How to find the good CD recordings?

I’m just starting to take CD seriously, and for the first time, installed some digital equipment in my main system. The difference in sound among different CDs of the same album is as dramatic as the differences in vinyl LP pressings of the same record. I don’t know that there is any rule of thumb--
I agree that some of the early CDs sound very good-- I got a copy of a Japan for US Tumbleweed Connection out of curiosity- for $1.91 on E-Bay. (I was the only bidder).
I have several early DJM pressings of the record on vinyl and that one was recommended on the Hoffman forum as ’close’ to the sound of the early DJM vinyl pressings (which if you get a good one, can have unbelievable bass, impact and spaciousness). I know that there’s a ’thing’ about the Target CDs- I presume it’s because they were early, German, and some were flat transfers.
As to Zep on CD, I haven’t a clue but you might poke around the Hoffman forum, as suggested. (I have a pretty deep shelf of older Zep LP pressings, along with a few reissues and every one is noticeably different in sound).
If you look at older threads on Hoffman, you’ll see some deeper comparisons rather than simply unequivocal statements about which one is ’best.’ I have not done that b/c most of the reason I’m chasing CD now is for rare and obscure stuff that is crazy money as an original LP pressing and hasn’t gotten a decent vinyl reissue. Thus, there are only a handful of choices for the deep archive stuff. As for the standard ’classic rock’ repertoire, Hoffman forum is probably your best resource for anecdotal information on the sonics of different releases, but use it as a guide-  it is still no substitute for listening and making your own evaluations.

I'm probably not the type to want a bunch of different CDs of the same album. I realize that this would be the best, and really the only way, to find what sounds best to me, I'm just not into this enough, yet, to put the legwork and money into it. 

So I will be relying on reviews to a large extent. Thanks for the references.

lowrider, my CD player is an Arcam CD92. It got good reviews in its day and supposedly the DAC was something special then. That's all I know about it.

I'll spend some time with my Zep CDs tonight and see what I can hear.

And I guess the practice of comparing a Pink Floyd CD vs a Zep CD is probably not the best approach.

The Dynamic Range Database site is a good reference for researching dynamic range. For older recording with multiple releases/masterings over the years it is interesting to watch the DR sucked right out of the recordings on the newer issues.
Between DR DB, Discogs and Hoffman forums you can almost find everything you want to know.

Since you will be playing CDs, or any form of digital music, you need to learn about "The Loudness Wars."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

There’s also another period in CD history; for a short time when CDs were being introduced, some masters were not transferred at the proper specs for a digital disk, so they suffered from poor quality. Many were recalled or thrown away, so it’s unlikely to find one.

Your Arcam may be a fine player, but the rest of chain is also important for revealing good SQ from music recordings.

Start buying some used CDs or "sale" items and see how they sound. If you have a decent system you’ll be able to hear the disks that suffer from overcompression. They have limited dynamics, most noticable in the bass. It’s not deep or tight and the bassline usually blends into the rest of the instruments. There may be a wide soundstage, but there won’t be much of a 3D image.

I just took a quick cruise through some of the Hoffman threads on Zep and there appear to be three major eras: the ’originals’, which I gather were mastered by Barry Diament; the ’90s era George Marino remasters and the John Davis remasters that were done at the time the Zep catalog was reissued on vinyl in the last several years. There does not appear to be a consensus (shocking).
When those new vinyl issues came out, I bought the first three albums on LP, just out of curiosity, and though they were clean, quiet, had deep bass and were very ’clear’ sounding, they didn’t convey the same immediacy and punch of some of the better vinyl pressings, e.g., the US RL mastering of II, which may be the best sounding Zep record extant. It has a freight train delivery.
None of the Zep albums are in my view of audiophile quality-- it is somewhat sad, given the significance of the band, that they weren’t able to put together better quality recordings.
That said, I bought the recent vinyl reissue of How the West Was Won, which was also mastered by John Davis, and it sounds surprisingly good for a live recording.
I’m sure there are outliers out there too-- for example, my best sounding copy of LZ1 on LP (and I have quite a few different pressings, some rare or expensive) is a Japanese pressing done in the early ’70s on Warner-Pioneer. That’s the reason why I suggested you take a listen for yourself. I am a fan of the early Zep (my favorite album is still the debut which is a poor recording in my view) and spent a fair amount of time and money buying multiple copies (mostly older pressings) to find the ones I thought sounded best. That said, it was a somewhat expensive, time consuming endeavor. I suspect you could do the same with the CDs, and it probably wouldn’t cost as much, but it would be time consuming. And, even with that, different ’pressings’ or masterings are often strong in one area and lacking in another. So, you wind up picking the versions that best match your listening preference and system strengths/weaknesses.
Now you’re gonna get me to start evaluating these things on CD!
PS: I just took a quick look on Discogs and the Diament mastering of LZ 1 seems to cost about 3 bucks! (Granted, most are a little more expensive, but if that is reflective of the cost of most of the CDs, you could do these evaluations yourself pretty cheaply, at least compared to sussing out the vinyl LPs). Good luck, and have fun, part of the enjoyment of this is the hunt.