Month: December 2021

Little Milton – We’re Gonna Make It

More Soul, R&B and Blues

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

  • This pressing had the sound we were looking for – it’s clear, rich and natural, with not a trace of “modern mastering” (thank goodness)
  • The title track spent three weeks at Number One on the charts back in ’65 – it’s a True Soul Classic
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Towering above it all, though, is Milton’s powerful voice: a solid combination of gospel intensity and fluid phrasing that sprang from Roy Brown, moved through B.B. King, and found its way to both Bobby Bland and Milton, among others.” (more…)

Bob Weir – Heaven Help The Fool

More Bob Weir

More Grateful Dead

  • This outstanding pressing boasts solid Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER from start to finish
  • A surprisingly well recorded album, this pressing is simply bigger, bolder and richer than most of the other copies we played
  • ” … showcases the special flavor that Weir added to Jerry [Garcia]’s genius, where 2 identities blend effortlessly. “
  • “Jazzy in places, soft and smooth in others. Out of the ordinary for the Grateful Dead’s co-founder, but easier for the uninitiated to absorb without losing the trademark oddity that Weir has always displayed. Top-notch stuff.”

What separated the best copies from the also-rans was more than just rich, sweet, full-bodied sound. The better copies make Bob’s voice more palpable — he’s simply more of a solid, three dimensional, real presence between the speakers. You can hear the nuances of his delivery much, MUCH more clearly on a copy that sounds as good as this one does.

Keith Olsen produced and co-engineered here, which should go a long way toward explaining why the sound is so good. He is of course the man helped make Fleetwood Mac’s 1975 album such a sonic blockbuster. (more…)

Roy Halee Is One of Our Favorite Engineers

Roy Halee is one of our favorite producers and recording / mixing engineers.

Check out our supply of Roy Halee engineered or produced albums. 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).

Some of the better Roy Halee recordings we’ve reviewed on the blog can be found here. He made what is, in our opinion, the best sounding rock record of all time, Blood Sweat and Tears Self-Titled second album, which blows our mind to this very day.

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El Rayo X and The Last Days of Analog

More of the Music of David Lindley

More Personal Favorites

The sound on this record is so punchy and dynamic, the rest of your rock records should seem positively anemic in comparison. Most of it sounds live in the studio, and live in the studio is how you get a bunch of guys to play with this kind of enthusiasm and energy.

Engineered in 1981 by Greg Ladanyi, the very next year he would take home the Best Engineering Grammy for Toto IV (one helluva good sounding album and a former member of our Top 100).

Fortunately for us audiophiles, this album catches him before the overly-processed, digital drums and digital echo “sound of the ’80s” had gotten into his blood. (Just play any of the awful Don Henley records he made to hear what we mean.)

This record still sounds ANALOG, and even though it may be 1981 and mostly transistorized, the better copies display strong evidence of TUBES in the recording chain.

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The Imports Are the Only Way to Go on Leon’s Debut

Records We Only Sell on Import Vinyl

Albums with Better Sound Made in the “Wrong” Country

His first and best album, engineered by our man Glyn Johns, but it only sounds this brilliant on these UK original pressings – the domestic LPs are dead on arrival

Delta Lady, A Song for You and Roll Away the Stone are all here, which makes this a true Must Own for fans of the Classic Era.

The best copies of Russell’s debut album have excellent sound, as expected from a record engineered by Glyn Johns in 1970. Surprisingly, a number of copies suffered from somewhat dry sound, especially in the vocals. Our best copies are rich and Tubey Magical, which is the sound these songs need in order to sound their best.

Domestic Vs. Import

The domestic pressings of Leon Russell’s debut that we’d auditioned over the years always seemed flat, dry, and closed-in. We know that sound well; it’s the sound you hear on records that have been made from dubbed tapes (and it’s the hallmark of the modern Heavy Vinyl reissue, truth be told). That sound bores us to tears, and had us questioning what we could possibly have seen in the album in the first place. What happened to the glorious sound of early ’70s analog we were expecting to find?

It was only when we dropped the needle on a good British copy that the scales fell from our eyes. We found ourselves dumbfounded by the truly wonderful Tubey Magical richness, space and clarity of the real master tape. Finally, the key to the mystery had been found.

American artist, American pressing? A good rule of thumb but one that breaks down badly on this album, and for one obvious reason: the very British engineering of Glyn Johns.

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Eric Dolphy – Out There in 2021

More Saxophone Jazz

  • Insanely good sound throughout with both sides earning Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades
  • This copy was doing it all right: rich, full-bodied and Tubey Magical yet still super open and spacious
  • “A somber and unusual album by the standards of any style of music, Out There explores Dolphy’s vision in approaching the concept of tonality in a way few others — before, concurrent, or after — have ever envisioned.” – All Music, 5 Stars

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Sammy Davis Jr. – Sings The Big Ones For Young Lovers

More Sammy Davis, Jr.

