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CD v. Vinyl Replica

Imagescapegirl

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Imagescapegirl

Imagescapegirl

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Ok, there has got to be some of you our there who have listened to the ordinary CD and the vinyl replica CDs of Led Zep. So if you have, is there any difference in the sound quality between the two?

My Houses of the Holy CD has developed ill health :( ... probably overplay! :D So I pan on replacing it. Looking on Amazon they have on offer the CD, the vinyl replica and the Japanese import. So the question is which to buy.

We do have a sound system that can tell the difference between recording qualities, and if there was an SACD, I wouldn't ask, I'd just buy it, which gives you some idea of where I'm coming from on this.

To date I have only one Japanese vinyl replica ... not LZ ... it's David Bowie's Diamond Dogs, and I have to say it does stand head and shoulders above the ordinary re-mastered Bowie CDs.

So between the different releases and Jimmy busy remastering endlessly, which would you all recommend I go buy. Pure question of sound quality not cost.

Thanks

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JTM

JTM

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Before anyone gets into this, one question needs to be asked...

You do know the vinyl came first, right? It was vinyl, then CD.

Just making sure... :D

Imagescapegirl is talking about CDs in vinyl replica sleeves not 12inch LPs.

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zeptangerine

zeptangerine

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Ok, there has got to be some of you our there who have listened to the ordinary CD and the vinyl replica CDs of Led Zep. So if you have, is there any difference in the sound quality between the two?

My Houses of the Holy CD has developed ill health :( ... probably overplay! :D So I pan on replacing it. Looking on Amazon they have on offer the CD, the vinyl replica and the Japanese import. So the question is which to buy.

We do have a sound system that can tell the difference between recording qualities, and if there was an SACD, I wouldn't ask, I'd just buy it, which gives you some idea of where I'm coming from on this.

To date I have only one Japanese vinyl replica ... not LZ ... it's David Bowie's Diamond Dogs, and I have to say it does stand head and shoulders above the ordinary re-mastered Bowie CDs.

So between the different releases and Jimmy busy remastering endlessly, which would you all recommend I go buy. Pure question of sound quality not cost.

Thanks

Go with CD all the way. With vinyl, I could only hear a few guitars on Over The Hills, but with CD I heard no less than 6. Houses is my absolute favorite Zeppelin disc of all time, too. I love the cover- it's the best album with Jimmy, John Paul, and Bonzo at their creative peaks. They were reading each other's minds at this time, too. :D

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Imagescapegirl

Imagescapegirl

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Think I better just clarify my question, 'cause there is certainly some confusion on the thread ...

I'm not asking whether I buy a CD or good old fashioned vinyl .... I'm old enough to have done - at the time it came out - and still have some of the Led Zep vinyl in 12" size! I also have all the original albums on CD along with some of the later groupings.

My Houses of the Holy is poorly - too much play probably! So in order to get the best sound quality, and as there is now a choice which there wasn't when I first bought/got given my CDs, should I buy ....

1. The ordinary CD

2. The CD which is a replica of the original vinyl, but still a CD

3. The Japanese Import CD ... in the case of an old Bowie album I have, the Japanese CD is better sound quality than the UK one. This may not be the same with Zep, as they use a different label. I'm happy to spend the £20 on the imported HotH if the sound quality is worth it.

Some come on guys and gals ... what are you all listening to, and how does it sound?

One last question do any of you knowlegdeable folk know if any of the Led Zep albums are available as SACDs? Or any of Mr Page's other outings for that matter.

Thanks

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whyalla

whyalla

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^Go with the Japanese Import cd's their always better quality than UK/German pressings. If you can afford it, and find it, buy the original Jap CD pressings. But the Jap re-issues will still be better than the ordinary or vinyl replica cd versions available in the UK.

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zeptangerine

zeptangerine

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I say go with the original release, if you can find it- I have the first release CD and that's when I discovered the Holy Grail of all Overdubbing, the True Meaning of Life- aka Jimmy's Jam.

B)

ps- Thanks to digital MP3 players, the sound quality isn't usually an issue unless you have the hearing of a canine. And I don't think Jimmy remastered all that much on the 10 disc box set for Houses or any of the other albums. In fact, between the original release, the 10 disc release, and the 4 disc box set, I can hear two different intros for the song of Gallows Pole. My one ear hears the guitar intro in the left, and on another "remastered" disc, the other in the right. Remastering or a coffee spill on the controls? Now the NEW Mothership release is something to appreciate. It's definitely got all the "mucky muck" removed.

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Imagescapegirl

Imagescapegirl

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^Go with the Japanese Import cd's their always better quality than UK/German pressings. If you can afford it, and find it, buy the original Jap CD pressings. But the Jap re-issues will still be better than the ordinary or vinyl replica cd versions available in the UK.

Thanks ... final decision is to go with the Japanese Import, which is on order.

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Imagescapegirl

Imagescapegirl

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I say go with the original release, if you can find it- I have the first release CD and that's when I discovered the Holy Grail of all Overdubbing, the True Meaning of Life- aka Jimmy's Jam.

