Audiophile version of B. Springsteen's Born in the USA?

[Boris75]

I like this album very much, but my old CD was stolen. Ideally, I would like to buy an audiophile version to replace it. Would you be aware of one?

 

If not, do you know if the CDs currently available for sale are from the same master as the original issue from the 1980s or if they have been remastered with dynamic compression?

 

Thanks in advance for your help,

 

Boris.

[Robert Hutton]

I like this album very much, but my old CD was stolen. Ideally, I would like to buy an audiophile version to replace it. Would you be aware of one?

 

If not, do you know if the CDs currently available for sale are from the same master as the original issue from the 1980s or if they have been remastered with dynamic compression?

 

Thanks in advance for your help,

 

Boris.

 

Boris, there never was an "audiophile" version on CD of this album, I have the last Japanese issue and it is probably as good as it is going to be at this point.

 

As to "dynamic compression", if that is an issue with Born In The USA, avoid the title altogether, it isn't the opera. It was 'compressed' from the word go as pretty much every rock record has been for eons. There never was or will be a whole lot of dynamic range here. Personally, I just enjoy the music.

[Boris75]

Many thanks Robert for your reply. What is the reference of the Japanese issue you are referring to?

[Robert Hutton]

many thanks robert for your reply. What is the reference of the japanese issue you are referring to?

 

mhcp-728.

[Boris75]

Thanks. Just ordered - on its way from Japan to Europe...

[Boris75]

Boris, there never was an "audiophile" version on CD of this album, I have the last Japanese issue and it is probably as good as it is going to be at this point.

 

As to "dynamic compression", if that is an issue with Born In The USA, avoid the title altogether, it isn't the opera. It was 'compressed' from the word go as pretty much every rock record has been for eons. There never was or will be a whole lot of dynamic range here. Personally, I just enjoy the music.

 

Robert,

Thanks again for your recommendation. I am now listening to the Japanese version you recommended of Born in the USA, and I am experiencing again the pleasure I had when I first heard this album back in the 1980s. This really sounds like straingt rock, not like artificially compressed music. And for a good reason: in the Greatest Hits compilation, the DR of Born in the USA is 10, while it is 12 in this Japanese CD. This makes a big difference. The difference is even larger for Born to Run: over the Christmas holiday I had the pleasure of stumbling across the CD of Born To Run I bought in the 1980s which I thought had been stolen from me in a burglary twenty years ago. I was very pleased with it, and then I checked the DR of the Born to Run song on this first CD pressing of the eponymous album: 12. Then I checked the DR of the same Born To Run song on Springsteen's Greatest Hits: 9. When I listened to the Greatest Hits CD, I wondered why I liked Springsteen so much back in the 1980s. Now I know because, now that I listen to it with the right, original sound, it is just very, very good music to me.

Boris.