lol im feeling kind of the same way about my (increasingly ancient) bon jovi discs... couple of them are scratched to death, from before i mp3d everything (and before i learnt to treat non-caddy optical discs with utter reverence) and nearly to the point of being unplayable. however from the mp3s i was donated by some kind people online (true - i got it from DC++, but it was thru talking to folks as searches were turning nothing up) it seems the ones you can get in the shops these days are the awful, "technical masterpiece" (bleugh - bad word to use with rock), incredibly over-compressed dynamic range digital remasters (digital f**k-overs more like).thanks to eBay - I don't want any re-issues you see
time to get ont' 'bay, or the more obscure wing of Amazon Marketplace, to hunt down the first editions instead... (say what you like about the band, their instrument arrangements were always spot-on, and needless "radio play" volume compression destroys all that stuff which is otherwise great to listen to with headphones underneath a quiet starry sky. i hate digital remastering people... its not needed unless the original was totally crapped up). The dynamic range in the original recordings was huge, enough that the tape version of 7800'F sounds different to the CD (and its by no means a great album neither!) .. squishing it down to 10db or less is aural murder.