B)

ps- Thanks to digital MP3 players, the sound quality isn't usually an issue unless you have the hearing of a canine. And I don't think Jimmy remastered all that much on the 10 disc box set for Houses or any of the other albums. In fact, between the original release, the 10 disc release, and the 4 disc box set, I can hear two different intros for the song of Gallows Pole. My one ear hears the guitar intro in the left, and on another "remastered" disc, the other in the right. Remastering or a coffee spill on the controls? Now the NEW Mothership release is something to appreciate. It's definitely got all the "mucky muck" removed.

I don't do digital MP3 players - well, apart from my iPod Nano on airplanes, and when I'm outside drawing.

As you will have seen above, I have gone with the Japanese import recommendation, in that the advice given underlines my minimal experience with these.

My current Led Zep CDs are from Jimmy's original remastering, which was excellent.

I can't agree with you on Mothership ... there's little evidence of any 'mucky muck' on the original remasters, and I think the compression and limiting has been taken too far on Mothership thereby losing much of the dynamic range on the previous version. For me, dynamic range is a large part of Led Zep music. I like Mothership, but I really wouldn't go overboard about it. Making the quiet bits louder does take away the light and shade. Maybe the light and shade is limited on digital MP3 players anyway - I can only judge by my iPod and like I said it's only for use on aeroplanes and outside. I'm used to listening to Led Zep through around £4000 worth of hi-fi equipment. If anything, Mothership just regularly sends me back to the original CD remasters.

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zeptangerine

zeptangerine

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I don't do digital MP3 players - well, apart from my iPod Nano on airplanes, and when I'm outside drawing.

As you will have seen above, I have gone with the Japanese import recommendation, in that the advice given underlines my minimal experience with these.

My current Led Zep CDs are from Jimmy's original remastering, which was excellent.

I can't agree with you on Mothership ... there's little evidence of any 'mucky muck' on the original remasters, and I think the compression and limiting has been taken too far on Mothership thereby losing much of the dynamic range on the previous version. For me, dynamic range is a large part of Led Zep music. I like Mothership, but I really wouldn't go overboard about it. Making the quiet bits louder does take away the light and shade. Maybe the light and shade is limited on digital MP3 players anyway - I can only judge by my iPod and like I said it's only for use on aeroplanes and outside. I'm used to listening to Led Zep through around £4000 worth of hi-fi equipment. If anything, Mothership just regularly sends me back to the original CD remasters.

If you invested in a decent Mp3 player and downloaded CDs from the various 'best ofs', you'd know what I am talking about sound and muck wise. Anyway, if your stereo equipment is that expensive, you shouldn't have a problem hearing ANY version of Zeppelin remastered from Japan or straight from the tapes in a vault. I don't have the hearing of a canine, but there are differences in the quality of sound produced from the 'best ofs' sets. I have heard every Zeppelin song on every CD version released, and some of Jimmy's early efforts weren't as strong as later on primarily due to the equipment he was remastering with at the time. I don't see how a Japanese import will do you any better unless it was remastered and pressed with today's technology and not tech from 10-15 years ago. Byeeee

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Imagescapegirl

Imagescapegirl

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If you invested in a decent Mp3 player and downloaded CDs from the various 'best ofs', you'd know what I am talking about sound and muck wise. Anyway, if your stereo equipment is that expensive, you shouldn't have a problem hearing ANY version of Zeppelin remastered from Japan or straight from the tapes in a vault. I don't have the hearing of a canine, but there are differences in the quality of sound produced from the 'best ofs' sets. I have heard every Zeppelin song on every CD version released, and some of Jimmy's early efforts weren't as strong as later on primarily due to the equipment he was remastering with at the time. I don't see how a Japanese import will do you any better unless it was remastered and pressed with today's technology and not tech from 10-15 years ago. Byeeee

I only download if I want singles or only part of any album. I like to have the original album art work, etc, not just the music. So until such time as its not possible to buy a CD, I'm not going to be changing over to dowloads.

The Japanese imports are usually better because of the manufacturing process. They take making the glass master for pressing CDs as precission work, and will endeavour to make it as error free as possible. The less errors and the greater the precission on the glass master, the better the CD pressed from it .... even after multiple pressings. Like I said, I've not bought a Led Zep Japenese pressing before, but when I heard my first Japanese CD pressing in the system at home the sound quality was amazing - that was Bowie's Diamond Dogs album which was remastered, the original album dates back to 1974, but you'd never know it!

I'll let you know what I think of House of the Holy Japanese import as soon as I've listened to it ..... watch this space :D

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  • 1 month later...
Imagescapegirl

Imagescapegirl

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Just wanted to thank you all for aiding my decision.

I do now have a Japanese CD of Houses of the Holy, and am now working on wearing it out! :D

The sound quality is definitely superior to the UK version. Well worth the higher cost. In fact the only problem I have now, is I think I'm going to have to shop around and see if I can find more of the Japanese versions of the rest of the Led Zeppelin catalogue.

