Found clean, very clean versions of all 8 ABBA Albums

I am a bit excited, started investigating a new bunch of ABBA recordings.

Below is a list of the the titles/ID#s, but these really are better than my other early Polar/Polydor CDs.

It was really surprising indeed, and my excitement is somewhat profound, because I just happen a few days ago to have gotten the decoder software fully functioning.

Very much enjoying versions that are obviously much closer to the mix than my other copies .  (Even closer to the mix because the pre-distribution processing is removed by the software.)

The sound is 'dry', relatively uncompressed.   Clean highs, more distinct, unburied 'S' sounds.  Almost *no* garble...

Really amazing, clean, crisp ABBA.   This is NOT just the result of decoding, but the CDs are as clean as conventional distribution I have ever heard to begin with.

Waterloo 550 0342
ABBA 831 596-2
The Visitors 800 011-2
The Album 821 217-9
Voulez Vous 821 320-2
Ring Ring 843 642-2
Super Trouper 800 023-2
Arrival  821 319-2

These appear to be very notably better than other CDs from the same manufacturer and ID#.   In some cases, however, the ID number is different than my previous ones, in other cases, the ID is the same.

Has anyone ever seen such profound variation witih the same ID?   For example, my first, previously utilized Polydor 'Ring Ring' with the same ID has a more 'garbled' sound than the one I just opened up.  I investigated these new ones because I was informed that these were an 'original', 'high quality' version.   There is *definitely* a big difference.

How does one distinguish?   This is telling me that distribution copies with IDs that match might sound different?

Are there other codes that can distinguish?

Is this showing a generation loss on my previous copies?

45 minutes ago, Rene Asologuitar said:

Hi John,

This is very interesting.

Your love for ABBA and their recordings are truly profound.

I love their songs as well.

Hope to be able to track your questions.

Respectfully,

Rene

I do like ABBA, but also think of their recordings as a somewhat interesting test case.  Their technical style is unlike any group that I know of, and is a certain kind of technical challenge.  The variation is mastering is also astounding.

Back at the beginning of my project, I was thinking that if the decoder can adequately process the ABBA recordings, it would be close to being able to process most other recordings.   Interestingly, because of the wide variation in qualities of different releases, ABBA is a very wide target.

Plus, I really did enjoy ABBAs recordings when young.

Sometimes, I really do lament the inabilitiy for the average consumer to be able the hear the 'ultimate' quality of many really great artists.   ABBA is one group that I have still not been able to reliably determine what the original mix on many of their recordings should have sounded like. 

Finding these CDs gets me a little closer to what the recordings actually sound like, but there is still some work to do.

You also like Abba star. It's really been a long time since I've listened to her music. My parents really liked this band. However, I've only heard of "happy new year" and some of their other songs. I don't remember their names very well but overall, their voices are very good, the MV is pretty and the melody is catchy. But I advise you not to listen to the CD because the songs are quite old.

Are the other early version looking bronze like or discoloured? CD Rot is a real issue. I had a polydor CD replaced by the manufacturer at one time because it rotted within 10 years or so. It was playable but the sound was poor due to heavy reliance on error correction algorithms.

On 5/18/2023 at 2:26 AM, Lesley said:

You also like Abba star. It's really been a long time since I've listened to her music. My parents really liked this band. However, I've only heard of "happy new year" and some of their other songs. I don't remember their names very well but overall, their voices are very good, the MV is pretty and the melody is catchy. But I advise you not to listen to the CD because the songs are quite old.

😁

Each of us has our own taste.    Honestly, I have seldom been able to enjoy even the near perfect, probably best normally available (apparently before normal Polydor releases) copies.   I also have some CDs that apparently were created *before* the ubiquitious 'digital sound' processing that started in the middle 1980s'.   The 1992/1993 ABBA Gold releases were apparently created by using DolbyA processed material before the ubiquitious 'digital sound' processing.   That DolbyA pre-processing is the reason why those releases were so terribly bright, but also seem to give the 'studio mix' instead of the 'mastered' versions.   REALLY GOOD, but my processing isn't quite good enough to totally/completely undo the 'digital sound' processing.   ('digital sound' was first complained about when CDs were introduced, eventually complaints diminished once the listener's hearing system adapted to the temporal & dynamics distortion.)

It is so sad that so much entertaining music is lost/or mostly ignored...    I love ABBA, Carpenters, Brubeck, a lot of Classical, and even some of the Taylor Swift and Carly Rae teeny cr*p. Too bad that my 'mental dsp' has been 'enabled' for so long that I analyze the technical aspects instead of being able to listen (problem started when my project did) -- the extreme concentration does 'bad touch' to enjoying the music.

Hopefully, a few months after I develop more confidence in my 'digital sound removal' software, then maybe I can listen for fun again?.   (I honestly hear the distortion in the 'digital sound' CDs, making them often unbearable.   My project started partially because of that, was even the true motivation of my DolbyA decoding software also.)

John