Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti

My side D is actually side C again. I don't suppose this is rare or worth anything?

The more polished tracks come through on the pressing, but the effect is lost on the tracks with varied recording locations and mixes.

The tracks that sound best (in my opinion):
In My Time of Dying
Trampled Underfoot
Kashmir
In The Light
Ten Years Gone
Wanton Song
Sick Again

Turntable:Rega P3/Neo psu
Cartridge: Roksan Corus body/goldring G1042 tip
Phono Stage:Musical Fidelity M6s pre

Amongst my best modern day reissue/remastered on 180g vinyl discs this record truly is OUTSTANDING,just buy it and Revel in all it`s GLORY!
Five Stars Highly Recommended.

Music quality 5*
Sound quality 5*
Mastering/pressing 5*

I don’t know who said this, maybe it was on Discogs or on a different review website, but they said “If it’s good enough for Jimmy Page, it’s good enough for me” and boy do I agree.

I’ve never had any problems with Optimal, never had to return one like I had to do with GZ or even RTI. You can see the QC difference with these pressings from Optimal. Dead quiet vinyl, great soundstage.

I have the debut, III, IV, and this one. All of them spectacular and clean.

Don’t listen to the pretentious audiophiles.
If you don’t want to spend 12k on the Classic Records, get all of LZ’s discography available at your local record store for the fraction of the price for these reissues. You genuinely will NOT be disappointed.

Rock on LZ 🤘❤️

For sure PG is a mixed bag of recordings taken from a variety of locations and years. But Bernie did a great job making everything sound good. I don't have a UK 1st. But I do have a number of other copies, Monarch from 78, early SP and PR cut by FT and GP, the later SF cut, the Japanese pressings and the 2014. I think the Classic cut sounds great. But it is different from all the others in the mastering choices made. It has a lot of low end and nice mids that don't always come across well in other pressings. Vocals tend to be buried a little bit, but that is part of the the mix (at least I assume that's the case since RP had some vocal issues during the PG proper sessions). Guitars really shine. The textures and tones really come through beautifully here. And Bonham's drums just explode in songs like Time of Dying.

Anyway, Side C is the real gem on this pressing. All the tracks sound wonderful, especially Ten Years Gone. Side D has more low end than any other version I've heard. The Wanton Song in particular is quite bass heavy. Bonham's kick drum in Black Country Woman just blares out and then when he adds the snare, the groove is remarkable. And Sick Again really shines. That one suffers on a lot of pressings from being compressed and flat. But I think Bernie pulls out as much clarity as possible along with a nice hefty bass part.

Back to the first LP, which is the real mixed bag of recordings. Again, I think Bernie did the best he could on some of the tracks like Custard Pie and Trampled. The guitar solos on those sound amazing. And whoa, The Rover just slams right out of the gate. On other pressings that and Custard Pie are troublesome. But here, the midrange is handled beautifully. Time of Dying also sounds fantastic. The guitars are incendiary to steal a line from Almost Famous.

Finally, 2/3 of side B sounds nice on most pressings and it sounds excellent here as well. Trampled sounds kinda dead on every pressing. But Bernie does a nice job giving the instruments some air and the guitar overdubs have a little extra oomph here. And Kashmir just soars. Not a whole lot more to say.

And it goes without saying this pressing can really be cranked up. It does not get fatiguing at all.

Cough.

So is this worth the huge premium it commands these days? Well that's a personal decision. I know on my play shelf I have the Classic along with the Japanese and a PR with 3 sides cut by Frank Tabino. They're all different flavors. If bass or the $$$ turns you off, pass on this pressing and find a copy with FT in the deadwax on 2 or 3 sides. That has great balance and clarity. I think it's the best bang for the buck, kind of like the 1977 Piros -X cut of Zep II, the bargain Ludwig (While having both, the Ludwig pressing of II is the king (avoid the Classic pressing of II), but the Piros -X pressing is a fantastic listen and really delivers almost as much punch as the Ludwig at a small fraction of the cost).

I have remasters of all my Zeppelin albums. This one sounds the worst of them all. Very disappointing even though I got it for a decent price.

It's an outstanding pressing. I saw this for sale at a local record store and jumped on it after reading up on it here. Gave it a scrub on the VPI and KLAUDIO. Post-cleaning, my copy has very little surface noise. Happy to have a nice analog copy of this album. I agree with TopsyLPS. Snag this one.

I have to echo the other reviews here--rich, wide soundstage, lots of low end punch, great mids and highs that won't fatigue.
Highly recommended!

Sounds solid overall. Only slightly flat for me.
Drums and guitar sound fantastic. Vocals seem to fade into background a bit.

I'm not an audiophile, just wanted to say that I miss the extra long silence (about 10 seconds) there used to be between black country woman and sick again on
previous releases.