Hyper-compressed Loudness Wars release

1 Stars
Posted
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
by
dobyblue
Unfortunately with Sony chances are remastering details are going to be hard to find when they reissue high resolution versions of catalogue titles and this one is no exception, in fact I don't even think it mentioned that it's been remastered but it clearly has...the dynamics have been stripped from this release and it has been heavily compressed in the mastering stage. There are no credits here, so I have no idea who is responsible for it, but sadly this "High Resolution" release is beaten in every regard by the initial CD release.
There is no sonic information above 48kHz here so if you do love the sound of dynamically challenged recordings then pick up the 24/96 version.
The tracks most affected are the Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Mother Love Bone and Pearl Jam tracks. The Chloe Dancer track is even more compressed than the new Mother Love Bone 24/96 collection and that was already "over-loudnessed". Hendrix and Cornell tracks not as bad.
Bad Sony, bad, bad bad. One star.