Month: November 2020

Keith Jarrett – My Song

  • An outstanding pressing with solid Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER from start to finish
  • We just finished a shootout for this album, and were pleasantly surprised at how good this relaxed jazz can sound on the right pressing
  • Typical copies are thin, lean, and lifeless, but we managed to unearth some copies (such as this one!) that really get it right
  • 4 1/2 stars: “this album is the best known of the Jarrett-Garbarek collaborations and it actually is their most rewarding meeting on record. Jarrett contributed all six compositions and the results are relaxed and introspective yet full of inner tension.”

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Nina Simone – Nina Simone at Town Hall

  • STUNNING sound for the Hot Stamper debut of this superb live album, featuring Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on both sides
  • The kind of Tubey Magical, tonally correct, spacious sound on this Colpix stereo pressing is nothing less than an audiophile THRILL
  • The piano sounds amazing here – natural and dynamic, letting Simon’s passionate playing shine
  • 5 stars: “One of Nina Simone’s finest recordings… From the start of her career, Nina Simone carved out her own unique niche, meshing together her classical piano technique with folk singing, civil rights protest lyrics and jazz. All of those elements are in evidence on this highly recommended set.”

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Beatles ’65 – Listen for Reversed Polarity

More of the Music of The Beatles

This is one of the pressings we’ve discovered with Reversed Polarity.

This is a Capitol Records Purple Label LP with THE BEST SOUND I have ever heard for a Capitol Beatles LP (as of 7/5/06).

But there’s a catch. It only sounds good if you reverse your absolute phase. If you don’t, or can’t, forget it. 

I wrote the rave review you see below without realizing that I had reversed my headshell leads for the previous record I was playing and had forgotten to change them back. So all the nice things I said about Capitol really aren’t true: they got the phase backwards, which positively ruins the sound unless you can correct for it. I did, and was astonished at how musical the album sounded.

Do you want an AMAZING example of how phase can affect the sound of a recording? Switch back and forth on Honey Don’t, especially if you are the skeptical type like me. You will become a believer on the spot, all doubt forever banished.

I wonder how many other bad Beatle albums are phase reversed? We will report our findings as time goes on so watch for them. [We of course never did this. The Beatles pressings we sell are in correct polarity and we simply do not have the time to survey every Beatles record ever made.]

This is what I initially said about the record:

This is a Minty Capitol Purple Label LP with THE BEST SOUND I have ever heard for a Capitol Beatles LP. If more of them sounded like this we wouldn’t have said all those mean and nasty things about Capitol Records for the past forty years. Yes, they still “butchered” For Sale to create this “album”, but that’s not the point. The point is this record sounds like a good Parlophone pressing — rich and sweet, with dead-on tonality. Whatever tapes Capitol may have used had plenty of that famous Beatles Analog Magic in them — you won’t hear any Beatles CDs sound like this, that I can assure you. That sound is gone and it ain’t comin’ back.

The late Capitol mastering here is Right On The Money. I don’t think they ever cut a record better. You can be sure the original Rainbow Label pressings sound as bad as you remember. I have never heard ANY original Capitol pressing that sounded like this — not even close.

The two singles mentioned below both have DREADFUL SOUND, the kind we have come to expect from Capitol. Everything else is wonderful.

“Dave Dexter, Jr. (a name which will live in infamy) “assisted” the Beatles by pulling eight tracks from Beatles for Sale, one from A Hard Day’s Night [I’ll Be Back], and both sides of the latest Beatles single (“I Feel Fine”/”She’s a Woman”) for the creation of this album.” – AMG

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R.E.M. – Reckoning

More R.E.M

  • An outstanding pressing of Reckoning, with solid Double Plus (A++) sound from start to finish – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Both sides are big, rich and analog sounding, yet uncongested, clear and open – a combination not heard on many ’80s recordings
  • 5 stars: “Reckoning runs through a set of ten jangle pop songs that are different not only in sound but in style from the debut. Where Murmur was enigmatic in its sound, Reckoning is clear, which doesn’t necessarily mean that the songs themselves are straightforward. Michael Stipe continues to sing powerful melodies without enunciating, but the band has a propulsive kick that makes the music vital and alive… the songwriting is more direct and memorable than before…”

Most of the copies we played were somewhat veiled and stuck in the speakers. The music is dramatically better on a copy like this one where there is real depth to the soundfield and lots of space separating the instruments. (more…)

Letter of the Week – “He was amazed at the difference.”

Diamond Head

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

Hey Tom,   

BTW- I played Diamond head UK and US pressings at my friend’s place. He has the Transrotor table and all VAC tube stuff. He was amazed at the difference.

Hi,

Send him a link to our site if he wants to be amazed more often.

Best, TP

It’s funny you sent this link. I was on Discogs looking at one of the original UK releases. But I’m tired of chasing down copies all over the us and Europe getting nice condition vinyl that sounds like crap.

