More of the Music of Led Zeppelin
Reviews and Commentaries for Led Zeppelin I
A textbook case of Live and Learn.
In 2007 we simply had no idea just how good this recording could sound on vintage vinyl. We needed to do a lot more homework, a subject we discussed in some depth here for Led Zeppelin III.
My guess is that we discovered the right pressings, with the right stampers, pressed in the right era, and mastered by the right guy, sometime in 2014. That was the year this copy came along.
Which, according to my audiophile math, means we needed 7 more years of buying, cleaning and playing copies of the album until we stumbled upon the hottest stampers of them all. And in the many years since, nothing has come along to take the crown away from this bad boy. Our customers seem pretty happy with the pressing we sold them, too.
Yes, it turned out to be quite the breakthrough, and it could not have happened to a better record, as Zep’s first album is my favorite rock album of all time.
Our Commentary from 2007
YOU WON’T BELIEVE HOW HARD THIS ZEP I ROCKS! It’s exceedingly tough to find great copies of this album, which is why you’ve never seen a Hot Stamper copy on the site before. We went through more than two dozen copies looking for The Real Sound, and this copy’s got it big time… ON BOTH SIDES!
For the real Led Zep magic, you just can’t do much better than the debut — and here’s a copy that really shows you why. From the opening chords of Good Times Bad Times to the wild ending of How Many More Times, this copy will have you rockin’ out!
Two Superb Sides
Side one has got THE BIG ZEP SOUND. Right from the start, we noticed how clean the cymbals sounded and how well-defined the bass was, after hearing way too many copies with smeared cymbals and blubbery bass. When you have a tight, punchy copy like this one, Good Times Bad Times does what it is supposed to do — it REALLY ROCKS! It’s just a bit bright, and there’s a little spit to the vocals, but with this much life, it’s light years aheads of the typically dull, dead, boring copy. The drum sound is PERFECTION.
Drop the needle on Babe I’m Gonna Leave You to hear how amazing Robert Plant’s voice sounds. It’s breathy and full-bodied with unbelievable presence. The overall sound is warm, rich, sweet, and very analog, with tons of energy. Dazed and Confused sounds JUST RIGHT — you’re gonna flip out over all the ambience! We rate side one A++ — incredible!
As amazing as side one is, side two is EVEN BETTER — it’s got MASTER TAPE SOUND with amazing tubey magic. What do you get on an A+++ Zep I side? Uncanny presence, clearer harmonics and transients, a fully extended top end, astonishing clarity and transparency and a WHOLE LOTTA BASS. You get all the texture, detail, and ambience that are missing from the average copy. Communication Breakdown sounds superb — the sound of Jimmy Page’s guitar during the solo is Right On The Money! You won’t find a better side two for this album, and we’ve rated it accordingly, A+++ all the way.

Imports — As Always, A Mixed Bag
I have numerous early pressings from England and Germany and, of course, no two of them sound the same.
My A1/B1 British Plum and Orange label turned out to be very good, but not in a league with the very best. Other British originals didn’t even make it past the first round. It just goes to show (again) that you can’t figure out too much about a record by looking at the label — you’ve got to play ’em to know how they sound.
Where’s The Beef?
Like any Zeppelin album, this music absolutely requires BIG BASS. Yet so many copies are sorely lacking in that area, suffering from a lack of weight in the bottom end. When some of the deep bass is missing, the tonal balance shifts upwards and the sound can become upper midrangy and bright. That was my first impression of side one, but I realized the bass was at fault, not the highs. When you get a copy without the kind of big, meaty bottom end a track like Dazed and Confused demands, you’ll be left cold — just as we were from all the weak copies we heard this time around.
Further Reading
In 2007, we were roughly in the same position as most audiophiles find themselves in.
We had auditioned a number pressings of the album and thought we understood the pros and cons of the sound well enough to pick a clear winner.
Of course, like most audiophiles, we made our judgments at the time with an insufficiently large sample size. This resulted, as it most often does, in us being completely wrong.
In 2007, we hadn’t stumbled upon the best pressings, because we hadn’t put enough effort into the only approach that actually works.
What approach is that, you ask?
Why, it’s trial and error.
Trial and error would eventually put us on the path to success. We had simply not conducted enough trials and made enough errors by 2007 to find out what we think we know now.
Maybe tomorrow another pressing will come along that’s even better.
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