Led Zeppelin I-IV 2014 remasters considered the best?

They sound very nice. My ears haven't shattered yet but perhaps I'll give it another try in a while. The HD Tracks downloads.

 

Oh, bet you will buy em all.

 

So far the 2014 remasters are my go to discs. I have a couple of the Marino discs and never liked them. I also have most of the Diament discs and regularly listened to these prior to the latest remasters.

 

It is. Sonically, it blows.

 

Still the best - Thank you Mr Collins - I've got mine!

 

If one isn't willing to spend the time to RMS level match different Zeppelin masters onto a CD-R before comparing them and making final judgments, one might not even be willing to spend two minutes to edit these two tracks in Audacity so that they match the album edit. Sad, but true.

 

Oh please.
For one thing I never bought the Crop Circle box because the albums were so slaughtered that I couldn't get over it when trying to enjoy it.
Yes, it is sad that the Led Zeppelin Appreciation Society as whole is not willing to do what you describe but that is the way of the world these days.
No one is willing to waste any time in a pointless exercise of futility.
Besides, we're all deaf and time is running out.
I'm just praying that Physical Graffiti is released in time so that I can hear Trampled Under Foot before my mind sinks into dementia.

 

What Zal "believes" doesn't say anything. There is no fact in there.

 

Well, maybe I'm being cynical, but he's bound to say that, whether there's any truth in it or not - after all, he's trying to justify people go out and buy the new set - "they're better because...."

I'm very impressed with the 2014 vinyl of the first five albums that have come out so far - and I have UK originals!

 

One more thing, took one of the least dynamic tracks of the 2014 IV (DR8) and compared it to Barry's master. It's clear by looking at the wave-forms that this track has some MINOR peak-limiting. As i stated before they are not very peaky albums to begin with. There is a few very high-peaks that doesn't even look like music to me. They are probably tape-inperfections making Barry's version show (DR11) on the meter.

They are simply analogue-compressed recordings mastered at very low volume with defects fooling the meter. Look for yourselves and primarely trust your own ears when comparing the different versions. As i stated before i think of both Barry's master and the recent 2014 to be great sounding.

 

I don't pay too much attention to DR numbers, if I can import the waveform into audacity, that usually confirms my suspicions - I remember when Mothership came out and before I'd even ripped it to my computer I could tell how squashed it was! Where my volume control ends up before my ears start bleeding when I get a new CD is a pretty good giveaway!

 

Jimmy Page.
Why all the nose scratching during the 1990 interview?

At the time of the Box Set, I was just getting into the new CD media.
He was all over the place with that 'improved quality' schtick.
I bought that box set and Vol.2 when that was released.
This was my standard for 20 years.

Added the individual remasters over the following years.
Always preferred my original vinyls. My previous 20 year standard.

Never heard of Diament, until I found this forum.
I even owned one!
Kept it, because it sounded great.
Added a few more, based on this forum. They are excellent.
Oh, but Jimmy wasn't involved...

Here we are in 2014.
He finally got it right.

 

That one is very, very bad

 

I have got a question, I have a record player with a built in amp (Reloop 6000 with a Ortofon 2M blue cartridge) at the back of the record player I can turn on or off the amp to plug into AUX or PHONO.
If I want to have a waveform from a song or one side of a record, how do I do it? Can I directly plug the cable from the Record Player to the PC? (If I turn on the built in amp?)
Or is it better to go "through" the real amp (Harman Kardon) I listen on? And how do I change the record level? Is it done automatic?

I really would like to compare LP / CD but it is not that easy, CD is no problem, perhaps someone can give me an advise for LPs... (I have got Audacity)

All the best
1973_2fk4

 

How are most of you listening to the hi-res downloads?
Are you buring them to DVD-R and playing them back or do you have a DAC that accepts them through RGB?
I know a lot of players won't decode 96/24.

Thanks!!

 

Have you ever visited the Hardware Forum here at SHTV?

 

The live versions are ok. The best live Zep is How the West Was Won, and the 2003 dvds

 

try find a squeezebox touch or something. They are capable of hi-res. Easy to use.

