God, I really fucking hate that. No, happily that is not the case with these. Jimmy Page is gonna remaster all the Led Zep albums. They're being remastered by him, and from the original source. The first three albums are done already. Boston was remastered from the original source by Tom Scholz. So they're not the typical "crank up the volume more for the next greatest hits release" loudness war participant.
I welcome these. When the CD finally replaced vinyl and the cassette tape, all these albums from the 60's and 70's were being put out on CD. But most of them were just straight transfers from whatever master was already done. For vinyl, usually. Getting them, finally, properly mastered for CD is awesome. Do I notice a huge difference in the way they sound? No, to be honest, but I've only listened to them in the car so far. Maybe I would if I had them side by side on my home stereo. They probably are the slightest bit louder, but they're not compressed to shit. They're probably noticeably clearer. I bet, since they were mixed by Page and Scholz, they probably have very little changes that only a super-fan would notice. Like all these years, either one of them always thought that this one part in one track was a little too low and always wanted to bring it up. But overall, they sound dead on to what I'm use to hearing. It's not like George Lucas and Star Wars.
The best part about them is the price and what you're getting. Boston was $5 on Amazon and the CD is very nice. The booklet and inside covers are all new stuff from the original CD release. The Led Zep albums are like $10-15 each on Amazon, and come with a second CD with previous unreleased live material. Remastered album plus live material for $15? I'll buy that any day.