Month: January 2024

Another “Problematical” Classic Records Reissue

Hot Stamper Pressings of Living Stereo Titles Available Now

It’s been quite a while since I played the Classic pressing of these works by Shostakovich, but I remember it as nothing special.

Like a lot of the records put out by this label, it’s tonally fine but low-rez and lacking space, warmth and above all, Tubey Magic.

I don’t think I’ve ever played an original or a Victrola reissue that didn’t sound better, and that means that the best grade to give Classic’s pressing is probably a D for below average.

The Classic Records pressing can currently be found on the TAS list, but we don’t think it has any business being there, along with a great many others, far more than we could ever find the time to play and review.

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Ella Fitzgerald – Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie in Mono

More Ella Fitzgerald

More Pop and Jazz Vocal Albums

  • An original Mono pressing that was doing just about everything right, with both sides earning excellent Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them
  • Our single Favorite Female Vocal album here at Better Records, one that gets better with each passing year
  • With only a handful of marks that play and no problems the vinyl (something almost all the better copies end up having to some degree), this is a very special copy indeed
  • The vocal naturalness and immediacy of this early pressing will put Ella in the room with you (particularly on side two) – more than anything else, it lets her performance come to life
  • “Another typically wonderful LP of Ella Fitzgerald in her prime…this is an excellent (and somewhat underrated) set.” [It is definitely not underrated by us, we think it’s the best record the lady ever made]
  • If you’re a fan of Ella’s, or vintage pop and jazz vocals in general, this Top Title from 1961 belongs in your collection

Folks, if you’re in the market for one of the most magical female vocal recordings ever made, today is your lucky day.

We’re absolutely crazy about this album, and here’s a copy that more than justifies our enthusiasm. You will have a very hard time finding better sound than we are offering here.

Longtime customers know that I have been raving about this album for more than two decades, ever since I first heard it back around 1995. I consider it the finest female vocal album in the history of the world. I could go on for pages about this record. Suffice it to say this record belongs in every right-thinking Music Lover’s collection.

Our last shootout was early 2019. Fans of The First Lady of Song are encouraged to give this one a very hard look. It’s not cheap but this kind of quality never is. (more…)

A Big Group of Musicians Needs Big Speakers to Sound This Big

Hot Stamper Percussion Records Available Now

At times this record really sounds like what it is: a bunch of guys in a big room beating the hell out of their drums and singing at the the top of their lungs. You gotta give RVG credit for capturing so much of that energy on tape and transferring that energy onto a slab of vinyl.

Of course this assumes that the record in question actually does have the energy of the best copies. It’s also hard to know who or what is to blame when it doesn’t, since even the good stampers sound mediocre most of the time. Bad vinyl, worn out stampers, poor pressing cycle, it could be practically anything.

Fingers is one of our all time favorite records, a real desert island disc to be sure. I’ve been playing this album for more than thirty years and it just keeps getting better and better. Truthfully, I have to admit it’s the only Airto record I like. I can’t stand Dafos, and most of the other Airto titles leave me cold.

I think a lot of the credit for the brilliance of this album has to go to the Fattoruso brothers, who play keyboards, drums, and take part in the large vocal groupings that sing along with Airto. 

We Love Fingers

Fingers checks off a number of important boxes for us here at Better Records:

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Charles Mingus – The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

More Charles Mingus

  • Mingus’s avant-garde Jazz Masterpiece makes it back to the site after an 18-month hiatus with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on both sides
  • This copy is overflowing with the kind of rich, spacious, Tubey Magical sound that can only be found on vintage vinyl
  • One of the most acclaimed jazz records of the 20th century – a dizzying blend of jazz and classical, and also elements of African music and Spanish themes
  • 5 stars: “The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is one of the greatest achievements in orchestration by any composer in jazz history. Charles Mingus consciously designed the six-part ballet as his magnum opus, and – implied in his famous inclusion of liner notes by his psychologist – it’s as much an examination of his own tortured psyche as it is a conceptual piece about love and struggle.”
  • This is a Must Own jazz album from 1963 that belongs in every jazz-loving audiophile’s collection

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What to Listen for on Time Further Out

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Dave Brubeck Available Now

The best copies demonstrate the big-as-life Fred Plaut Columbia sound at its best (even better than Time Out in our opinion).

These vintage recordings are full-bodied, spacious, three-dimensional, rich, sweet and warm in the best tradition of an All Tube Analog recording.

If you want to hear big drums in a big room, these Brubeck recordings will show you that sound better than practically any records we know of. 

The one standout track on this album for audiophiles is surely Unsquare Dance, with its uncannily real sounding handclaps in 7/4. The copies that did the best job of reproducing that “flesh on flesh” sound of actual human hands clapping scored very well in our shootout.

