Hot Stamper Pressings of Albums Engineered by Eddie Kramer Available Now
Eddie Kramer is one of our favorite recording and mixing engineers.
Click on the links below to see our supply of Eddie Kramer engineered or produced albums, along with plenty of our famous commentaries.
Many can be found in our rock and pop Top 100 list of best sounding albums with the best music (limited to titles that we can actually find sufficient copies of with which to do our Hot Stamper shootouts).
A fun and lively Blue Note, presented here with two especially hot sides and quiet vinyl!
After hearing a copy that blew us away a few years back, we went on the hunt for enough pressings to get this shootout off the ground. It wasn’t easy — run across many clean Kenny Dorham LPs recently? — but we finally pulled it off and this copy really impressed the hell out of us compared to the others we had on hand to play.
Dorham is backed by a killer lineup here — Joe Henderson, Herbire Hancock, Butch Warren and Anthony Williams. AMG calls the music “explorative yet swinging music” that “lives up to its potential”. I’d say it’s one of the better “lesser-known” Blue Note titles, a real sleeper in their catalog. (more…)
Walls and Bridges may not be the high point of Lennon’s solo career but there are some wonderful songs on this album and it was quite a treat to finally hear them sound right. It’s tough to find Hot Stamper John Lennon albums so if you’re a fan I think you’ll be very pleased at what a serious step up in quality this copy represents over any other you might have heard.
Going Down On Love and Old Dirt Road (co-written with Harry Nilsson!) are especially lovely.
Some classic tracks that everybody knows are here as well: #9 Dream, Whatever Gets You Thru The Night and Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down And Out). (more…)
No other copy in our shootout could hold a candle to the sound of this original pressing! (more…)
The copies we liked best were the biggest and richest, the least thin and dry. Many of the brighter copies also had noticeable sibilance problems, which the richer and tubier ones did not. (more…)
Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Rolling Stones Available No
One of our good customers had this to say about a Hot Stamper Rolling Stones title he purchased recently:
Hey Tom,
I was blown away by Let It Bleed. Despite the only noise on the record being on Love in Vain… that particular song sounds as if they are playing live in my living room!
The richness of the guitars is unbelievable.
And the bass on Live With Me, wow…. Great pressing! (more…)
Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Gustav Holst Available Now
One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently:
Hey Tom,
I spent the day today shooting out various interpretations and sonics of the above, and, I must admit, the Previn leads the field. More decay, transparency, sweetness, magic and imagination than the Mehta, Stokowski and numerous others. If you have an amazing copy, especially re side two, please put my name on it and let me know. [We do this shootout regularly and will be glad to hold the next killer copy for you.]
A very rewarding day spent visiting a remarkable piece of music. The Previn should be used for proper setup of a big system because it does everything right and demands the same of your system.
Best,
Phil
And thank you.
You are preaching to the choir on that one, loved it for at least the last ten years and can find nothing to compare with it.
I was very fortunate to see the work performed at Disney Hall. No record can come close but some come closer than others. (more…)
Here is a link to the video itself.
The excellent BBC Archive account on Twitter has unearthed an audio gem.
A 1959 film called ‘Hi-Fi-Fo-Fum’ purports to reveal the burgeoning audiophile scene, with more than a little tongue-in-cheek humour for good measure.
“There is a man in Wimbledon who will go on adding to his equipment until he can hear the sigh of the conductor as the piccolo misses its entry,” says the introduction. He sounds like our kind of man.
“Is it a religion or a disease? An American psychiatrist calls it ‘audiophilia'”, reveals the voiceover, as men – and it’s largely men – shuffle in and out of hi-fi shops before rushing home for earnest listening sessions. It was ever thus.
“Do they like music? Or are they in love with equipment?”, wonders our narrator, as one excited punter buys a new tweeter for “6 pound 4 pence”.
And while much has changed – you don’t see many shops with individual listening booths nowadays – much has stayed the same. “A dream of perfection… of machines more sensitive than the ears they play to,” reminds us that arguments about audio frequencies that the human ear can’t hear are nothing new.
The video also shows the early music critic. “With a dozen different recordings of every work, how do we find the best?” wonders the voiceover. “Rely on the critic, nothing escapes him,” comes the reply.
His verdict? “Comparisons are odious but inevitable…”
Well, I guess they are!
