of a travesty as many remasters, I think Bowie just wanted a more "modern" sound.

There was an inexpensive vinyl reissue program of all the 70s albums in the early 80s from RCA International that sounds pretty good, and are fairly easy to find too. They were done by Bilbo at Tape One in the UK. Nice pressings. You still need the originals for the gatefold covers, but the sonics are better than any of the US pressings I've heard....

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f9/bow...9/#post4271897

"cymbals that sound like a wash of white noise"

That's a better description of what I was talking about and your post proves it is not just me or my equipment. It is most noticeable on Moonage Daydream in the right channel. It is more pronounced on my Paradigm speakers than my Totem speakers and that is because my Totem speakers have a textile dome tweeter compared to Paradigm's aluminium tweeter. I've also played it on a friends Polk speakers (silk polymer tweeter) and it is noticable on those too. My headphones are DT990pro which do have extended highs so I would probably prefer this recording on HD650 but even with EQ to tone down the high end on DT990pro it is still noticeable. I've been listening to Ziggy Stardust for 36 years now so am quite familiar with the album and its original RCA pressing.

I see the point about the cymbals. In my earlier post, I suggested (or at least meant to suggest) that both of the CDs shared some treble characteristics. To my ears, the cymbals sound pretty splashy regardless of the various masters. I can't say that I've been listening to the album for 36 years, but probably a good 30 nonetheless.

I realize it doesn't necessarily mean much that David Bowie himself is on record as saying that he didn't/doesn't like the Rykodisk remaster of Ziggy Stardust, referring to the sound as "weedy" (what does weed have to do with anything?), and I'm not suggesting that he finds the EMI remaster any better. But, it would seem that his ears were in the studio during the recording of the album, and ours weren't. Also, as I mentioned earlier on, there are some L-R channel anomalies on the Rykodisk (corrected on the EMI and 30th Anniversary remasters) that I find more distracting than the "wash of white noise."

P.S. milkweg, do you actually have the '99 EMI remaster? You mentioned on the previous page that you resisted buying Diamond Dogs from the same series due to DRM, so did you make a compromise with Ziggy Stardust, or did that one somehow manage to elude copy control? All of my '99 Bowie remasters supposedly contain copy control (no logo, just the text I mentioned earlier in the thread), but in practice, they don't behave as though there is any copy control.

I own the Ziggy EMI '99 remaster and it doesn't contain any DRM. I bought it just recently so maybe it is a re-issue and they removed the DRM because many people refuse to buy CDs with DRM. The Diamond Dogs remaster was in a bargain bin for very cheap and had a nice fold out cardboard cover and said it contained DRM on the back in small print. My Ziggy copy has none of that and is in the usual plastic CD case.

Mine is also in a normal jewel case, with no copy control logos anywhere to be found. Only the tiny text I mentioned on the first page when referring to the album "Heroes."

I am fundamentally opposed to buying discs with copy control, but having previous experience with the "Heroes" album and knowing it didn't cause the slightest problem on ripping or playback, I didn't have too much of a problem buying a disc with bogus protection.

I believe I've noticed that on Amazon.com, the current run of Bowie remasters are advertised as enhanced. Is yours such an animal, and if so, how it is enhanced? Is there a video included? My new Bowie remasters seem just like run of the mill UK-issued CDs.

My gut feeling is that there's very little chance the UK/EU and US pressings are the same, and thus there could be some minor sonic differences between the two, making a lot of this discussion baseless.

I think "Low" always sounded crappy. At least ever copy I had. just a very industrial sounding (intentional, I think) recording.

Yes, I think it was intentional because Bowie is capable of very good recording quality. I submit Lou Reed's Transformer as a good example. The Man Who Sold the World and Hunky Dory have good recording quality too considering the time period.

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Now that is a classic. I've got the original RCA CD, and have always prized it. I will be borrowing a friend's old (pre-1997) Raw Power CD in the coming days, and am very anxious to hear how it sounds compared to the Iggy Pop hack job.

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Just put the disk in the computer cd player now and am viewing the contents. There are some folders and a runme.exe. It's just some crap trying to get you to sign up to bowieNet.home and there is no enhanced content like a video or anything. I hate enhanced CDs anyway because whenever you put them in your computer and have autoplay enabled they play the enhanced content instead of the music. I took back a N.I.N. CD for a refund once because the enhanced content was interfering with my ability to just play the music.

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I had the RCA vinyl and RCA CD of Transformer at one time so compared them back to back. The vinyl had a deeper bottom end.