Led Zeppelin II on vinyl

If you must purchase the 2014 reissues, get the standard copy for twenty-five bucks.  All that extra deluxe stuff is a waste of time(I think), and I’m a fan, saw them twice.  I grew up listening to a copy acquired in the early seventies with the gold record award stamp(George Pirros), and it’s fine, but my Classic reissue 200gm sounds great, but probably expensive today(paid $26.00 new).  I also have a Mofi from the early 80’s, JVC see through Super vinyl.  This one gets some flak about anemic sound, still like it though.  The two RL’s I heard were just too noisy, even after multiple cleaning methods; just couldn’t get past that.  I have to say this: I purchased almost all the 2014 deluxe series Zep LPs.   Besides what I already mentioned, they were simply boring or mixed in a way that differed from the originals.  I sold all of them for half what I paid, and they were hardly played, maybe once or twice for some of them.  Check out Mike, The In'groove from Arizona's video on this Lp some years ago, he runs through all the pressings, plus I thought he had about forty RLs, none of which are really clean, he mentioned.  It gives you an idea of how nearly impossible it is to find a good copy.  And, do you really care?  I mean if Jimmy thought the 2014s were good....................

@chrisoshea 

My recommendation is to buy a clean copy of an well regarded version and have it ultrasonically cleaned.

with a bit of effort, you get more for less!!!!

Driving to a record store is fun for a lot of folks.  Also:

Driving to a record store is a chore for a lot of folks.

Even for people that enjoy the experience, that joy can flip when the spouse finds out where they have been spending their time.  ;-)

For those that do not have a reasonably close-by record store, or the time for the excursion, they will buy on-line, and hope that the pressing is as described.  If not, the next phase is an effort in obtaining a refund, and packing it up, and going to the post office, etc.

Also, how does someone determine what is a "well regarded version"?  That requires additional effort.

Whose ear should be trusted, to certify (for lack of a better verb) a well regarded version?  People's opinions on speakers, cables, CD players, etc, are all over the map.

And even when there is a vast consensus on a specific version of an album, that gives you only a shot at great sound quality, and on only one of the two sides.  No two pressings have the same sound quality, and the sound quality can vary significantly, even with the same stamper code.

Better Records rates the sound quality on both sides.  And their description of the pressing will include if there is a click that plays for X rotations.  I know of no other seller that provides the above information.

There is a fair amount of research and labor that goes in to trying to identify a specific version of an album to purchase; more than just a bit.

If you have the time, and you enjoy that labor, then you have it made.

Better Records takes the guess work out of the process, and saves you the labor.  You are paying for their labor.  They did the shopping, and the cleaning, and the listening, for you.  And you are paying for all of their rejects that they purchased and will not sell on their site -- and they know the right stampers to seek out, and still they get duds.  So we would also purchase duds, if we did all of the research and ordering ourselves.

And the above is rinse and repeat for every album title we are lusting after.

Every record that I have purchased from Better Records has been the best I have heard.  Yet, I have returned a few, because even the best sounding versions of some titles were not worth even $10 to me.  The digital version, which also was not too good, was $1.69 (for an individual song).  So I sent back pressings that cost $200+.

But the rest I have kept, and have no buyer's remorse.

And I guess that how-revealing someone's stereo is, is a factor.  On an entry level stereo, the much better sounding pressing will not shine as much on such a stereo.  When I was a teenager, with an $800 stereo, I never noticed a sound quality difference in any of my records.

What a great album and group...I have a newer reissue but I like my original copy. It's killer....

If you like live albums, as I recall "How The West Was Won" is great on vinyl.