Month: October 2021

Letter of the Week – “So I say damn you but thank you for steering me in the right direction.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Steely Dan Available Now

One of our good customers wrote to tell us about his record collection about 15 years ago. We were still recommending Disc Doctor fluid at the time and it has been a very long while since we sold anything but Walker Record Cleaning Fluid.

Hi Tom,

Just a note to thank and curse you for opening my ears. On one hand, the audio enhancements (Aurios, Stillpoints, Talisman and Disc Doctor fluid) you’ve suggested have greatly improved my stereo system. I also upgraded my phono cartridge and had the entire front end fine-tuned.

Now, LPs I’d once regarded as mediocre have shown new life and become much more enjoyable. On the other hand, those I’d once thought sounded impressive, have revealed themselves to be uninspiring. My entire Steely
Dan collection, for example, has become a major disappointment.

Almost all the half speeds, heavy vinyl and otherwise “audiophile” type pressings have revealed themselves to be impostors.

What’s an audiophile to do? In my case, all the improvements I’ve made have resulted in a thinning of the herd, so to speak, but I simply can’t listen to crappy vinyl anymore. I’ve always maintained that the music should be the most important thing but, what’s the point of listening to sub-par pressings when you find yourself becoming easily distracted and wanting to hear something with some life in the grooves?

So I say damn you but thank you, Tom, for steering me in the right direction. I’ll have a smaller collection as a result but will appreciate the sonics of what’s left much more. You are a credit to a hobby which is, otherwise, drowning in snake oil!

Bob M.

Bob,

Thanks for your letter. We can assure you that are Hot Stamper pressings of the Steely Dan catalog are amazing sounding. Would love to have you try one.

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Bill Evans – The Bill Evans Album

More Bill Evans

  • A superb copy of Evans’ 1971 release with Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound from start to finish – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • An outstanding later recording for Bill Evans, superior to many of the albums he made around this time – it’s rich, smooth and Tubey Magical, with an especially musical quality, hence the solid grades
  • Balanced, clear and undistorted, this 30th Street recording shows just how good Columbia’s engineers were back then, even as late as 1971
  • 4 stars: “Although not as distinctive on the electric keyboard as he was on its acoustic counterpart, Evans sounds inspired by its possibilities and is heard in top creative form throughout the date.”

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My Favorite Speaker, Badly Set Up

More Speaker Advice

Here is a picture of someone else’s old Focus speakers, likely very much like our own, but of course we have stands that angle the speakers (an angle that took me months to get dialed in right), and he has his speakers sitting directly on the floor with no spikes underneath them at all, which is a very bad idea!

The speakers are way too close to the back wall and somewhat too close to the side walls too.

Lots of other issues but, hey, not my stereo so what difference to me does it make? He clearly has a lot to learn about audio.

Which simply means he has lots of work to do, but if you’ve been in this game as long as I have, we both know he will probably never do it. His system as it is stands is probably musical and enjoyable, and for most folks that is enough.

Robert Brook has been experimenting with different aspects of audio lately. His Broken Record blog has lots to say about these issues. I agree with much of what he has written. The Analog Set Up section on his blog is probably a good place to start to see what he has learned by ignoring conventional wisdom and testing every aspect of audio with an open mind. (more…)

Milt Jackson / Joe Pass / Ray Brown – The Big 3

More Milt Jackson

More Joe Pass

  • A superb sounding Pablo recording from 1976 – this copy gives you outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound or better from start to finish  
  • We found the sound superb, but even better is the fact that with only three instruments – vibes, guitar (Joe Pass) and bass (Ray Brown) – each of the players has plenty of room to stretch out and have fun with the tunes
  • 5 Stars: “The colorful repertoire — ranging from “The Pink Panther” and “Blue Bossa” to “Nuages” and “Come Sunday” — acts as a device for the musicians to construct some brilliant bop-based solos.”

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Bob Seger – Stranger In Town

More Bob Seger

  • One of the few Bob Seger recordings capable of audiophile quality sound – this pressing is big, full and Tubey Magical (for 1978) with plenty of rock and roll energy
  • If you own a radio you know Stranger In Town – more than half of it still gets played on the radio to this day
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…it’s as lively as Night Moves, rocking even harder in some places and being equally as introspective in the acoustic numbers. If it doesn’t feel as revelatory as that record, in many ways it does feel like a stronger set of songs.”

Vintage covers for this album are hard to find in clean shape. Most of them will have at least some amount of ringwear, seam wear and edge wear. We guarantee that the cover we supply with this Hot Stamper is at least VG, and it will probably be VG+. If you are picky about your covers please let us know in advance so that we can be sure we have a nice cover for you.


Stranger In Town and Night Moves are clearly the two Must Own albums for Bob Seger fans, and with sound this good we would count ourselves among those who find his music interesting and compelling. (“Main Street” on Night Moves is one of the best radio-friendly pop songs ever recorded.)

