I have recently gotten into Bob Dylan's music. I want to buy a bunch of his albums for christmas. On amazon i see they have a bunch of his albums listed as "[SACD HYBRID] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]", whereas on bmg.com's site (where I can get them for 12 for the price of 1 as opposed to $14 a pop at amazon) they aren't listed as being remastered or anything. I know that when some albums are remastered they end up sounding worse than before (The Beatles come to mind). Does anybody know if Bob Dylan's albums are remastered to sound nice ($13 nice), or will it matter much? I'm not interested in SACD all that much because as of now I do not have the hardware to play them.
I have heard nothing but good things about the remasters. I only have one of them myself, Slow Train Coming, and that sounds absolutely brilliant. Whether or not you think it's worth the extra money is of course for you to decide, but I don't think you would be disappointed.
(By the way, my player isn't SACD compatible either, so my opinion is based on the CD audio part.)
While I don't own any of the new Dylan remasters, I do own almost all of the original release versions, and they don't sound bad per se. BMG usually has a little icon (RM in a box, something like that) near the title to tell you if the version they're selling is remastered or not.
Looking over at BMGmusic.com, it doesn't appear as if the album versions they're selling right now are the new remastered SACD hybrids.
As for which Dylan album to buy, well that depends on your tastes. If you prefer more folky guy-with-a-guitar stuff, then check out his earliest stuff (Bob Dylan, The Freewheelin'..., Another Side of...., The Times They are a-changing). If your taste runs to 60's music, the 65-66 albums (highway61, bringin it all back home, blonde on blonde) should suit you.
My personal favorite Dylan albums are: Blood on the Tracks, Desire, Blonde on Blonde, Nashville Skyline (countrified Dylan), and the '66 Live at the Albert Hall concert.