Led Zeppelin – Untitled

Reviews seem to be polar opposites with the JP 2014 remasters.

Question 1: What gear do people listen to vinyl on? A €50 turntable, cheap amp and speakers will sound pretty mediocre.

Question 2: Do they listen with headphones or in the room? Big headphones can be pretty boomy. Cheap headphones can sound all midrange.

Question: Are people using high quality turntables with fully adjustable arms and tracking? All vinyl is different and sometimes needs tweaking with tracking force, bias or angle.

One can only really make a judgement if the gear is proper Hi-Fi quality. And I don’t mean boutique valve amps, speakers and turntables that cost the same as a new car.

I own a Rega 2 from 1995 with an Ortofon cartridge. I mainly use a Technics SL-P1210 with Shute White Label cart, a NAD preamp.
The Rega hands down sounds best but I like the functionally of the Technics.
Most vinyl new or old sounds pretty satisfying to my ears going through an Aiwa amp (90s) and Mission762i speakers backed up by big old Blaupunkt 80s speakers. I have lots of systems but this one sounds pretty good even with CD too. I’ve everything by Zepplin on vinyl, all the boxes too and I think the 2014 JP of the debut sounds fantastic.
I’ll be buying the rest again now and can’t wait to spin “untitled”!

Well, I just read all of your reviews. Thank you, I think. I had already bought this version. But if I had read all these reviews prior to buying, I wouldn't have had a clue whether to buy it or not. Some say it's the worst thing they ever heard, and others, the very best.
I have to agree with muchorelaxo when he said, "Sounds good to me. All you vinyl experts just put the needle down, turn it up loud, and rock!!!" When Zeppelin recorded and released this album do you really think they were focused on appealing to the "let them eat cake!" audiophilic elite? Not likely! Then just hoped everybody bought their record, had a toke, and rocked the house!! Which is exactly what everybody did.

This is just an "ok" pressing, disappointed with the rating. The lack of depth and dynamics is the most disappointing for me, it just sounds like a cheap pressing in my opinion.

The entire LZ catalogue reissues are top-notch. They sound incredible, are great value for money - you don’t need to pay a fortune for OG or audiophile label editions.

Frankly, this pressing is incredibly disappointing. Flat, lifeless, and dull sounding. It has the dynamic range of a tortilla.

I recently took a leap of faith and bought myself a Japanese 1976 pressing of this album. Until then I only had this 2014 pressing, which I thought was quite good. Turns out i hadn’t heard Led Zeppelin properly. In comparison the 2014 remastered version sounds flat and dull, as if it has lost its mojo. It might seem as if the soundstage is wide, but in truth it has actually been narrowed down. It‘s like watching a film, where the picture has been cropped on all sides and then stretched to be sold as a new widescreen edition. The music has also been cleaned to the extent that the recording sounds quite sterile, which also makes it feel like there is too much space between the instruments. It lacks dynamics and depth. The rawness and energy have been completely sucked out. Like I said before, it has no mojo. Listening to the Japanese pressing rekindled my love for this album. It sounds huge when it has to, and very intimate in the quieter moments. I envy anybody who has yet to experience this for themselves. If you love LZ then do yourself a favour and look for a better pressing like I did.

This was the first album I ever bought.Brand new in 1981 from the wonderful Spillers in Cardiff.A few years back I was bought this as a present to replace my old and rather worn original.What a revelation!Crisp and clean sound.The joy of re-issues.

bought this for cheap as a day to day listen so i can save my porky presswell original for company
stairway to he heaven does not have major surface noise from overplay on some boomer teen's shit stylus, which is a plus.
the sound is solid and a good system will make this sing, but i do notice a bit of blurriness and harshness, particularly on the drums, compared to the vintage AAA of the original.
call it 4/5

Whoever put that sticker on the cardboard... I despise you immensely. Other that that, its a great pressing.

I have no other copy to compare this to but it sounds really good to me. In terms of the noise floor, there is none, as for the crackles and pops, also none. This is a quality pressing of a great album.