Top Artists – Led Zeppelin

In Through The Out Door – Zep’s Last But Not Least

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Led Zeppelin Available Now

One of our early shootouts taught us a lot about this album.

On a super transparent, super low distortion copy, all the subtleties really come to life.

Too many copies we played were a bit grainy — you could really hear it on the cymbal crashes. This copy is as smooth and sweet as you could ever ask for.

It’s open and spacious, and the vocals are tonally correct. The bottom end has deep, well-defined bass and an exceptionally punchy kick drum sound.

There’s lots of extension up top and a silky quality to the vocals and cymbals.

The presence is staggering — the guitar solo on All My Love positively JUMPS out of the speakers.

Musically this certainly isn’t Zep’s best work, but there is still some really great material.

We found the best sounding tracks to be “Fool In The Rain” on side one and “All My Love” on side two.

“In The Evening” can rock with the best of them, “South Bound Saurez” can be very rich and sweet, and “I’m Gonna Crawl” can sound out of this world.

In fact, after playing two knockout copies we found back to back, I am a bigger fan of this album than I ever was.

Zep II it ain’t, but it’s still Zep, and that oughta tell you plenty.

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Houses of the Holy – Our 4 Plus Shootout Winner from 2010

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Led Zeppelin Available Now

Our lengthy commentary entitled outliers and out-of-this-world sound talks about how rare these kinds of pressings are and how to go about finding them.

We no longer give Four Pluses out as a matter of policy, but that doesn’t mean we don’t come across records that deserve them from time to time.

Side two of this copy of Houses of the Holy earned the rare Four Plus (A++++) grade (making it the first copy of Houses ever to do so, I believe) with an insane combination of clarity, presence, size, richness, transparency, bottom end punch and more. Side one is not quite in the same heady league but is certainly very strong with a Double Plus grade. You’re going to have a ridiculously hard time finding another copy that can hold its own against this one. Frankly, I don’t think it can be done without the kind of operation we have here! (more…)

Led Zeppelin / Coda – Our Shootout Winner from 2010

More Led Zeppelin

A distinguished member of the Better Records Rock Hall of Fame and another in the long list of recordings that really comes alive when you Turn Up Your Volume.

TWO GREAT SIDES and QUIET VINYL on this Swan Song pressing, one of the few good sounding copies we’ve ever played. We just sat down with the dozen-plus copies of Coda that made it through our preliminary round and only found a few that were worth writing home around. Most copies are too dry, grainy, and/or dull to get excited about, but this one is a MONSTER.

The best material on here — We’re Gonna Groove, Poor Tom, and the great live take of I Can’t Quit You Baby, just to name a few of our favorites — sounds darn good.

Of course, this probably isn’t — and shouldn’t be — anyone’s favorite Zep album. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth your time. Drop the needle on the smoldering version of I Can’t Quit You Baby and I’m pretty sure you’ll be a happy man. (more…)

Physical Graffiti – Our Shootout Winner from 2008

More of the Music of Led Zeppelin

Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Led Zeppelin

Zep fans, rejoice — PHYSICAL GRAFFITI HOT STAMPERS ARE HERE! We thought this day might never come. As you probably know by now, most copies of this album just plain suck!

After making some improvements in our evaluation process (minor tweaks to the room and the stereo, plus some new steps in our cleaning process) and — let’s face it — some seriously good luck, we’ve finally been able to track down a few killer copies of Zep’s monster double album.

If you’ve been waiting for The Ultimate Kashmir Experience, today is your lucky day.

Though we’ve known forever that many of you were eager for them, we just weren’t sure we’d ever have Hot Stampers for Physical Graffiti. There are a number of factors at play here. First off, you’ve gotta have a whole lot of copies around to do a shootout, and clean copies of this album sure ain’t cheap. When we’re doing a shootout for a title like The Stranger, Toto IV, or even Rumours, we can afford to pick up any nice-looking copy we see without breaking the bank. Not so with this one — minty copies don’t come cheap, and most of them sound so bad that it ain’t worth the risk. (more…)

Led Zeppelin – Our Four Plus Shootout Winner from 2014

More of the Music of Led Zeppelin

Reviews and Commentaries for Led Zeppelin I

It’s hard to imagine any copy beating this one! The vinyl is Mint Minus throughout, and the sound is INSANELY GOOD!

The chances of finding these surfaces with this sound — we’ll let you do the math. If you’re a fan of this album, and who isn’t – this is the copy you want.

Side one blew our minds and earned a grade of A++++!

Our lengthy commentary entitled outliers and out-of-this-world sound talks about how rare these kinds of pressings are and how to go about finding them.

We no longer give Four Pluses out as a matter of policy, but that doesn’t mean we don’t come across records that deserve them from time to time.

Originals Vs Reissues

The reason this copy has such amazing transparency and such an extended top end compared to other copies is clearly due, at least to some degree, to the better cutting equipment used to master it.

No original pressing — on domestic or import vinyl — we’ve ever played could boast this kind of resolution, leading edge transients, articulate bass definition, and big, bold but shockingly REAL sound.

Collectors routinely pay hundreds of dollars for original copies that don’t sound remotely as good as this one.

Which is fine by us. We’re not in that business. We’re not selling the right labels; we’re selling the right sound. There is a difference.

Collecting single pressings of original albums is doable, albeit expensive. Collecting good sounding pressings is hard; in fact, nothing in the record collecting world is harder.

But if you actually like playing your records as opposed to just collecting them, then the best possible sound should be right at the top of your list and the rarity of the label right at the very bottom.

Keep in mind that we’re the guys who are all about sound, not originality.

We discussed it in our FAQ as a matter of fact:

This listing gets to the point:

These are all records that can sound better on the right reissue pressing, not the original:

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