I received Californication on vinyl today from SoundStageDirect.com. I've only listened to the song Californication so far but it sounds excellent. It's a shame that it took 12 years to fix the original mastering but it's good to know that the original recording survived Rubin's deaf ears.
Below are the waveforms for Californication. The top is ripped from the CD. The bottom was recorded from Vinyl at 24 bit 48K and normalized to -1.0 dB.
Although that's a pretty extreme example, this is a very common problem with CDs and MP3s in general. Because most MP3 players (with ear buds) lack low-end, the mixer always feels compelled to over drive everything.
It irks me when I spend good money on an MP3, and it's distorted.
---
“The Government of Spain will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket.” - Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez