I have been having a bit of a Bob Electric Trinity binge -trying to decide top dog and have come to the slightly controversial decision that it is Highway 61 Revisited rather than the traditional Blonde On Blonde.
However I fear that my not fully peer reviewed double blind experiment (hello @DisappointmentBob ) may be fatally flawed. For you see the version of H61 that I own is made of the purest 24k GOLD. It says on the CD’s case
“Our 24k gold CDs reproduce the ultimate sound of a classic recorded performance without the digital harshness and irregular plated surface of standard aluminium discs.”
Now is this pure Barnum bunkham ? I’m sure we’ve all been in the electrical shop while some spotty high voiced teen tries to convince us that the gold plated SCART, audio connectors and the like will make the brand new kit we have just bought sound or look FABULOUS.
Just FYI my copy of Blonde On Blonde is also GOLD but BIABH is plain old aluminium.
Depends. Have you been keeping it in the freezer?
I once did that with two copies of Queen’s Innuendo. I’m not proud of that
You were clearly going slightly mad
ithangewe
Leaving aside the question of the elements – I am no scientist – I would agree with you that H61 rates above Blonde, but that Bringing It All Back Home is the pick of them all.
Can I just say I don’t like ‘Gates Of Eden’?
I know it was recorded in the same session as Mr Tambourine Man, It’s Alright Ma & Baby Blue so the genius tap was on FULL but I just find it a bit tiresome
It does go on a bit, but I like the rattle of homesick blues, maggies farm etc. mind you, H61 was the first one I bought and it has Ballad of a Thin Man and Like A Rolling Stone on it so it is always going to be up there with the best albums of all time.
I was strangely disappointed by Blonde on Blonde when I heard it – it seemed to lack the weird charged alchemy of the other two, and ‘the voice’ that every one does the impression of had taken hold
I still prefer the electric Desolation Row as that was the first version I heard on a bootleg tape a pal played but that song tips it over the edge to be his best album for me. Yes it’s a long bastard but all the images it throws up could keep other artist going for years
Nothing controversial about that. Highway 61 is Bob’s greatest album, and highly likely to remain so. Especially if you place a single sheet of paper under one speaker while playing it.
Remember to pit aluminium foil on your windows. Not the textured stuff. Shiny side on the inside.
Oh, and stand on one leg wearing a fedora.
Put, not pit.
Hope, not hate.
Coal, not dole.
Innuendo [noun] – an Italian condom.
Not putting that in the freezer.
To give a more serious, skeptical answer to your original question, to me it is bunkum. The pitch is trying to ascribe analogue characteristics to a digital medium.
As I’m sure you know, a digital signal in the simplest explanation is just a series of 1s & 0s. These are read by the laser in your player. The laser doesn’t distinguish between gold plated 1s and gold plated 0s and standard aluminium 1s and standard aluminium 0s. It’s a 1 or it’s a 0.
It could be argued perhaps that gold reflects the signal back more efficiently than aluminium. This might matter if the mechanism only read it once, but again, as I’m sure you know, it’s read thousands of times a second.
Indeed if, by some miracle of digital and quantum science, the laser could somehow distinguish the signals, who could say whether is preferred gold to aluminium? That would be ascribing human values to an objective system.
Having said all that CD sound can be improved through the purchase of my specially formulated SupaSeeDeeSound spray. Normal price £75 / 100 ml, but as you’re a friend a bottle can for yours for £20 or £35 for two (plus p&p).?
Just spray it on, leave for a couple of minutes and then you won’t believe your ears.
Have you tried listening whilst smoking dried banana skins, for that drug induced listening experience.
The gold cd’s. I have LA Woman on a gold disc and always thought it sounded noticeably rounded than the the non gold one. The logic kicked in and I thought how the fuck does a laser reading micro pitted zeros and ones on a piece of plastic know the bloody difference?
Let it Bleed on SACD too. What was the point of that?
It’ll cope better when it’s sandwiched between a pizza and a birthday cake.
I have the Japanese SACD of `Sticky Fingers` which is a flat transfer (no compression) and this sounds, to my ears, better than any other version I have heard including vinyl. If it had been a flat transfer to a normal CD, would it sound the same? I do not know. I appreciate that we have a few `tech guys` around here who can verify what I say or inform me that what I`ve said is a load of bollocks, that`s their opinion. i respect that.
The Dylan `Majestic Trilogy`, the best? IMO `Highway 61` gets my vote, probably the 2nd greatest LP of all time.
According to accoustic engineering articles I have read (setting myself up here for a technical kicking from someone no doubt) the thing that will change the sound of your CD more than all others is the mastering. The discs just reproduce what is written to them and if that lacks dynamics or tonal range then that is what you will get out. Other opinions are available, but wrong 🙂
The gold ones are produced by Audio Fidelity (amongst others), I think you pay extra for the different mastering as well as the whole package. You will probably hear a difference (improvement?) between these masterings and the bog standard CDs, however if you burn it to a regular silver CD it will sound the same.
We have a (technical) winner! All those gold CDs are mastered from the original first-generation master tapes without compression.
DCC became Audio Fidelity and they / their supplier have recently given up on gold CDs.
But of course original mono vinyl is the way to go (and BoB is better)
I was under the impression that the gold cd thingies were just more durable and less prone to errors, used for archiving and suchlike.
Oh and yes, Highway 61.
That, too – mastering studios and banks use them. Gold is more reflective than aluminium. The stuff CDRs are made from is less reflective. So you do get varying degrees of 1 or 0.
The laser optics in my car won’t play some cheap CDR brands. CDRs can go blank if you leave them in the sun / freezer (or glovebox). And aluminium can bronze, as PDO showed.
That`s it then, `Highway 61` wins by a landslide whatever the format.
I have Highway 61 as being the weakest of the three, but then that’s a bit like being the slowest member of the Jamaican sprint relay team.
Bob was on drugs, what are you insinuating?