Hot Stamper Pressings of Prog Rock Albums Available Now
Our rare, original Plum and Orange UK original here put every other pressing to shame. This is some of the best High Production Value rock music of the ’70s, thanks to the band and a Mr Eddie Offord.
If you’ve ever heard one of our Yes Album Hot Stampers, you’ll know what to expect here – HUGE and POWERFUL sound.
Although the UK first label originals will always win our shootouts, the early UK reissues on the Red and Green label can still sound quite good on the right pressing.
Skip all domestic copies of this album, as well as the first one. They are clearly made from dubbed tapes.
Amazing Acoustic Guitars
Acoustic guitar reproduction is superb on the better copies of this recording. The harmonic coherency, the richness, the body and the phenomenal amounts of Tubey Magic can be heard on every strum.
- More recordings like this one with exceptionally Tubey Magical guitar reproduction
- More reviews for our Tubey Magical acoustic guitar Demo Discs
- More records that are good for testing Tubey Magical acoustic guitars
Yes in the Seventies
The amount of effort that went into the recording of this album is comparable to that expended by the engineers and producers of bands like Supertramp, The Who, Jethro Tull, Ambrosia, Pink Floyd and far too many others to list. It seems that no effort or cost was spared in making the home listening experience as compelling as the recording technology of the day permitted.
Yes is clearly one of the handful of bands to produce an immensely enjoyable and meaningful body of work throughout the ’70s, music that holds up to this day. The music on their albums, so multi-faceted and multi-layered, will surely reward the listener who makes the effort to dive deep into their complex soundscapes.
Repeated plays are the order of the day. The more critically you listen, the more you will discover within the exceedingly dense mixes favored by the band.
And the better your stereo gets, the more you can appreciate the care and effort that went into the production of their recordings.
Shooting Out the Tough Ones
Yes albums always make for tough shootouts. Like Pink Floyd, a comparably radio-friendly Pop Prog band, their everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to recording makes it difficult to translate their complex sounds to disc, vinyl or otherwise. Everything has to be tuned up and on the money before we can even hope to get the record sounding right. (Careful VTA adjustment could not be more critical in this respect.)
If we’re not hearing the sound we want, we keep messing with the adjustments until we do. There is no getting around sweating the details when sitting down to test a complex recording such as this. If you can’t stand the tweaking tedium, get out of the kitchen (or listening room, as the case may be). Obsessing over every aspect of record reproduction is what we do for a living. Pink Floyd’s recordings require us to be at the top of our game, both in terms of reproducing their albums as well as evaluating the merits of individual pressings.
When you love it, it’s not work, it’s fun. Tedious, occasionally exasperating fun, but fun nonetheless.
Side One
No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed
Then
Everydays
Sweet Dreams
Side Two
The Prophet
Clear Days
Astral Traveller
Time And A Word
Want to find your own killer copy?
Consider taking the following moderately helpful advice.
As of 2024, shootouts for this album should be carried out:
How else can you expect to hear the record sound its best?
Based on our experience, Time and a Word sounds better:
That’s about it. They are not easy nor are they cheap to find, but they have the potential to be the best sounding.
