Month: August 2020

Horace Silver Quintet – The Stylings of Silver

silver

  • With superb Triple Plus (A+++) grades on side two and Double Plus (A++) sound on side one, this is one of the best copies of Silver’s 1957 classic we’ve ever heard
  • The last copy to hit the site went up in 2016 – clean Horace Silver records in stereo with the right stampers and good sound are hard to find!
  • Rich and solid, this is the kind of sound that makes us sit up and take notice – Thanks RVG, we love your work (when it sounds like this)
  • “All of Silver’s Blue Note quintet recordings are consistently superb and swinging…”

I chanced upon a clean copy of this album in a store last year. When I got home with it I found I loved the music and I loved the sound. I then went about buying them up as fast as I could, returning something on the order of half the copies I was sent: some for scratches, some for the wrong labels, some for being mono — you never know what you’re going to get when you order records online!

Except from us of course. Unless something goes terribly wrong you will always get a good sounding, reasonably quiet record from us.

RVG in ’57

The best copies are just bigger, fuller and more present than others. The sound is natural and REAL, with exceptional space and see-through transparency, something that practically no heavy vinyl modern pressing we’ve ever played can reproduce.

Classic Records remastered the album, Music Matters remastered it, and there are plenty of copies of both out there. If you have either one, do yourself a favor and order up this Hot Stamper. We’re pretty sure you will be amazed at how much more musical involvement you will find on it, involvement that will be lacking when you go back to the Heavy Vinyl LP.

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Tchaikovsky / Violin Concerto – Milstein – Cisco Reviewed

Hot Stamper Pressings Featuring the Violin

Sonic Grade: B? C?

This review was written long ago, when the sonic problems of even the best Heavy Vinyl pressings were not as bothersome as they are now that we have a much improved playback system (equipment, tweaks, room, electricity, cleaning regimen and all the rest).

“C” would probably be the grade I would give the record now. For the price — cheap compared to anything we can sell you — it might represent good value to audiophiles on a budget.

This new Cisco 180 gram LP has WARM, SWEET, TUBEY MAGICAL sound. Tired of the shrill Classic with Heifetz? Here’s a romantic violinist with the kind of tone that draws you into this enchanting music. And Cisco’s sound here will have the same effect. This is a WONDERFUL record in every respect. We love what Milstein did with the famous Dvorak concerto. We think you will love his performance of the Tchaikovsky work every bit as much.

When it comes to romantic violinists, Milstein is The Man.

“It’s another offering from Cisco’s favorite violinist, Nathan Milstein, performing Tchaikovsky’s emotionally enigmatic and structurally sophisticated violin concerto. Every memorable melody and sharply dynamic contrast teems with yearning, purpose and subtext. Milstein’s silvery tone and respectful phrasing illuminates the rich orchestral detailing and majestic arrangement.”

Source: Cisco Music

Robert Pincus Reviews Cartridges with Rising Top Ends (+5db at 20kz, Ouch!)

More Unsolicited Audio Advice

He writes:

This kind of explains why all the Lyra’s sound the way they do. It’s the same thing with Clear Audio. You buy them to get that “sound.”

Sure, they do some great things. Speed often comes with a rising top end, and there’s no dip in the lower highs, which I like.

This kind of response works wonders on old Living Stereo Chet Atkins and Mancini LPs. They’re soft on top!

Don’t play your old Heifetz LPs with one of these.

Robert Pincus

Robert,

As you and I both know, the Dynavector 17dx is the solution to the problem of inaccurate cartridges.

TP

Further Reading

Vivaldi / The Four Seasons – A Sonic Arts Direct to Disc Recording

More of the Music of Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

More Classical and Orchestral Music

This is a SUPERB sounding Sonic Arts Direct-to-Disc LP with Super Hot Stamper sound on both sides. I gave this one rave reviews twenty years ago (when we could still find them) and I’m happy to see that the sound has held up just fine in the intervening decades.

Recorded in a dry acoustic, immediacy and clarity are the sonic strengths of this side one. This is one of the most natural Direct-Disc I’ve heard in a long time. One could easily use it as Demo Disc, depending on your taste and system.

