@shooter41
I have a German pressing (vinyl) of Van Halen II and it is pretty darn good. I have never heard any other version, except for the cassette I wore out in my Craig Road Rated under dash tape deck back in the day. 
But the VH debut album is pretty sad and Fair Warning might top the list (at least in the top five) of all terrible rock recordings.
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As I've posted here before, a passage in the Herman Hesse book Steppenwolf summarizes my thoughts regarding music and the reproduction of pure music.
believe music is a gift that never ages, if we approach it in a thoughtful and relaxed manner, without the complications of how its delivered:
The Core Idea: Music in the Mind
Hesse argues that while the radio (the "machine") may distort the physical sound waves, the true spirit of the music remains untouched for those who know how to listen. The "goodness" of the music isn't in the speaker, but in the listener's ability to perceive the eternal harmony behind the static.
Here is the essence of that philosophy:
"Every popular song, every jazz tune, every radio broadcast, every bit of cheap music is a piece of the world, a piece of life, a piece of the spirit... even the most miserable radio, even the most wretched gramophone, is able to give us the spirit of music, provided we have the spirit in ourselves."
Key Themes in the Passage
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The Struggle with Modernity: Harry Haller hates how the radio "filters" the sublime music of masters like Bach or Mozart through a "mixture of rubber, glass, and metal."
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Mozart’s Lesson: Mozart (appearing as a figure in Harry's hallucinations/vision) mocks Harry’s snobbery. He explains that even if the radio makes the music sound like "stepping through mud," the divine structure of the composition is still there.
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The Listener's Responsibility: The passage suggests that if you have the "music in your soul," your mind can reconstruct the beauty, ignoring the "mechanical squeak" of the device.
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I have what I consider a very revealing, neutral, hefty system….. early rock Stones, Led Zeppelin, G.dead etc …. They are dead, damn
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@rettrussell
Thank you so much for those quotations from Hesse. They are right on. When I was a kid all I had was a small AM kitchen radio to listen to. And with it I discovered and reveled in the whole world of music.
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Just to express the obvious, listening for sound and listening for music are different human endeavors. The former is all about the brain and the ego. The latter is about the brain and the soul.
The combination is Nirvana.
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