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PO: Iron Maiden 1980's Era Represses


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Anyone on the fence about picking these up should do themselves a favor and head over to the Steve Hoffman forums and read their thread about these. It's almost unanimous that a) the new pressings are not as good as old pressings (not really a surprise), but also B) the UK versions are better than the US pressings. The UK versions were pressed at Optimal (in Germany I believe) while the US pressings were done at URP. There seem to be more instances of poor pressing quality (dirty and/or warped records) with the URPs, although the Optimals weren't totally immune from this. Someone posted a waveform of each pressing for one of the records and there is a noticeable difference. The Optimal looked more dynamic. People said that both pressings seemed to less dynamic than the originals and several people posted that it sounded like a "wet blanket was over the speakers". Some speculated that the master tapes may have degraded quite a bit over 30 years. Others speculated that these new pressings had less EQing done so they sound more flat.

Just wanted to throw out that info so you could do a little more research on this stuff before you buy.

The UK versions from Amazon UK are still cheaper than the US pressings from Amazon USA, at least for the box. This is not true for the singles or individual LPs.

That's interesting. I'm glad I bought mine from Amazon UK now even though it won't be here for two more weeks

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Got my Boxset in today from Amazon UK. The packaging was absolute shit and the red box was dinged up as a result but the vinyl is heavy and sounds awesone to me!

Can't wait for Piece of Mind and Powerslave to come in next week.

 

I believe Amazon Canada sells the UK versions so for the individual LPs, that may be a cheaper route than Amazon UK, even with Canada's fucked up high ass shipping prices.  What ever happened to NAFTA?

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I got the box with the 3LPs today. I've only had a chance to listen to the S/T, but is there any way to tell if its the US or EU press? From what I've read they all say manufactured in EU, but the US press has a "U" logo in the deadwax for the URP pressing, compared to the EU press that had no hype sticker on the shrinkwrap and had the parlophone logo on the back of the jacket. The box I ordered was from Canada(reason why I'm confused), if anybody could clarify this for me I'd appreciate it!

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Might be a weird question, but is the printing on the spine different? Got the box from that eBay deal and the print on the spine of the first 3 albums matches and the next 3 doesn't. :(

From the link I posted? I just checked the barcode # for the first 3 LPs and it looks like those are the EU pressings after all. It could be that the next batch of 3 you got are US pressings, or that they purposely did it for every batch (3-3-2) but thats just speculation.

For those that bought any of these through amazon in the US could you post a picture of the back of the jacket?

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From the link I posted? I just checked the barcode # for the first 3 LPs and it looks like those are the EU pressings after all. It could be that the next batch of 3 you got are US pressings, or that they purposely did it for every batch (3-3-2) but thats just speculation.

For those that bought any of these through amazon in the US could you post a picture of the back of the jacket?

Yeah, that link. The next 3 are US pressing, but the inconsistency is killing me!
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Yeah, that link. The next 3 are US pressing, but the inconsistency is killing me!

 

That's probably it then, what's killing me now is that the EU pressings are twice as much.... and my OCD won't allow me to mix the pressings in the box -_- I'll pick up a US press at my store sometime soon to see how bad they really sound, I've reard mixed reviews about them.

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Good to know. So the EU press of Killers has Twilight Zone. Nice.

 

NO. All 2014 reissues have the same tracklisting... regardless of the country you buy them in... and they all follow the ORIGINAL track listing from the original UK vinyl. No Twilight Zone on any 2014 version of Killers.

 

Twilight Zone was a "bonus track" for the original American and Canadian pressings only. You'll have to hunt down an original US or Canada press from 1981 to get this song on the album.

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I picked up TNOTB from my store this weekend and it does sound like a wet blanket over speakers. EU pressings are the way to go on these!

 

Yep, the original UK press is definitive. I have the Japanese press which sounds fantastic AND has Total Eclipse to boot.

 

Not sure why anyone would drop $20 on a reissue that sounds so poor, when you can find very good original copies with amazing sound for a little bit more on Discogs.

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  • 1 month later...

So what's the deal with these? I'm reading the EU presses are better, but also that the EU box isn't big enough for all of them. Any insight?

EU pressings are better (I have both TNOTB US and EU, the US press to compare). As far as the box goes, the EU version is too small so if you fit all the reissues it will be extremely tight and the box will start bowing on the side (the official maiden facebook has a picture), and the US box is slightly bigger but I read its also a tight fit.

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