There is wonderful chamber music throughout this LP. It comes as no surprise that it was nominated for two Grammys.

Side One

A++, with a very slight edge to the top of the strings being all that holds it back from a Triple Plus grade. The sound is accurate and real for the room that it was recorded in.

Side Two

A++, this side I liked a bit better, it’s a bit smoother and more relaxed; it sounds as though the mics are not quite as close to the performers on this side. (more…)

Dvorak’s Symphony No. 1 with Kertesz Is Just Too Smooth

Hot Stamper Classical and Orchestral Imports on Decca & London

This is an IMMACULATE London LP with the old style paste-on back cover. We cracked open the factory seal just to make sure that this was a British pressing.

As we’ve said before, Kertesz is the Dvorak man! He recorded the complete cycle for London; many of those LPs have superb performances and excellent sound.

We dropped the needle momentarily on this title and heard sound that was overly smooth for my taste. If you like your records on the smooth side, this record might be more up your alley than it was ours.

There are a number of other Deccas and Londons that we’ve played over the years that were disappointing, and many of them can be found here.

Letter of the Week – “All I can say is wow.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Miles Davis Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently:

Hey Tom,   

Holy F*CK. Just arrived. Absolutely fantastic! All I can say is wow.

I replied:

Can you believe people take that mediocre MoFi seriously? It’s a joke next to the real thing, as you now know firsthand.

He added:

And how much better is the Triple Plus version (when they appear)?

Brian E.

Brian,

We just sold a top copy last month, pricey (!) but hearing the record go to another level is a thrill that’s hard to put a price on.

Thanks for writing.

Best, TP

Kind of Blue is an album we admit to being obsessed with — just look at the number of commentaries we’ve written about it.

Some highlights include:

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Harry Nilsson / Nilsson Sings Newman – Our Shootout Winner from 2013

More Harry Nilsson

We’re huge Harry Nilsson fans here at Better Records, and it warms our hearts that many of our customers seem to be as well. We’ve been trying to track down great copies of this album for ages, but they are tough to come by in any condition and are often noisy and/or mediocre when we find ’em. This copy has the kind of rich, full, analog sound that we’ve been trying to find for years with so little luck.

Nilsson Sings Newman is the fourth Nilsson album, the one that came right before his masterpiece Nilsson Schmilsson. Harry is in fine form here, reinterpreting a dozen great Randy Newman songs with Newman himself accompanying on piano. We’ve enjoyed a number of Randy Newman’s songs over the years, but when you take his material and put a voice like Nilsson’s up front, the result is pure magic.

Many copies we’ve played were too gritty, grainy, and thin sounding to get excited about. This one’s got the richness, fullness and smoothness that we’ve been hoping for. The overall sound is lively and dynamic with excellent immediacy. The vocals are breathy, the piano has nice weight and the tonal balance is right on the money.

There’s some surface noise behind the music, pretty much always the case on this album (and also true for most old RCA vinyl on any album — it’s practically never quiet). I don’t think you could find a copy that sounds much better and plays any quieter no matter what you did. Most of the time the surfaces aren’t really a bother, but those of you who are fanatical about such a thing are advised to take a pass on this one. You’ll be missing some lovely music and wonderful sound however. (more…)

Pink Floyd / Obscured By Clouds – Our Shootout Winner from 2009

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Pink Floyd Available Now

UPDATE 2025

It took us 15 years to get around to doing another shootout for this title. A Harvest Green Label pressing won, but it sure sounded better than the one we played back in 2009.

EXCELLENT SOUND and some seriously strange music! This obviously isn’t Floyd’s greatest album, but we still found a lot to like about this record and specifically this copy. It’s a British Import Harvest Green Label pressing that rates close to A+ on both sides — slightly better on side one, not quite there on side two. Those of you who enjoy Meddle will certainly get a lot out of this one.

We rated side one between A+ and A++. The second and the fifth tracks were our favorites on this side, while the fourth track honestly left us a bit cold. We played other copies that couldn’t come near this side in terms of clarity, transparency or bass definition.

