Audio Fidelity Dylan's Greatest Hits

Just what the name says.
czeskleba
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Audio Fidelity Dylan's Greatest Hits

Postby czeskleba » Wed Aug 15, 2012 10:59 pm

The thread about this disc over at SHTV is appearing and disappearing, getting edited, locked, and unlocked over and over. Luke, am I mistaken or did I see you post that you just received a copy of this disc before the thread was scrubbed and relocked? I'm just curious if it actually features vintage mixes of the Blonde on Blonde material or (more likely) uses one of the various remixes. If you do have the AF disc, I'd be happy to upload all the various mixes so you can compare and determine what's on there.

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lukpac
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Re: Audio Fidelity Dylan's Greatest Hits

Postby lukpac » Fri Aug 17, 2012 9:27 am

czeskleba wrote:The thread about this disc over at SHTV is appearing and disappearing, getting edited, locked, and unlocked over and over. Luke, am I mistaken or did I see you post that you just received a copy of this disc before the thread was scrubbed and relocked? I'm just curious if it actually features vintage mixes of the Blonde on Blonde material or (more likely) uses one of the various remixes. If you do have the AF disc, I'd be happy to upload all the various mixes so you can compare and determine what's on there.


Funny...I saw your name in the "who is online" thing in that thread and almost e-mailed you. This is what I posted, which kept getting deleted:

My copy arrived today.

Overall I'd say it's pretty similar to the 1999 GH remaster, although some tracks vary more than others. I Want You is arguably an upgrade on the AF; the '99 disc sounds somewhat nasal in comparison. There were a few other tracks that I thought sounded nicer on the AF. Beyond that, the two discs were still different, but not necessarily better or worse.

Sounds nice.


Roger Ford believes it is all the original mixes, and it seems to match the '99 GH CD, mix-wise:

"The BoB tracks are undoubtedly taken from the -3 stereo mix tapes. They're definitely not from the Brauer 1999 remix. So they're the same mixes as on the '99 GH CD. To me the sound is marginally better on the AF but not dramatically so."

Roger indicated Positively 4th Street is a half second longer than the '99 GH, but I haven't been able to check closely yet.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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lukpac
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Re: Audio Fidelity Dylan's Greatest Hits

Postby lukpac » Fri Aug 17, 2012 11:26 am

Doing some more brief listening. I'm not the Dylan expert, but there's definitely a significant difference between the sound of the BoB tracks on the AF and the SACD. I Want You in particular sounds pretty squashed in comparison, suggesting the vintage mix was used.

It seems like a lot of Columbia mixes from that era have a similar problem.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD