On a PC or an iPod, I can almost (but not quite
) see why one would think
Awake doesn't sound as good as some of their other albums, but on a good stereo system, it sounds nothing short of fantastic. I was at a friend's house a few weeks ago, and he played me a few songs from different albums on his newest system (he prides himself on getting THE best stuff, and he usually does), and the songs he played from
Awake sounded magnificent. It is just a terrific-sounding CD all-around; you just need to listen to it on a really good system to hear its total quality.
And, honestly, from a "sound" standpoint, I would have to question the ears of anyone who listens to WDADU, SFAM and OV on a really good system and thinks any of those "sound" nearly as good as
Awake or FII, for example. It really isn't close.