I spent some Christmas HMV vouchers and picked up The War of the Worlds on
CD for £11.99, CD96000 which I think is a UK only release. I was absolutely
gobsmacked to listen to it (my system is budget, a Trichord modified PD703
transport, dpa Little Bit Three DAC and a Creek OBHIIse driving Sennheiser
HD600 'phones). It is quite possibly the clearest and best recorded CD I've
listen to, the individual instruments are clear and separate well,
considering it was recorded in 1978 and probably mastered in the mid '80's.
The CDs are (C) 1978 the cover art 1985.

The question is why do a lot of the modern CDs sound so bad from a sound
quality side, a lot of the CD's have PC CD-ROM sections is this causing the
quality issues or is it just sloppy mastering?

--
Will Reeve