Side two has a bit of a thick, Moody Blues-esque sound. It’s tonally correct from top to bottom with good energy. The lead guitar sounds particularly good, as does the organ.

Don’t expect a fully realized album a la Dark Side, because this ain’t that. It’s a nice collection of songs and instrumentals that should provide a nice thrill to Floyd fans who really dig the prog-psych aspect of the band.

This is an older review.

Most of the older reviews you see are for records that did not go through the shootout process, the revolutionary approach to finding better sounding pressings we developed in the early 2000s and have since turned into a fine art.

We found the records you see in these older listings by cleaning and playing a pressing or two of the album, which we then described and priced based on how good the sound and surfaces were. (For out Hot Stamper listings, the sonic grades and vinyl playgrades are listed separately.)

We were often wrong back in those days, something we have no reason to hide. Audio equipment and record cleaning technologies have come a long way since those darker days, a subject we discuss here.

Currently, 99% (or more!) of the records we sell are cleaned, then auditioned under rigorously controlled conditions, up against a number of other pressings. We award them sonic grades, and then condition check them for surface noise.

As you may imagine, this approach requires a great deal of time, effort and skill, which is why we currently have a highly trained staff of about ten. No individual or business without the aid of such a committed group could possibly dig as deep into the sound of records as we have, and it is unlikely that anyone besides us could ever come along to do the kind of work we do.

The term “Hot Stampers” gets thrown around a lot these days, but to us it means only one thing: a record that has been through the shootout process and found to be of exceptionally high quality.

The result of our labor is the hundreds of titles seen here, every one of which is unique and guaranteed to be the best sounding copy of the album you have ever heard or you get your money back.

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Haydn / Symphonies 99-104 / Jochum / 3 LP Box Set

More of the music of Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Reviews and Commentaries for the music of Joseph Haydn

Three superb sounding, PRISTINE looking Deutsche Grammophon Import LPs.

These mid ’70s DG recordings are excellent. Some of the recordings in this set sound better than others, but they are all at least very good and a number are superb.

What IS consistent in this set is the quality of the performances. You will have a hard time finding better Haydn on record. The Military Symphony (#100) and The Clock (#101) are especially good. Those also happen to be two of my favorite Haydn symphonies.

This is an Older Classical/Orchestral Review

Most of the older reviews you see are for records that did not go through the shootout process, the revolutionary approach to finding better sounding pressings we started developing in the early 2000s and have since turned into a veritable science.

We found the records you see in these older listings by cleaning and playing a pressing or two of the album, which we then described and priced based on how good the sound and surfaces were. (For out Hot Stamper listings, the Sonic Grades and Vinyl Playgrades are listed separately.)

We were often wrong back in those days, something we have no reason to hide. Audio equipment and record cleaning technologies have come a long way since those darker days, a subject we discuss here.

Currently, 99% (or more!) of the records we sell are cleaned, then auditioned under rigorously controlled conditions, up against a number of other pressings. We award them sonic grades, and then condition check them for surface noise.

As you may imagine, this approach requires a great deal of time, effort and skill, which is why we currently have a highly trained staff of about ten. No individual or business without the aid of such a committed group could possibly dig as deep into the sound of records as we have, and it is unlikely that anyone besides us could ever come along to do the kind of work we do.

The term “Hot Stampers” gets thrown around a lot these days, but to us it means only one thing: a record that has been through the shootout process and found to be of exceptionally high quality.

The result of our labor is the hundreds of titles seen here, every one of which is unique and guaranteed to be the best sounding copy of the album you have ever heard or you get your money back.

Henry Mancini – Mr. Lucky Goes Latin

Living Stereo Titles Available Now

200+ Reviews of Living Stereo Records

This very nice looking RCA Living Stereo Popular White Dog LP is a superb example of Living Stereo tubey magic at its best. Ideal for your bachelor pad!

Skip track one on side one and go straight to Slow Hot Wind to hear some Mancini magic.