Sound quality - UK vs US

Do the U.K. releases on London have better sound quality than the U.S. Warner Brothers releases? Have they been remastered? After playing the American released Cd's to death in the car, and noticing skips and such on the disc's, I am now thinking of replacing my NO catalog. Should I go with the U.K. pressings?

that's no good shug - those have different tracks on!

new house has top quality sound system (listening to the order with hooky blasting through a subwoofer is amazing)

dont have any london rereleases, but can compare factory to qwest on some when settled in properly

Collect the Bootlegs, thats where the real New Order are

I am more interested in the actual sound quality. Were the released London cd's remastered? Was the transfer from the old original Factory records tapes a new cleaner transfer or is it all the same generation as the U.S. pressings. Any sound difference would be in the earlier cd's, maybe even up to and including the Technique release. I may be making several assumptions here. One, the cd sound can be improved upon, two the London releases may be better because of the recent release dates on those Cd's.

Maybe another question for those who live in the U.K., how does the sound quality of the recent London re-releases compare to the original Factory records releases on cd?

Anybody have copies of the two that they can compare?

Doesn't really matter. The older Factory pressings were not the best for sure. Most of the back catalogue was remastered a bit in 95 and then some in 97. So, really it does not matter. Sometimes it's up to the individual ear.

Me...I STILL prefer the vinyl!!

There's no real difference in sound quality between the Factory and London versions, so I don't think much remastering went on there.

Another option would be a new car CD player!:)

Originally posted by death of art There's no real difference in sound quality between the Factory and London versions, so I don't think much remastering went on there.Another option would be a new car CD player!:)

Maybe nothing really obvious but give a listen to STILL...big, mondo difference!!

Originally posted by cmsanto Do the U.K. releases on London have better sound quality than the U.S. Warner Brothers releases?Have they been remastered?After playing the American released Cd's to death in the car, and noticing skips and such on the disc's, I am now thinking of replacing my NO catalog.Should I go with the U.K. pressings?

Yes. You should try to find the original Factory pressings of each album. That way you have the releases in their proper format with the correct layout, fonts, tracklistings etc. When in doubt, go Factory!

Me...I STILL prefer the vinyl!!

I agree, especially with older NO, pre-technique. Power Corruption and Lies for one seemed to loose a lot when it got transferred to cd. The highs and lows were there but the richness of the record seemed to be missing.

As for the first Factory cd transfers, I do not think they would have the best sound. CD technology really changed after the first ten years or so. Sometimes record companies took the source material right off the vinyl instead of going into the vaults and finding the tapes.

Anyway, the American releases all seem to be based on early transfers, whatever the source material was. I may give the U.K. recent re-releases a shot. At least those seem to have the same track listings as the original Factory releases. And if they got any re-mastering, well all the better. :)

Originally posted by cmsanto > Me...I STILL prefer the vinyl!!I agree, especially with older NO, pre-technique. Power Corruption and Lies for one seemed to loose a lot when it got transferred to cd. The highs and lows were there but the richness of the record seemed to be missing.As for the first Factory cd transfers, I do not think they would have the best sound. CD technology really changed after the first ten years or so. Sometimes record companies took the source material right off the vinyl instead of going into the vaults and finding the tapes. Anyway, the American releases all seem to be based on early transfers, whatever the source material was. I may give the U.K. recent re-releases a shot. At least those seem to have the same track listings as the original Factory releases. And if they got any re-mastering, well all the better. :)

To each his/her own...enjoy!!

Of course I could be wrong in regards to recent re-releases. They may sound just as good or bad as the U.S. releases or the original Factory releases. But that’s why I started this thread - to see if anybody had noticed any sound quality differences.

Originally posted by cmsanto I am more interested in the actual sound quality.Were the released London cd's remastered?

From the Movement entry in the New Order Discography:

Q: Am I going crazy or do some re-issued CDs sound different? A: It seems as if the re-mastered CD from Europe (early 2000) has the channels reversed compared to the original Factory issue.

So it seems as if some (if not all) studio albums were cleaned up (?!) by London. I don't have the latest reissues, nor do I have the ears to compare... ;)

I believe also that some recent (from this millenium) releases in Japan claimed to be remastered but they were simply reissued...

/TLV

It seems as if the re-mastered CD from Europe (early 2000) has the channels reversed compared to the original Factory issue.

But the sound does sound better on the U.S. Qwest Records edition, no. 9 45089-2.

Except for Movement, overall I thought the U.K./European London Records editions had the same sound as the U.S. versions. There were other differences. The packaging seems to be better on the U.K. Power Corruption Lies, and U.K. Low-life. Packaging is worse on the U.K. Brotherhood. The song selection on the U.K. Power Corruption lies does not have Blue Monday and the Beach, which is a good thing since it wasn't on the original album and I feel that those tracks really break up the ambiance of the record. Also, the U.K. version of Brotherhood has the extra track state of the Nation. I’m not sure why it was added to the U.K. but not the U.S. versions.

I should note that having recently scratched up my U.S. copies of Technique and Power Corruption and Lies, I couldn’t make a sound comparison. The sound on the U.K. version of Technique really jumps out at you, truly a wonderful sound, but this could be true of the U.S. version as well, but I don’t recall it sounding this good.

Power, corruption and Lies, on the other hand, does sound to me as I remember it, complete with noticeable tape defects if you listen carefully. Granted, I am far from an expert but to my ears, this last recording could use a re-master done from the original source tapes.