3 best sounding albums you own

I guess classical doesn't count, right? :D (and jazz probably doesn't as well).

Well, then I have somewhere the original, unremastered CD versions of both Wish You Were Here and Animals. Also both vinyl and original CD version of A Night at the Opera and vinyl versions of early Genesis (Cryme->Foxtrot->Selling).

Oh, and production and sound-wise, I have Dylan's Blonde on Blonde on both CD and vinyl for that "thin wild mercury" sound that's so sweet.
 
As far as guitar sounds go, I think my favorite might be found on Iced Earth’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. So much crunch, so much power, fuck yeah.
 
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Queensryche - Empire
Metallica - Master Of Puppets
And I guess Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral. That bass on Closer is something else!
 
Shocked I didn’t bring this up already, but Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell is the very definition of pristine. What’s amazing for such an “over-the-top” album is that everything is layered in such a way that it doesn’t overwhelm you. It’s spread out, allowing each instrument to sound great on its own and as part of the ensemble. Also a lot of layers. The piano sounds amazing but guitars are just flying around in the mix adding some metallic spice and it’s just really cool. Also, and I say this emphatically, it has the best drum sound of any album ever. They’re in the forefront and sound polished and crisp and just perfect. Every aspect of this album is just so cool.
 
:) Listened to it a few days ago.
It remains their best sounding album.
A feast with headphones this one...
You should check out the dcc gold version, the so called ”audiophile remaster”. It can be found around the web or for an obscene amount of money on discogs.
 
You should check out the dcc gold version, the so called ”audiophile remaster”. It can be found around the web or for an obscene amount of money on discogs.
You don’t happen to have any links, do you?
 
Recently bought Jethro Tull´s Under Wraps remaster. Although it´s not their best and according to many progfans even their worst album but the sound is superb. Maybe it´s because I´m a child of the 80´s and started with elektropop and new wave before prog and metal but I really dig this maligned disc alot.
 
Shocked I didn’t bring this up already, but Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell is the very definition of pristine. What’s amazing for such an “over-the-top” album is that everything is layered in such a way that it doesn’t overwhelm you. It’s spread out, allowing each instrument to sound great on its own and as part of the ensemble. Also a lot of layers. The piano sounds amazing but guitars are just flying around in the mix adding some metallic spice and it’s just really cool. Also, and I say this emphatically, it has the best drum sound of any album ever. They’re in the forefront and sound polished and crisp and just perfect. Every aspect of this album is just so cool.
All three are pretty good. Sure the first one is very 70s, but the mixing and production are top notch and the third one was given the same treatment as I and II sans Steinman.
 
Recently bought Jethro Tull´s Under Wraps remaster. Although it´s not their best and according to many progfans even their worst album but the sound is superb. Maybe it´s because I´m a child of the 80´s and started with elektropop and new wave before prog and metal but I really dig this maligned disc alot.
Is that one of the Steven Wilson (of Porcupine Tree fame) reissues? His remasters/remixes of Jethro Tull's catalog are highly regarded in audiophile circles. (EDIT: See post #6 above in this thread, in which I listed the Wilson version of Aqualung as one of my best-sounding discs!) Wilson has also done some strong production work with Opeth, particularly his mixing of Pale Communion.
 
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Is that one of the Steven Wilson (of Porcupine Tree fame) reissues? His remasters/remixes of Jethro Tull's catalog are highly regarded in audiophile circles. (EDIT: See post #6 above in this thread, in which I listed the Wilson version of Aqualung as one of my best-sounding discs!) Wilson has also done some strong production work with Opeth, particularly his mixing of Pale Communion.
That means I may have his reissue of Aqualung, explains a lot. I also got Thick as a Brick and I LOVE that song, er, "album."
 
Is that one of the Steven Wilson (of Porcupine Tree fame) reissues? His remasters/remixes of Jethro Tull's catalog are highly regarded in audiophile circles. (EDIT: See post #6 above in this thread, in which I listed the Wilson version of Aqualung as one of my best-sounding discs!) Wilson has also done some strong production work with Opeth, particularly his mixing of Pale Communion.
The version I own is the 2005 remaster. :)
Haven´t heard the Wilson version of Aqualung, might check that one out.
 
All three are pretty good. Sure the first one is very 70s, but the mixing and production are top notch and the third one was given the same treatment as I and II sans Steinman.
The first one doesn't sound quite so good but I think that's just down to the fact that the technology was a bit more limited back then. Also that I've only listened to the remaster, since that's the CD they sell nowadays. The great aspects are truly great, but it's not a perfect mix like the second one is. Third I think is slightly messier and also Child is not Steinman and for that sheer fact alone it's not as good. :p

Back when recording the first Bat Out of Hell, Steinman always looked at it as Meat being like Marlon Brando in The Godfather, and himself being Francis Ford Coppola. This comparison holds up really well. Just like The Godfather, the first two Bats are among the greatest albums ever made, and the third is just... fine. I *like* Bat III, and it's one of the better non-Steinman Meat Loaf albums, but it just doesn't compare to the first two at all. Even if Bat II *is* assembled from a lot of songs Steinman already had recorded, it's still absolutely amazing in every way. Genuinely don't know which of the first two Bats I like more.
 
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