ShowsOn

Completely wrong. I actually went to the effort of buying different versions of the same album and comparing. The RVG versions never sound better, because they are so heavily manipulated. You seem to be wanting the RVG versions to sound better since you own so many of them! I bought a lot of the RVG CDs too because I was able to get many of them for under $10, but after also buying the McMaster and / or other versions and doing close comparisons I recognised that the RVG versions are very heavily manipulated and don't sound like the original recordings. The RVG CDs are very often heavily compressed. They are often 4,5,6 dB louder than the McMaster 1980s and early 1990s McMaster CDs. I couldn't care less what RVG's intentions were, he ruined most of them! I'm surprised you say the soundstage has width, with there are many RVG CDs that sound almost mono even though they are stereo recordings! I have no idea which album you are referring to, but whichever album it is I could recommend you a different version that sounds better. This has nothing to do with Steve Hoffman's mastering style, it has to do with RVG's bad mastering style. I only own a 4 Blue Note albums mastered by Hoffman, so I have no idea why you are bringing him into the discussion. Gosh, maybe some people just want a digital version of the album that actually sounds like the recording instead of heavily manipulated junk? These are some of the best 1950s and 1960s jazz albums, they aren't meant to sound modern. I didn't dismiss the RVG CDs out of hand. I bought many (perhaps 50) of them, but also bought many alternate versions and compared them and found the RVG versions wanting every time.

I'm yet to hear an RVG Blue Note CD that sounds better than any other version of the same album. I don't think the RVG CDs are system dependent at all. When you compare them to any other version you will find that they sound like rubbish. Many of them are heavily compressed, nearly all of them have the treble boosted, and many of them have the channels folded in, in some cases - Hank Mobley - Soul Station and Kenny Burrell - Midnight Blue come to mind - so the CD almost sounds mono. It is completely sad that services like Spotify often only have the RVG versions as if we are meant to accept they are definitive versions of these albums, when they are nearly always the worst digital versions you can buy!