Quote Originally Posted by jmtd View Post
Wow thanks, cool. I don't think we/I/you need any more rips, but the question I really want to try and answer is, was the pre-emphasis flag set intentionally, or was it a production error?

I.e, does applying de-emphasis to the data on my 1.01 CD produce something audibly equivalent to a straight rip of your later CD? If not, which is wrong?

Since the de-emphasis step is not a perfect digital process, we won't get 1:1 streams but hopefully they're close enough to be ably to audibly tell whether it has been applied or not, or close enough that some kind of frequency analysis clearly shows whether they're close.

My theory is: If the later pressings without the pre-emphasis flag set are roughly equivalent in terms of frequency distribution to a de-emphasised copy of the original pressing, then the flag was set intentionally and that is the "correct" audio. If the audio stream (w/o applying de-emphasis) on the original and later pressing are equivalent, then the pre-emphasis flag was set in error and the audio should never have been de-emphasised.
I'm not sure. The treble is very harsh on some tracks without applying the de-emphasis curve, but to my ears it's not harsh enough when the standard curve is applied. This is another reason why we need a Definitive Edition!