Quote Originally Posted by progfan
All in all I think CDs have gotten better over the years, but here's an interesting exception-Jethro Tull's Aqualung. When that one came out on CD back in the mid eighties, it was a notorious example of a bad CD transfer. I don't think the 1997 remaster does much to correct it outside of reducing the level of hiss. It still sounds like a flat recording to my ears.
I have owned six different versions of Aqualung. I still have two of them--the DCC gold disk that was mastered by Steve Hoffman from Ian Anderson's personal master, and the Mobile Fidelity vinyl I've owned for over two decades now. Both sound different from each other, but neither of them are going to win any awards. However, they are the best versions I know of sonically speaking.

The fact is the original mix is to blame. Aqualung was recorded in a studio that had either just been constructed or had been totally redesigned. Anyway, the sound coming back to the band via the studio monitors was not the sound going onto the tape. Hence, the flat sound with anemic bass. The only possible fix is a remix. (Hopefully, in SACD or DVD Audio.)

Dave M