Original master recordings

[Charlie O.]

Does anyone remember those gold CD that were called "Original master recordings" or something like that. What were those any whatever happended to them. Did they sound any better then normal CDs?

 

[Rachael B]

You're talking about Mobile Fidelity's Gold CD's. They went out of business and last year came back into business. Now they make hybrid SA-CD's. Their older Gold CD's generally sound better than other CD's, generally, but this is a subjective thing...

 

[Charlie O.]

Thanks. Is there any main reason why the gold CDs sound better?

 

[Bill Williams]

I have a couple of those Gold CDs, the original soundtrack to "Somewhere in Time" and the extended (by three cuts) soundtrack of "Dances With Wolves". For me, they sound a lot clearer than their regular CD counterparts.

 

[Mike Broadman]

The gold has nothing to do with the better sound. It's just these discs are usually mastered better and with more care, often using the original master tapes. Mobile Fidelity's discs (the ones that say Original Master Recordings with the album cover as a picture insert) vary in quality, with more being excellent than not. DCC's discs are all great. These are all out of print and most collector's get them on e-bay.

 

[Charlie O.]

Ok guys just one more question. A lot of these Mobile Fidelity's Gold CDs have been remaster after the Mobile Fidelity went OOP. Take the Pink Floyd albums for example. Would the 2000 release of The Wall sound better then Mobile Fidelity's Gold release of The Wall? What about the SACD of Dark Side. Would the CD layer sound better then the Mobile Fidelity's gold release? Mobile Fidelity's makes SACD hybird disc so did take the gold Dark Side and just add the 5.1 layer to it?

 

[ScottCHI]

many of those mobile fidelity remasterings ARE now available as plain ol' 20/24bit remastered redbooks.

aja and heavy weather, for example (i think).

 

[Mike Broadman]

Opinion is split on this one. I have not heard MoFi's.

MoFi did not do the Dark Side SACD, so I don't know how the MoFi and redbook compare.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

The Redbook layer of the DSotM SACD has had its dynamics mucked with to make some of the songs 'louder'.

To many of us, it is literally the worst version ever released. To some, that like a very clean but 'loud' sound, it is very good.