Customer Reviews

Definitive Collection of Mini - Lp Replicas

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

OK, so you thought you already owned Zep and had the best, if they ever do remaster and remix the whole shootin' match like Jimmy Page did for the Mothership set. Since there are as many reviews that pan the Mothership set as there are the love it, it seems to me that it is not the universal Zep panacea one would have thought. To me, it is "in your face", mixed/mastered at way too high a gain level that clips off dynamic expansion critical to rock and roll, and hides the small nuances of the recordings. You may love that. Fair enough. Then enjoy.

Having owned the 1993 complete studio recordings box set and the remix from that, I felt I had probably owned the best sounding versions on CD. That is, until I purchased a few of the 2005 Japanese mini LP releases from the Japan remasters in 2003. The 2003 masters were taken from the 1993 mixes, so they are not new mixes. However, the 2003 masters, as pressed in 2005, sounded more full, sweeter, cleaner and, well, more involving. Same mix from 1993, just a better mastered pressing, plus the venerable Japan perfection in their pressing plants. Lower jitter, finely milled edges to the discs, etc. Nice. Plus, having the mini LP style jackets - based off the USA original releases, was very fine, indeed.

Along comes an all new, completely redone box for 2008. Using the same 1993 mixes with the 2003 Japan masters, the discs have been pressed in the SHM CD format which is NOT available in the USA on USA pressed discs. These are only available from Japan pressings and boy are they some of the best sounding CD's I own in my vast collection. Very nice, indeed.

The SHM pressings allow for a much cleaner, and very dynamic performance to come through. Plant's vocals are nice and focused, more up front and "there". Impressive, since they are the same 1993 mixes and masters used prior. So, the SHM pressings allow for a much more involving Zep experience. Simply the Sin Quo Non right now on CD for Zep.

If you want the best Zep on CD, this is it. Expensive, to say the least (I bought mine from CD Japan direct and it was $286 including EMS shipping from Japan).

The box is simply superbly produced, as are the mini LP jackets, this time based on the UK original pressings and releases along with th UK reproductions of the center labels from the records. Marvelous. Extra bonuses include additional jackets, alternate jackets, etc. from a two of the original albums.

There is nothing like this produced in the USA.

For those who are Zep fans and keep waiting for Page, etal, to remix/master the catalog again, it is not worth waiting for. To be honest, if they mix it like they did Mothership, that is simply not Zep the way I want to hear it. Maybe you do and that is fine. Your ears are your ears.

But, for me, this is the ultimate Zep possible in redbook CD digital. If you have an upsampling DAC or player, look out. You are in for a real treat.

Enjoy.

I have compared the Japanese SHM CDs to the old CDs and I believe I can tell the difference. The SHM CDs just have better sound. It's hard to explain why but they do. We did a blind listening test with some buddies and almost all of us said the SHM CDs were better.

I agree that this was likely recorded with too much gain. Overall, it may be a acceptable recording to you unless you have a very revealing music system. I'd recommend Page's personal re-master's before they were re-processed through this special format.

I limit my comment to these recordings only and how they sound to me on my system. I feel the format may have promise in the right studios' care.

The albums in this box-set feature some of the worst "loudness war" mastering I've ever had the chance to analyze. I'm not going to get into much detail on what the "loudness war" is - look it up on Google and YouTube for a few thousand examples. In simple terms, a recording is said to have been victimized by the "loudness war" when it was mastered with the audio volume so high that it exceeds the limits of the CD format specifications. Among other nasty effects like unwanted distortion and loss of dynamic range, this usually causes "clipping", that is, parts of the audio simply don't "fit" into the CD's volume range and are cut off, or in other words, lost. It doesn't matter if you play a "loudness war" CD at low or high volume - it will always sound distorted, uncomfortable to listen to, and you simply won't be hearing everything that was in the original recording because much of the audio was lost or damaged in the production of the CD. Recording companies have been cannibalizing musical masterpieces like these albums for years now, and I wonder why no class action has been filed against them yet for what is, in a nutshell, a crime against the consumers.

TALKIN ABOUT THE SOUND I HAVE MADE A ONE ON ONE COMPARISIONS WITH A FEW SONGS OF THE 94 REMASTERS AND THE SOUND IS a bit cleaner, I AM NOT GOING TO SAY SHM-CD IS SOMETHING OUT OF THIS WORLD, BUT IT DOES SOUND CLEARER, SOMEHOW MORE DETAILED THAN THE 94 REMASTERS. I UNDERSTAND that THE BETTER THE SOUND RIG, THE MORE YOU GET OUT OF THIS NEW FORMAT. I HAVE GOT A BOSE, WHICH SOUND QUITE WELL, BUT WE WILL EXPECT SOME OTHER REVIEWER WITH A REALLY TOP END EQUIPMENT SHARES HIS VIEWS.

THE REPLICA PACKAGING IS AMAZING, AND FOR A HEAVY ZEPPELIN FAN HAVING THOSE MINI ALBUMS IN YOUR HANDS EACH TIME YOU BLAST THEM ON, THEY FIRE DEEP EMOTION AND MEMORIES. THEY ARE LIKE LITTLE TREASURES FILLED WITH MAGIC: THE HEAVIEST, MORE INTOXICATING , MAGNETIC, MEANEST ROCK AND BEYOND MUSIC EVER, BECAUSE OF THE HUMONGOUS MUSICAL STATURE OF JIMMY PAGE , THAT GREAT CHARISMATIC DEVIL, THAT MELTED ROCK AND ROLL, COUNTRY, ENGLISH FOLK, ROCKABILLY, ORIENTAL MUSIC, FUNK, JAZZ, BLUES.

ALSO THE PRESENCE OF HIS ALSO MEGA GIFTED PARTNERS IN THE GROUP WAS CRUCIAL TO THIS UNIQUE BAND, WHO HAS SOLD NEARLY 90 MILLION ALBUMS WORDWIDE. LETS NOT FORGET THE CHARISMA THEY EMANATE LIVE. NO ONE GETS NEAR IN ROCK.