Month: May 2021

Shelly Manne / Bill Evans – Empathy

More Bill Evans

More Shelly Manne

  • With two Triple Plus (A+++) shootout winning sides, there is nothing that could touch this original stereo copy
  • This outstanding Jazz Piano Trio album is truly a Forgotten Classic with DEMO DISC audiophile quality sound – on this copy anyway
  • So big, so rich, so transparent, so open, so musical – this copy showed us that this album can compete with any recording by Bill or Shelly
  • Allmusic 4 Stars: “Evans was freed from the musical parameters he had set for his then-current trio. The result is that his playing seemed lighter, freer, and more relaxed than it had for a while. “

There is practically nothing to fault in the sound of either side of this pressing – what a record!

Both sides are Tubey Magical, rich, open, spacious and tonally correct. We’ve never heard the record sound better, and that’s coming from someone who’s been playing the album for at least ten years. (more…)

Cannonball Adderley – Know What I Mean?

More Cannonball Adderley

More Bill Evans

  • This outstanding pressing boasts solid Double Plus (A++) sound on both sides
  • 1961 recording technology coupled with the mastering chops of the very gifted George Horn results in the top quality sound found here
  • These guys are playing live in the studio and you can really feel their presence on every track — assuming you have a copy that sounds like this one
  • 4 stars: “It’s hard to imagine any fan of mainstream jazz not finding much to love on this very fine recording.”

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Love – Four Sail

More Psych Rock

  • An incredible sounding copy off this Love album from 1969 with both sides earning Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades
  • Surprisingly well recorded – maybe that’s not quite fair, since practically every record from Love’s Golden Age is exceptionally well recorded
  • 4 Stars; “Lee’s lyrics and performances have been compared to Jimi Hendrix, certainly a compliment. This album is such a good example of these strengths that it rises above the garage band sound to communicate a sense of time and place as well as some truly sincere feelings.”

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Nancy Wilson / Cannonball Adderley

More Cannonball Adderley

More Pop and Jazz Vocal Albums

  • This dynamic collaboration finally makes its Hot Stamper debut with Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound on side one and an outstanding Double Plus (A++) side two
  • Here is the sound we love at Better Records – both sides are full-bodied and Tubey Magical, with Wilson’s vocals unusually smooth and present
  • An inspired collection that showcases the versatility of both Wilson and Adderley (who plays five instrumentals)
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Given the play list and the outstanding artists performing it, why any serious jazz collection would be without this classic album is difficult to comprehend.” [Hear hear!]

Another Record We’ve Discovered with (Potentially) Excellent Sound…

and One We Will Probably Never Shootout Again

Some records never justified the time and money required to find Hot Stamper pressings of them in order to make it worth our while to do them again. This is one such album, and the link above will take you to many more.

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Tchaikovsky – Violin Concerto / Milstein / Steinberg

More of the music of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

More Recordings Featuring the Violin

  • Milstein’s 1960 performance of this Tchaikovsky masterpiece returns with outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound throughout
  • A superb pressing, with lovely richness, warmth, and real immediacy throughout
  • This is a spectacular recording — it’s guaranteed to put to shame any Heavy Vinyl pressing of orchestral music you own

This vintage Angel Records pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records can barely BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing signs of coming back. If you love hearing INTO a recording, actually being able to “see” the performers, and feeling as if you are sitting in the studio with the band, this is the record for you. It’s what vintage all analog recordings are known for — this sound. (more…)

Savoy Brown Blues Band – Shake Down

More British Blues Rock

  • Shake Down finally makes its Hot Stamper debut with Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it throughout
  • Big, with a punchy bottom end and driving blues/rock energy, as well as the all-import British Tubey Magic, here you will find all the elements critical to the best sounding copies
  • “… a raw and immediate album of hard primal blues and blues-rock with huge bass guitar, lots of guitar solos, piano and powerful drums… if you like the British Blues in the vein of early Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall or Chicken Shack, don’t hesitate ! This is enthusiastic and thrilling top-notch album.”

