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REVIEW: Classic Records Led Zeppelin 45rpm Box Set Other

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Model: Led Zeppelin 45rpm Box Set
Category: Other
Suggested Retail Price: $699.99
Description: 200-gram 48-disc set in road case
Manufacturer URL: Classic Records
Manufacturer URL: Classic Records

Review by Ripple ( A ) on August 07, 2006 at 08:12:37
IP Address: 208.28.186.71
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for the Led Zeppelin 45rpm Box Set


Led Zeppelin Road Case/Box Set – Classic Records

Classic Records’ Led Zeppelin Road Case Set contains all 10 of LZ’s albums on 48 single-sided 200-gram records. All discs were cut at 45 rpm and pressed on Quiex SV-P vinyl. I weighed two records at random with a postal scale (good to +/- 5 grams) and both measured 190 grams. Dimensions of the case are: Height, 15 ¾”; Width, 14 3/8”; Depth, 10 ¼”. Weight of the case empty, 8 lb., 2 oz. Weight of the case containing all elements, 43 lbs., 7 oz. Shipping weight, 50 lbs.

The Case

The LZ Box Set is contained in a shipping case designed by Classic. When the set arrives, it comes triple-boxed. Inside the outer shipping carton is another box which contains the box in which the set case resides. The innermost case box that I received had four protective Styrofoam corners outside at the bottom to protect it, but strangely, didn’t have any at the top. This left the top free to sway during shipping and I figure this was an oversight by the packer. Nonetheless, I opened the innermost box to find the shipping-case-style package that is the set.

All structural parts of the case are aluminum with the exception of the corner protectors which are stainless steel. The carrying handle assembly, mounted on the lid, is mostly, if not all, stainless steel including a polymer sleeve on the 4 1/2” spring-loaded handle. The handle assembly contains a sticker saying that the case was made in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan by SBC Case Industries, Ltd. All of this metal and the side panels are held together with rivets to make for a fairly robust case. I say fairly because the side panels are made more for their decorative features than for strength as it is not anticipated that these units will really be shipped around “nude.” One of the aluminum cross-members at the top of the lower part of my case has a 1 ½” stain of some sort that I was unable to remove. As such, mine is discolored. The two largest panels are clear and appear to be plexiglas. This allows the album cover of your choice directly inside to be displayed. These clear panels come with a translucent light blue sheet of protective plastic attached which are easily removed. All other panels are black and appear to be made of some sort of synthetic or plastic material. The vertical panel containing the latch for the lid has a large “stencil” of the oval Quiex SV-P, 200-gram logo. The opposite vertical panel is all black and has the two hinges for the lid. The top panel of the lid is “stenciled” with “CLASSIC RECORDS, (remember the sound…).” The four small side panels of the lid and the bottom panel of the case are all black.

Before opening the case it is necessary to remove two holographic stickers spanning the lid and lower case (use the adhesive side of clear shipping tape to lift off the adhesive that is left on the case after removing the stickers). To open the case, one needs only to pull the flush-mounted “key” open and then twist it 90 degrees to the left. This releases the spring-loaded latch which secures the lid to the case. Upon opening the lid, you are met with the sight of 48 LPs, all arranged in the order of their release. The albums are separated by plastic dividers such as you used to see in record stores. Each divider has a sticker attached to identify each album by name and stock number. Upon removing all the records, you find that the bottom and two non-clear side panels are padded using two layers of foams of different densities. The innermost is the softest and it has a soft fabric applied. The bottom side of the lid, which faces the LPs, has a thick, sculpted foam sheet applied. So, the LPs are well-protected on all sides.

Overall construction is excellent and concept execution is also excellent. However, collectors might note that the case itself has no graphics or markings attributing it to Led Zeppelin. Most other manufacturer’s box sets have original graphics referencing those sets to the artist(s) within. This may reduce the potential value of the set as this case could be used with any record set Classic may choose to issue. As stated above, the only markings on the case are attributed to Classic Records and it is only by viewing a record cover through the plexiglas sides that one would know there’s a Led Zeppelin set inside. Also, this set has no serial number anywhere, so there will be no value premium that might be attached to such.

My First Evening With The Set

After picking up the set from UPS, my first order of business was to inventory all discs. I removed all the records and their dividers. Each single album’s worth of music is contained on four discs, the doubles on eight. All records were accounted for. Each album has the first record packaged in an exact copy of the original cover (“Physical Graffiti” and “The Song Remains The Same” have the first two records packaged in original jackets) with the remaining records residing in plain white jackets with no title. The title is identified only on the disc’s label which will also contain, for example, “A2,” meaning the second disc of the original’s Side One. The plain white jackets have stickers attached stating “Disc 2,” “Disc 3,” etc. for each album set except LZ “IV,” which for some reason has no stickers for any disc. Also, any other packaging details that appeared with the originals are also included. This includes such as the paper band that wraps around the “Houses Of The Holy” cover (though it’s held at the seam by a small, round sticker rather than being glued), the paper “bag” that holds the “In Through The Out Door” ensemble and inserts for other albums. All discs come in poly-lined paper sleeves. Each of the albums’ standard issue jackets were themselves contained in a clear plastic sleeve. These sleeves are highly prone to static electricity. Switching to static-resistant polyethylene is recommended.

