REO Speedwagon – Hi Infidelity

Fantastic pressing. Quiet vinyl and great dynamics. Excellent record as well but you know that.

A great record. Sounds is good and songs are good for the most part.

Ridiculous pressing. Sounds excellent. Great dynamics, nice imaging, and really great balance between vocals and guitars. Plus, nice bass as well.

An earlier version was my 2nd CD ever, after the Miami Vice soundtrack back at Christmas '85. Listening to this now on a good system, it's enjoyable but far from a demo disc. The material itself very heavy on cymbals and tambourines and such. Tends to sound a bit muddy and ringy. There's still a good bottom end there though.

This is a very well pressed edition, as with most Japan editions. The sound betters the US CBS Mastersound Edition which was too bright to my tastes. All versions of this album veer towards an upper mid/treble emphasis. If your system veers towards brightness you'll hear that. Having owned an original US copy, that may be the best option depending on price but the vinyl surfaces will be nowhere near as quiet as the first Japan pressing.

The pressing may not have the highest fidelity I've heard, but its dynamic in its own way. Each instrument sounds very alive. Separation and soundstage could be better. Now, you can write off this album as 80's corporate arena rock, and you wouldn't be entirely wrong. But this album has some great instrumentation and many fun tracks. This is something you can just put on and always come back to. Highly recommend it.

If you get a original like I did, get it out of the factory PVC sleeve.

A wonderful master with pre-emphasis (which honestly makes it sound even clearer) and overall a great full sound. Fortunately, the master used for this CD (with pre-emphasis now properly flagged) was re-issued in Japan multiple times, with a few re-issues under this catalog number, one as https://www.discogs.com/release/9155260-REO-Speedwagon-Hi-Infidelity and one more as https://www.discogs.com/release/11535522-REO-Speedwagon-Hi-Infidelit, as was CBS/Columbia/Sony/Epic's M.O. in the 80s and 90s in Japan.
I would recommend picking this release up if you just want the base album, and I personally would recommend not doing anything to the pre-emphasis. Personally, I would only suggest getting the gold face CD if you absolutely must. Other issues are far more abundant and (for the two later issues,) have the proper pre-emph flag and don't have the Compact Disc Digital Audio insignia on the cover art.

This was remastered by Kevin Grey and Joe Reagoso from the "original Epic tapes" according to the notation on the rear cover. Haven't compared to other pressings yet, but on its own it sounds nice. Balanced. Not overly bright like some LPs that Reagoso was involved with. It's not a sonic masterpiece by any stretch. But a fun listen on a summer afternoon bringing me back to 1981!

Got this from Amazon today, also has side 2 issue but even if it didn't it's a terrible pressing to my ears. I've seen people talk about it being bright but that's an understatement. The lack of low end make it a non starter for me. I may try and track down a Friday Music pressing but it's a bit of a gamble as I'm in the UK so it may be an expensive gamble.