How to find the good CD recordings?

@n80- I too am a big fan of blues, both the old rural stuff (I buy transcriptions, I don’t play 78s) as well as the electric era (from Chicago ’50s era to British blues revival). If you like crushing blues rock, try Barbed Wire Sandwich by Black Cat Bones- it was sort of a crude precursor to Free, without the vocal quality of Paul Rodgers, but it’s a killer. (I have a couple CDs of it, the original vinyl pressing is pretty big money- I’ll try and figure out which one I have that sounds better). Free’s first album, Tons of Sobs, is also a great, great blues rock record- Guy Stevens at Island had a very loose hand, and the band didn’t sound very "produced." Not sure about CD versions of that, but before they morphed into that ’Bad Company’ sound, they were first a monster hard rock/blues act.
That’s cool that you go to Clarksdale (ville). We passed through a couple years ago on our way down to Greenwood, Miss. Despite the bleak history of the Delta, it was surprisingly lush and beautiful- and people couldn’t have been nicer. I did have to ask what ’come-back sauce’ was. :)
PS: the Barbed Wire Sandwich CD that sounds better than the other one I bought is BGOCD916, allegedly mastered from the tapes. Not too pricey. Check Discogs for the BGO copy, circa 2010, i think. That may lead you to Leaf Hound, Growers of Mushroom, which has a very Zep 1.5 sound. The original vinyl record goes for astronomical money. I think the See for Miles CD was made from the tape. I can check.

whart,

I lean toward the delta blues but like it all. I'm not an expert by any means. 

I lived in Clarksdale as a child and we have good friends in Greenwood. He is an engineer and worked on the BB King museum in Indianola and he met BB many times. The delta is a fascinating place culturally. So much art and literature came out of it. I love going back. Their is a great blues record store there, Cat Head music. The guy who owns it pretty much runs the blues festival. It is amazing how many Europeans come to it. They seem to appreciate the blues more in Europe than we do here. Most of the acts at the blues festival tour in Europe often but not much here in the states.

Anyway, my Zep 1-4 CDs were mastered by Diament. I've listened again tonight and they are not as bad as I first thought they were. 

Have not listened to much Free except for their one big hit. Will look into that. And thanks for the reference to Black Cat Bones.

If you haven't looked into Gary Clark, Jr you should. He is very talented and has some blues based stuff mixed in with heavy guitar work and even some R&B.

@n80

Get a subscription or a trial to Tidal. Tidal have the recent Led Zeppelin “Deluxe” remasters from 2014. This is the best on digital. The drums are much cleaner than anything else. Really exceptional sounding compared to anything else.

I love the delta blues. There is plenty of great stuff out there. Again Tidal is quite good.

Check out Omar and the howlers - Big Delta CD and if you like Led Zep then check The Small Faces and Stan Webb Chickenshack as well as Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac.

Early Rush is heavily influenced by Led Zep. Unfortunately I have never found anything exceptional sounding by Rush except Power Windows. They are of course a great band.

Check this out (the original drummer could really groove and plays ahead of the beat unlike Peart who is an exceptional technician and time keeper and plays on the beat) Stylistically this drum style serves the song better....

https://youtu.be/ndjCXG_c9kk

The 2014 LZ remasters are quite good,  The drums are clean with good separation. What they don't reveal that a good original CD does is the decay of Bonzo's large drums and the ambience of the studio. The best pressings reveal "air" around his kit.

And Barry Diamond mastered every CD except IV (Joe Sidore, uncredited).

shadorne, it is my understanding that for Tidal to be meaningful from a quality standpoint would require me to buy more equipment (DAC) etc and I'm not ready to go that route yet. It all sounds complicated and expensive. But I will check out the 2014  LZ masters.

lowrider, I did notice that IV had no credit for mastering.