Next, I set to cleaning everything up. I found lots of small paper “shards” and particles from the record sleeves and jackets at the bottom and the clear side panels were still dirty from the manufacturing process. This “dirt” was felt more than seen, much like a residue. I used my hands alone to wipe most of it out and for that which was hard to get, I used the sticky side of packaging tape to pull it out. I also had to do the same with the record dividers. They had the same dirt film that the clear panels had. The dividers were also highly charged with static. Some of the attached stickers containing album titles were poorly applied and had adhesive about them. I removed this muck using the adhesive side of shipping tape.

Next, I sat down at the kitchen table to apply Last Record Preservative to each record, my usual ritual with new LPs. It was during this process that I became aware that a number of the discs were warped. LPs that were flat were always more resistant to being removed from their sleeves. The LPs that were warped always easily “fell” out of their sleeves. Sleeves that had contained warped discs did not revert to a flat profile but instead remained themselves warped. More on warpage later in my original notes section. In any case, inventory, cleaning and applying record preservative took the whole evening. First listen would come the next evening.

The Listening

Rather than making the listening process be one of comparing these to other pressings blow-by-blow, I sat down just to listen to the records themselves. Since I already had most of the Classic 180-gram pressings and knew their sound well, I’d know without getting those out how the 45rpms would compare. The first album I chose to listen to was LZ “III.” I chose this album as it is the one I’ve listened to most frequently the past few years. Of greatest interest to me were the songs, “Since I’ve Been Losing You,” with it’s great drum sound and “Tangerine,” for it’s emotion.

As I eagerly put on the first disc, I noticed it’s concave warp (low at the label and rising toward the rim) and it’s slight eccentricity. Except for that, there were no problems on listening. I put on the slightly concave Disc 2 with “Since I’ve Been Losing You” as the opening cut. A few seconds into the cut…..POP!, POP! POP! POP! POP!. I was fit to be tied, of course. I stopped the turntable and examined the affected area under magnification. I couldn’t tell if it was debris so I soaked the area for a couple of minutes with record cleaning fluid and cleaned it up. I examined it again and unfortunately it was a scratch/gouge. Thank you, Classic; another splendid job. (RTI presses Classic’s LPs.) Anyway, I listened to the rest of the disc and the sound was superb. This did require putting up with more pops and ticks on the opening cut than is called for with what should be a state-of-the-art pressing. Disc 3 was slightly concave with some noise in “Tangerine” and Disc 4 was actually flat but with lots of pops and ticks at the opening. After the experience with “III,” it was hard to look forward to the rest. I went ahead with the first LZ album I bought as a kid, “Houses Of The Holy.”

I found relief with this LP. Although all four discs were concave (disc 4, slightly so), the first three discs were quiet. Disc 4 opens with another of my favorites, “No Quarter.” Halfway through that there was a low-level scratch to be heard for about 7 revolutions which was bothersome. This is a song with great sound and atmosphere so it seemed destined for a problem. Thanks again, guys. More about the physical aspects of this set later, but now, about the sound.

In the following days, I listened through the entire set of albums. Soundwise, the 45 rpm format, as with Classic’s classical 45s, brings out the best of the master tapes. The Classic 180-gram 33 1/3 rpm Led Zeppelins are flat, quiet and excellent sounding. The 45s take them another notch higher. The life of music is in the higher frequencies and the higher groove velocity of the 45s brings in more oxygen. There is more tonal color in every sound, more saturation – more than I expected, this being amplified music. Bass has greater solidity, this due, I think, to the detail brought to the harmonics. It follows that the transients have more pop to them. The increased extension and delineation of high frequencies also results in more focused instrumental images within the soundstage. With these records, the soundstage is as wide and deep as any I’ve heard with rock music. In my room, the sound is literally wall-to-wall with depth beyond the back wall.

As any self-respecting Zeppephile knows, there are many well-recorded songs in their repertoire, but there are also some less-than-good recordings in there. The really good ones will probably never sound better than what’s in this set. But, unexpectedly, I found that the less-than-good held my attention much better than in the past. The soundtrack album, “The Song Remains The Same,” which in the past I never listened to seriously due to it’s lack of life, does actually have some life. And it is with these 45rpms that I learned what a botched job the master tapes are. It was dismaying to hear some parts of some songs sounding good, only to hear the drums and bass faded away when the vocal came in. The life of the songs is just buried in a hole. Jimmy Page knows good sound and so I think it is probably the fault of the engineer (Eddie Kramer) mixing on the fly in the live environment that is the cause of this. It’s a shame to hear this happen and to know what could have been.

