Led Zeppelin I-IV 2014 remasters considered the best?

I'll post a sample when I have some time to needledrop it again, perhaps this week. I find the highs are boosted on the Classic LZIII to the point where the strumming and picking on the songs with acoustic guitar all have a sort of exaggerated percussive effect that eventually gets annoying.

It's been speculated here that the tape Diament was given for his LZIII wasn't in great shape and in fact the comparison spectrogram I did back when the itunes LZ was released back in 2012 bears this out. The following is from a section of Since I've Been Loving You. The four identical samples are the 2012 MFiT, the 1990 Marino, the 1987 Diament, the 2007 Davis (on Mothership, which we know from Davis's comments on this forum were sourced from the same digital transfer used for the Marino). Notice how the treble in the left channel of the Diament version seems to be missing a lot of energy (and also you can see the DC Offset present in the line across the bottom). I wish I could find the audio sample I did back then, but it's no longer on Sendspace and I haven't been able to locate it. It's also itneresting to see how the bass extends down on both the Diament and the Davis 2012 version. I recall in an interview, Davis mentioned there being a lot of bass energy on the Zeppelin master tapes down to 10Hz in some cases. It looks like either the transfer done for Marino (re-used for Mothership) has the subsonic bass rolled off on purpose or else the tape used was a copy of the master that was rolled off during the transfer. Lots of speculation possible.

 

I promised to post a sample from the LZ III Classic Records LP and I started out with that intention. However, I decided to dig out several notable versions I have and put together a bit of a needledrop shootout for the fun of it.

The five groups of samples below are taken from the following six versions of Led Zeppelin III

• UK second pressing
• Early Canadian red label
• Japanese 2nd pressing
• US Mastercraft
• Classic Records 200g cut by Bernie Grundman
• 2014 reissue cut by John Davis

The samples are as follows:

• LZIII_1: section from Immigrant Song
• LZIII_2: section from Friends
• LZIII_3: section from Since I've Been Loving You
• LZIII_4: section from That's the Way
• LZIII_5: section starting at the end of Bron-y-Aur Stomp and then the beginning of Hats Off to Roy Harper

Note that the samples are not in the same order as the pressings list above, and the order is different for each group of samples, so you won't know for sure what you're listening to. I'll reveal the sources in a couple of days. For now, I will reveal one source because I've alreay mentioned the weird flaw in the early part of the Classic Records version of Hats Off to Roy Harper. So for sample 5, the first one is obviously the Classic Records version since it's the only one with the flaw (the guitar starts out panned about 2/3 to the left then when Plant sings the first "I belieeeeeeve" it sounds like someone hit a switch and the guitar suddenly appears panned hard left. No one seems to know anything about this. The weird thing is that I seem to recall hearing a pbthal needledrop of the 45rpm version and the same thing occurs but at a different moment in the song. Strange!

WARNING: be careful if you have the sound turned up louad for LZIII_5_01.flac because the swelling crescendo sound at the beginning of Hats Off to Roy Harper is cut way too loud, to the point it overloads. I ran RX declip on it, but I didn't reduce it to the same level as the others.

Anyway, have some fun with this. there are some big differences but some of them are surprising. As for gear, these were all done with my Denon DL301II MC cartridge mounted on my PLX-1000 through a Lehmann Black cube preamp loaded at 1k and recorded at 96k into Reaper. I level-matched and edited in RX5 Advanced then ran all of them through Clickrepair set to 15. Even if some samples had no clicks, I decided to give them all equal treatment. There may be some remaining pops I missed by hand as a couple of these LPs are in bad shape. However, you'll get a good idea of the sound. Finally, I used Foobar2000 to convert them all to 16/44.1 Flac files.

You can open the folder on dropbox to access the individual files: Dropbox - LZIII_Samples

Or you can download a 170MB zip file containing all the samples: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7w1g0ocnjacdqe5/AABYjOdXgNhKuBcY64YDuqX5a?dl=1

 

I too love the hi res downloads I got through the code in the super deluxe boxes. I thought the files were 96kHz/24bit though.

 

I believe Qobuz and some other online vendors have lossless redbook resolution versions available.

 

Thanks Stefan

Will have a listen when I get back in a few days time.

Btw, if anyone is interested I have put up a shoot-out between various pressings of The Wall.

Pink Floyd The Wall on LP

 

I think I downsampled them for Airplay, from the 24 96 files. In case anyone was watching.

 

Thanks.

