Very well done mate! I won't tell you my 'near' horror stories about RUSH albums. But, I WILL say I learned a bloody good lesson... READ all the comments here thoroughly and ask things! Very important. And, if you are REALLY lucky... Slick Willie might even be induced to stoop down to us mere Earthlings and cough up some good advice... (maybe if you bribe him... )
The new 2015 is the way to go for that one. In fact, I'd argue that for Hold Your Fire onwards, the 2015 editions are the best version of each record (with a slight edge to the German pressing of Roll The Bones).
That is very good to hear, because from my own lowly and wretched experience, do NOT go for the earlier ones. I can't say that comprehensively because I've not heard every new remaster of theirs. But, I can assuredly tell you that Caress of Steel in a BIG way and to a lesser extent, 2112, do not sound as good as the early better pressings do. BUT... that is great news about later ones since they can be very hard to find (did they release 'Test for Echo' in the new remaster series...? I would think not...) Actually, since I do not have anything by them on vinyl beyond Power Windows, that is actually really good to hear. Thanks mate!
They did. Also Counterparts, Feedback and Snakes and Arrows. Mercury-era reissues: 12 Months of Rush: 14 Albums from Mercury era for release in 2015 | Rush.com Atlantic-era reissues: Rush Announce Release Dates for 'Atlantic Years' Vinyl Reissues
NICE! Thanks mate! I wonder what Test for Echo sounds like since it was never really officially released. I've seen the 'dubious' picture disc which really looks nice and supposedly sounds okay, but I wonder how the newer remasters really sound. I suppose if I LOOK there is likely a thread on that here too If I understand you correctly, are you saying that the newer remasters (for sure ) sound better than the original vinyl? Have you compared them yourself? May I please impose on you perhaps to give some details as to how the remasters sound, say, from Signals onward, if you don't mind specifying your impressions on those if you have compared them? Thanks MUCHO!
The only Rush album that wasn't reissued on vinyl is "Different Stages", which I regret since I really like that album.
I have many, but not all, of the remasters. I have good early pressings of everything pre-Counterparts (GK, JAMF and RL... I avoid HW or BK copies). For the most part, I like the originals of pre-HYF records. But the 2015 remasters are very good, and sometimes more dynamic than earlier pressings. I don't think any of the 2015 remasters are BAD. If you're not an uber-fan, then I'd say you'd be very happy with the new versions of any of these records. I haven't listened to these in a while, as I've been listening to non-Rush music mainly the last couple years. So I won't be able to give you a big list of favorites. From memory, I really like the new versions of AFTK, Hemispheres, Permanent Waves, Exit Stage Left and Grace Under Pressure.
Well, thanks kindly for the input! Personally, I would really like to score a JAMF of 2112. I have what I THINK (I'll hafta check) is an early club pressing of the JAMF mastering, which compared to what I THOUGHT would be awesome UK and Japanese pressings, still sounds a LOT better than those (wish I knew BEFORE I bought them!) My AFTK I believe is the same and it still sounds quite a bit more dynamic than the early German pressing I just bought too (GRRRrrrr...!) That will teach me bloody well to READ these forums first thoroughly before running out and 'experimenting' with what I THOUGHT would be superiour pressings and very much WEREN'T! For the record, the remaster of Caress of Steel was VERY hollow and compressed sounding, with my GK blowing it outta the stratosphere dynamically. The drums sounded (on my system anyway) almost mono. THAT is how bad it was by comparison. Tonally, it was okay; didn't go as high or low as my old one.