Another example of songs being more listenable are some of the ones on “Houses Of The Holy.” Some of them are brighter than necessary, “Dancing Days” and “The Ocean” being two of them. But, more listenable they are. Maybe it’s because of what the format does for the bottom end. If I had only one word to use to describe what is brought to the sound of this entire set it would be “solidity.” It all seems to be there.

If only I could say as much about the pressings themselves. It is quite a sight to see record after record playing with no visible means of support below the groove area for the entire rotation. These aren’t up-and-down warps; they’re symmetrical cones. I don’t use a record clamp as the spindle of my Denon DP-60L is tapered. Most of the warps are to a degree that I don’t know if a record clamp would work due to the force that would be necessary. We’re talking about records that could be brass-plated and look right at home as cymbals in a drum kit. I measured 4 degrees of convexity on Disc 4 of Led Zeppelin (s/t). With warps of this sort, I surmise that resonance within the disc from the force of the tracking arm/cartridge finds nowhere to go and is increasing noise levels. It would be nice to do an A/B comparison to confirm this. Then Classic could market platter mats with various convexities and concavities to ensure full interface with the discs to lower the noise floor.

The Pressings

It was when I was applying record preservative to the records that I first noticed that some of them were warped. Classic does have a tarnished image in this respect. As you can see in my listening notes below, of the first twenty discs in the set, all with the Atlantic label, only one of them was pressed flat. Twelve of them were badly warped in a conical shape, either concave or convex. The last twenty-eight discs, all with the Swan Song label, were mostly flat. Only three were warped. This leads to the question: why would such a uniformity occur? There’s a bad smell in here. Maybe the following could explain this.

In October 2005, Michael Fremer in a musicangle article reported that Classic Records acknowledged having pressing problems both with warping of their 200-gram records and with excessive noise in the first few minutes of play in the outermost grooves, this being attributed to poor, uneven vinyl formation during pressing. At that time, reported Fremer, Classic had worked out solutions to the problems and was now pressing flat, quiet records. (http://www.musicangle.com/feat.php?id=104) If this were all true, then the first five LZ albums (20 discs) of this Classic set had to have been pressed at least ten months ago and possibly even years ago and left shelved.

It seems to me that Classic knew it had on it’s hands a bunch of defective LZ 45 rpm pressings, that if released individually, would have very high return rates. Best solution – press the rest of the Led Zeppelin catalog from Swan Song with the new pressing protocol with it’s resultant properly made records, throw them in a nice case and maybe the purchasing public will let most of the defective product slip by. I suspect that this is what happened. Classic Records should be embarrassed for the pressing quality of the first five albums of this set. It should be further embarrassed for permitting the release of known defective product that is purported to have state-of-the-art sound. Classic should have repressed those albums for release in this set and eaten the loss for their defectives. In any other line of business, there would be an immediate recall and replacement program in effect.

Before the Led Zeppelin set, Classic Records had lost a good deal of it’s clientele because of poor pressings. Many of them have sworn off the company for good despite their claims of improvement. To be sure, I’ve been disappointed with the average quality of their pressings over time. And certainly, part of my decision to acquire this set was based on the company’s claims to have solved the 200-gram warp and noise problems. As stated earlier, Classic’s pressing problems were to have been solved by the fall of 2005. Given that the Zeppelin set was announced in April of 2006, I figured that the set had been pressed after solving the problems. Silly me. Classic had other motives.

In Conclusion

If Classic Records is serious about regaining lost customers and retaining those it is about to lose (such as anyone who bought this set), it would confess to knowingly shipping defective, substandard product and repress the first five albums of this set for anyone with a sales receipt. Yes, I’d pay the shipping as an incentive, perverse as that is.

Finally, in a 5-Star world, I’d give this set 3.5 Stars. There are just too many defects in what should be premium-quality pressings to aggravate the music lover. Take away one star for that. Also, the case itself should have had some sort of Led Zeppelin graphics to distinguish itself and add value. For that and for Classic’s issuance of know defective LPs, take away another half-star. Should you choose to buy this set, good luck.

Original Listening Notes

Lest anyone thinks I’m being too hard on pressing quality, I’m merely comparing these records to the whole of my collection acquired over the past 34 years. I accept that most LPs have occasional pops, ticks or other noise. Perfection in this medium is considered a bonus. High quality is considered a must in premium pressings but minor, unobtrusive noise does occasionally occur. I can accept that. What I’ve noted below from my listening is that which is excessive and unwarranted. Disc profile is noted as to flatness (Convex – higher at the label than the rim; Concave – lower at the label than the rim).