Both these sides had the energy and rock solid weight we were looking for on this Classic Rock Album from 1978. If you own a radio you know Stranger In Town, because more than half the tracks got plenty of airplay, including:

Hollywood Nights
Still The Same
Old Time Rock & Roll
Feel Like A Number

and that monster power ballad, complete with strings (!):

We’ve Got Tonight

All sounding pretty darn good! (more…)

Esquivel – Other Worlds, Other Sounds

More Exotica

More Easy Listening

  • This early Living Stereo pressing has wonderful Double Plus (A+++) or BETTER sound from first note to last- fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Both sides are spacious and open, yet rich and and oh-so-Tubey Magical, with brass that has little to none of the “blarey” quality that plagues so many copies
  • Folks, I can tell you right now, most original Living Stereo Popular (LSP) pressings, of this or any other LSP title, do not begin to recreate the Studio Wizardry found on this 1958 album
  • “Its real significance is as the moment where Esquivel takes control of his production and develops his signature sound… This is the promise of the future.” – All Music, 4 Stars

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Be-Bop Deluxe / Axe Victim

If you love the British Tubey Magical, rich (some might even call it overly rich) sound of Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie crossed with Mott the Hoople, Axe Victim just might make a wonderful addition to your collection. We would love to find you some Hot Stampers of Ziggy and All the Young Dudes, but they simply aren’t findable at the prices we can afford to pay, so until then, here is that sound in spades. And the music is good too: clever, well-produced, full of rock and roll energy and guitar pyrotechnics. 

The second song on side two boasts a guitar sound so big and dynamic that it single-handedly turns the track into a demonstration of just how good analog recording technology was in the ’70s. This record has the kind of Audio Excitement that’s almost shocking in a way. We hear dynamics such as these so infrequently that it’s easy to forget records (and guitars) can actually get this loud. What a thrill.

It has been our experience that only the British pressings of Be Bop Deluxe’s albums sound like they are made from real master tapes. The domestic pressings we’ve played have been flat and dubby.

The copies that were big, rich and tubey did the best in our shootout. No domestic copies seem to have much of those qualities to speak of.

Side One

A+. The sound here is big and lively and while it could use a bit more space and richness, it’s still a nice step up over the average copy.

Side Two

A++ – A+++, almost White Hot! This is the where the real magic is happening folks. It’s big, rich and super high-rez with a HUGE bottom and and TONS of tubey magic. Overall, it’s positively ROCKIN’!

Both sides are quiet too! (more…)

Tina Turner – Private Dancer

More Tina Turner 

  • Incredible sound throughout with each side earning Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • This vintage pressing is big and rich, with superb clarity and three-dimensional space, this is the kind of sound that most pressings only hint at
  • 4 1/2 stars: “In 1984, a 45-year-old Tina Turner made one of the most amazing comebacks in the history of American popular music… Without question, this was Turner’s finest hour as a solo artist.”

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Ella Fitzgerald – Sings the Johnny Mercer Song Book

  • With superb Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound on both sides of this Verve stereo original LP, we are fairly certain you could not possibly have heard Ella Fitzgerald sound better than she does on this very record
  • The huge, rich orchestral sound captured so beautifully by Val Valentin is always one of the highlights of these songbooks
  • By the time this one came out in 1964 Ella had already recorded 18 LPs of songbooks – this was the last, going out on a high note
  • Some of the Mercer Classics here are Too Marvelous For Words, Day In-Day Out, Laura, Skylark, Midnight Sun, I Remember You
  • Once you hear Ella sing Skylark on this album, you will have a very hard time sitting through Linda Ronstadt’s rendition of it on Lush Life
  • AMG raves “this is one of the best of Ella Fitzgerald’s songbooks. Fitzgerald’s assured and elegant voice is a perfect match for Mercer’s urbane lyrics and Nelson Riddle’s supple arrangements…”

When you are lucky enough to find a album that sounds as good as this one, full of standards from the Great American Songbook, you cannot help but recognize that this era for Ella will never be equaled, by her or anyone else.

The recording is outstanding, with huge amounts of space and midrange richness that might just take your breath away. (more…)

Listening in Depth to The Fantasy Film World

More of the Music of Bernard Herrmann

Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Bernard Herrmann

Music like this taxes the limits of LP playback itself, with deep organ notes (listen for the famous Decca rumble accompanying the organ if you have the deep bass reproduction to hear it); incredible dynamics from every area of the stage; masses of strings playing at the top of their registers with abandon; huge drums; powerful brass effects everywhere — every sound an orchestra can produce is found on this record, and then some.

You will hear plenty of sounds that defy description, that’s for sure. Some of the time I can’t even imagine what instrument could possibly make such a sound!

TRACK LISTING

Side One

Journey to the Center of the Earth

All those lovely harps! You can practically feel the cool air of the cave as you descend into the blackness.

The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad

Side one boasts some wonderful material from Jason and the Argonauts, including the fight with the skeletons that we all remember from our Saturday matinee movie days. Who else could have orchestrated such a film?

Side Two

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Astonishingly powerful deep bass and drum sounds!

Fahrenheit 451

One of our key tests for side two is the string tone on the Fire Engine sequence here. The best copies had wonderfully textured and tonally correct strings, with just the right amount of sheen — not glossy, not gritty, not blurry, but just right.

Any orchestral recording without good string tone is a lost cause. (Almost all Classic Records fail miserably in this regard. They may be on the TAS List but that sure doesn’t mean they sound any good!)

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