Jump to content

Led Zeppelin Remasters: Complete Studio Recordings vs. Definitive Collection


greenguy1017

Recommended Posts

Well, I'd like to get a box set of all of Led Zeppelin's studio album, and could less if it had "The Song Remains the Same" on it. I'm torn between getting The Complete Studio Recordings and The Definitive Collection. I don't want to get anything from Japan. However, I heard that the Rhino version of the Definitive Collection just has the same remasters as The Complete Studio Recordings. Can anyone confirm this? If so, I'll get The Studio one, because I'd like an essay about the band, as I don't know much about them. Unless, of course, The Definitive Collectiion has an essay or something...

Another thing is about the remasters. Does the Definitive sound better than the Complete Collection, or is it only because it's louder? I'd like some dynamic contrast and what not, and I definitely don't want a victim of the loudness war.

Anyway, can you guys just give me as much details as you can? Thanks.

P.S. I've heard of problems with the packaging in The Complete Studio. Something about the glue damaging the CDs or something. Can anyone confirm this or say anything about it? Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have owned the "Complete Studio Recordings" box for close to 15 years now and I think it's awesome and the sound quality is good! I have not had any issues with glue from the packaging damaging any of my CD's and it has stood the test of time (I am super OCD when it comes to my CD's though). I spent $100 on it back in the day and I do not regret it at all. I took a chance at the time because I had only really listened to two Led Zeppelin albums up to that point: LZ IV and Houses of the Holy. That was soon to change, thank goodness, and here I am today!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I own the 2007 mini-LP Definitive Collection, and I would have to suggest them -- they are based on the 1990s remaster project, essentially being a remaster of a remaster...they are louder, but the work done on them brings out a bit more clarity than the older box-sets.

The real reason(s) to buy the 2007 set, though, are the mini-LPs: Painstaking recreations of the original albums. The best CD releases I own, in a physical sense.

...If you can wait a little bit longer, new remasters are on the way. I'm sure they'll be packaged together in a big box again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have both the Complete Studio Recordings and the mini-LP Collection. The mini-LP is definitely better sound and I love the packaging. I keep the Complete Studio ones in my car and the mini-LP in my stereo at home.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have both the Complete Studio Recordings and the mini-LP Collection. The mini-LP is definitely better sound and I love the packaging. I keep the Complete Studio ones in my car and the mini-LP in my stereo at home.

Is that the mini-LP one from Japan?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, Jimmy Page said that each album is getting its OWN box-set. That doesn't mean that they're all gonna be packaged together AGAIN.

If you think that they won't package the albums together in one set -- probably without the extras -- ala their two other sets, or following the example of the Pink Floyd Discovery set from 2011 (in conjunction with the three Immersion sets for Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall), I think you'll be in for a surprise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you think that they won't package the albums together in one set -- probably without the extras -- ala their two other sets, or following the example of the Pink Floyd Discovery set from 2011 (in conjunction with the three Immersion sets for Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall), I think you'll be in for a surprise.

Yeah, but still... Jimmy said that each album's going to be slowly released, starting with this year. We're half-way through with this year, and nothing. What does this say for you supposed complete box set? It'd have to be released at the end of all that. Yeah, I guess I'm impatient. I just hope it's not going to be another loudness war victim. The war IS over, right...?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, but still... Jimmy said that each album's going to be slowly released, starting with this year. We're half-way through with this year, and nothing. What does this say for you supposed complete box set? It'd have to be released at the end of all that. Yeah, I guess I'm impatient. I just hope it's not going to be another loudness war victim. The war IS over, right...?

Not necessarily -- the Floyd complete set (Discovery) was released concurrently with the DS and WYWH boxes, while The Wall came out in 2012. Buzz abounds that the remasters of the albums proper have been finished, and that's what was recently (late last year) uploaded for sale via iTunes.

Halfway through, but as they've joked a few times now..."Zeppelin time" is different from our usual temporal experience.

Anyway, if you're going to buy one of the two sets, I've already given my two cents. The Complete set from the 1990s can be bought for much cheaper, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I disliked the album photo size in the Complete Boxed Set. I thought that small album photo size was demeaning to the product.

I also do not think that the CD version of the LPs followed the exact, to the second spacing between tracks, that was originally mastered to the LPs. And that is what I'd expect, from a purist point of view. There was something on LZ1 where I remember the spcing between the next to the last song and the last song. Hey, I know I'm being picky, but.... when you've listened to an LP side for a gillion times.... then you kind of have the the spacing between the tracks, in your memory, to the split second, and yes, those memories are important. You had to be there...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

By the way, the US edition of Definitive Collection is not SHM-CD.

Here's the difference between the US (left) and Japan (rught) editions. The audio quality is EXACTLY the same, by the way. I've compared the spectrograms.

ZPMshRc.jpgfXvQ6Ta.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Hi folks. New here. I have but one question tonight.

What's the consensus:

Did I just screw up by paying 40+ bucks for The Complete Studio Recordings 10 CD w/Booklet Full Box Set with Coda? I'm afraid Definitive Collection Ltd Edition, Original Recording Remastered is a bit outside of what I can afford to pay at the moment having just blown a bucket load on the Bob Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 10 Deluxe Edition.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would recommend the 2007 japanese SHM-CD any day IF you have a 2 channel high end stereo set up for PROPER listening. Beware of the counterfiet/bootleg versions found all over Ebay (shipped mainly from any other Asian country than Japan) and buy only from a solid seller. If it's too cheap stay away, they are expensive but worth every penny.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...