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I'm not sure when $25 for a vinyl record became such a bargain ..... I mean, I totally appreciate the fact that the record companies are reissuing old music, but I think we are over paying for a lot of it. Most of the old music has been around forever and everyone has already been payed time and again. Record companies like to use words like "remastered" and "180 gram" to make us feel like we are getting something special. I don't think we are. Most of my old, department store purchased - plain vanilla Lps sound better than newly remastered audiophile versions. Well, once they take a spin or two on the record cleaning machine, they do.When buying new music or newly remastered music, I feel like CD is actually the best way to go since the music has already been digitized anyway. You can get some killer deals of remastered, modern reissues of old music on CD and you can still play all of your old records too.
$5 bucks in 1965 money is $36.50 today. So a $25 record "IS" a steal.
The latest Reference Recording LPs are cut from digital files. I don't hear anyone complaining about them. What will make or break the Zep reissues is the mastering/cutting process: compression, eq, dither, etc. Mine are on the way from Elusive Disc, $22.99 each.
I guess my caveat was related to the usual question; why get an LP if the digital master is available?
That's a great question! We're buying the sonic signature of the LP medium. Taking a digital master and cutting, plating, pressing, and playing it as an LP changes the sound. Many of us like that change very much.Russ
If you listen to hires digital it's worth knowing that the LP's are cut from the 24/96 masters, presumably the same ones available at the download sites. BTW, those are probably the most enjoyable digital versions of the first three albums.
I got my Zep I, II, & III LPs last night. Started with the first album and didn’t get any further. So these comments only pertain to Zep I. I hate being the vinyl snob who says the original pressing sounds better than the reissue, but… that’s what I heard. The reissue does sound good. The new pressing is quiet and the presentation is clearer, smoother and more fleshed out in the mid bass. If I didn’t have an original to compare it to, I’d be totally happy with it. But to my ears, the original is simply more engaging. There’s a presence sheen that energizes and drives the music without getting too edgy. And there’s more low-level ambient and spatial information that opens up the sound stage and gives it a more holographic dimensionality.I’m not sure why, but that low-level information is truncated, gone, MIA on the reissue, so it sounds flatter, less dimensional. Maybe the master tapes have deteriorated to the point where that low-level detail isn’t there any more. Maybe it got wiped out through the digital noise shaping/dithering process. Who knows?Listening to the bass, ride cymbal and guitar licks in the intro to How Many More Times, the difference between the two pressings is obvious. The original opens up the time and space of the performance more convincingly. So for Zep I, the new one is good and a lot of fun to listen to. But it's not an improvement on an original pressing if you're lucky enough to have one.Russ
But to my ears, the original is simply more engaging. There’s a presence sheen that energizes and drives the music without getting too edgy. And there’s more low-level ambient and spatial information that opens up the sound stage and gives it a more holographic dimensionality.
