"Peaceful Easy Feeling" - Eagles

On the CDs I have with "Peaceful Easy Feeling", the electric guitar solo has an extremely distorted sound in the left channel - I'm not talking about a normally distorted guitar, I mean something that sounds like digital artifacts/errors and very high-pitched, like vinyl distortion (kind of like the weird sound in Whitney Houston's "Didn't We Almost Have It All".) I don't remember it sounding this bad on vinyl. Does anyone know if any CD exists with this song not having such bad distortion on it?

Is the 45 sped in any way? It just sounds so slow on GH: 1971-1975.

Edited by sriv94

Cut-and-pasting a post of mine from the Steve Hoffman board from 2010:
- - -
Discovered that I had the original release of Their Greatest Hits on CD as well as the "RE-1" reissue (due to the knee-jerk grab-it instinct in the $1 pile and my forgetting what I already owned), so decided to compare both against my beat-up vinyl copy of the same album. All releases are US, and all are Asylum 105 with a 1976 copyright date.

My vinyl: embossed/raised cover art, blue label, "HAPPY NEW YEAR, GLYN" and "WITH LOVE FROM BILL" in the deadwax on the A- and B-sides. Matrix number has a "RE" in it.

First release: Asylum E2-105 on spine, Asylum "A" logo in bottom right of rear cover, "MANUFACTURED BY COLUMBIA HOUSE UNDER LICENSE" on rear artwork, "MADE IN U.S.A. BY WEA MANUFACTURING INC." at 6 o'clock on CD, matrix number "2 105-2 ARC>001"

Time when you insert in CD player - 43:10

EAC peak levels for the 10 tracks (in %):
84.1 | 89.4 | 93.3% | 90.5 | 88.3 | 93.3 | 82.0 | 91.2 | 84.5 | 86.2

Rerelease: Asylum 105-2 EUR 253017 on spine, Asylum circle with black top and yellow bottom in bottom right of rear cover, "MADE IN U.S.A. BY WEA MANUFACTURING INC." at 6 o'clock on CD, matrix number "2 105-2 RE-1 SRC##02"

Time when you insert in CD player - 43:21

EAC peak levels for the 10 tracks (in %):
94.3 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 81.0 | 100.0 | 79.4 | 100.0 | 88.1 | 100.0

Judging by the Accuraterip confidence numbers, the RE-1 release is more common by a factor of about 20.

Some track-by-track comparisons:

Take It Easy
Original release: 0.1% faster than vinyl (insignificant)
RE-1: 1.2% slower than vinyl [note: Time-Life's The Rolling Stone Collection 1971-1973 (1993) uses the same analog transfer as the original release and sounds extremely close to it]

Witchy Woman
Original release: 0.1% faster than vinyl (insignificant)
RE-1: 1.2% slower than vinyl

Lyin' Eyes
Original release: speed difference < 0.05% (insignificant)
RE-1: 0.5% faster than vinyl

Already Gone
Original release: 0.1% faster than vinyl (insignificant)
RE-1: 0.1% faster than vinyl (insignificant)

Desperado
Original release: < 0.1% faster than vinyl (insignificant)
RE-1: < 0.1% faster than vinyl (insignificant)

One Of These Nights

Original release: < 0.1% faster than vinyl (insignificant)
RE-1: 0.5% faster than vinyl

Tequila Sunrise
Original release: 0.1% faster than vinyl (insignificant)
RE-1: <0.05% faster than vinyl (insignificant)

Take It To The Limit
vinyl much narrower stereo than either CD
Original release: < 0.1% faster than vinyl (insignificant)
RE-1: 0.5% faster than vinyl

Peaceful, Easy Feeling
Original release: 0.1% faster than vinyl (insignificant)
RE-1: 1.2% slower than vinyl

Best Of My Love
Original release: 0.1% faster than vinyl (insignificant)
RE-1: < 0.1% faster than vinyl (insignificant)

Unlike what's been reported on in the Steve Hoffman forum, I didn't find any left/right channel swaps. Left on the vinyl corresponds to left on the CDs, and right corresponds to right, for all 10 tracks.

Most importantly, how do the CDs sound?

I prefer the RE-1 for pretty much everything on the disc.

To my ears, it sounds like the original CD release used the LP master, which is a generation removed from the original mixdown tapes. It sounds like the RE-1 used lower-generation source tapes, so the sound is a little clearer and the stereo imaging is a little less muddy. There's no crazy EQ or extra compression on either one, but the RE-1 wins by virtue of the source tapes.

Can't tell who mastered the discs, since the artwork is the same for both.