Sammy Davis, Jr. Albums We’ve Reviewed

  • You will find amazing sound on both sides of this original Reprise stereo pressing
  • “Sammy Davis, who is widely acclaimed to be the greatest all-around-entertainment talent of our times, here swings thru an album filled with the greatest songs he’s ever tackled in his entire recording career. The result ? It has to be the greatest album Sammy’s ever recorded.”
  • 4 stars: “…[a] dozen-song outing, supported by some irresistible backdrops courtesy of arrangers Jimmie Haskell and Perry Botkin Jr… Sings the Big Ones for Young Lovers primarily consists of well-known covers…”
  • If you’re a fan of Sammy’s, this 1964 release belongs in your collection.

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Judy Collins / Colors of the Day: The Best of Judy Collins

More of the Music of Judy Collins

  • This superb compilation boast a Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side one mated with an outstanding Double Plus (A++) side two – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • The sound is especially rich, warm and natural, with exceptional immediacy to Judy’s vocals and Tubey Magic for days
  • Tons of breath of life, superb production and mastering, and some of the best sounding echo ever recorded
  • Note that Artisan cut this record a whole helluva lot better than DCC – the so-called audiophile label – ever did
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Lovingly programmed (it leads off with her excellent country-pop hit ‘Someday Soon,’ an Ian Tyson classic), this is Collins at her finest… This anthology brings the ‘best-of’ collection to a new art form.”
  • If you’re a Judy Collins fan, this is a Must Own Classic from 1972 that belongs in your collection.
  • The complete list of titles from 1972 that we’ve reviewed to date can be found here.

I remember being a bit taken aback by how much better my original Artisan pressing sounded compared to the supposedly superior DCC, pressed at high quality Heavy Vinyl at RTI to the most exacting standards possible.

What finally turned me completely against DCC were the awful Paul Simon solo albums they remastered.  Two were released, two I had as unreleased test pressings, and all of them were barely second rate compared to a good original pressing.

So much for believing in DCC. Since that time we have learned that placing your faith in any record label or cutting operation is a mistake. You have to play the records to know how they sound. Nothing else works, and nothing else can work. (more…)

Letter of the Week – ““…that look,” you know, the one you see when audiophiles are utterly captivated.”

More of the Music of Toto

Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Toto

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

Hey Tom, 

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year!

Bought myself a Super Hot copy of Toto for Christmas. Couldn’t wait that long to play it though. For such a familiar record with so many hits heard so many times I sure don’t remember it ever sounding like this!

It is so true what you say about certain records really being meant to be played loud. This record positively BEGS to be played loud! The sound is so clear and dynamic and open, from the top to the bottom, it hard to believe. There is no edge or glare like you would get on CD. There really is no comparison.

This is my 24th Hot Stamper. I have a lot of really good pressings, that would impress anyone. Good enough it is easy to think, “This is as good as it gets.” At least, until I put on a Hot Stamper. Then immediately it hits me, “What were you thinking?!” The beauty of it is I now have enough to do a full evening listening to Hot Stampers.

I had a group of audiophiles over one time. Some of them came from out of state. After the usual demagnetizing and warmup with some of my good “regular” records I went to Hot Stampers. You should have seen the reaction. They were already listening, but now leaning in, every one of them with “that look,” you know, the one you see when audiophiles are utterly captivated.

Thanks, Tom, and Merry Christmas!

Fantastic letter, thanks so much.

So true about Toto – when a record has a naturally smooth EQ, then the louder it gets the more correct it gets. These audiophile records with their peaky sound and boosted extreme highs can’t be played loud because all that fake EQ hurts your ears when loud.

Thanks all your support and hope to find you more good records in the coming year!

Best, TP

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Letter of the Week – “…going through all my Hot Stampers and taking it all in …”

Important Lessons We Learned from Record Experiments

This week’s letter comes from our good friend Franklin.

Franklin was having some serious sound problems that were driving him crazy after moving his speakers from the long wall (not a good idea) to the short one (much better as a rule).

He already had one pair of Hallographs, which had helped his room problems quite a bit. We rely on three pair, and the second and third pair were a big improvement over the first, so we recommended another to Franklin, which, by the sound of this letter, seems to have worked miracles!

Hello Mr. Port,

Just to let you know what you already know about this LP. When I first received this ($500) LP and listened to it, I thought I had really messed up.

I didn’t hear all the nuances you described. I just put it away and forgot about it. What a BUMMER!!!!! But I decided to try it again after placing the new pair of Hallos. I moved them all over the place. I even have the floor marked all over with painter’s masking tape to remind me where the best spots are for the Hallos. Floor really looks funny.

Sometimes when you make a change, it seems to be better for some LPs but not others. But when a change impacts all the LPs positively, you know you are in the game. I am going through all my Hot Stampers and taking it all in. I will tweak some more but for now I’ll just enjoy.

Regards,
Franklin

Franklin,

Thanks so much for your letter. When your system is cookin’ and you’re hearing all your records sound better than ever, that’s when audio is FUN. You had to do a lot of work to get there and the good sound you are now able to enjoy is your reward.

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