Wheels Of Fire +4 [Cardboard Sleeve (mini LP)] [Platinum SHM-CD] [Limited Release]

I have been watching all of the reviews of Platinum discs and been quite amazed at the variations that exist between them ranging from positive to middish to downright negative. My earlier review of Who's Next which was my first platinum was extremely negative and disappointed since this is one of my all time records. I will not retract anything I have written but I do appreciate and respect the other reviews as they are all just as relevant to the reviewer as mine was to me. Most listening experiences and A/B comparisons are highly subjective and also the equipment variations are just so wide as to throw any level of consistency out of the window. I have pretty good equipment and like all of us know it and the sound it produces very well. My CD player is a high end Leema Antilla 2 which has over 20 DAC's to provide a warm and natural sound. The problem for me was that my listening set up did not make the Platinum disc sound exciting in any way. The bass is very inferior to the US remastered deluxe edition and the impact of the drums way short of what I was hoping for. I don't think this Platinum version is ever going to get a positive review from me and will most likely stay in the rack where I can admire the fantastic packaging. On the other hand I can offer some further updates and feedback on recent Platinum purchases which may be of interest. The "Disraeli Gears" platinum is terrific and well worth the price as it does handily outperform the standard SHM version in both bass and drum weight and mostly in how the voices are reproduced which are much more natural. The original mix was not that scientific in any case but the Platinum is a quite exciting improvement. "Fresh Cream and Wheels of Fire" are another matter. I have the SHM original version, SHM using the new flat file transfers and the Platinum versions of the new versions. Their is not much difference (if any) between the Platinum and SHM new versions so go for the cheaper option and frankly the old SHM versions stand up pretty well to the point where I went mad trying to get what the differences really were. The "Fresh Cream" is worth every penny because of the new mono version release which sounds terrific. Cheers.