Classic rock: best remasters

Assuming for a moment that reissues are intended by the record companies to actually make money, not to sell to audiophiles, reissues will be more and more dynamically compressed so they can up the level. This way the sound is more appealing, I.e., louder, to those folks with earphones and iPods, things of that nature.

It's true that is where the biggest market is these days but I think it mostly impacts newer pop recordings targeting the mass market.

Still better probably than what I remember hearing coming out of my AM radio which was the closest equivalent back in the day.

Its always a mixed bag, and the nature of the mix changes over time.

I think the Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree) produced remasters are excellent especially the 40th anniversary edition of Aqualung. He also did the ELP catalog, but I have not heard them. I need to be enticed with extra goodies to buy another edition of a cd I already have. My favorite "deluxe" editions include a second disc of out takes or better yet, a live concert. Clapton has a few, Traffic's "John Barleycorn" is a good one. I am waiting for Supertramps's "Crime of the Century' which was recently released with a 2nd live disc. The original was an excellent recording so I am curious.

Phase: you are limiting the field if we exclude "premium" re-do's (e.g. the SRV set at 45 is just phenomenal). Limited to 'standard' releases, I agree re Steve Wilson's work: his remix of Tull's Benefit is far more coherent than the UK or US first presses (which sound muddy); that Ziggy/Spiders re-do from several years ago is very good compared to the average standard issue (although a UK 6E-4E is still better sounding in my estimation); agree that Space in Time on AF sounds very good, though I didn't have an original pressing to do a direct comparison; there is a Chris Bellman re-cut of Alice Cooper's 'Killer' that was issued in the EU that is very good. Ditto Bellman's re-cut of Harvest- I still prefer the original pressing, but a quiet copy is hard to find and the re-do is a little 'clearer' sounding, compared to the original, which sounds a little congested, though more 'organic.' None of these are particularly expensive. The Zep re-do's are serviceable for those who don't want to spend big money on the right pressings, but they aren't in the same ballpark as the right early pressings. The Beatles Mono releases are great!

I find it oddly amusing there is a resurgence back to first generation CD releases...anybody remember the audiophile community response...in short...not good. Now granted, some of these are youngsters who grew up on MP3, never heard vinyl, and ate being sold on something "uncompressed."However, as others have stated, compression is only one small part of the spectrum.