Month: June 2023

Stanley Turrentine – Rough ‘N Tumble

More Stanley Turrentine

More Albums on Blue Note

  • Boasting INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from first note to last, we guarantee you’ve never heard this kind of life and energy on any other Stanley Turrentine album – remarkably quiet vinyl too
  • It’s rare for us to find New York label stereo pressings in audiophile playing condition, but here’s a killer one, and it simply takes the recording (and the music) to another level
  • This session boasts all the top players: Blue Mitchell, Pepper Adams, McCoy Tyner, Grant Green, Bob Cranshaw, and Mickey Roker and more
  • “…the star of the show is Turrentine, and his warmth and playing make this a necessity, especially for fans ’60s pre-funk Blue Note jazz.”
  • If you’re a fan of Stanley’s, this title from 1966 is clearly one of his best, and one of his best sounding

This vintage Blue Note stereo 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.

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Donald Byrd – Electric Byrd

  • You’ll find outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it throughout this vintage Blue Note pressing – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Side two is clean, clear and natural sounding with a lovely bottom end and lots of space around all of the players, and side one is not far behind in all those areas
  • If you want to hear the Tubey Magic, size and energy of this wonderful session from 1970 – recorded by none other than Rudy Van Gelder – this copy will let you do that (particularly on side two)
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Donald Byrd’s transitional sessions from 1969-1971 are actually some of the trumpeter’s most intriguing work, balancing accessible, funky, Davis-style fusion with legitimate jazz improvisation. Electric Byrd, from 1970, is the best of the bunch, as Byrd absorbs the innovations of Bitches Brew and comes up with one of his most consistent fusion sets of any flavor… indisputably challenging, high-quality fusion.”

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Holst – The Planets / Previn – Our 2022 Shootout Winner

More of the Music of Gustav Holst

  • This early British EMI pressing is guaranteed to be the best copy of Holst’s Magnum Opus you have ever heard, with both sides earning top quality sonic grades
  • The vinyl on these mid-70s EMI pressings is never as quiet as we would like – with such a dynamic recording, one with so many quiet sections, lightly ticky vinyl is unavoidable
  • Previn’s and the LSO’s performances are without peer in our estimation
  • These sides are rich, clear and dynamic, with weighty brass, and the kind of dynamic power that lifts the energy level right into space
  • A TAS List Super Disc, with a performance that’s as spectacular as the recording (thanks to the work of the two Christophers)
  • This link will take you to more of our favorite orchestral performances with top quality sound

These sides have some of the best sound we have ever heard for the work, and that’s saying something considering the scores of recordings we have played of this famous and famously well-loved piece.

Fortunately for audiophiles who love The Planets but are disappointed by most performances, a group that includes us to be sure, the amazing sound found on this copy is coupled with a superb performance.

As you might imagine, on a big system this would make for a powerful listening experience, which is exactly the experience we ourselves had during our recent shootout. This copy actually deserves its place on the TAS List.

Both sides earned strong grades for their powerful energy and orchestral excitement, especially from the brass section, a subject we discuss at length below. (more…)

Robert Brook Makes History with the First Shootout Video Ever Posted on Youtube

Hot Stamper Pressings of Revolver Available Now

One of our good customers, Robert Brook, writes a blog which he calls A GUIDE FOR THE BUDDING ANALOG AUDIOPHILE. You can find it by clicking the link below.

Welcome to The Broken Record!

We recently loaned Robert some copies of Revolver so that he could do the first youtube-acceptable Record Shootout video in the history of mankind. He had three copies of his own to play along with the five we loaned him, plenty to work with.

We hope to be able to discuss the experience of doing the shootout and the video with him soon, but for now, let’s just enjoy the first of its kind.

Robert now knows firsthand something few audiophiles have made the effort to learn:

Shootouts are a great deal of work if you take the time to do them right.

If you have just a few pressings on hand and don’t bother to clean them carefully, or follow rigorous testing protocols, that kind of shootout anyone can do. You can find those kinds of shootouts on youtube, but we have never seen fit to take them seriously.

The results of shootouts that are not carried out in the serious way that we do and the way that Robert did cannot be trusted, for reasons that anyone reading this blog should find obvious.

Art Dudley illustrates this approach, but you could pick any reviewer you like — none of them have ever undertaken a shootout worthy of the name to our knowledge.

Here is an especially egregious example of how to go about it all wrong.

We ourselves struggled back in the old days. in 2005, our attempted shootout for Blue could not get off the ground. Two years and scores of shootouts later, we had been able to find and clean some amazing sounding copies, which is how we were able to tell how far off the mark this pressing was.