 

Interesting - do you recall which tracks? All the discussion of this topic I've seen so far has focused on tracks (like Nobody's Fault but Mine, and I think Stairway) on which the new remasters restore the full fades, unlike the 1990s CDs.

 

I think the 2014's sound very good. I am looking forward to Physical Graffiti, it has some of their most interesting recordings on it.

A little off topic, but the 2003 DVD set of their live shows has some of the most interesting Led Zep mixes in by Pagey himself. (especially the 5.1's)

These recordings are slavishly fixed with overdubs and digital trickery. No mistakes at all, as I am sure there were originally.

They retain a live feel, but if anyone wants to hear what some re mixes of studio stuff could sound like, these are an interesting listen. (The film is also quite nicely restored too)

 

Wasn't Going to California another one with an early fade on the Marino LZ IV disc?

 

Hi! I have got the Yamaha CD-N500 a network CD player and I have connected it via ethernet to my music collection.
The manual says - I don't have the exact words right now - but it says "If you use the chinch out files in 96/24 can be played. If you use optical or coax only files not higher than 48/24 can be played."
I have got the Yamaha and connected it via chinch to my amp, the data connection is via ethernet and it plays the 96/24 without problems. I have - for example - downloaded some KISS 96/24 files. They can be played without problems.

All the best,
1973_2fk4

 

I prefer the new remasters to the RetroActive set. However, I still greatly prefer the RetroActive set to the 1990s Marino remasters, which is interesting because as far as we know, the RA set was based either on the same digital transfers Marino used, or on Marino's mastered versions themselves. Whatever Dave Collins did, it's a nice, modern sounding mastering. It would never be my only version of Zep, but I find it quite enjoyable and it was a revelation (albeit a minor one) when I first heard it.

As for the RA versus the Diament/Sidore versions, I prefer the really good Diaments (which IMHO are Zep I, II, and Houses). For Zep IV, PG, and ITTOD I prefer the RA. For III, and Presence, it's sort of a toss-up - they're so different but each has its merits and demerits. (And none of the Coda tracks is on the RA set.)

But it's all irrelevant for me now, since the 2014 remasters are so much better than the Marinos, the RA, and the Diament/Sidore versions of III, IV, PG, Presence, ITTOD, and Coda.

I still keep a rip of the RA set in my iTunes rotation and listen to it periodically. And I have a sealed RA set numbered 105 that they will have to pry from my cold, dead hands. But IMHO its main value now is purely as a collector's item. If you are not a major Zep fan/collector, and if you don't like the overall sound profile of the Marinos, I can see no reason to spend the money on the RA set at this time.

 

Personally I think you are overstating this, although I do agree with your main point here. I think many of those peaks are in fact music, and I would be very surprised if the 3dB DR difference was purely (or even mostly) a result of peak-limiting tape defects and other non-musical content.

However, I do think you are right that the peak-limiting is very light and has minimal impact on the music. Two examples: My usual hobby horse, Custard Pie - there is one abormally loud peak near the end of that song that sticks out more on the Diament version than on the new remaster. I believe somewhere in the ocean of comments on the Zep remasters here, a forum member has pointed to that particular peak as something he always loved about Custard Pie. I listened to both versions after he wrote that, and I heard what he was talking about. But for me, that peak is not a particularly dramatic or special thing, and it's not worth listening to 5 minutes' worth of overly quiet, muddy sounding music to get to it. The new remaster is so much clearer and punchier as to make the Diament version basically unlistenable for me.

Another example is Sick Again. There's a very important loud peak when the initial four bars end and the song really starts in earnest. The new remaster might have limited that peak slightly, I don't know - I haven't looked at that waveform. But when I listen, I feel the same impact and immersion from it as I do when that moment comes on the Diament version.

So in my view, these two examples illustrate my point that the peak limiting here has been done minimally, and generally pretty wisely.

Finally, @xcqn says that most of this music wasn't very peaky to begin with. To the extent that's true, it would be easy to know what these remaster sound like without peak-limiting - just run them through a good-quality de-clipper. My guess is that you'll get tracks with 1-3dB more DR, and a handful of restored peaks - and a sound that is virtually indistinguishable from what they sound like now.