If you set high standards, which you do, then taking a chance on these Discogs types is a huge waste of time. It’s only the fact that record buyers have such low standards and poor playback equipment that they find the crap they are sent tolerable.

Sellers sometimes tell me that I am the only one who ever complained. That speaks volumes. (more…)

Chicago – Chicago II

More Chicago

  • You’ll find solid Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it from first note to last on this outstanding copy of the band’s sophomore release
  • Big, rich, and present throughout, with real Jazz Rock energy – this is just the right sound for this album all things considered
  • One of the most difficult rock albums to find good sound for, bar none – it’s by far the toughest nut to crack in the entire Chicago catalog
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The contents of Chicago II underscore the solid foundation of complex jazz changes with heavy electric rock & roll that the band so brazenly forged on the first set.”

*NOTE: On side three, a mark makes 8 moderate pops at the beginning of Track 1, Fancy Colours.

This album spawned three top 10 singles and can sound very good on the right copy. Finding that copy, though, can be incredibly difficult — that’s why you won’t often find top copies of the album on our site. (more…)

Stan Getz – Big Band Bossa Nova

  • Getz’s superb 1962 release finally arrives on the site with outstanding Double Plus (A++) stereo sound or BETTER from start to finish – and the vinyl plays about as quietly as any vintage Verve ever does
  • Speakers Corner produced an unimpressive remaster on Heavy Vinyl years ago, and there are probably plenty of newer pressings that have come out since then, but none of them can begin to compete with the All Analog sound of this very pressing
  • 4 stars: “Fresh from the sudden success of Jazz Samba and “Desafinado,” Stan Getz asked the 28-year-old, strikingly gifted Gary McFarland to arrange a bossa nova album for big band as a follow-up. Getz is always his debonair, wistful, freely-floating self, completely at home in the Brazilian idiom that he’d adopted only a few months before.”

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John Coltrane – Sun Ship

  • Coltrane’s final album finally arrives on the site with outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER throughout – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Huge space, size and clarity, with Tubey Magical richness befitting the 1965 recording date of this session at RCA studios
  • Released posthumously, this superb release captures one of the last recording dates for the Classic Quartet: drummer Elvin Jones, pianist McCoy Tyner, and bassist Jimmy Garrison
  • 4 stars: “While a summation for this quartet, Sun Ship is also an exciting if unfinished prelude to Coltrane’s final period of transformation.”

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Ry Cooder – Paradise and Lunch

More Ry Cooder

  • You’ll feel like you are right in the studio with Ry and his top-notch crew as they kick out the jams, the sound is so present, rich, full-bodied and transparent
  • I can’t think of another Ry Cooder album with such consistently good material, or better sound
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Like his three previous records, Paradise and Lunch is filled with treasures which become part of a world where eras and styles converge without ever sounding forced or contrived… Eclectic, intelligent, and thoroughly entertaining, Paradise and Lunch remains Ry Cooder’s masterpiece.”

Ry and his pals have plenty of interesting and unusual ideas to bring to the consistently good material found on the album, so there’s a lot here for audiophiles to appreciate.

Take for example the version of Burt Bacharach’s song Mexican Divorce. You’ve got timbales in the left channel, a conga in the right channel, a marimba somewhere in the background, and for good measure, a wonderful sounding mandolin takes center stage.

But the variety of instruments alone are not what makes it so enjoyable. It’s that Cooder has a knack for knowing exactly what elements will work musically in a song. Anyone can find a few exotic elements and throw them together, but our man Ry has the good sense to use only the ideas and instruments that sound just right. It’s why Jazz, Chicken Skin Music, and even Buena Vista Social Club are all such successful albums. Plenty of people could do these things, but only Ry could do them this well. (more…)

Spirit – Sundazed Heavy Vinyl Mono Reviewed

Hot Stamper Pressings of Psychedelic Rock Recordings Available Now

Sonic Grade: D

Another Sundazed record reviewed and found to be way off the mark.

As usual, the Sundazed only hints at the exceptionally good sound found on the best early pressings. We recommended it back at the day — let’s face it, we had a lot to learn.

In its defense, allow me to point out that it’s tonally correct, so for fifteen bucks you are getting your fifteen bucks worth, and probably not a dime’s more. We just cannot take this kind of sound seriously anymore.

Once you’ve heard the real thing, this pressing just won’t do.

Kevin Gray remastered this title, and we have found that the bulk of the records he’s involved with are rarely better than awful. Here is a good example of a record he mastered that falls far short of any record that would qualify to have the words “audiophile pressing” attached to it.

Look for these obvious signs that you are playing one his recuts:

The sound is opaque. It resists your efforts to hear into the recording. This is to be expected. Modern records in general tend to lack transparency, one of the most important qualities that the better vintage pressings have in abundance.

In addition, Gray’s records consistently lack ambience and air. We discuss that subject in more depth here.

If you are looking for audiophile sound on vinyl, our advice would be to avoid any record he is associated with.