I'm still waiting for mine to be shipped, even though I pre-ordered them (Deluxe vinyl, with the extra tracks) back in March. There are several threads on the Hoffman site going now, including one specifically for each of the formats. As the Rockitman knows, I have quite a few pressings of these, and have compared even more.
On LZ 1, the Piros/Monarch circa 1974 is very, very good; the best pressing I heard on my system was a Monarch pressed in 69, but hard to find. I also have the Classic 33 and the 45. The 74 era Monarch should be findable for under $100. We did a shoot out last year with first UK, first US (east coast) and first US (Monarch) and the Monarch had more of the 'freight train' delivery associated with the 'RL' of LZII. I haven't had a chance to compare the 69 Monarch with the 74 Monarch.
On LZII, i had to go through several 'RL's' to find one that wasn't chewed up. It's pretty impressive because of its 'drive'- the notorious 'hot' cut that got pulled from the market. I have not heard the 45 rpm Classic and have a few other old copies- the RL, which is my 'go to' is quite expensive.
On LZ III, my go-to is a Classic III, which is pretty good for this record, given the acoustic stuff and midrange. I haven't bothered to try early UK and US, though I probably have some US copies languishing in the stacks.
LZ IV- can't remember, think it is a Piros, but would have to check. Not very expensive. I do have a Classic 45 rpm test pressing of Stairway- it's fun.
HOTH- if I remember this is the other 'RL'- and not expensive.
PG- I have a sort of first UK (albeit with a "5" stamper on the B side of the first record). The earliest UK pressing is expensive (I think it is 1/4/1/1) but the 1/5/1/1 stamper copy is not very pricey.
I'm not against sourcing from a digital master. If you are a Tull fan, you know that Benefit is very congested sounding- I have a UK first, a US first and a bunch of other copies. The recent remix by Steve Wilson (if memory serves) sounds better than either and it is digitally sourced.
Whether these new releases are the 'best' may be doubtful, but for the price, and given the fact that finding the right copies of the old pressings is somewhat time consuming, if not expensive (and the Classics are also expensive), I was willing to buy these just for the sake of hearing them.
(I'm really into the first two albums, after that, my interest wanes).
