Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Led Zeppelin Available Now
Below you will find the story of my first encounter with an amazing sounding copy of Zep II back in 1995 or thereabouts.
I had a friend who had come into possession of a White Label Demo pressing of the album and wanted to trade it in to me for the Mobile Fidelity pressing that I had played for him once or twice over the years, and which we both thought was The King on that album.
To my shock and dismay, his stupid American copy killed the MoFi. It trounced it in every way. The bass was deeper and punchier. Everything was more dynamic. The vocals were more natural and correct sounding. The highs were sweeter and more extended. The whole pressing was just full of life in a way that the Mobile Fidelity wasn’t.
The Mobile Fidelity didn’t sound bad. It sounded not as good. More importantly, in comparison with the good domestic copy, in many ways it now sounded wrong.
Let me tell you, it was a defining moment in my growth as a record collector. I had long ago discovered that many MoFi’s weren’t all they were cracked up to be. But this was a MoFi I liked. And it had killed the other copies I’d heard in the past.
So I learned something very important that day.
I learned that hearing a better pressing is clearly the surest way to appreciate what’s wrong with the pressing I thought sounded right.
In this case, I used to like a very bad pressing, the Mobile Fidelity, but I really could not tell what was wrong with it because I had nothing better to compare it to. [*] (And I had never developed much in the way of critical listening skills.)
More evidence, if any were needed, that the three most important words in the world of audio are compared to what?
Needless to say, the trade didn’t go through: he kept his copy and I was stuck with mine. But I knew what to look for. I knew what the numbers were in the dead wax. And I started hunting them down.
Our Review of the Mobile Fidelity Zep II
This pressing has to be one of the worst audiophile remastering jobs in the history of the world. There is NOT ONE aspect of the sound that isn’t wrong. Not one!
The highs are boosted, the upper midrange is boosted, the mid-bass is boosted, the low bass is missing — what part of the frequency spectrum is even close to correct on this pressing? The answer: none. For the complete review, please click here.)
Other Pressings
I used to sell the Atlantic German import reissue LPs years ago. At the time I thought they we’re pretty good, but then the Japanese analog series came out and I thought those were the best.
Boy was I wrong. Those Japanese pressings, I realize now, are way too bright. Surprisingly, the German reissues sound more or less correct to me now. They’re tonally balanced from top to bottom, which is more than you can say for most Zep II’s if you don’t have an RL pressing.
And of course the Classic Records Heavy Vinyl pressing is an absolute disaster — a ridiculously bright, ridiculously crude, completely unlistenable piece of garbage. (More of their ruinous remasterings of the Zeppelin catalog here.)
[*] In 1995, I had no inkling of the wonderful revolutionary changes in audio that were to come, technologies and discoveries which would change audio in my home (and later in my studio) in unimaginable ways.
Without both higher quality playback and better cleaning technologies, I simply would have had no chance to develop the critical listening skills needed to carry out carefully controlled shootouts, the kind I started doing about ten years later.
Looking back now, those are ten years that really shook my world. By 2007 everything had changed.
Further Reading
Tom,
So much common sense, I very much enjoy reading your blog. By the way have you ever heard the Led Zep 2 Alvear Spanish 1981 reissue? A7/B7, A8/B8, A9/B9… would love to see a picture of your new sound room…
Brad, thanks for the kind words.
As for Spanish reissues from 1981, I would be very skeptical of any pressing that was not cut by RL for reasons that should be obvious and other that I will explain at some point based on the commentary I wrote for “Jimmy Page Remasters a Classic.”
In the Washington Post video you can see some of the room. I think that’s probably all that will ever be visible.
Best, TP
Be curious and try an Alvear pressing. They are good.
Hi,
Thanks for writing.
The fact that the pressing you speak of is being touted on Hoffman’s forum is a red flag to us.
Rarely have I read anything credible there, so naturally I am very skeptical of anyone’s claims for this pressing.
Before we consider your recommendation, perhaps you would like to tell us a little bit about your background in audio.
If you have been doing audio at a high level for a suitably long time, we would consider investigating the pressing in question further.
Best, TP