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Anyone heard the new Led Zep jJapanese CDs?

I have had a heck of time listening to Led Zeppelin on CD (the vinyl has always been fine). Bonham's cymbals split up in the mix, the guitar sounds pressed... nothing on CD, re-issue or no, has worked.
Yesterday I picked up the mini-LP style Japanese re-issue of LedZep II... and lo and behold!! The tunes sound great!! I've always felt the true benefit of an audiophile system is not the fine rendering of quality recordings (i.e. Steely Dan, etc..), but the ability to make sense of an aural onslaught (Charles Mingus is a great beneficiary of high-end audio...how great it would've been to hear him LIVE...). Anyway, 'just wondering if anyone's had the same response to the Led Zeppelin CDs?
jeff_s12a
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rja's avatar
rja
2,370 posts
 
My experience with Japanese made CDs has been positive. The most noticable improvement is in the high end. For some reason the grating edgy high end has been eliminated on a lot of Japanese CDs. There's probably bad sounding Japanese CDs out there, but so far every Japanese CD I own (quite a few) beats the hell out of thier American counterparts. Just bought a Japanese Enya "Watermark". Doesn't sound like the same CD. Don't really know why there's so much difference. Anyone have any ideas?
eagle
154 posts
 
I know what you are saying about the sound of the original four disc boxed set and following two disc set. The Auric Illuminator treatment was beneficial. I have seen the remastered discs on the shelf, but was waiting for something like these mini LP releases to reaquire the individual albums. I found them on ebay for a good deal on the 'buy it now' option; 10 albums, 12 discs in total. I found one seller there with a much better price than the same thing from others, email me if you need help finding it.
ben_campbell
1,169 posts
 
Jeff-have you checked the date of the mastering on your original CD-if it was pre'93 then it wasn't re-mastered by Jimmy Page.
I know you are saying remastered by Jimmy Page-are you sure it's not production?
Remember all the Zep albums are produced by Jimmy Page-this is the production of the original albums i.e what went on the vinyl from '67 to '78.
However it could well be something different has been done on these issues.
I'm interested because if these are indeed better then I will be buying them.
jeff_s12a OP
27 posts
 
Interesting... the difference in the two discs (my old and new copy) is in the peak moments (cymbals crashing, or aggressive guitar attack). The earlier disc breaks up a bit and becomes very annoying in the aggregate.. but Ben you're right. Both discs are credited to "Jimmy Page" remastering the tapes... I can't imagine the transfer would have much to do with it..
Investigation will continue with a thorough comparison of the two LedZep II CDs... if it turns out I'm hearing phantoms, well, in the end I get to enjoy a great record several times over...
ben_campbell
1,169 posts
 
Jeff these CD's have not (to the best of my knowledge)been remastered,they've been repackaged.
These are the same remasters as Page did in '93 for the grey box-set,the one with what looks like a rollercoaster frame work on the box.
The earlier CD's by all accounts are awful.
It could well be you had the earlier CD's.
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