Prince And The Revolution – Purple Rain

Bleh. Sterile sound, oddly uninvolving--honestly, you keep trying to turn the volume up, thinking that will solve matters. It won't. Just received the 2009 Rhino, and the difference is immediately apparent.

I bought this version years ago at a Wal-Mart of all places. According to Kevin Gray himself this issue was remastered directly from the original stereo tapes. Upon hearing this I decided to give this one another spin and to my surprise there is a great deal of warmth here. With that being said, compared to the original Bernie Grundman LP this remaster has been compressed heavily and is significantly brighter. This is quite literally "modern" mastering applied to a classic album. Honestly I believe it works fine for this genre of pop music and the nice warm bottom end really helps. If this version was mastered from a digital source I don't believe it would work nearly as well. The cover has a really nice reflective finish and is much nicer than the average reissue. It even comes with a large poster! My copy is perfectly flat and incredibly silent. If you are a fan of this album this I highly recommend you give this version a try. I still see it from time to time at Wal-Mart for $19.99 and that's a killer price for an all analogue version of this classic album. As Chad Kassem often says, "buy now or cry later".

Sound sample: https://rb.gy/z3xlg

This is probably the best sounding album in my collection. This mix, master, and pressing are nothing short of stunning. If it broke, I’d buy another copy this immediately.

A must have… Classic album. Good pressing… My copy sounds amazing.

This doesn't sound bad but it is missing something from the original version. Purple Rain in particular was very harsh sounding. Not a big fan of the remaster.

A little too bright and not enough low end. Where is the bass? I have an original pressing and there was no need to remaster this. Why did they not use the original master. If you can, get an earlier pressing. This digital mess is bound to give you ear ear fatigue.

All versions of the 2017 Remastered vinyl were NOT remastered by Prince!!!
They were remastered by Joshua Welton….and approved (overseen) by Prince…and this 2015 remaster was first released on vinyl in 2017 !!

looking at everyone's comments in here about it "sounding like a CD," that is actually a really fitting description of this pressing. Nice and clean vinyl, I had no real issues with the sound quality, but it has basically zero dynamics/breathing room with most of the songs. Really fun to listen to, but absolutely not an audiophile release.

Sure....it's from a digital recording. Still, you flip the sides. And...let's be honest...it's all about Purple Rain. Turn up loud. Really, really loud.

Sounds like a CD. If all I wanted was quiet, I'd buy a CD or stream it. What I love about vinyl is it's reproduction of a "live" sound. This doesn't have it, sadly.