I'd be keen to hear those if they had been available somewhere to download. I don't think I've ever seen a single link for any of them.Dr_Jones wrote:You should listen to the first CD editions (aka the Red Face Editions) of Oxygene, Equinoxe and Magnetic Fields. They're direct vinyl master transfers with Equinxe being the most obvious one: it's the only one having the "vinyl" version of Equinoxe 5!
They are regarded as the best versions as a poll on this forum showed us a few years ago.
Some uploads in certain places just aren't the best labeled. Most of the 80s copies of these albums that show up on the internet are from the represses of 1985/1986 onward, which have a more boosted and flawed sound (i.e. in addition to the cracks in Equinoxe 3, there is a slight drop in volume on Oxygene 3 near the end of the track).Yet, they're often labeled as the 1983/1984 ones, which don't have the issues of the later pressings, yet show up less often. It's just a mess.
I own the Red Polydor logo copy of Oxygene and the Black Ring copy of Equinoxe. They sound very excellent, being very balanced and detailed. I'm not sure how the original Red Face pressings might sound better, but I'd sure be open to it.