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Grover Washington – Winelight

More Grover Washington Jr

More Bill Withers

  • Superb sound throughout this wonderful Elektra pressing
  • Both sides here are rich, full-bodied and musical – this is the sound of Analog that we fell in love with all those years ago (57 and counting in my case)
  • We’ve called this album a Demo Disc for Bass and any Hot Stamper copy will show you why
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Winelight is one of his finest albums, and not primarily because of the Bill Withers hit “Just the Two of Us.” It is the five instrumentals that find Washington (on soprano, alto, and tenor) really stretching out…”

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Beethoven’s Violin Concerto – Classic Records Reviewed

Hot Stamper Pressings Featuring the Violin

An Audiophile Hall of Shame pressing and another Classic Records Classical LP we found seriously lacking in some of the most important qualities we listen for on the classical and orchestral recordings we audition.

The Classic pressing of this album does not present the listener with the sound of a real, wood instrument, bowed by horsehair, in a physical space.

It is an airless fraud, a cheap fake reproduction that’s incapable of fooling anyone currently in possession of two good ears, a properly set up hi-fi system and a decent collection of Golden Age violin concerto recordings.

The fact that a great many writers identifying themselves as audiophiles embraced Classic’s mediocre-at-best reissues tells me that they were lacking some or all of the above.

Notes from a Recent Hot Stamper Pressing (more…)

Julie London – These Early 60s Releases Didn’t Make the Grade

More of the Music of Julie London

Hot Stamper Pressings of Vocal Albums Available Now

The early sixties were not good for the sound of Julie London’s albums. As far as we can tell, her last good sounding album came out in 1961.

The album at the top is from 1963 and the one below it it is from 1964.

We have never played a copy of either album that was especially good sounding, certainly not good enough to charge the kind of money we charge.

We love Female Vocal recordings, but these two are just not good enough to make the grade.

There are many male and female vocal albums that actually did make the grade, most often by going through a shootout, and here are some of the categories we have separated them into:

We play mediocre-to-bad sounding pressings so that you don’t have to, a public service from your record-loving friends at Better Records.

You can find these two in our Hall of Shame, along with others that — in our opinion — are best avoided by audiophiles looking for hi-fidelity sound. Some of these records may have passable sonics, but we found the music less than compelling.  These are also records you can safely avoid.

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Letter of the Week – “The 3+ sides really light up the room and at times have me shaking my head in disbelief at the musical presentation. Holy smokes!”

More Hot Stamper Testimonial Letters

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

Hey Tom,  

You know I am a Better Records believer having purchased hot stampers over the past decade and having over 90% of my collection hot stampers.

I only play vinyl and recently got some upgrades to the system. I’ll save you all the audiophile jargon and simply state my system sounds better.

What I have noticed, as good as the albums have been, I’m hearing an even greater delineation in the grading. The 2+ and 2.5+ are good, but the 3+ sides really light up the room and at times have me shaking my head in disbelief at the musical presentation. .

Holy smokes! Thanks, Tom

Mike

Dear Mike,

Glad to know you made improvements to your stereo and things are cookin’ now, so much so that the White Hots truly shine the way they should. They sure shine over here.

It took us a long time to get to get them to sound that way, forty plus years of messing around with equipment and rooms and cleaning techniques.

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Elvis Costello Arrayed His Armed Forces and Produced His Single Best Sounding Album

Hot Stamper Pressings of Elvis’s Albums Available Now

We consider Armed Forces to be one of the best sounding rock records ever made, and a copy like this White Hot Shootout Winner is proof enough to back up our claim. The best copies are extremely transparent and silky sounding, but with unbelievably punchy, rock-solid bass and drums.

The sound of the rhythm section ranks with the best we’ve ever heard. Beyond that, the musical chops of this band at this time rank with the best in the history of rock. Steve, Bruce and Pete rarely get the credit they deserve for being one of the tightest, liveliest backing bands ever to walk into a studio or on to a stage.

The song Oliver’s Army on the first side is a perfect example of what we’re talking about. Rock music doesn’t get much livelier than that.

Skip on down to Green Shirt for another track that’s as punchy as they come.

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Led Zeppelin / II – Jimmy Page Remasters a Classic, Updated

More of the Music of Led Zeppelin

A customer who bought one of our Hot Stampers was sent the Page remaster, free of charge of course. He wrote us a nice letter about what a thrill it was to hear such an amazing record — the original, not the reissue — and we made the following comment to him about the shootout he said he was going to do.

Bill,

Pay special attention in your shootout to The Lemon Song. I am going to discuss some things I learned about it recently. See how all your versions do on the song and what you think each version is doing right and wrong.

Enjoy and have fun.

Click here to read the whole story from January, 2023