They would certainty expose the fact that the differences are not uniform across every album, and that people’s preferences would likely vary depending on the album.
I initially thought they were so close as to doubt I was hearing slightly less sharpness on the top end of the target disc. I am certain however, that this nifty little target faced disc had something to do with my expectations being off in the top end as it turned out.
Well, what I mean is that such tests would be used to assess someone's ability to hear sonic differences between various pressings of the same era/edition. One could place "normal" Diament masters versus "Target" CD's and various pressings from the early 80's; so-called "Bob Ludwig" LP's versus non-"Bob Ludwig" LP's. If volume levels and playback conditions were equal on the equipment being used, I believe many person's claims about "hearing" differences in pressings from the same issue eras would likely fail. Of course there are noticeable differences in sound between the various remasters - that's obvious - but are there really audible, consistently distinguishable differences between US, European, and Japanese pressings from the same issue eras? That seems much more open to question, to me.
My point was concerning the premise of this thread and a few others: that a particular series is best or worst. I.e., that the original CDs are best across the board.
You're not entirely alone. With all the hype surrounding the Zep II RL, I picked up a very playable Monarch double RL to see what the fuss was about. While I wouldn't say I was disappointed, I wasn't blown away either. The vocals are crisp and the bass is deep and articulate, that's about all I can say. Elephants and monkeys definitely weren't flying around my living room or whatever was supposed to be happening. I've got plenty of other recordings in my collection that do blow me away (minus the elephants & monkeys) and can say without hesitation that I've always thoroughly enjoyed the Diament.
They're mainly silver with black text and a red ring. The spines are white (black for IV) with either red or blue text.
Are you just trying to identify the Diaments in the wild and avoid the Marino or Davis remasters? If you are, that's easy. The Marinos are notated on the backs of the CDs ("mastered by Jimmy Page and George Marino") and the Davis discs are cardboard sleeves rather than jewel cases.
Funny how we all perceive sound a bit differently. I would never have put the Diamant III as bright in the top end. To my ears it is a dull/muffled sounding CD with hardly any top end. The Davis remaster was a big improvement.
US pressings are the most common, but you can occasionally find West German and Japanese pressings as well.
Sorry, I'm just not known as Mr. Many Person's. If you are ever available in my neck of the woods I invite you to drop by and bring your standard US pressing of I, II, II Barry Diament's CD's along with Joe Sidore's US IV for a listening session against the Japan 1st pressings. The only down side is after this there's no going back and you can't undo it.
Then Ebbett's may have taken some liberties and applied some EQ, but I'm not complaining. "That's The Way" on the DESS is stunning. I use it as a test track all the time. I don't know much about Ebbetts but read he's in the music business himself, so he must know what he's doing.
That may be what you're hearing. Many people claim to hear pressing differences, especially with West German and Japanese versions. Barry Diament said all the pressing plants sounded different to him, so take that as you will.
At the very high end it is bright, to my ears. What you hear as "muffled" (an expression that increasingly irritates me), I hear as warm and typical for many albums released around then and nothing to bother about. I can't hear anything dull about it. The Davis remaster is better in some ways, especially on the vinyl edition.
the problem is that a lot of people on this forum don't have what could be even considered as a real HI-FI system and without starting any fight, somebody with a $1000 system won't hear the same sounds as someone with a $5000 system and so on… that's why it's important to fill the material you have in the information : it helps to understand each point of view in consideration of his system. For example on mine, the Davis remasters s**k and the Barry Diament are incredible.
I would agree to an extent if we were talking about high-resolution material particularly for female singers where an inferior system would be lacking the mid-range that higher-end systems have but these Zeppelin CDs regardless of who mastered them are not exactly audiophile quality recordings. They are very good however and the difference between mastering is easily noticeable on lesser systems. and by lesser system I don't necessarily mean a less expensive one just one that can't reproduce the frequency range of a CD faithfully. And even on "lesser" systems, one becomes used to a particular sound and the differences between the masterings should be pretty obvious there as well, especially when it comes to the "crankability" of some masters vs. others.