Each album is listed in chronological release order. My observations of each disc is noted.

Led Zeppelin

Disc 1 – Very convex (center is 3/16” higher than the rim), pops and ticks early on.

Disc 2 – Very convex, pops and ticks early on.

Disc 3 – Very convex, too many pops and ticks early, with small scratch. (REPLACE)

Disc 4 – Very convex, too many pops and ticks early and steady throughout. (REPLACE)

I used a Dasco Pro angle finder to measure the angle of convexity of Disc 4 at 4 degrees. This is the angle at which the stylus is “climbing” as it plays.

II

Disc 1 – Very concave, no part of the outer 3 ½” of the record touches the mat at any point. Amazing symmetry! Record is quiet.

Disc 2 – Very concave, as above – 3 ½”. Generally quiet, few pops and ticks.

Disc 3 – Very concave, as above. Quiet.

Disc 4 – Very concave, as above. Quiet.

Album seems to be cut at a slightly lower level than others in the set. I used the angle finder to measure the concavity of Disc 1 at 2 ½ degrees. This is the angle at which the stylus “descends” as it plays.

III

Disc 1 – Concave, slight eccentricity. Quiet.

Disc 2 – Slightly concave. Groove gouge for 5 revolutions at opening of cut 1 (5 o’clock), other pops and ticks in cut 1. (REPLACE)

Disc 3 – Slightly concave. Middle of cut 2, pops and ticks.

Disc 4 – Flat, lots of pops and ticks at beginning of cut 1.

IV

Disc 1 – Very concave, quiet.

Disc 2 – Very concave, mostly quiet.

Disc 3 – Very concave, quiet.

Disc 4 – Very concave, noisy. Cut 1, constant pops and ticks, cut 2 occasional. (REPLACE)

Houses Of The Holy

Disc 1 – Slightly concave. Quiet!

Disc 2 – Concave, quiet.

Disc 3 – Concave, quiet.

Disc 4 – Concave, 1st cut low level scratch ~7 revs., 2nd cut halfway through some noise/distortion.

Physical Graffiti

Disc 1 – Flat, quiet.

Disc 2 – Flat, quiet.

Disc 3 – Flat, quiet.

Disc 4 – Flat, quiet.

Disc 5 – Slightly concave, some minor ticks.

Disc 6 – Slightly concave, some minor ticks.

Disc 7 – Flat, quiet.

Disc 8 – Flat, quiet.

Presence

Disc 1 – Flat, quiet.

Disc 2 – Flat, quiet.

Disc 3 – Flat, quiet.

Disc 4 – Very concave, quiet except pops and ticks early in cut 1.

The Song Remains The Same

Disc 1 – Flat, noisy.

Disc 2 – Flat, noisy, slightly better than Disc 1.

Disc 3 – Flat, light noise.

Disc 4 – Flat, quiet.

Disc 5 – Flat, occasional pops and ticks.

Disc 6 – Flat, occasional pops and ticks.

Disc 7 – Flat, quiet.

Disc 8 – Flat, noisy at beginning.

In Through The Out Door

Disc 1 – Flat, quiet.

Disc 2 – Flat, quiet.

Disc 3 – Flat, cut 1, middle, small scratch (5 revolutions).

Disc 4 – Flat, quiet.

Coda

Disc 1 – Flat, quiet.

Disc 2 – Flat, quiet.

Disc 3 – Flat, quiet.

Disc 4 – Flat, quiet.

Note: I have returned for replacement the following four discs. I’d prefer to have all flat, quiet discs but that would entail replacing half the set. I replaced only the discs that I felt I had a good chance of getting a better sounding copy. It’s too bad that acquiring a proper set is akin to gambling.

Led Zeppelin – Disc 3 (B1)

Led Zeppelin – Disc 4 (B2)

III – Disc 2 (A2)

IV – Disc 4 (B2)


Product Weakness: Poor pressing quality, warps and noise for first five albums (20 discs). Case has no artist attribution on it.
Product Strengths: Superb sound. Robust case.


Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: Classe CAP-151
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): N/A
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Denon DP-60L/Benz Micro ACE med.
Speakers: Martin Logan Aerius
Cables/Interconnects: Mapleshade Clearview Double Golden Helix
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Led Zeppelin
Room Size (LxWxH): 13' x 13' x 7.5'
Room Comments/Treatments: Carpet, bookshelves
Time Period/Length of Audition: 2 weeks
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Monster Cable HTS-2000 line conditioner
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: Classic Records Led Zeppelin 45rpm Box Set Other - Ripple 08:12:37 08/7/06 ( 26)