Led Zeppelin's Untitled on CD: a blind listening test

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by grandegi, Nov 23, 2016.

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  1. grandegi

    grandegi Blind test maniac Thread Starter

    Location:
    Rome, Italy
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  2. mikedifr0923

    mikedifr0923 Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Awesome. Perfect timing as I am looking to get zeppelin, since all I have is the crop circles box, and this will help me figure out which versions to seek out
     
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2016
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  3. grandegi

    grandegi Blind test maniac Thread Starter

    Location:
    Rome, Italy
    Now I know where Iron Maiden took the intro of their song... thank you!
     
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  4. grandegi

    grandegi Blind test maniac Thread Starter

    Location:
    Rome, Italy
    And some other polls were performed in the past few weeks:
     
  5. DiabloG

    DiabloG City Pop, Rock, and anything 80s til I die

    Location:
    United States
    I can provide some samples from Diament's PG. If there are any other Zep samples you might need, then I probably have them.
     
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  6. George P

    George P Notable Member

    Location:
    NYC
    I lost a question on a board game last night that asked "which rock band's 2nd through 4th albums were named simply using the band name and II-IV." :sigh:
     
  7. S. P. Honeybunch

    S. P. Honeybunch Presidente de Kokomo, Endless Mikelovemoney

    The warmth prize goes to the Marino fourth album CDs.
     
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  8. ricks

    ricks Senior Member

    Location:
    127.0.0.1:443
    What I do not understand is why the only Digital mastering in which the drums sound correct for Levee [my favorite Zepp track and one of my top 3 overall favorite rock tracks] are on the original Sidore disc? Combining the tracks from the Sidore and Marino is what I did until I decided to go only with vinyl rips for the best sound. In my opinion the crown jewel of the Zepp catalog has never sounded good in the digital realm.
     
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  9. dosjam

    dosjam Forum Resident

    Location:
    seattle
    I too got fooled. Just to reiterate what grandegi noted, how does the mastering style flip for just this recording? Strange.
     
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  10. DiabloG

    DiabloG City Pop, Rock, and anything 80s til I die

    Location:
    United States
    Speaking of Sidore's mastering, I snagged a 38XP of IV with a green West German Target disc and a gold OBI at the flea market today. How rare is this CD?
     
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  11. Thievius

    Thievius Blue Oyster Cult-ist

    Location:
    Syracuse, NY
    Wow, very surprising results. I have the Marino and Davis and always assumed the Marino would be more harsh or bright by comparison. Doesn't appear to be the case.

    (I make no assertions, I only did a cursory side by side listen moments ago, but this does give me pause to listen more closely to these 2 discs.)
     
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  12. HarrySmith

    HarrySmith Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kent, England
    I've a suspicion that LZIV was used as the baseline for the mastering of the Boxsets in 1990, in order to conform all the tracks from each album to a consistent overall sound - and then, of course, those same track masterings were recompiled into the later individual album releases. With the Diament and Davis versions they could approach each album individually and master to each ones strengths without worrying too much how they sat with the rest of the catalogue. Makes sense to me, anyway.
     
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  13. Holy Diver

    Holy Diver Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    .
    Pretty damn rare. Great find. I believe that is the first West German pressing of IV. It was made for the Japanese market, hence the gold obi.

    Does it look like this?

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2016
  14. DiabloG

    DiabloG City Pop, Rock, and anything 80s til I die

    Location:
    United States
    Yep, that's the one :agree:
     
  15. Chooke

    Chooke Forum Resident

    Location:
    Perth, Australia
  16. Holy Diver

    Holy Diver Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2016
  17. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    This is very interesting for me. The only version of this album I have is the Sidore mastering on CD. It's the version I've had since the late 80s. I liked Sample A, but voted for Sample C as being better for headphone listening with my headphone gear. So I've just ordered a used copy of the Page/Marino mastering on CD. Very curious now to hear that mastering for the full album on headphones.

    Getting the center of the imaging to fill in and have depth on headphones is something that I consider partly due to the AD converter used and other associated studio gear used. If the AD converter doesn't do that style of center imaging and depth then no amount of EQ fiddling and other fiddling will get it to happen well.

    I wonder what AD converter Page and Marino were using to do the transfer?
     
  18. Sentient Six

    Sentient Six Forum Resident

    Location:
    Annandale, NJ USA
    I still want the sound studios mix of the whole album. I really thought the version on CD2 of Stairway was a revelation.
     
  19. dlokazip

    dlokazip Forum Transient

    Location:
    Austin, TX, USA
    Once again, I picked the Marino, which shocks me. Given that I own both crop circles boxes, I guess I bought the Davis remaster for the cover. :oops: (I picked the Marino sample for Presence, too.)

    It didn't surprise me that I didn't like the sound of Sample A. I never liked the Sidore and still don't.
     
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  20. S. P. Honeybunch

    S. P. Honeybunch Presidente de Kokomo, Endless Mikelovemoney

    The EQ is probably a bigger factor than the converters.
     
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  21. grandegi

    grandegi Blind test maniac Thread Starter

    Location:
    Rome, Italy
    I agree. The question is: why didn't Marino apply to IV the same EQ he applied to the remaining albums (or most of them)?
     
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  22. grandegi

    grandegi Blind test maniac Thread Starter

    Location:
    Rome, Italy
    I'll PM you, thank you.
     
  23. grandegi

    grandegi Blind test maniac Thread Starter

    Location:
    Rome, Italy
    Interesting. If this is the case (and it could be), then all the Marino individual albums simply can't work (in most cases, except on systems which are tame in the midrange). With the exception of IV of course.
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2016
  24. S. P. Honeybunch

    S. P. Honeybunch Presidente de Kokomo, Endless Mikelovemoney

    For the second album, I hear the treble being much more exaggerated on the Davis CD than the midrange on the Marino CD.
     
  25. Holy Diver

    Holy Diver Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    To me, Sandy Denny on The Battle of Evermore sounds more natural on the Sidore than she does on the Marino. That is another reason I prefer the original.
     
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