Hmmm Outrider gets played a lot here ... wonder if there's a Japanese pressing of that one?

Anyway thanks again all.

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huw

huw

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...ps- Thanks to digital MP3 players, the sound quality isn't usually an issue unless you have the hearing of a canine.... Now the NEW Mothership release is something to appreciate.

Hmmm - "mp3" and "sound quality" are two phrases that I wouldn't normally put in the same sentence: mp3s are compressed in a "loss-y" manner - they loose some of the recorded information & once that's happened you can never get it back... :( An mp3 will never sound as good as an uncompressed, full range recording.

And Mothership? - Didn't that get slagged off pretty much universally for how "squeezed" the remastering was? IIRC everyone was saying that all the dynamic range was gone: the quiet bits were as loud as the loud bits.

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Imagescapegirl

Imagescapegirl

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Hmmm - "mp3" and "sound quality" are two phrases that I wouldn't normally put in the same sentence: mp3s are compressed in a "loss-y" manner - they loose some of the recorded information & once that's happened you can never get it back... :( An mp3 will never sound as good as an uncompressed, full range recording.

And Mothership? - Didn't that get slagged off pretty much universally for how "squeezed" the remastering was? IIRC everyone was saying that all the dynamic range was gone: the quiet bits were as loud as the loud bits.

Couldn't agree more.

I was given Mothership as a pressie ... and I do think the remastering has now gone a step too far. It's ok, but if I really want to listen and enjoy, I go back to the original remaster albums ... well, until I find a few more of the Japanese ones!

Hubby is prog rocker rather than a LZ fan, and even he, on hearing Mothership said it had lost what LZ music was really about!

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  • 1 year later...
peterkin101

peterkin101

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Well my two pennies worth...

The Led Zeppelin Japanese Mini Vinyl Replica CD's are miles better than both the initial and the remastered UK/German Cd issues. I have acquired "Led Zeppelin", "Led Zeppelin II", "Led Zeppelin III", "Presence", "In Through The Out Door", and "Coda".

I do of course have all the standard UK/German "Remastered" releases.

Not only is the sound quality head and shoulders above my standard UK issues, but I have an exact mini replica of the vinyl release I had back in 1980/84 (and to my shame sold the lot thinking CD was going to be better...:slapface::slapface: ),

a lyric sheet in Japanese and English and a beautiful to look at CD.

Now all the Led Zeppelin CD's in Japan have been released on a format called SHM-CD (Super High Material CD), it is still Cd but the disc is made of a denser material and is meant to give even better sound quality, though I haven't tried any yet.

The best news is that I live in Nottingham and the local Fopp is selling those fabulous Jap Mini Vinyl Replica CD's (NOT the SHM-CD's) for between £5.00-8.00....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Get them while you can!

Without resorting to another O2 gig,Remastered Vinyl, the odd DVD-A Release or paying £20-40 for the SHM-CD's via eBay etc this is going to be the very best way to listen to Led Zeppelin

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Gospel Zone

Gospel Zone

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Has anyone heard the original Houses Of The Holy CD from the "80s? It has "The Crunge" running right into "Dancing Days" so you hear "where's that confounded bridge?" and then without a second in between you hear that slide intro to "Dancing Days". I wish they would have done that on the remastered '90s version also.

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jsj

jsj

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Couldn't agree more.

I was given Mothership as a pressie ... and I do think the remastering has now gone a step too far. It's ok, but if I really want to listen and enjoy, I go back to the original remaster albums ... well, until I find a few more of the Japanese ones!

Hubby is prog rocker rather than a LZ fan, and even he, on hearing Mothership said it had lost what LZ music was really about!

i didnt buy mothership. i heard it a few times and didnt like the sound of it

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BonzoLikeDrumer

BonzoLikeDrumer

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i didnt buy mothership. i heard it a few times and didnt like the sound of it

What about the sound did you not like? I don't think I've head it (with out knowing).

Was it treble heavy, too much bass, too loud, too dark or was it thin sounding or something else? Resting your ear's before critically listening to something is a must.

I can remember hearing the 1980's "House's Of The Holy" disc and the two song's running into one another as the early poster said. And one of my older sister's had the LP from the 1970's (don't know what has become of it), it was (if I recall correctly) nicely done, just as good as the "4th" album (she had that one too). We didn't have a well preped room for critical listing and that's been some decades ago so, I really can't say all that much good or evil.

I do remember "The Song Remains The Same" LP being a bit harsh and treble friendly, the "1st" album has a very warm and fuzzy feeling. I got "In Through The Out Door" and "Coda" with in a few weeks of there hitting the shelves (USA), "In Through The Out Door" was not very warm and had some hard sound's on it. "Coda" had many different sounds to it.

Digital technology has come a long way in 20+ years, mastering is an art that even I as a recording guy get's slapped in the face with if I don't watch what I'm doing. There is so many variables and shades of coloring that can make or brake a master. B)

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