Finally! Iron Maiden BLACK VINYL reissues coming in September... (Part 2)

I always thought the sterling Powerslave sounded great. I have one here right now, its a bit rough and when I replace it soon i will go for the same cut.
People have different opinions, You have a guy here who thinks NOTB only has a couple good tracks, You have the guy in the band who denies the punk influence on the first album.
It's a crazy world folks.

 

"That **** Um"

I do have a french-sterling

 

The punk influence on the first album is undeniable. That's what gives it the magic!

 

Listening to the 2014 NOTB for a second time: this is a real stinker. No amount of fooling with the tone knobs on my receiver will breathe life into this record. It's dead on arrival. This might be the worst drum sound I've ever heard, especially comparing to CD or vinyl versions of the three albums that followed this one. I have a feeling that half the problem is that this is how it was recorded, although I have not heard it in any other format. I'm sure someone will correct me on this although I don't recall anyone testifying that this is a stellar recording.

 

Then you haven't heard a lot of drum sounds, or St. Anger.

I think it is fantastic, myself. I have never heard anyone critize the drum sound of that album, or production for that matter, before. It is a Martin Birch production after all.

 

I was born at night, but not last night. You think the drums are fantastic on this reissue? I know what Martin Birch can do with drums on a Deep Purple record and this isn't it. Surely you don't think there are similarities here?

 

The album sounds great, just not on these new vinyls
Try to pick up an original U.K copy or first press CD.

 

I was talking about the production of the album in general, not a specific version.

Great drumming by Clive Burr with awesome introductions on The Prisoner and Gangland.

 

So, do you think the 2014 is defective in some way? After being very familiar with Maiden from Powerslave to Somewhere in Time, I can't believe they sound this bad due to the production and engineering of Mr. Birch.

 

Go out and get originals you will be happy.

 

I'm sorry to be the grammar police here but it is a huge pet peeve of mine. The plural for vinyl is vinyl not vinyls. I don't mean to offend anyone here just a little OCD on my part

 

I personally wouldn't call TNOTB a "great production" (I have the first UK vinyl, by the way). It is a little thin sounding in my opinion. The production has its own charm somehow, and it is not bad sounding, but not an overall superb recording either. I think "Killers" has the better production, as does "Piece of Mind".

The new vinyl beats the original EMI UK CD in my opinion. The new vinyl also beats some other earlier vinyl pressings which I have heard (from other countries). It just doesn't beat the first/early UK pressings.

The first UK vinyl was superbly mastered in my opinion, plus directly cut from analog tapes. The reissue cannot keep up with that, but it is decent on its own. Certainly not the bottom of the barrel as some comments would suggest.

 

Great assessment and I agree on all counts. I don't think any Maiden album has great production. Some are better than others but none are great. Great would be audiophile level quality and none are up to that level.

 

If you want to do some listening comparisons, here is a FLAC (24/96) file with some samples from four different versions of "The Number of the Beast". I used a segment of the track "Children of the Damned".

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/65618094/TNOTB_Children_Sample_Comparison.flac

You can guess which is which, if you want to. Or simply state which clip you like best, second best, etc.

I will reveal the sources later. Looking forward to some comments.

 

Ok, this is my Ranking:
Sample 1 Sounds great = Winner
Sample 2 Sound lifless, muffled and bad, what I read here I reckon it`s the 2014 Re-Issue = 3. Place
Sample 3 Sound good, could be german or Netherlands first press? = 2. Place
Sample 4 Awfull, bad pressing, maybe Mexico, Columbia, something like that= Worst, 4. Place

 

1 - best sound
3 - more treble than 1
2 - muffled
4 - even more treble than 1, didn't listen the whole piece

 

Thanks for posting those samples. I love Maiden, though I am not an audio expert and have never listened to TNOTB a lot. My only version is a worn german pressing with quite a bit of surface noise.
Sample 1: Winner, very clear, dynamic, great seperation
Sample 2: Awful, the worst in my opinion, just listen to the first seconds to hear that there's something very wrong with this
Sample 3: Good one, but not as clear as 1
Sample 4: Too much treble, little dynamics

 

So you guys have read my complaining about TNOTB sound quality on this new reissue and how I cancelled all my pre orders etc etc. After all that I went and bought the S/T and I am glad I did! LOVE the sound on this one - really weighty and powerfull. As soon as "Prowler" started it put a big smile on my face unlike the WTF moment I had when "Invaders" first started to play. If the second batch sounds like this I may have to grab those too.

 

Thank you!! Being from México and because every plural in spanish has to have and "S" at the end with no exception, some plurals in english confuse me...

 

Thanks for the comments so far on the sample clips. I give a few more people a chance to listen to them before I will reveal which is which.

 

Thanks, I may just have to pass on these, I'm sure I'll regret it later, just because I'm a compl

Better safe than sorry, I ordered them all from Amazon UK. I wanted to make sure I get the German pressings. Now I need to decide if I need the 7"'s I have most of them as 12" singles.

 

This is my guess:

1. 1st CD
2. 2014 vinyl
3. U.K 1st Vinyl
4. Some other Vinyl-press

Hope i'm right

 

I totaly agree with you! S/T sounds great.

 

That would be also my guess, if these are the tested versions

 

My thoughts, too.
CD is seen on spectrogram, of course. As for 2014 vinyl and UK vinyl, surprisingly I cannot say I definitely dislike the new one. It's different, but not bad.

rjstauber, thank you for sharing the samples, very interesting.