Cornfed Hick
Ancient Mariner
Just received the albums -- I ordered them from EU, because the pressing facility evidently is much better than the U.S. facility. Given the overseas shipping, they took awhile. I didn't buy the singles. My impressions:
The sound is excellent on all of them, with one quibble: the treble is turned way down on Killers, more than I would like. There has been a fair amount written about that elsewhere, and I think that's just what the master tapes sounded like. Whether you think that it sounds "warm" or "flat" is a matter of taste and semantics, but the high end is definitely depressed on that disc compared to the others. I would have preferred an EQ adjustment during mastering, but oh well. If it's a flat transfer from the master tape, that's probably better from a purist perspective, and I can adjust the EQ on my gear.
No pressing issues on SiT. There was a skip in the song "Powerslave" when I first played it, which caused me to gasp in horror, but a quick cleaning of the record solved that problem. In general the vinyl is clean and quiet, thick and heavy. I think this reissue was very well done in terms of sound and pressing quality.
Packaging is another story. The artwork is clearly a scanned version of the original, and the colors look a little different compared to my original vinyls. The Powerslave LP does not have the textured cover like the original, which is too bad, as I always loved that little detail. The size of the EU box is the biggest disappointment. All the albums simply don't fit in the box. I keep the studio albums in the box, and even that is a snug fit, but Live After Death will have to be kept separate. That's a pretty egregious blunder, to sell a box set when the box doesn't hold all the material. I'm hoping they will offer a replacement box at some point, but I've heard nothing about that and I'm not holding my breath.
The sound is excellent on all of them, with one quibble: the treble is turned way down on Killers, more than I would like. There has been a fair amount written about that elsewhere, and I think that's just what the master tapes sounded like. Whether you think that it sounds "warm" or "flat" is a matter of taste and semantics, but the high end is definitely depressed on that disc compared to the others. I would have preferred an EQ adjustment during mastering, but oh well. If it's a flat transfer from the master tape, that's probably better from a purist perspective, and I can adjust the EQ on my gear.
No pressing issues on SiT. There was a skip in the song "Powerslave" when I first played it, which caused me to gasp in horror, but a quick cleaning of the record solved that problem. In general the vinyl is clean and quiet, thick and heavy. I think this reissue was very well done in terms of sound and pressing quality.
Packaging is another story. The artwork is clearly a scanned version of the original, and the colors look a little different compared to my original vinyls. The Powerslave LP does not have the textured cover like the original, which is too bad, as I always loved that little detail. The size of the EU box is the biggest disappointment. All the albums simply don't fit in the box. I keep the studio albums in the box, and even that is a snug fit, but Live After Death will have to be kept separate. That's a pretty egregious blunder, to sell a box set when the box doesn't hold all the material. I'm hoping they will offer a replacement box at some point, but I've heard nothing about that and I'm not holding my breath.
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