Van Halen – Nagoya 1978

wjamflan: Upon first listen, this new release sounds a little better than my original version that was missing On Fire and had some weird cuts. It also sounds better than the the raw tracks from Greg’s tape that Lou transferred. But I don’t think it sounds better than Josh’s remaster. I’m still going through it to compare all of the tracks, but that’s my initial impression.

A couple other notes: it does run faster than the Greg/Lou/Josh version – same speed as my original version. There is a fair amount of hiss on this version with what sounds like bumped up levels. Back to listening…..

Just my two cents but I agree it doesn’t sound better than Josh’s remaster. It does seem to run a bit faster but then again, I think Josh’s remaster still sounds a tad slow to me.

I’m comparing these using Sennheiser headphones and what I’m hearing with the new release is more one-dimensional sound with added volume and thus, more loudness and distortion. Little Dreamer is a good example. On Greg/Lou/Josh’s versions, I can almost feel the rumble of Mike’s deep bass and the “ooh’s” in the chorus are just haunting; not up front in your face but more all around and above you. This new version seems to place all the sounds on one common level right in front of you. Some may prefer it this way but for me, I like the room Greg/Lou/Josh’s versions allow for the different sounds to move around.