Search - Asia :: Asia

It's an improvement, I guess...

Jamie Tate | Franklin, TN | 06/10/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This new $30 gold CD of Asia is good but it's really similar to the old CD I bought when I was a kid in the 80s. Yes, it does sound better but it shows how good that original CD was. There's only a slightly noticeable difference. The upper midrange has been softened and the small amount of low end in these mixes has been massaged to be a little fuller but even then it's not like this is an audiophile's dream recording. I admit this album is a guilty pleasure but this new gold CD doesn't add much to my listening pleasure. The improvement is probably less than 10% (if there's such a thing as quantifying that kind of thing).



On the positive side there's none of the problems that have plagued the Audio Fidelity label recently. There's no finger prints embedded in the CD, no signs of mysterious limiting nobody accounts for or admits to, no pops or ticks and no "aboxtrophies" or erroneous credits in the typesetting. Also, the absolute polarity has been fixed (the old CD was flipped). But that's just geeky crap nobody else cares about.



Other than listing technical issues I'm just not blown away with it. Maybe the original CD was good enough. Maybe the mixes are too much "of the time" to get me focused on the audio quality instead of the music. Maybe there wasn't enough room for improvement to justify an audiophile remastering job and a $30 gold CD. Maybe 30 years of listening to Carl Palmer's stiff drum fills have made me lose interest in this album altogether. Maybe the disco hot spots hold no charm for me and I just need to catch a pearl and ride on dragon's wings. The world may never know.



Anyway, if you really want to hear the album with the best possible digital release that can be had this is the CD for you. If $30 is too much to pay for a guilty pleasure go find the old CD in the used bins for $2. Just remember the guy at the cash register will probably snicker at you for buying it so I suggest hiding it under a Michael Bolton or Richard Marx CD. It'll take some of the sting out of his inevitable snarky comments."

Asia - finally a version as good as the original

Dimas Lopez | Apex, NC United States | 07/05/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This version of Asia's "Asia" is musically my favorite but sonically it wasn't as much and the recent "remastered" renditions (I own 2) were much worst. This 24kt remastered version provides a clean and fully dynamic recording that it is extremely enjoyable with multiple details I did not notice before."