CD's of the late 80's

I'd be curious to know which ones you have. Which ones do you recommend getting?

i have a few that are fine, but just as many are flat and undynamic. a lot of the early CD pressings were not based on the master tapes at all, and suffer from loss of quality due to analog tape transfer.

for instance, my 80s copies of Elvis Costello's first four albums, released by Columbia, are not nearly as good as the Ryko reissues. similarly, the Frank Zappa double-album of Apostrophe and Over-Nite Sensation is not up to par.

on the other hand, my Rickie Lee Jones CDs sound great... but her first two albums are notoriously well-recorded.

Yeah. Most of them are well recorded and with their dynamic range fully intact.
Unlike most (at least many) CDs from these days...

In fact, George Michael's 'Faith' and Bryan Adams' 'Cuts Like A Knife' are included in the article 'The Death of Dynamic Range'

The Death Of Dynamic Range

I found this reading material helpful in my search for used 80s cds.
On the other hand, one of my favorites; Heart's selftitled 1985 release is supposed to suffer from a lack of bass. So they're not all winners.

As far as I know, none of these three cds I mentioned^ have been remastered, louder or otherwise.

I collect vintage CDs (i.e. first pressings) and you are right about their sound quality. It's very ironic that after almost 28 years of production, we'd have to go back to the early CDs to get the best sound quality.

However, just because a CD is from the 80s, that doesn't mean they are inexpensive. Due to low production quantities, some of these vintage CD can cost a lot due to their collectibility (i.e. early Japanese CD pressings).

Yeah, hence why I used the "most" word, as I know there are exceptions.

Thanx for the reply. I'm one of the those who thought the further one goes back(ie. the 80s) the better the cds sound. It wasn't until I looked at others' views of that Heart effort that I realised this wasn't necessarily the case. Sorry if it sounded like I was disagreeing.

Best sounding late eighties CD, imo:

Enya ~ Watermark

If you didn't jump on the CD bandwagon back then, this CD would make anyone a convert.

unless you can't stand enya

Anybody notice how you have to crank up the volume when listening to 80s CDs?

R.I.P. dynamic range!

Some of the 80's cds are studio art, and some no so much of the studio art, they used exciters those days and with today equipment you can easy hear the differences between them. In some cases you can hear the sync is off, or a lot of noise /static /hum/ buzz and hisses, so not all of the 80's cds are still masterpiece.

Obviously there still is plenty of '80s material that isn't too great-sounding - if it was a small indie production, you typically notice. The good stuff can be brilliant though. Compiling a list (up to ca. the mid-'90s) sounds like a good idea.

I'll keep an eye on the Enya album. Otherwise it's hard to go wrong with Peter Gabriel or Laurie Anderson. I also like Alphaville's Forever Young, Miriam Makeba's Sangoma and (getting into the '90s) Mike Oldfield's Songs Of Distant Earth. Kate Bush's stuff generally is rather decent-sounding as well (with the notable exception of the Red Shoes). Siouxsie and the Banshees' Peepshow is pretty good, too.
In terms of CDs with some "'80s patina" (maybe a little thin and/or with a bit too much highs content) but otherwise rather good sound, I have a-ha's Hunting High And Low and Tanita Tikaram's Ancient Heart.

Let's see what I'll think of Jennifer Warnes' Famous Blue Raincoat, just ordered it.
EDIT: It's a bit of a mixed bag. While generally recorded well, some "'80s patina" is readily apparent, sometimes more, sometimes less (not that much deep bass in some tracks). Album gain is +3.57 dB, highest level about -3.46 dB. DDD.

I also got in Suzanne Vega's self-titled album from '85, that's quite nice-sounding. (ADD.) Fast forward to '92 with "99.9F°", and you find some use of a brickwall limiter (as well as analog compressor, I think) - it didn't have very much to do yet though. This album is quite advanced for its time anyway. Interestingly, it seems to be a completely analog production.

Still a bit heavy on the highs but quite dynamic is Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby ('87). Pretty good overall.

None of the discs were balanced too well mechanically btw. One even made the drive spin down and still gave a good bit of noise at 8x speed.

Talk Talk, Talking Heads, B52's, The Cure, Police, Madness, Grace Jones, UB40, INXS are also a good example of the 80's productions. As well the 80's was a big revolution with the electronic music