A few quick observations on listening to the first two tracks of LZ 1,
admittedly a 'once through' with each of the different records mentioned
below.
The new vinyl sounds very good, quiet and has no apparent digital artifacts
that stand out- something I'd usually hear as a flattening of the
presentation, i.e., detail, but no life. It doesn't suffer from that, dynamics are
good- if forced to choose between some older pressing of questionable
provenance, with the surface noise and other hazards associated with old
records, this is a winner and a bargain to boot. That said,...
The '74 Piros/Monarch sounds far more 'filled in' tonally- the drum skin
sound is more vivid; i'm not sure that the record has more dynamics than
the new recut, but the bass tone is more fleshed out. It just sounds more
'saturated' tonally; I suppose you could call this 'richness' or 'warmth' but to
my ears (and I've been listening to copies of LZI since it came out), this
was never a great sounding record, it always sounded a little 'pinched'
when things got going, and a little muted (I used the word 'canned,' as in
'muffled') when I commented on this record, generally, earlier in this thread.
The Piros has more life than the standard issue from back in the day (I
have a bunch of copies) and the Monarch pressings just seem to be the
most vivid of the bunch. (The best original I ever heard, owned by a
neighbor, is a first press Monarch, which I'll try to compare on his system
with the '74 when we get together in a couple weeks).
The Classic 45- same two cuts- Good Times/Bad Times & 'Babe I'm Gonna
Leave You'- just sounds more spectacular than the Piros in some ways-
whether it is a difference in EQ, the 45 rpm iteration, or something else, I
have no idea. It is also more organic and filled-in sounding, tonally, than the
new remaster, and has more 'air' and spaciousness to the whole
presentation, but we are talking about a very expensive, hard to find
record today. What's interesting is the comparison between the Piros and
the Classic...but I'll save that for more listening and a different
posting/thread.
Bottom line, as a preliminary reaction: the new re-cut doesn't come as
close to the uber copies as I had hoped, but I don't think that's damning by
any means. (I was hoping for the best on these and I'm not disappointed).
I've heard lots of lousy copies of LZ1 and frankly, for new, gettable, quiet
vinyl, this is a very good record.
Final caveat: this album, in my experience, has a lot of track to track
variability in sound quality, so even if I thought my conclusions were
somehow 'definitive' for me (and they aren't, I'll listen to the rest of the
record and do more comparisons), other tracks on LZI may present a
different result than my comparison of just the first two tracks. (I also have a
copy of the Classic 33, but I figured I'd just skip over that one, for now).
Needless to say, I'm hardly an arbiter of what any of you may think, given
your ears and your systems, but I promised to share my reactions, within
the limits of my system and my listening bias (which tends toward wanting
an absolutely grainless, unprocessed sounding midrange, and having a
system that does not deliver gargantuan bass, but has very good 'tone,'
midrange clarity and a fair amount of life, using horns and SET amps).
admittedly a 'once through' with each of the different records mentioned
below.
The new vinyl sounds very good, quiet and has no apparent digital artifacts
that stand out- something I'd usually hear as a flattening of the
presentation, i.e., detail, but no life. It doesn't suffer from that, dynamics are
good- if forced to choose between some older pressing of questionable
provenance, with the surface noise and other hazards associated with old
records, this is a winner and a bargain to boot. That said,...
The '74 Piros/Monarch sounds far more 'filled in' tonally- the drum skin
sound is more vivid; i'm not sure that the record has more dynamics than
the new recut, but the bass tone is more fleshed out. It just sounds more
'saturated' tonally; I suppose you could call this 'richness' or 'warmth' but to
my ears (and I've been listening to copies of LZI since it came out), this
was never a great sounding record, it always sounded a little 'pinched'
when things got going, and a little muted (I used the word 'canned,' as in
'muffled') when I commented on this record, generally, earlier in this thread.
The Piros has more life than the standard issue from back in the day (I
have a bunch of copies) and the Monarch pressings just seem to be the
most vivid of the bunch. (The best original I ever heard, owned by a
neighbor, is a first press Monarch, which I'll try to compare on his system
with the '74 when we get together in a couple weeks).
The Classic 45- same two cuts- Good Times/Bad Times & 'Babe I'm Gonna
Leave You'- just sounds more spectacular than the Piros in some ways-
whether it is a difference in EQ, the 45 rpm iteration, or something else, I
have no idea. It is also more organic and filled-in sounding, tonally, than the
new remaster, and has more 'air' and spaciousness to the whole
presentation, but we are talking about a very expensive, hard to find
record today. What's interesting is the comparison between the Piros and
the Classic...but I'll save that for more listening and a different
posting/thread.
Bottom line, as a preliminary reaction: the new re-cut doesn't come as
close to the uber copies as I had hoped, but I don't think that's damning by
any means. (I was hoping for the best on these and I'm not disappointed).
I've heard lots of lousy copies of LZ1 and frankly, for new, gettable, quiet
vinyl, this is a very good record.
Final caveat: this album, in my experience, has a lot of track to track
variability in sound quality, so even if I thought my conclusions were
somehow 'definitive' for me (and they aren't, I'll listen to the rest of the
record and do more comparisons), other tracks on LZI may present a
different result than my comparison of just the first two tracks. (I also have a
copy of the Classic 33, but I figured I'd just skip over that one, for now).
Needless to say, I'm hardly an arbiter of what any of you may think, given
your ears and your systems, but I promised to share my reactions, within
the limits of my system and my listening bias (which tends toward wanting
an absolutely grainless, unprocessed sounding midrange, and having a
system that does not deliver gargantuan bass, but has very good 'tone,'
midrange clarity and a fair amount of life, using horns and SET amps).