{"product_id":"ledzeselft_2606","title":"Led Zeppelin - Self-Titled - Nearly White Hot Stamper","description":"\u003cp\u003eThese \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/nearly-white-hot\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNearly White Hot Stamper\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e pressings have top-quality sound that's often surprisingly close to our White Hots, but they sell at substantial discounts to our Shootout Winners, making them a relative bargain in the world of Hot Stampers (\"relative\" meaning relative considering the prices we charge). We feel you get what you pay for here at Better Records, and if ever you don't agree, please feel free to return the record for a full \u003ca href=\"\/pages\/money-back-guarantee\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003erefund\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e, no questions asked.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor the real Led Zep magic, you just can't do much better than their \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22debut%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003edebut LP\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e -- and here's a copy that really shows you why. From the opening chords of \"Good Times Bad Times\" to the wild ending of \"How Many More Times\" (\"times\" start the album and end it, too, it seems) this copy will have you rockin' out.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBoth sides have the Big Zep Sound. Right from the start we noticed how clean the cymbals sounded and how well-defined the bass was, after hearing way too many copies with smeared cymbals and blubbery bass.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen you have a tight, punchy copy like this one, \"Good Times Bad Times\" does what it is supposed to do -- it really \u003cu\u003erocks\u003c\/u\u003e. With this much life, it's lightyears ahead of the typically dull, dead, boring copy. The drum sound is perfection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDrop the needle on \"Babe I'm Gonna Leave You\" to hear how amazing Robert Plant's voice sounds. It's breathy and full-bodied with in-the-room presence. The overall sound is warm, rich, sweet, and very analog, with tons of energy. \"Dazed and Confused\" sounds just right -- you're gonna flip out over all the ambience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Communication Breakdown\" sounds superb -- the sound of Jimmy Page's guitar during the solo is shockingly good.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of This Legendary British Blues Rock Album 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:%221969%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1969\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\u003eLike any Zeppelin album, this music absolutely requires big bass. So many copies are weak in that area, suffering from a lack of weight down low. When some of the deep bass is missing, the tonal balance shifts upwards and the sound can become upper midrangey and bright. When you get a copy without the kind of big, meaty bottom end a track like \"Dazed and Confused\" demands, you'll be left cold -- just as we were from all the second rate copies we heard this time around.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eEngineering\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere's a reason the first Zeppelin album is one of the two best they recorded: it's engineered by Glyn Johns, one of the greats.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e(The other killer Zep recording is of course Led Zeppelin II, by far the best thing Eddie Kramer and Andy Johns, Glyn's younger brother, ever did.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was only about 2000 or so that we discovered what an amazing engineer (and producer) Glyn Johns is. A Hot Stamper copy of the first Eagles album (his Masterpiece) on the original Asylum White Label blew my mind, produced and engineered by none other, so I quickly started looking around for other records he might have had a hand in.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe list was long: Who's Next. Let It Bleed. Sticky Fingers (the best-sounding Stones album). On The Border (my personal favorite Eagles album). Led Zeppelin's debut (my favorite Zep LP). A Nod Is As Good As A Wink. All his.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On Led Zeppelin's Debut Album\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 -- Glyn Johns in this case -- 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\u003eVinyl Condition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMint Minus Minus is about as quiet as any vintage pressing will play, and since only the right vintage pressings 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 other 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 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\n\u003ch3\u003eA Must Own Rock Record\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe consider Zep's debut LP a \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22rock-masterpiece%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMasterpiece\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e. It's a Demo Disc quality recording should be part of any serious rock collection.\u003c\/p\u003e \n\u003cp\u003eOthers that belong in that category can be found \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22core-rock-collection%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ehere\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Led Zeppelin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51976505524520,"sku":"ledzeselft","price":849.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/files\/ledzeselft.jpg?v=1741711938","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/ledzeselft_2606","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}