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There are lots of early CDs that sounded like crap, but items such as Dire Straits' 'Love Over Gold' from the original 1982 batch that launched the CD era show that there were no *technical* limitations at launch. I remember purchasing Love Over Gold early in 1983 and my copy sounds better every time I upgrade my player.

Do any of you have a CD from this era that you still favor despite later remasters?

Two that come to mind are Queen - Greatest Hits and Fleetwood Mac S/T, both original West German target pressings.

chrischross wrote:Two that come to mind are Queen - Greatest Hits and Fleetwood Mac S/T, both original West German target pressings.

I've seen mention of these "target" pressings a lot. Since I never bothered following the discussions, a few questions:

1) Where were these marketed? Ie, were these US releases that were pressed in Germany (like how many labels pressed their early US releases in Japan), or were they UK/Euro releases?

2) These are all somehow different from "domestic" copies? Every title was (allegedly) remastered? If so, has anyone ever done any comparisons to prove it?

It just seems odd that later pressings wouldn't use the same digital masters.

1) The former, in most cases (I bought many in the States in the early days of CD), though I believe UK/Europe got the same stuff we did in large part, maybe with slightly different labelling.

2) I'd strongly doubt it -- I'll bet many of the eventual non-target versions are the same thing. Lots of weird stuff happened in the old days, though, so who knows...

I wish I still had some of my old targets to compare with the later issues, but I sold them all off but one a long time ago. (Some were even in SMOOTH SIDED jewel cases!)

Ryan