David BowieStation to Station 2016

Love the legand

I saw the full Deluxe edition, and I must admit I did want that, but I wanted so many other CDs music, and DVDsthat I had to compromise. I have bought some of the super fan collections of items, but I can't do that with everyset. I will admit that this has the great material, a remastered Station to Station, which I had only heard certaintracks in collections before, so the first disc ( The Studio Album) is great, with awesome detail in the mix, andthe live double disc is new to me, but is still a great set, whether heard before or not, its a unique performanceand great to listen to, since Bowie is one of those performers who give each date a unique edge, and the othermusicians give the studio version plus something extra so that you get an extra bonus for sure.The Set has a bunch of great items, the booklet is a part of a larger set that must be the Deluxe set witheverything thrown in, but it still looks great in the booklet set since it gives a great insight, and I am sure thebook will come out for a while as an item for fans. I remember seeing Bowie sometime around this period on theKenny Everett show, and he was a total scream. Whilst the Studio album is great all around, tracks 2,5, and 6 areones that stand out and have been the perennials.The live discs have varying degrees of greatness, but I enjoy things like the very evocative tone of track 15 ( FIVE YEARS) which has a continuation of the studio style, butthat was lacking a little in tone, so the live version has somewhat more power.At various points in the Live discs,it speeds up tracks as you might know them, which is pretty standard for live albums, and Panic in Detroit is wherethe Band is introduced. The rest of the Live Album is a great experience in my opinion, even when compared to ,for example, the GLASS SPIDERS tour, which had something else added to it that made it have a very different tone.But both of these shows are top arguments for Video-ed shows, or at the very least having Large Screens, since bothhere and in some other Continents, the performances are almost indecernible with the theatrics without a largescreen if you are more than 15 rows back.The little extras are great. The booklet has photos of Tickets, but I would have liked the approach somespecial editions did where the Laminates were reproduced. Minor but significant. the Special edition overall is agreat buy, but if you can afford the deluxe edition, go for it, I know that with deluxe editions in other cases, Ibought it, and with the right package, it is a great buy for fans, maybe not so good for the casual listener. Andin that theme, if you want an intro to Bowie from this period without a Nosebleed price, the Special edition ispretty good. And you can get the studio Album on its own if you just want that for a new listener. At the veryleast you can appreciate the musicianship. But, I was happy with the Special edition, I just wish I could have gotthe Deluxe version/edition.

Alright so I plugged this one into my MacBook and hooked up my monitors to hear the difference. I had bought the earlier CD master for my girlfriend back in December along with all the other Bowie albums as a Christmas gift and she let me keep lossless digital copies. Then I saw this "2016 remastered version" on Amazon and I felt so chumped and figured I would buy it because it must sound way better!Here are the things I noticed. The 2000 master has a higher noise floor. At the start of Station to Station I could hear the white noise come in a lot earlier, and it drowned out the beginning flanger effect a lot more than on the new 2016 remaster. So that's one update.I also noticed they equalized the masters in the new version to kill that brittle 90s CD sound. The highs are not so sibilant and hard on the ears. They brought the focus back to the whole spectrum of the song, whereas before there was much more hiss and bite.The third thing I noticed was they sound like they brought a subwoofer into the studio so they could master that bottom low end (<50 Hz) for today's speaker systems. 17 years ago consumer systems didn't have much lowend at all, we were all playing CDs on our little boom boxes for the most part. But now they have satisfied our need to hear the kick drum actually get kicked.The fourth thing I noticed is these masters weren't compressed for loudness sake, they are dynamic and punchy coming in at a fantastic -16 LUFS. If you don't know about the loudness wars I would look it up, it's very important to know about how it's ruined music mastering for the past 20 years.The final thing I noticed was the new masters have a more cohesive sound. There are backing vocals you can hear easier now because it sounds like they brought them more to center stage. The middle frequencies are able to shine now that the high end isn't overpowering, so you'll notice more of the actual song, like guitars and vocal harmonies.I would say it's worth it if you haven't bought the album on CD already. If you really care about taking full advantage of new mastering tech, go for it. But both still sound great and it may not even be worth the extra $12, and I'm picky about how my albums sound. Who knows if you can even tell the difference on vinyl, it's top and bottom end get chopped off after mastering to fit the waves on the record. So you probably won't hear the differences I described on vinyl. Maybe on tape you will, tapes carry the full 20-20 spectrum.I'm pleased with this purchase on CD anyways