Rant: My uncle swore vinyl was the only way to hear Led Zeppelin IV, I finally proved him wrong last weekend

He always said CDs crushed the life out of the drums on 'When the Levee Breaks', but I dug out his old copy and my 1990s Sony player actually had tighter bass response on the cymbals (you know, less splashy). After A/B testing for about 2 hours, I realized the CD master he owned was a different mix from the 1987 remaster, not a format issue. Has anyone else found that the specific pressing or master matters way more than vinyl vs digital for older rock albums?

3 comments

3 Comments

claire87212d ago

My buddy Mark had a similar thing happen with Dark Side of the Moon last year. He borrowed my 2011 vinyl pressing and swore his dad's original 1973 LP sounded way warmer and fuller on the bass. Turns out his dad's copy was a first US pressing with a totally different EQ curve, and my copy was a digital remaster cut from the same files that go on the CD. We spent like 3 hours swapping needles and cups of coffee until we realized the real difference was the year it was pressed, not the record itself. That whole "vinyl is warmer" thing is mostly just people comparing different masters and calling it a format war.

christopherh7912d ago

Wow, three hours swapping needles over it? That's dedication.

leehall7d ago

@claire872 that's actually something I've wondered about with classical records too. The Deutsche Grammophon pressings from the 60s and 70s used a totally different cutting lathe than what most US labels had, so the "warmth" people hear might just be those specific engineers' preferences.