Zep I...STUNNING!

Yeah right. I'll keep looking for an RL copy.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=27343&item=4008739122&rd=1

 

No such animal. RL mastered the first LZ2, that 'didn't play well' on cheaper units.

The first (-A) US mastering is very good, but like most Zep very hard to find in NM or M. Due to the 'confusion' with Atlantic, there is a *later* -A lacquer on the 75 Rockefeller label. You want the one with the 1841 Broadway.

Good luck.

Most of the rarity on this auction is the turquoise/Cyan second color. I can't recall if this is first printing run or a batch printing offset mistake - it's often difficult to tell these apart, and in any case it makes little difference as either makes it 'rare'. The fact that there is also a US cyan cover makes me suspect the look was changed by someone. (there's also a yellow US Columbia House printed cover). Oh and it's rarer still in Stunnning!!!.

I have way too many different copies of this album, really.

 

Thanks for the advice Mike. I read that Zeppelin thread a while back and probably got confused.

If you don't mind me asking, how many pressings do you own and which do you like the best?

I guess the point I was trying to make is that no matter how STUNNING Zep I is (and I can't argue with that), there's no way I'm laying down a big G for it! The person who's bidding on that belongs on the You Know You're A Vinyl Junkie thread!

 

It boggles my mind when I see these guys trying to outbid each other days before the close of auction only to be sniped in the last remaining seconds.

 

Save yourself some hassle and get the Classic Records reissue.

 

I have about ten US of various ages - several really nice -A copies in orange color covers. My UK ones are still there, and include two different plum masterings and some of the yellow/orange Kinney ones. One of the UK originals is quite a bit louder than the other, and has no track gap before Dazed and Confused. Both these are great playable disks but are a bit noisy. The good news is that with these plums, that really doesn't matter - you just crank them up and ignore the surfaces.

So at the moment I reach for one of the original 1841 Broadway US Atlantic copies. Available all over for under $10. You do want the -A, not anything later. Play it loud, too - it's not recorded at a very high level, but has very good separation and dynamics. Follow the electric piano in You Shook Me. I particularly like the timbres on this issue, on the steel strung acoustic - real and genuine. I don't have a problem with the classic reissues as such, but don't think they're better (beautifully pressed, well mastered but boring. I have similar issues with most MoFi vinyl. Something is missing.)

 

Tom Port usually has very few kind words for Classic Records reissues but he posts this on his web site. This is one of the three Led Zeppelin Classic reissues he likes. (The other two are IV and Presence.)
http://www.dccblowout.com/product.asp?pf_id=28541&dept_id=
Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin

A Classic Winner! Zep 1 Rocks! Beats my best domestic copy (the former champ) and all the imports I've heard (at least 10 I would say), even the expensive Japanese Analog version I used to recommend.

(Pictured to the left are the three titles that, IMHO, Classic got right.)

This version is a little (deep) bass shy—2 or 3 db at 40 helps a lot—but it's cleaner and more dynamic than any other copy I have heard. Things get loud on this version that never got loud before. Awesome Dude!

Maybe Bernie trimmed the bass because it's distorted, which would be a mistake, as the distortion is on the tape and rolling off the bottom end solves nothing. Zep II is the same way, maybe even more so.

Since 90% of all the audiophile systems I've ever heard were bass shy this may not be as obvious as it should be. But Led Zeppelin without deep punchy bass emasculates the music in such a fundamental way that it's hard to imagine this album could have much effect on its audience without it. It's called head banging music for a reason. Like Wayne, Garth and their buddies driving down the road in Wayne's World, when it's really rocking you have an uncontrollable desire to bang your head up and down to the beat, and the beat is or vice versa.

Audiophiles as a group are in what I like to call "bass-denial",

hoping against hope that bass is mostly dispensible -- that you can do without it -- or that a single 10" or 12" woofer can handle the job. This is a perfectly understandable rationalization, as bass is by far the most expensive and difficult part of the frequency spectrum to reproduce in the home.

Understandable but wrong. Good bass is absolutely critical to musical reproduction at ALL frequencies. It makes voices sound more correct and even tape hiss sound more correct. How can that be? Who can say? I'm more interested in "what is" than "why it is". One is empirical, experimental, the other theoretical. The former leads to real results rather more often than the latter, so that is where I have chosen to devote my limited amount of time and energy.

I've done quite a lot of experimenting with bass over the last few years and I can tell you that the conventional wisdom on the subject is mostly dead wrong (what else is new?). Once you get the bass right in your system you will have achieved an entirely new level of musical realism -- and therefore enjoyment. Get some bass and see what I mean.

 

I'll second that!

 

Just picked up LZI on Atlantic's 1840 Broadway label. Deadwax info:

Side One
ST-A-681461-A (RG initials)

Side Two
ST-A-681462C (GP initials)

Only $12 and in VG/M condition. Really nice weighty vinyl. Worth it, even if they are essentially two different pressings. I haven't compared it to my Classic yet, but will be doing so soon.

I'll probably address this in the OTHER Zep vinyl thread:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=29630&highlight=zeppelin+vinyl