{"product_id":"ledze3_2607","title":"Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III - White Hot Stamper (Quiet Vinyl)","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis vintage Atlantic import pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records rarely BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn't showing signs of coming back. If you love hearing INTO a recording, actually being able to \"see\" the performers, and feeling as if you are sitting in the studio with the band, this is the record for you. It's what vintage all analog recordings are known for -- \u003ci\u003ethis sound\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you exclusively play modern repressings of vintage recordings, I can say without fear of contradiction that you have never heard this kind of sound on vinyl. Old records have it -- not often, and certainly not always -- but maybe one out of a hundred new records do, and those are some pretty long odds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDrop the needle on \"Since I've Been Loving You\" and turn it up good and loud. Robert Plant will be right there in front of you, and your jaw will be on the floor!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCue up \"Tangerine\" on side two for a taste of rich, sweet, Tubey Magical Analog Sound. The acoustic guitars are lush and delicate, the bass is deep and well-defined, and the vocals are completely natural and free from bad mastering or phony EQ.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of Led Zeppelin III Have To Offer Is Not Hard To Hear\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe most Tubey Magic, without which you have \u003ci\u003ealmost\u003c\/i\u003e nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%221970%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1970\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNatural tonality in the midrange -- with all the instruments having the correct timbre\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTransparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo doubt there's more but we hope that should do for now. \u003ci\u003ePlaying the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above,\u003c\/i\u003e and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMost of the copies we've heard suffered from a lack of weight in the bottom end. When some of the deep bass is missing, the tonal balance shifts upward and the sound can become upper midrangy and bright. When you get a copy without the kind of big, meaty bottom end a track like \"Immigrant Song\" demands, you'll be left cold -- just as we were from all the weak copies we heard this week.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eZep Unplugged\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22tubey-magical-acoustic-guitars%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTubey Magical acoustic guitar\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e reproduction is superb on the better copies of this recording. Simply phenomenal amounts of Tubey Magic can be heard on every strum, along with richness, body and harmonic coherency that have all but disappeared from modern recordings (and especially from modern remasterings).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe guitars on this record are a true test of stereo reproduction quality. Most of the pressings of this record do not get the guitars to sound right. And when the guitars are perfection, the voices and all the other instruments tend to be right as well.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLet's face it: they just don't know how to make acoustic guitars sound like this anymore. You have to go back to 54-year-old records like this one to find that sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe three Zep albums with out of this world acoustic guitars are the first album, III and Houses of the Holy. (All three are currently on our \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/top-100\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTop 100 List\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e, along with II and IV. All five can be amazing sounding on the right pressings, but those pressings tend to be tough to come by in clean condition.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe guitars are every bit as rich, tubey, sweet, delicate and harmonically correct as those found on Tea For the Tillerman, Rubber Soul, Comes a Time or any of the other phenomenally good recordings we rave about on the site.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOf course, without the right pressing, you would never know that. Later copies, Classic Records copies, typical domestic and import copies -- none of them are going to sound like this one. We guarantee it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On III\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEnergy\u003c\/strong\u003e for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThen: \u003cstrong\u003epresence and immediacy\u003c\/strong\u003e. The vocals aren't \"back there\" somewhere, lost in the mix. They're front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt -- engineers in this case, \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22chris-kimsey%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris Kimsey\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22andy-johns%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAndy Johns\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22eddie-kramer%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEddie Kramer\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e -- would put them.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Big Sound\u003c\/strong\u003e comes next -- wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThen \u003cstrong\u003etransient information\u003c\/strong\u003e -- fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness so common to these LPs.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTight punchy bass\u003c\/strong\u003e -- which ties in with good transient information, also the issue of frequency extension further down.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNext: \u003cstrong\u003etransparency\u003c\/strong\u003e -- the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eExtend the top and bottom\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003ci\u003evoila\u003c\/i\u003e, you have The Real Thing -- an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eJimmy Page, Production Genius\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen you hear the resolution and transparency found on the best copies of III you will no doubt gain a deeper appreciation of the extraordinary effort that has gone into these recordings, and what a production genius Jimmy Page was at this time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUltimately the ability to hear into the music at the highest levels is what gives you, the listener, the ability to understand and enjoy it. One reason these commentaries tend to be overly enthusiastic is that once you've heard a pressing that sounds as good as the best copies of the album can, you can't help but be much more emotionally involved in the music.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhen the sound gets better it's the music that really gets better.\u003c\/i\u003e That's Audio 101, the raison d'etre for the expensive and finicky equipment we all own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen the sound gets to the top levels, when the sound gets \u003ci\u003ethat\u003c\/i\u003e good, the music practically becomes a drug. Want to take a trip? Drop the needle on a top copy at the start of \"That's The Way\" or \"Since I've Been Loving You.\" Jimmy Page created a world of sound for you to inhabit -- you likely won't be coming back to earth for a while.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVinyl Condition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMint Minus Minus is about as quiet as any vintage import pressing will play, and since only the right vintage imports have any hope of sounding good on this album, that will most often be the playing condition of the copies we sell. (The copies that are even a bit noisier get listed on the site are seriously reduced prices or traded back in to the local record stores we shop at.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThose of you looking for quiet vinyl will have to settle for the sound of later pressings and Heavy Vinyl reissues, purchased elsewhere of course as we have no interest in selling records that don't have the vintage analog magic that is a key part of the appeal of these wonderful recordings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you want to make the trade-off between bad sound and quiet surfaces with whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing might be available, well, that's certainly your prerogative, but we can't imagine losing what's good about this music -- the size, the energy, the presence, the clarity, the weight -- just to hear it with less background noise.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Led Zeppelin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52164157112616,"sku":"ledze3","price":849.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/files\/ledzep3.jpg?v=1760456110","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/ledze3_2607","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}