More of the Music of Albert King
Hot Stamper Pressings of Electric Blues Albums Available Now
Sonic Grade: D
Commenting about the first Hot Stamper pressing of this album ever to come our way, we noted:
This original Stax LP has AMAZING sound. You could not make this record sound any better.
We really liked the Sundazed copy of this record until we heard this bad boy. It MURDERS their pressing!
It has far more life, energy and presence than the Heavy Vinyl pressing.
We always suspected that a good original would be better but we had no way of knowing since all the copies we saw were beat to death.
In other words, we didn’t know this album very well and we sure had a lot to learn.
Further Reading
- New to the blog? Start here
- What exactly are Hot Stamper pressings?
- Important lessons we learned from record experiments
Below you will find our reviews of the more than 200 Heavy Vinyl pressings we’ve played over the years. Feel free to pick your poison.
And finally,
A Confession
Even as recently as the early 2000s, we were still impressed with many of the better Heavy Vinyl pressings. If we’d never made the progress we’ve worked so hard to make over the course of the last twenty or more years, perhaps we would find more merit in the Heavy Vinyl reissues so many audiophiles seem impressed by.
We’ll never know of course; that’s a bell that can be unrung. We did the work, we can’t undo it, and the system that resulted from it is merciless in revealing the truth — that these newer pressings are second-rate at best and much more often than not third-rate and even worse.
Some audiophile records sound so bad, I was pissed off enough to create a special list for them.
Setting higher standards — no, being able to set higher standards — in our minds is a clear mark of progress. Judging by the hundreds of letters we’ve received, especially the ones comparing our records to their Heavy Vinyl and Half-Speed Mastered counterparts, we know that our customers see things the same way.