The Best Sounding Records In My Collection - Episode 4: Led Zeppelin II (RL-Hot Mix) 

Tim, the Monarch & Presswell “RL SS” pressings have a smaller deadwax ring than the pressing you shown in the video & are deemed the best stereo audiophile pressings that exist in the world by Tom Port. I sold a near mint Monarch press for $2500 a few weeks ago. Thanks Frank

Very killer you found this in the wild.!! I actually found one at Amoeba recently for $12!! They’d totally missed it. VG condition, couldn’t get my $$ out fast enough!

Awesome video Tim! The RL is the real deal.. I picked up a VG+ Presswell recently. As soon as you hear JPJ's bass come on on Whole Lotta Love you know this pressing is special. When Robert says "You need coolin" it's so forceful and pronounced. Jimmy's guitar has a crunch you don't hear on the other pressings. As for Bonham's drums, they sound like cannon fire! So much bass on this record, side 2 has hardly any dead wax and there's a miniscule RL and S/S barely squeezed in the deadwax. One last thing thing that doesn't get discussed much about the RL.. and maybe it's because the tapes were so fresh when this was pressed. It doesn't sound like a 55 year old record, it sounds like it was recorded yesterday. Unbelievable sounding!

Amazing selection, as always. I was listening to one of my favorite 80's albums, production wise, China Crisis Flaunt The Imperfection, produced by Walter Becker. If you haven't heard this I would highly recommend it.

This was great. Nice work as always Tim

After watching your video yesterday I just found one today in the only used record store on a tiny island where I live. Couldn’t quite believe it when I saw the two RLs. Quite beaten up but still couldn’t resist for $20. Jumps once on both sides, but still can get an idea about why it is such a grail record. Its one of those records that even with all the surface noise the music has a very immediate and real sound to it and the holographic effects on the first track are present!

Hey Tim, just picked up a copy of The Notting Hillbillies. Great recording and songs. Bill Schnee was the engineer. Not sure who mastered it. Mark Knophler certainly always puts out great sounding recordings.

Bought a great ‘76 Japanese repress that haunted me. Sounded awesome other than a level of surface noise in the quiet moments that was enough to be distracting. My most hardest return for refund ever!

Ive got a RL Presswell VG+. I got mine off Discogs as you just don’t find them in the wild in Australia. But I did get mine from a Discogs Seller that only lived an hour down the road. Loved Led Zeppelin my whole life and i love showing this album off when showing off my system.

I own the RL SS cut...nothing else like it. There's incredible dynamics and a massive soundstage that makes every other pressing insanely anemic.

I've A/B'd the RL Monarch pressing and my MOFI pressing that I've owned since the 80's. To me they are equally great with different attributes. To me the middle interlude part of Whole Lotta Love is more dynamic on the MOFI pressing but in the rest of the song, the bass is better on the RL. Both are amazing.

I'm a happy owner of a Preswell RL. One thing I'd like to add: There also is a rare german pressing with the RL cut on both sides as well as more common german pressings with the RL cut on side one only. That's why I check the deadwax of every copy of LZ II that I see in record stores here in Germany!

Good stuff. I believe it was Ahmet niece. I don’t think he had a daughter. How is yours for surface noise? Even near mint looking ones have bad surface noise. The cleanest one I ever heard was a “hot stamper” from better records. It was LH/RL. Also, I think these are estimated at least 100k of these were pressed. That elusive double RL German I think is the one to get because the pressings seem cleaner for surface noise. I had the German one sided RL and it was silent. Also, Because it was cut hot some players will still have issues playing. I had to lower my tracking force to 1g to keep it from jumping. Adding more force made it worse.

Subbed.

One day i hope i can get an RL cut

Nice little zoom effect as you were introducing the Zeppelin album, I wonder how you did that...? 👍 FWIW, on my system I personally really like the 2nd Japanese pressing of Zeppelin II. It is super dynamic and has a huge soundstage. What is interesting is that the fellow from Australia who was on Steve Westman's stream a little while back also mentioned it as 'One of the best sounding records in his collection'! 😁 He is the ONLY other person who has also mentioned it as being one of the best Zeppelin II pressings. It is my 'Go To' for that album. I don't have the RL 'Hot' pressing to compare, but this 2nd Japanese pressing sounds pretty damn good! Just as you were describing the 'Psychedelic' part of Whole Lotta Love, let me tell you, this Japanese pressing, especially on my tall 13 drivers a side open baffle dipole line arrays, literally swirls all around the room like you said, like you are in a middle of a maelstrom! Very impressive! BTW, do you know what year they went from the Broadway address on the rim text to the Rockefeller Plaza address? And yeah... If I frigg'n *MOVE* to Colorado where there is a used record store on every corner, sure I'll probably eventually run into an RL pressing of the album! 😁

I have a presswell with RL on both sides. but on side 1 there is no SS. only side 2. and i must say i think i prefer the sound of side 1 without the SS. it sounds more warm and slightly more bottom end. the SS side is more on the colder side but a bit better high end.

I purchased a copy for 125.00 VG+ and a warped one for 30.00 NM- can’t fully get the warp out of track 1 need to skip to track 2. Have a question. How do you know when a record has been overplayed? Is it possible to have a Holy Grail that’s been overplayed? What does groove wear look like? I think I know? Thank You

The RL without the SS sounds better in my experience.

Everybody always seems to get the LZII story wrong... Ahmet never had a daughter, or any kids for that matter. 😅 Maybe it was a niece or something.. Who knows. 🤷🏻😜