Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Led Zeppelin Available Now
Considering how bad (or at best mediocre) the average copy of the first Zep album sounds, let’s give credit where credit is due and say that Bernie’s remastered version on Heavy Vinyl is darn good (assuming you get a good one, something of course that neither I nor you should assume).
It’s without a doubt the best of all the Classic Zeppelin titles, most of which we found hurt our delicate ears.
Our Thinking Circa 2010
[The last time we played a copy.)
We like the Classic, albeit with reservations. It’s without a doubt the best of all the Classic Heavy Vinyl reissues of the Zeppelin catalog, most of which are not very good and some of which are just awful.
Why is this one good? It’s tonally correct for one thing, and the importance of that cannot be stressed too strongly.
Two, it actually ROCKS, something a majority of pressings we’ve played over the years don’t.
Three, it’s shockingly dynamic. It may actually be more dynamic than any other pressing we have ever played.
UPDATE 2023
It might have been back in the day, but it’s highly unlikely we would agree with that assessment in 2023. Much like this record, we had a lot of R&D ahead of us before we could know just how dynamic this recording could be.
If you aren’t willing to devote the time and resources necessary to acquire a dozen or more domestic and import copies, and you don’t want to spend the dough for one of our Hot Stamper copies, the Classic is probably your best bet.
We would agree now with almost none of what we had to say about this Classic title when it came out back in the day. We’ve reproduced it below so that you can read it here for yourself.
It’s yet another example of a record we was wrong about. Live and learn, right?
Our Somewhat Mistaken Commentary from the 90s
A Classic Winner! Zep 1 Rocks! Beats my best domestic copy (the former champ) and all the imports I”ve heard (at least 10 I would say), even the expensive Japanese Analog version I used to recommend.
This version is a little (deep) bass shy — 2 or 3 db at 40 helps a lot — but it’s cleaner and more dynamic than any other copy I have heard. Things get loud on this version that never got loud before. And that is, to quote one of my competitors, awesome!
Maybe Bernie trimmed the bass because it’s distorted, which would be a mistake, as the distortion is on the tape and rolling off the bottom end solves nothing. Zep II is the same way, maybe even more so.
UPDATE 2023
The distortion we mention above was not on the record. It was in the system trying to play the record.
Since 90% of all the audiophile systems I’ve ever heard were bass shy, this may not be as obvious as it should be. But Led Zeppelin without much deep punchy bass emasculates the music in such a fundamental way that it’s hard to imagine this album could have much effect on its audience without it.
It’s called head-banging music for a reason. Like Wayne, Garth and their buddies driving down the road in Wayne’s World, when it’s really rocking you have an uncontrollable desire to bang your head up and down to the beat, and you need bass to make it rock. No bass, no headbanging.
A Confession
It’s true: We were impressed with many of the better Heavy Vinyl pressings even as recently as the early 2000s.
If we’d never made the progress we’ve worked so hard to make over the course of the last twenty or more years, perhaps we would find more merit in the Heavy Vinyl reissues so many audiophiles seem to revere.
We’ll never know of course; that’s a bell that can be unrung. We did the work, we can’t undo it, and the system that resulted from it is merciless in revealing the strengths and weaknesses of all the records we play. That system makes clear to us that these newer pressings are second-rate at best and much more often than not third-rate and even worse.
Some audiophile records sound so bad, I was so pissed off I created a unique circle of vinyl hell to put them in.
Setting higher standards — no, being able to set higher standards — in our minds is a clear mark of progress. Judging by the hundreds of letters we’ve received, especially the ones comparing our records to their Heavy Vinyl and Half-Speed Mastered counterparts, we know that our customers are hearing things the same way we do.