Queen – Sheer Heart Attack

The first of the Ludwig remasters that I purchased on vinyl. The other versions of SHA I was familiar with were the Parlophone '93 CD remaster, and the 2011 streaming version.

So before I get to reviewing the sound here, let's discuss Sheer Heart Attack. Without a doubt, one of Queen's best and most cohesive albums, and the first that truly showcased their wild creativity, effortless diversity, not to mention campy bombast. It's my favourite Queen record of the 70s, and their most digestible dish before they went completely over the top with the excessive Night at the Opera.

So then, on to this 2015 pressing. How does it sound? Absolutely superb. Lots of definition without being harsh or brittle. The low end booms without being overpowering. Stereo image is engaging without being exaggerated. The overall sound is full, thick and powerful.

Is there compression? Yes. Is it distracting? In some moments, but nothing to detract from the overall experience. Ludwig and co. have delivered a sound this is truly engaging.

There is some noise going on beneath the craziness, audible only during the outros of Now I'm Here and Lap of the Gods Revisited.

Ignore the snobby audiophiles trashing the sound here. The truth is Queen never were an audiophile-type of group. They just made fun, awesome music that was, in Freddie's own words, made for listening to then disposing of.

Looking forward to grabbing the rest of the Ludwig remasters!

The good: sounds great, very quiet and detailed. Probably the same as 2015 virgin pressing, but not sure. This is a great album, and hearing it on vinyl is a great experience. The cover art is great too, which is not a given in this day and age.
The bad: no poly sleeve. There’s a huge stain all over “she make me..” but luckily doesn’t affect the sound. Still weird that it passed any quality control.
Would buy again.

Horrible static sound on 3 copies of track 1. Dunno if this is a pressing flaw or what but it's obnoxious

Side A is amazing but side B seems to have a little bit of muffled voices by the bass overpowering but that’s not to bad. Does anyone else have that problem?

This version should have 4 cuts corner images, but the photos are misleading.
Can someone please correct the images on this version?

Excelente sonido al igual que todas las ediciones que han salido en la colección hasta ahora. Mi copia no viene con el sticker holográfico de Sire que aparece en la foto de Discogs.

This looks like the (first) swedish release: Sleeve/innersleeve from UK, just the disc is swedish.

This is where the fun really starts with Queen. This 1/2 speed job is boomy and I had to back off the bass. All the 2015 1/2 speeds are like this. The details are there but you have to tweak the EQ to get them out. A lot of people hated the Ludwig remasters and the vinyl is cut from them.
There is compression unfortunately. I have all Queen albums on vinyl in multiple copes from different times. I think the trick with the 1/2 speed pressing is play them loud!
In general I think old pressings are better overall, as modern vinyl often disappoints.
The vocal details on this pressing is pretty good. Analog recordings should really follow the AAA path when being produced. The 1/2 speeds are produced from digital files.
Anyway, some people expect amazing fireworks from vinyl which has lower sound quality than CD. If you want the best sound play CD!

Generally good sounding pressing, but beware of slight sibilance if that bothers you.
Any idea of when this was pressed?

The "Brighton Rock" intro is the same audio from Rainbow's (8) "Prelude To The Music Makers Concerto" from the album After The Storm.