More to Listen For

For starters, listen for a fat snare and rich piano on the first track of side one. When you hear that, assuming you do, you should know you are in for a treat. Our best copies captured those two sounds brilliantly.

On the second track the clarity of the brushed snare is key to how resolving and transparent any copy is. The rich, smooth sound of Desmond’s sax balanced against the clarity of the brushes will help you make sure that the overall sound is tonally correct from top to bottom.

On side two the first track has the Wall to Wall Big Drums in a Big Room sound that positively blows our minds. If you’re a fan of  with jump out of the speakers sound, this is the album for you.

Note that in some places it sounds like the piano is overdriving its mic. We heard that sound on practically every copy we played, so we’re pretty sure it’s on the tape that way.

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Letter of the Week – “Expectations met and exceeded!”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Steely Dan Available Now

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

Hey Tom,   

Expectations met and exceeded! This Royal Scam sounds amazing. Granted, my current copy was an MCA repressing, but this one totally crushes it and THEN SOME.

Thanks, Tom. I will be a return customer. I’m a believer!!

-kj

Dear kj,

And then some is right.

The MCA pressings are not worth the vinyl they are made from.

No early Dan album has ever sounded particularly good on that label with the exception of Gaucho, which originally came out on MCA after ABC merged with MCA.

Consider taking our moderately helpful advice regarding which pressings tend to win our shootouts.

Royal Scam should sound its best this way:

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Blood, Sweat & Tears – Child is Father to the Man

More Blood, Sweat and Tears

Reviews and Commentaries for Child Is Father to the Man

  • An original 360 Stereo pressing of BS&T’s debut LP with an INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side one mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side two – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • This copy will show you just how big, full-bodied, lively and powerful this music can be on the right pressing
  • Not many records on this site are harder to find with top quality sound and reasonably quiet surfaces than this one
  • 5 stars: “Child Is Father to the Man is keyboard player/singer/arranger Al Kooper’s finest work, an album on which he moves the folk-blues-rock amalgamation of the Blues Project into even wider pastures… One of the great albums of the eclectic post-Sgt. Pepper era of the late 60s.”
  • If I were to make a list of my Favorite Rock and Pop Albums from 1968, this album would definitely be on it.

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Paul Simon – Graceland

More Paul Simon

Hot Stamper Pressings of Graceland Available Now


  • With two outstanding Double Plus (A++) sides, you’ll have a hard time finding a copy that sounds remotely as good as this vintage pressing – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Richer and smoother, two important qualities all the best pressings must have, yet still clear and resolving – this is the sound you want for Graceland
  • Guaranteed to trounce the well-reviewed but nevertheless awful Heavy Vinyl LP in every way, or your money back and the shipping is on us
  • There’s a delicate, extended top end on this pressing that simply does not exist on the new reissue
  • 5 stars: “An enormously successful record, Graceland became the standard against which subsequent musical experiments by major artists were measured.”

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Beethoven / “Kreutzer” Sonata & Bach / Concerto For Two Violins / Heifetz

Hot Stamper Pressings with Jascha Heifetz Performing

Reviews and Commentaries for Recordings Featuring Jascha Heifetz

  • With two solid Double Plus (A++) Living Stereo sides, this original Shaded Dog pressing of these classical violin performances will be very hard to beat
  • This copy had the balance of clarity and sweetness we were looking for in the tone of the violin, and the orchestra sounds amazing – so rich and full-bodied
  • These sides are doing pretty much everything right – they’re rich, clear, undistorted, open, spacious, and have depth and transparency to rival the best recordings you may have heard
  • Although the Shaded Dog originals, now that we know which stampers are the best, will always win our shootouts, the White Dog reissues still sound quite good to us, just not as good
  • There are about 150 orchestral recordings we think offer the best performance coupled with the highest quality sound. This record has earned a place on that list, beating out Heifetz’s other performance for RCA, LSC 2377

If you want a recording that is going to put your system to the test, this is that record! That violin is real. The piano is also very well recorded, and the balance between those two instruments on this recording is perfection.

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Sonny Rollins – The Bridge
  • Seriously good Living Stereo sound throughout this 70s reissue pressing, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades
  • It took us close to ten years to track down enough originals as well as the right reissues — so many to choose from, and so many of them just awful sounding — to get our most recent shootout going
  • Both of these sides are remarkably clean and clear with wonderful size, clarity and transparency, with real texture to the instruments and an abundance of energy
  • Of all the reissues we played, this one sounded the best, which came as a (costly) surprise
  • The sax sounds right, and played loud enough it’s almost as if you’re hearing the real instrument and not just a recording of one
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The interplay between Rollins and [guitarist Jim] Hall is consistently impressive, making this a near-classic and a very successful comeback.”

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