Van Halen Vinyl Pressings/Masterings

This thread is to talk about the various Van Halen pressings/remasters/box sets, etc.

With the upcoming Mofi Van Halen remasters coming soon, I decided to pick up some various Van Halen S/T remastering to compare them to the original, to see for myself, what, if anything, is special about some of the more popular remasters.

So far I have:
1978 Winchester US release. Two: One is VG+ and one is of noticeably lessor quality.
2009 Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman Remaster
2015 Chris Bellman Remaster

The two 1978 pressings, while having the exact same runout ids, sound pretty different. The lessor quality one sounds a little harsh in the upper midrange/lower treble with perhaps some distortion; sibilants are harsher, more noticeable. I aways thought when an album wears, it loses top end information, so I'm not sure if this is groove wear or some other issue with the record pressing. It's enough of a difference that I don't want to listen to it. In contrast, the other original pressing sounds great. It's well balanced, there's no harshness to the edges of notes, sibilants seem more normal and in-line with what I hear on my digital version. This pressing is a joy to listen to and is easily my favorite of them all.

The 2009 remaster is the most unique. I bought this one sealed, so its new vinyl and its really quiet. Backgrounds are blacker on this pressing than any of the others. I don't really know if this was made with a special vinyl composition but it's quieter than the 2015 pressing too. Treble is the best on this one. It's super smooth without losing any resolution. In fact I'd argue its easier to hear low level detail because it's so easy to hear everything. Sibilants are even more in the background here. This would be my favorite pressing, if it were not for its biggest con: the bass. The 78 pressing sounds balanced but this 2009 is just too noticeably boosted. It's a little distracting b/c it's so different from the Ted Templeman sound. I mean, I could live with it if it was my only S/T Van Halen record. But I'd much rather listen to the VG+ 78 pressing.

The 2015, I bought new, turns out to be a little bit of a disappointment. Whereas it's bass is balanced and not boosted and midrange clean and clear, it's treble is goosed. Everything on the top end just sounds a hair too much to be balanced. I was hoping it would prove to be very similar to the 78 pressing, and it does, until it gets to the treble. Again, I could probably live with it, if it was my only S/T pressing and you don't know what you don't know I suppose. But this certainly deters me from picking up the rest of the Bellman remasters.

My understanding is the current Walmart box set is the same Bellman masterings, just pressed at a different plant (GZ), so I have no interest in purchasing those but would like to read some impression of it here, if anyone has it.

So that leaves the upcoming Mofi One Steps. Controversy aside, I really like the Mofi remasters I have for Supertramp, Twisted Sister and Dire Straits. But those aren't One Steps and were reasonably affordable. However, in for a penny, in for a pound, I'm going to purchase at least the S/T One Step to compare to the rest of my pressings. I'm hoping they release them one at a time, so I have opportunity to decide if I like the one well enough to buy any of the others, as they are pretty expensive.