Hmmm.... Interesting thread. To me, the compressed version sounds better all around. To be completely honest, Rami, there's always been something that's bugged me about your mixes. Your stuff, to my ears, has always seemed a bit disjointed, like all the instruments (though recorded *very* well, and sound awesome in their own right) just don't seem to "gel" together.
The compressed version definitely sounds more gelled to me. Like I'm listening to more of a single product, rather than listening to a bunch of instruments put in to a package. I hope this makes sense, I really don't mean to be offensive in this, but I've always wondered why your tunes seem to have that effect to me.
So, for what it's worth, this mix, for me, is definitely a step in the right direction.
Also - not that this means anything, but for pretty much 100% of my mixes, I put my master-channel stereo outs of my DAW through a program called
Jamin (Linux only), and then out to the speakers. If you click the link and read a bit, you'll see that this program has an assault of processing available.
One of these days, I'll have to post a mix before using Jamin, and after using Jamin to show the difference, but the difference is huge, and the mixes always sound ... better. They sound more cohesive, and balanced, and more controlled and .... better.
So.. Yeah... I'm a believer in pretty heavy sound modeling in the mastering phase.