 

Here is the order of the samples:

Immigrant Song

1. Canadian red label
2. Classic Records
3. 2014 reissue
4. Japanese 2nd pressing
5. US Mastercraft pressing
6. U.K.


Friends

1. US Mastercraft pressing
2. Japanese 2nd pressing
3. 2014 reissue
4. Classic Records
5. Canadian red label
6. U.K.


Since I Been Loving You

1. 2014 reissue
2. U.K.
3. US Mastercraft pressing
4. Japanese 2nd pressing
5. Canadian red label
6. Classic Records


That's The Way

1. Japanese 2nd pressing
2. Canadian red label
3. US Mastercraft pressing
4. Classic Records
5. U.K.
6. 2014 reissue

Hats Off To Roy Harper

1. Classic Records
2. U.K.
3. US Mastercraft pressing
4. 2014 reissue
5. Japanese 2nd pressing
6. Canadian red label

 

I have them on CD, and they sound incredible on my Prius's factory-installed CD player.

 

Thanks Stefan

I did listen to the samples but didn't get around to posting my thoughts.

I generally preferred the Canadian and Classic samples but don't have my scribbles in front of me to say which was which.

 

Interesting thread. I own all of the originals in NM condition and they sound f'n fantastic. I also own the original CD's as well as the Crop Circles Box Set (both cd and vinyl). Growing up I really loved the Crop Circles set, beautiful compilation, and sounds really sweet. I would say better than the original CD releases. In the last year or so I picked up the vinyl Crop Circles set and as I suspected it sounds fantastic. Now, none of this means I do not like the remasters (picked up all of them)! I think Page did a great job overall and I know I may be in the minority but absolutely loved most of the bonus material. They might sound a bit more bright but still very detailed and overall excellent in my opinion. To recap my personal feelings:

1. Original NM pressings would probably be what I would recah for first-simply perfection.
2. Crop Circles set- really an upgrade in sound (over the original CD's) when it was released. I am not sure on the transfer to vinyl but the set I have was pressed in Germany and sounds ridiculously sweet!
3. Recent Remaster Series- also incredible and very glad to own them. Probably more bright, more compressed, but stunning detail that explodes out of the headphones. Some amazing bonus content throughout. Thank you Jimmy!!!
4. Mothership (original vinyl box)- this one is overcompressed but certainly listenable although I won't be spinning it often. Apparently they have remastered it again and improved it but really not needed with my already massive Zeppelin library.

 

The original analog vinyl is it when it comes to best sound.

I had been listening to the new remasters for a while ,but then i saw my friend had the original Diament CD's, i ripped them to apple lossless and have been blown away by the sound! Highly recommended!

 

I would suppose the 2014 remasters are the best streaming wise. For vinyl something like the Classic Record series or first presses usually come out ahead though.

 

Don't know have this been posted. On the deluxe versions, the song list is printed on an adhesive transparent sheet and stuck to the outer wrappings. Gosh, don't these people know we have to tear off the outer wrapping in order to open up the gatefold sleeves? I have to delicately tear the song list out from the wrapping and in doing so crumpled up the song list. What a pain

 

I honestly cannot tell the difference between my iTunes purchased LZ albums and my CD purchased LZs from 2014. Happy with both.

Thanks for taking the time to do these, it strengthened my belief in what I was hearing.

 

Yes, this drove me nuts. Might have been one reason why I sold mine. I can't be bothered with such stupidity.

 

When it comes to LZ IV on cd, I have found it to be a case by case basis for the best sound. For instance.........
Black Dog and Rock And Roll sound best on the Marino mastered disc. The bass sounds best to my ears.
The Battle Of Evermore- I like the Davis for this track. Seems to be less distortion
Stairway To Heaven- this is a tough one, I probably take the Sidore, because it has that vinyl feel.
Misty Mountain Hop- definitely the Davis for me. It seems so much more clear and easier on the ears.
Four Sticks- all three seem bass shy, and 4 stix needs bass. Can't decide between the Marino or Sidore.
Going To California- The Davis shines on this track. The Marino ain't too shabby either
When The Levee Breaks- Davis
Anyone else?

 

Reading these posts again, it occurred to me that most of the band members, currently remastering their material, are probably now all but deaf.

 

I must admit to being completely puzzled by anyone who thinks Crop Circles sounds decent. It’s so dampened, anemic, and maddening in EQ that I can’t believe I have kept my CD set all these years. Cheers if you feel differently, but that is what I have heard on every bit of hardware I have played it on since 1990.

 

I did a "shootout" last night. Both sound good in different ways...however...when the drums were solo; I easily preferred the sound on the original disc.

 

You mean you don't have a system in your car that cost more than the car itself? For shame!

 

Time to visit Pimp My Ride.

 

Yeah I mean, if Xhibit will do it for me for free, then hells yeah.