Which would you prefer?

[jtrosky]

I have "Technical Ecstasy", "Cross Purposes", and "Paranoid". Need to check out their other albums. I am a HUGE Ozzy fan though.

Me too - was one of the first cassette tapes I bought myself (I think it was "Diary Of A Madman" or maybe "Bliizzard Of Ozz"). Have been hooked ever since. :-) Although, Bark At The Moon was probably the last Ozzy album I really enjoyed. Kind of went downhill after that, IMO.

[Hillbilly SQ]

Me too - was one of the first cassette tapes I bought myself (I think it was "Diary Of A Madman" or maybe "Bliizzard Of Ozz"). Have been hooked ever since. :-) Although, Bark At The Moon was probably the last Ozzy album I really enjoyed. Kind of went downhill after that, IMO.

I like Ozzmosis OK. I have Blizzard Of Ozz, The Ozzman Cometh, Bark At The Moon, No More Tears, Diary Of A Madman, Ozzmosis, and The Ultimate Sin. Not sure if you've heard the original basement tapes of "War Pigs" and "Black Sabbath" on the Ozzman Cometh "greatest hits" album but they have an eerie feel to them that just seems fitting even though the recording is terrible. The studio version on the Paranoid album just doesn't have the same feel to me.

This brings up another debate I've mentioned more than a couple times on the forums. There are albums that just wouldn't sound right if they were produced as perfect as possible. Billy Joel from the 70's all the way through to the 80's falls into that category. Gotta have that background hiss, rolled off top end, and somewhat raw but fitting for the genre sound that takes me back in time 30 years when I first heard them. To be honest, whoever produced Piano Man, 52nd Street, The Stranger, and An Innocent man (all time favorite album) did a brilliant job and was probably insanely good sounding for the time. The production fell off the rails for me with Storm Front and River of Dreams but his style changed about that time too. Need to source the cd's needed to round out a full collection of him.

[jettyman]

This is a easy one. Def rather lister to music I "like" even though it's old/crappy recordings. Mainly because that old crap recording music is way better than anything today (sadly). Black Sabbath is a great example. Complete shit recordings but you can't replicate Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward and Ozzy. The greatest heavy metal band of all time. All the newer bands bow down to Sabbath. All of them. For auditioning speakers/equipment though of course we have to listen to newer music.

[jtrosky]

I like Ozzmosis OK. I have Blizzard Of Ozz, The Ozzman Cometh, Bark At The Moon, No More Tears, Diary Of A Madman, Ozzmosis, and The Ultimate Sin. Not sure if you've heard the original basement tapes of "War Pigs" and "Black Sabbath" on the Ozzman Cometh "greatest hits" album but they have an eerie feel to them that just seems fitting even though the recording is terrible. The studio version on the Paranoid album just doesn't have the same feel to me.

This brings up another debate I've mentioned more than a couple times on the forums. There are albums that just wouldn't sound right if they were produced as perfect as possible. Billy Joel from the 70's all the way through to the 80's falls into that category. Gotta have that background hiss, rolled off top end, and somewhat raw but fitting for the genre sound that takes me back in time 30 years when I first heard them. To be honest, whoever produced Piano Man, 52nd Street, The Stranger, and An Innocent man (all time favorite album) did a brilliant job and was probably insanely good sounding for the time. The production fell off the rails for me with Storm Front and River of Dreams but his style changed about that time too. Need to source the cd's needed to round out a full collection of him.

Don't forget Billy Joels "Glass Houses"!

With Black Sabbath - I actually kind of like the recording quality. Maybe "quality" isn't the right word though. To your point, maybe it's better described as "recording style". I just think they got the levels of the drums, guitar and voice "just right" for that type of music. Yes, there is definitely some noise in the recordings, but like you said, it's kind of "expected" and wouldn't sound right without it.

Same with Led Zeppelin recordings. While not really "high quality" in a technical sense, the overall mix is spot on, IMO, which translates to "sounds good" to me.

And then, of course, we have Pink Floyds "The Wall" - I LOVE the recording quality of that album. Perfect tonal balance, lots of stereo effects, etc. Sounds awesome on a good system.

[Hillbilly SQ]

For auditioning speakers/equipment though of course we have to listen to newer music.

Meh, I'll put a couple reference tracks on a demo cd but also have a bad reputation for putting shit recordings on it of music I love.

[jtrosky]

Something else I've noticed. The sound quality difference between albums (even for the same song if it's on more than one album) can be HUGE.

A lot of times, even though I'll have the original CD, I'll just download the album from a torrent site - just because it's quicker and easier than ripping the CD myself. However, what I've found is that a lot of times, people try to play "recording engineer" and alter the recordings by adding bass, lowering treble, boosting volume, etc, etc, etc. Even if they don't do that, there is sometimes a huge difference in sound quality between the same album from different sources (regardless of whether they are flac, 320k mp3, etc). Hell, a lot of times, even the .mp3 version will sound better than the flac version.

A prefect example is the "The Best Of Black Sabbath" collection I've mentioned previously. Songs like "Lord of This World" and "Into The Void" sound *way* better from this album (at least the flac version I downloaded) than they do from other albums I've heard them on - even the "SACD" version of "Master Of Reality". I'm talking HUGE difference.

All of the songs on "The Best Of Black Sabbath" sound way better than they do on the original albums (regardless of mp3, flac, etc). The overall "tone" is just plain better.

If anyone is interested in the version of "The Best Of Black Sabbath" that I have (and own the original album, of course), please PM me - even if it's just to hear the difference between it and other "versions"... I literally can't listen to the songs from another album anymore - they sound like crap in comparison.

I've noticed the same thing with other albums too...

[Mullings]

I would rather listen to the music I love on a system with only the right rear speaker playing than the best recorded heavy metal in Steve’s pimp sled.

[Hillbilly SQ]

I would rather listen to the music I love on a system with only the right rear speaker playing than the best recorded heavy metal in Steve’s pimp sled.

U no likey headbanger tunez?

[Mullings]

Music couldn’t get worse������ IMO, especially the ones that you can’t even hear/figure out what the hell they’re saying. Not knocking anybody’s music, it’s just not my taste.

[Hillbilly SQ]

Music couldn’t get worse������ IMO, especially the ones that you can’t even hear/figure out what the hell they’re saying. Not knocking anybody’s music, it’s just not my taste.

There are several forms of heavy metal. I can't stand the cookie monster growl but that's death metal. Now bands like Pantera, Metallica, Megadeth, and others like them I'm on board with. On the flip side I can't stand a lot of jazz singers. When they start with the doowop and other random noises instead of actual words I'm done. They're in the same category as modern c-rappers as far as I'm concerned with the lazy writing style. And don't get me started on some sax and trumpet players. Just difference in opinion