Generally the older the better. Early CD's had dynamic range even in pop/rock genres - since the 90's everything has become "loud" and compressed. The first releases of Toto sound great. The recent remasters sound bad - it is the same with most new remasters. Even the Beatles recent releases were crushed compressed and only the mono versions were any good...it is a sad state of affairs but that is what the record labels, producers and artists have put out.
How do you guys choose between CD releases?
This has been been bugging me for some time now and I'm wondering if any of you guys have a sensible way of choosing which release of a CD to buy. I buy the vast majority of my CDs on Amazon and too frequently have to choose between two releases of a CD e.g., 1990 or 2003. If there is a remaster I usually go with it, unless I'm warned off. That doesn't bother me, it's choosing between to releases with no more to go on than the year of release. You can't judge by sampling; you don't even know which release you're listening to, and Amazon reviews are seldom release specific. Should I just buy the newest, the cheapest or (gulp) most expensive? Any secrets? How do you guys decide?