Van Halen – Van Halen II

Absolutely fantastic reissue and remaster here. The sound is so dynamic and well balanced. Every instrument is separated and the levels are perfect. Flat, with zero surface noise. Happy to add this one to my collection.

I must agree... Very clean and quiet pressing. Listened with my Sony XB950 headphones to try and hear imperfections and back noise.
There simply isn't any! Very happy with this edition. I will look for more of these 2015 re-masters.

That little skip on the tape, they should have digitally fixed it...sigh.

10/10 pressing. Dead quiet. Flat as a board. Heavy vinyl. The mastering sounds amazing. They keep using this master for all the pressings after this up until the Mofi pressing.

Started the new year listening to my (very old) VH records. After giving this, my only VH remaster (besides the HDCD releases in 2000), a proper listen, I realized I need to replace my old VH albums! This pressing is really superb! Ha! sounds way better than the cassette I owned in high school! The sound coming through from this remaster is a great example of what "remastered" means. Sonic heaven throughout, great balance among the instruments (Alex's drums sound great!). Now, after I purchase my favorite VH album, "Diver Down", I'm going to research what "digital compression noise" is. VH fans owe it to themselves to get the remastered versions.

I don’t know what others are playing thei SACDs on, but on my rig, this mastering sounds great!

It sounds weak on audio. The CD and SACD sound the same.

Starting to wonder if the SACD layer is sourced from the CD. 🤔

I have most of the One Steps and this is one of the few I have without being either warped or with seam splits. It was clean as a whistle too. We can only hope QC is getting their act together. As far as the overall sound it's definitely a winner in my book. Just right in every aspect of the sound system. These first two VH albums were pure classics, the next 3 not so much then 1984 finished the Roth era on a high note. And yes I picked up the tape splice through headphones on Dance the Night Away.

when I heard the SACD I had some doubts, compared to the 2011 HDCD it loses dynamics, Alex's drums aren't rock, I don't know, the first SACD was phenomenal, the mastering has changed

Better than VH1! Nowhere near as bright, punchy, solid low end. Probably my favourite One Step so far with Pearl.