So, I finally got to listen to the Mint 1st U.S. pressing of Caress of Steel tonight! Wow, now THAT sounded pretty damn good I think this was what was in the deadwax: Matrix / Runout (Side A): SRM-1-1046-A-K MASTERDISK A-1 <----> Matrix / Runout (Side B): SRM-1-1046-A-K MASTERDISK A-3 <----> Or maybe: Side A B-1 <-> SRM-1-1046-A-K2 Masterdisk AM Side B B-1 <-> SRM-1-1046-B-K2 Masterdisk AM This one I think looks a bit closer to it. I think I remember the B-1 being on both sides. It has those funny long arrows in the deadwax. Discogs list this as the first non-club U.S. pressing. No other identifiers that I could see. Wow, it sounded amazing! FINALLY! The 1st German and 1st Dutch pressings sounded good too; I just had to bump up the amp running the low end a little, but they were much better than other European Rush pressings that I had bought before. My older U.S. Caress of Steel after giving it a rigorous cleaning with Audio Intelligent 15 and laboratory grade purified water sounded pretty good too. It HAD been my best one so far. It has some odd stuff in the deadwax though, and I can't quite figure out what pressing it is. For one thing, the 1st pressing that I just got has a white label. My older one has a dark label; I was very surprised by this. It is Mercury, but it has 'mastered by trutone' in the deadwax and a number that doesn't match the normal catalog number on the label. it also has this odd elongated sideways triangle. And, I think a lone 'W' or 'M' by itself. Oh, and I think it might have had an 'HRM' too, I'm not sure. If anyone knows which pressing this is, that would be great! I couldn't find it in Discogs. Oh, BTW... as far as the new remaster of Caress of Steel... Uh, well, the whole sadsack story is on the Rush 2015 Vinyl thread. I'm afraid that I have to retract what I said above (and numerous other times ) Apparently, it isn't the best idea to smoke crack and listen to Rush... (actually, I WISH I had that good of an excuse...)
No, I'm not at my listening room right now. I DID think it seemed kind of odd that my early U.S. pressing had a black label and this 1st pressing that I just got has a very light coloured label. I don't remember it being like STARK white like a lot of the Promo labels I've seen, but pretty close. The guy didn't present it as a Promo pressing, but he did say it was a 1st pressing. Since you guys know a LOT more than I do about this kind of stuff, is there any other reason why the label of a 1st pressing of this album would be white, or is my old copy with a black label a later pressing where they changed to that later on...?
Ah, Slick Willie YOU would know...(and HAVE one of course ) You know, I need to go and look at it. Colour wise it looks exactly like that, but I honestly didn't notice (or even was looking for) whether it said that Promo stuff on the left side. Did GK do this one, or is it kind of murky who did it...? Are the deadwax runouts on yours similar to the ones that I mentioned above? It DOES sound really good though; sure is nice FINALLY to have a great sounding pressing of this damn album!
Oh, come on... You HAVE to be kidding me... THE man who has bloody EVERYTHING...!??? No frigg'n way...
@latheofheaven [QUOTE I wonder what Test for Echo sounds like since it was never really officially released.[/QUOTE] The 2015 issue of Test For Echo 2 LP set sounds great IMO. Can be found for about $25 or so. Of course, it's not their best album...but i like it. BTW the black Mercury label switch happened in 1983, so it's unlikely yours is an early pressing. Finally, my US WLP of Caress Of Steel (the same as pictured above) is... Side 1 - SRM - 1 - A2 C T Side 2 - SRM - 1 -B1 C T No GK, etc...sounds great!
Hey, thanks mate! Soooo, I didn't quite get what you meant about the label of CoS... The light coloured label (of the 1st pressing that I just got) was then just the normal label until after 1983 when they then went to a black label, right? So, just because my label looks like the one above (with the exception that I don't know yet if it says 'Promo' on it) that just means that it is a normal, run of the mill 1st or early pressing, right? And then the one that I have had for a really long time with the black label likely came out after 1983, right? Thanks!
The black label, IIRC, came around in '82 at most pressing plants, possibly as early as '81 at some plants? Here is the 1st non promo label for COS.
OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH... I don't think mine has so much yellow and colour in it. It looks a lot more like the lighter one above. I think I will be going over to my listening room tomorrow, so I am really curious to check it out. BTW, on the subject (since I don't know anything about it...) as a general rule are Promo versions of albums usually better sounding than say the official 1st pressing? In my collection, I have a lot of albums that I got used that has 'for promotional use only; not for sale' stamped onto the cover. Would these all be 'Promo' copies? I don't remember any of them being particularly expensive; of course, we're talking about 15-20 years ago
