Led Zeppelin - Barry Diament masterings

I have NEVER IN MY LIFE heard anything better than nicely done needle-drops of some of my most favourite albums....I AM STUNNED...

Now I UNDERStAND vinyl-lovers perfectly...if these "vinyl-rips" sound on CD so good, I can imagine....

Got my hands on some amazing pieces...like the Japanese Harvest vinyl-rip of Pink Floyd "The Wall"...ALL of Led Zeppelin in 24bit/96khz...AC/DC "Back in Black"...these rips are SOOO much better...AMAZING...
Most of them are done by music-lovers with awesome equipment...

Sorry, I am rambling.
But it is like 5 Christmas´s at once....

quote:

Originally posted by MilesSmiles:

quote:

Originally posted by Zepfan:
Have you compared the the Japanese 1st pressings to the 2nd pressings (catalogue 20P2)? They are the same mastering.

The 20P2s are a lot cheaper than the 32XDs!!

Very good point, I have compared the second pressings to the first pressings for some titles but not for LZ - you will find differences to varying degrees based on the pressing. Since I am a hughe Zep fan ( ), the collector in me had to go for the first pressings. I might pop a second pressing in this weekend to compare.

I have mainly 2nd pressings apart from a 1st pressing Zepp 4.

Personally I love their sound.

quote:

Originally posted by Luxen:

Metallica - Broken, Beat & Scarred

Having done a fair bit of wave editing in Soundforge, I am shocked by seeing an official release with a waveform like this.

Frankly Metallica are a band who I dislike both their music and also their attitude towards fans, but this still shocks me.

I presume that this CD sounds a lot like a 128Kbps MP3 (without the artifacts, but with the same lack of dynamics), which presumably it was mastered for. Releasing something with a waveform like this on CD is a rip off. I hope people have taken the album back and said it is not of an acceptable standard to pay money for.

If record companies want to discourage fans from ripping albums to MP3, then would do well to consider the method used by Tool for their last release '10,000 Days', a beautifully recorded and mastered album, packaging that in itself is a lovely thing to own and hold, and a price that is fair for the fans to pay.


I would also add, music by Tool is also a positive factor, but that is taste as much as quality.

FWIW, I am able to find these (us pressing) diament credited zep albums fairly regularly in amoeba and other shops here in sf bay area for about 9 bucks a pop in good used condition.

quote:

Originally posted by JamieL:
I remember the Japanese box set being discussed here not long ago:


Would people recommend getting this?

Sorry for the late reply. For what it’s worth – no. The SHN-CDs sound absolutely lousy to me. I bought this box set and quickly sold it on. We have a set of paper sleeve releases from Japan that Amazon were selling for regular prices about two years ago. To our ears the SHM-CDs sound inferior to these. With one or two blips the SHM-CD onslaught has been a very good thing. The Zep releases really knocked it over, but obviously, they can only be as good as the masters from which they were taken. In this case, the wrong one.

I posted on page 2 that I bought it, and think the audio is disappointing. The packaging is lovely though.

I have since completed my set of Barry Diament masters, including the 'Physical Graffiti' Japan 1st Press CD 55XD.

I have also been getting my old pre-remastered copies of a few albums from the pile I put in the car, and finding out that nearly all are superior to the remastered releases.

The only remasters I have found to be an improvement are the King Crimson ones, and the Van Der Graaf Generator ones are different, but no better, but not harsh like most remasters.

Very glad I never got around to buying some remasters I was thinking of getting, as I have better versions sitting on my shelf.