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Al Green – The Belle Album – Our Shootout Winner from 2011

More Al Green

SUPER HOT STAMPERS and QUIET VINYL on BOTH sides of this fun ’70s Al Green album! This AMG 4 Star-rated album is the last secular music Green put out for a long time, and it sure is funky! We played a ton of these and found that the best copies such as this one are incredibly lively, clear and fun! 

The typical copy is dull up top and small in size. We played copy after copy and wondered “Where’s the energy?” until a Hot Stamper pressing finally hit the table and showed us how great this music can sound. While the typical copies put us to sleep, the Hot copies such as this one are so lively, present and balanced that it’s hard not to move your body to the beat.

It’s tough to find great sounding copies of Al Green’s great music, but it’s always a thrill to hear one of the best voices in soul when the sound is right. These shootouts are a labor of love — the records never come very cheaply and almost always disappoint, but it’s all worth it when you get to hear a pressing that presents the music with the kind of sound you know the musicians and engineers were going for. (more…)

John Lee Hooker – Free Beer and Chicken

More John Lee Hooker

  • KILLER sound from start to finish with both sides earning Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or very close to it
  • Hooker’s albums are surprisingly good sounding – they have the open, immediate, dynamic qualities of a live-in-the-studio session – my understanding is that most of them are recorded precisely that way
  • These sides are doing it right – they’re big, rich and Tubey Magical, with wonderfully present vocals and huge amounts of energy
  • Free Beer And Chicken is one of the better sounding John Lee Hooker records we’ve ever played lately – an interesting lineup of guests too, including the one and only Mr. Joe Cocker!

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The Zombies – She’s Not There

  • This superb Stereo pressing of The Zombies’ 1981 compilation album boasts outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound from first note to last
  • This copy was doing it all right — bigger, fuller, more Tubey Magic, excellent bass, and the list goes on
  • Exceptionally quiet vinyl throughout — Mint Minus to Mint Minus Minus

Copies with rich lower mids did the best in our shootout, assuming they weren’t veiled or smeary of course. So many things can go wrong on a record! We know, we’ve heard them all.

Top end extension is critical to the sound of the best copies. Lots of old records (and new ones) have no real top end; consequently, the studio or stage will be missing much of its natural ambience and space, and instruments will lack their full complement of harmonic information.

Tube smear is common to pressings from every era and this is no exception. The copies that tend to do the best in a shootout will have the least (or none), yet are full-bodied, tubey and rich. (more…)

Letter of the Week – “…just pure delight with those New Orleans horns.”

More Singer Songwriter Albums

Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Randy Newman

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

Hey Tom,   

Another big surprise here; I almost cancelled ordering this before it shipped, as I have an old pressing that to me sounded White Hot Stamper material, impossible to improve on, and I intended just to shoot it out for kicks/education.

But this was a revelation, there was SO MUCH room for improvement. The whole thing as artistic edifice came alive with your pressing, conveying much more on an emotional and intellectual level than I’d picked up on before. And sound-wise it was so juicy in parts, just pure delight with those New Orleans horns.

I might have listened to this record a couple of times a year previously, whereas now it’s become a bible of soul and panache.

Dear Sir,

Thanks very much for your letter.  Allow me to give a short refresher on some Hot Stamper basics that bear repeating:

There can be no hot stamper designation without a shootout for the album having been done.

Good sounding records like the one you owned and was happy with are just good sounding records, not Hot Stampers.

Shootouts will sometimes be a revelation, as was the case here, White Hots especially. 

How high is up?

You can’t know how good a record can sound until you play a bunch of copies and discover the one that shows you just how high “up” really is.

We’ve been doing shootouts for this album for well over a decade. We understand on a purely practical level exactly what the best copies can be expected to do, and how good the best copies can sound. If you haven’t played scores of copies of the album, how could you possibly know any of these things?

Such a great album. Glad to hear you are enjoying it as much as we did.

Best, TP

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