Led Zeppelin I-IV 2014 remasters considered the best?

I'm a younger ear, I play them at loud volumes, and they are hands down the best mastering of these albums -- IMO. Just like every post of yours' is.

This might be a controversial comment: I base my enjoyment of music on how it sounds, not DR values...which are often different from post-to-post.

 

What does that even mean?

 

DR is not the end-all, be-all metric.
I have all of the digital versions of the Zep albums and created interleaved files of III and IV with all the tracks in version order.
Really no comparison as far as I'm concerned.
The 2014s are superior.
Would I have liked re-mixes? Absolutely. But this is what we got.
The brittle and fatiguing comments are ridiculous.
Any of these versions are "fatiguing" if you over crank them, just the nature of the recordings.
"Brittle", c'mon that's as descriptive as "bright".
The acclaim is due to the fact that most are pleased with these releases and have systems that can resolve those differences.
Any time and I mean any time you can reach a pretty solid consensus on this forum, it speaks for itself.

 

Nothing.

 

Black dog, Sidore vs 2014 remaster.

I would call that a well done remaster actually.

 

It's all a matter of taste. Definitive, schmefinitive my a**. Enjoy whatever sounds good to you. Both versions have good things going for them.

 

Only problem with rolling your own from the crop circle combined with the two disc addendum is that lzII loses the heartbreaker living loving flow. They are improperly separated.

 

The 2014 remasters aren't compressed at all...I don't know where that comes from, as it simply isn't true.

The remasters sound better to me than any of the other versions of these that I've owned over the last 40 years or so...and I don't think my opinion stems from the fact that my "hearing is shot", although I guess anything is possible.

The only reason(s) I can see in holding on to any of the older versions is nostalgia.

 

look at that huge spike near the end of the song, thats probably why the sidore has a couple of db more dynamics, fooling the meter

Looks almost like a needle-drop

 

They incorporate peak limiting, a form of compression.

 

yes but how many peaks did they actually limit with that? 2 mayby three?
What i'm trying to say is, they are compressed to begin with.

They just increased the volume, it still fits though.

 

You are right about the lack of compression - in fact, John Davis has directly answered this question and he said he used no compression.

However, the DR ratings of the new remasters are consistently 1-2dB lower than the Diament/Sidores. So that makes us look for an explanation. It could just be differences in EQ - for example, generally speaking you're not going to be able to boost bass or treble without reducing DR readings. And conversely, if you want to make it sound louder while preserving a high DR rating, then you boost the midrange (which is exactly what the Marino remasters do, BTW). So the more extended high end of these new remasters could very well explain a good deal of the reduced DR, since EQ changes can easily change DR readings by 1-2dB.

However, looking at some of the peaks in the waveforms, it really seems like they did use some very light peak-limiting. There's simply no other explanation for how, for example, Custard Pie looks (and sounds) on the 2014 remasters compared to the old CD versions. (Although again, IMHO the sonic result is so much better with that peak limiting in the case of this track.) It's totally plausible that Davis used light peak-limiting, but that he doesn't consider that to be compression per se.

Regardless, I agree with the gist of your comment.

 

If they are compressed to begin with then there is no reason to limit the dynamics through peak limiting. Further limiting the dynamics cheats people with musical sensibilities and those who want to have musical sensibilities. They are artificially too loud because Atlantic limited the peaks.

 

This statement I do agree with 100%. But light peak limiting is not the same as "heavily compressed and therefore brittle and fatiguing," which is what you've been claiming repeatedly.

 

The peak limiting is excessive and heavy.

 

Look a the wave-forms, i see one mayby two peaks that were extremely high. Those got limitied
The rest looks the same just more volume.

 

All you need to do to mess with the dynamics is cut off one peak. It changes the dynamic balance within the recording.

 

I'm not sure how keen my "musical sensibilities" might be in the grand scheme of things, I just feel confident stating that these sound leaps and bounds better than anything available previously, and they don't sound compressed (at least not in the traditional sense of what compression is) at all.

Obviously, YMMV...and your musical sensibilities are perhaps quite a bit more refined than mine.

 

Are you joking? You wouldn't hardly notice if one peak got limited.
I'm done talking about this. Everybody just go with the one you like the most

 

No, it is not. There is no evidence to support your claim.

This is not true. As @xcqn notes, you wouldn't notice a single limited peak. And it's silly to make this argument when most folks would readily admit that way more than one peak is limited in these new remasters. I will even concede that we can hear the difference peak limiting has made in the new remasters. However, in some cases (Custard Pie) that limiting is quite welcome; in other cases its effects are not significant even though they might be noticeable during critical listening; and in other cases they are far outweighed by other advantages the new remasters have over the earlier versions.

Also, earlier in this thread I believe you said you prefer the Marinos and you mentioned the midrange. Those are indeed the most midrange-heavy digital Zep versions around (and more midrange-heavy than a lot of the Zep vinyl out there for that matter). If that's the sonic profile you like, great - I certainly can see the appeal (lots of punch, sounds louder to the human ear without the need for compression). Personally, it's not my cup of tea.

 

Perhaps your "musical sensibilities" aren't all they're cracked up to be.

 

I notice the diminished dynamic range because there is much less differentiation between soft and loud. If you are OK with a severely diminished dynamic range as we have on "Stairway", you are entitled to keep buying the new masters. As far as the fourth album is concerned, however, Jimmy Page mixed "Stairway" so that there is a crescendo from start to finish. The crescendo effect is gone in the 2014 master. Compared to CDs that we already own, it starts loud and ends loud. Too mushy. With Zeppelin, we need the full dynamics intact. When we don't have the full dynamics, the mix is no longer transparent, but exists only as fictional sliced and diced mix that once existed beautifully unmolested in Evermore.

 

S.P. if you were Noah we'd all drown

 

Diements - dynamic, good eq, not first-gen tapes
Marino - dynamic, bad eq, first-gen tapes.
John Davis - quite dynamic, quite good eq, first-gen tapes.

Take you pick

 

I mean, that really got out of hand fast! I think I am too old to post here so I will move on.