Rush 180g re-issue and sonics


'Sup?

My copies of the re-issue of Grace Under Pressure and Signals arrived a few weeks ago and I was stoked to play them fresh. The re-issue of Presto sounded quite good - tho with that album, sounding thin is part of the territory. My equipment is:

VPI HW-19 Mk 4 with SAMA
Benz Micro Ace SE
Sumiko FT3 arm

I was expecting to be blown away by the re-issues. Instead, I was taken aback by their pedestrian and compressed sonics.  For comparison, I played a 1975 pressing of Fly By Night and a 1982 pressing of Signals and their sonics and presentations were wide open and had depth and presence.

I was looking forward to collecting the entire 80's run of studio albums but now I'll just stick to finding the best original pressings of those releases. Anyone have any ideas on why the new pressings sounded worse?
128x128simao
I have the Fly By Night and Hemispheres reissues and think they sound fantastic, very warm and huge.
I have "Moving Pictures", "Permanent Waves" & "2112" and agree with Steve. They are very nice sounding.

I haven’t compared them to my original first pressing US copies, but I’m happy with them.
I have most of the reissues and I really like them.  I can turn up the volume as they are recorded so well and they sound great at higher levels in my system.  I've compared to original MP "RL cut", Hemispheres "GK cut", Signals "Masterdisk" and Permanent Waves "HW cut".  The reissues hold their own and in some ways to me, sound slightly better.