Pretenders* – Pretenders

Due to the length of this album, it would truly benefit from the 2 x 45RPM treatment!…MOFI please?

Hardly an audiophile record here. Oh well, I guess it's a nice pressing. I this record sounding better back in the day.

The UK 1st is shocking better than the US 1st which is a bit muddled as if they were from secondary or tertiary tapes. I’d always heard the production on this album was such that the sound was not great no matter whether you had UK or US or otherwise but UK was best. The UK is best and significantly better that a US promo I have. Much clearer and punchier. Great album!

Another Steve Hoffman disaster. You couldn't pay me to take one of these CDs. "No compression..."--hshahaha!

I concur that this is an excellent pressing. My copy is quiet, not just in of ticks and pops, but the background vinyl noise is also very low. This is impressive considering the album's length, which necessitated it being cut at a lower-than-average volume (thus the recommendation to "PLAY THIS ALBUM LOUD").

Raw powerful EQ that gives life to the music. Chrissie’s vocals out in front of the wall of sound, nice balance and snap to the snares. I have the 2014 SACD and it lacks the aggression of this mix. The guitars on The Wait have nice texture and just jump out of the tweeters! Wow.

This pressing sounds huge on my rig, especially the lead vocals, and the drums and bass are a revelation. My system doesn’t have a subwoofer, so I’m guessing the complaints about too much bass are with stereos that do.
I have both an OG US pressing and an original UK LP as well, but this mastering reveals many layers that are a bit buried on those two.

Just purchased a copy of this for a very reasonable price from a local record shop. Still had the shrink on it. There was a sticker suggesting it was manufactured on Teldec vinyl imported from . Not sure if that's correct or not. Regardless, the sound is exceptional. Very pleased with this pressing.

This reissue benefits from an uncompressed transfer and wide open mastering.

This later reissue is compressed and noise reduced. This seems to be the same source as other regions but different transfer to disc.