Okay, so more on this after listening to some of Core on my home theater system in Stereo mode - that is to say no synthetic processing like NEO or anything like that.
What I perceive to be the differences are so subtle that I'm second guessing if I'm detecting anything at all, but I'll try to start the conversation regarding the remaster a bit to the best of my ability. I'm using Dead & Bloated, Piece of Pie and Plush as my examples here.
At first I had thought that the bass levels were brought up a bit to giving each track a fuller sound. But I don't think that's true. I actually had to go on my HMS and play the remastered tracks a bit against my Core FLAC files - I'm playing this stuff on an Oppo UDP-203 - an absolutely remarkable player. But after some more listening and evaluation of the tracks, here are a few conclusions:
Any real differences in the mix is perceived and not real. Rather, it's like each element of each track (drums, bass, guitar, vocals) were separated and laid down on top of each other all over again without enhancement to the levels (the mix) at all. And so, what I'm detecting is that there is a better sharpness of each element of a given song yielding a small, small, small improvement in overall clarity that might make you think a remix was involved, although I don't think there was. For example, on Dead & Bloated, the bass pulls seem to yield a sharper presence than in the past - as if rather than reverberating into the overall sound, they now have the smallest of distinction in the song. And it's like this for each element - the mix hasn't changed but Scott has a distinct voice in the song, as does Eric's drums and etc.
Almost like the new laying of each element over another, through whatever process was used to remaster, yielded what is simply a slightly clearer album with slightly more distinct sounding components. The change I'm describing is so subtle in clarity that I only somewhat sensed it when listening to the tracks, and then had to reinforce the thought by using my home media server to basically go back and forth between the original album and this one.
Simply put, Core Remastered seems only a little bit clearer in sound than it used to be, and what I explained above is my best guess why.
On the other hand, what I'm detecting could also be a function of the fact that these discs are brand new, as opposed to whatever the status of my stuff was when I tore Core into FLAC years ago.
Lastly and undeniably, what I'm explaining here is, I suppose, also a testimony to how well Core was produced originally without synthetic volume boosting (e.g., "The Loudness War"). The fact that a current remaster hasn't yielded such a change that both a hardcore fan and long time listener can't detect a significant difference even when using pretty good equipment perhaps says how good Core's original master really was.
I'm really curious to read the rest of the fan communities thoughts are on the remastering of the album in particular. Keep in mind that all of my thoughts so far are also only born of listening to Dead & Bloated, Piece of Pie and some of Plush in comparison to the original master; and on CD rather than the DVD Audio at this point.
EDIT - Ok, well Where The River Goes benefited significantly from the remastering process - that is very apparent, even Weiland's trailing lyrics in the last few seconds of the song have a much more enhanced presence. I can't wait for everyone to listen to that one now and talk about it a bit....
