Month: February 2024

Willie Dixon – I Am The Blues

More Willie Dixon

More Soul, Blues and R&B

  • With STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from start to finish, this early Columbia stereo pressing could not be beat
  • Notably richer and livelier than practically all other copies we played, with plenty of Tubey Magic and good weight down low
  • A longtime favorite of ours, with unusually good sound for a blues recording, even one from as late as 1970
  • Features updated versions of many Dixon Classics: “Spoonful,” “Hoochie Coochie Man,” “I Can’t Quit You Baby” and more
  • “The material is superb, consisting of some of Willie Dixon’s best-known songs of the 1960s, and the production is smoothly professional…”

The material here is top notch — Dixon was one of the blues’ greatest songwriters, responsible for “Spoonful,” “Hoochie Coochie Man,” “Little Red Rooster,” “Back Door Man” and other songs you’ve probably heard your favorite classic rock band covering. A copy such as this gives you more detail and texture, more extension up top and real weight to the bottom end — absolutely crucial for this music.

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Paganini – Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 / Menuhin

The Music of Paganini Available Now

Album Reviews of the Music of Paganini

  • Two of the truly great virtuoso/romantic violin concertos in seriously good Double Plus (A++) sound can be found on this vintage EMI pressing
  • It’s simply bigger, more transparent, less distorted, more three-dimensional and more real than much of what we played
  • The best balance of orchestra and soloist we know of for both works, with sound to rival the greatest violin concerto recordings we’ve played

Another remarkable demo disc from the Golden Age of Vacuum Tube Recording Technology, in this case 1961, with the added benefit of mastering using the more modern cutting equipment of the ’70s. (We are of course here referring to the good modern mastering of 40 years ago, not the bad modern mastering of today.)

This combination of old and new works wonders on this title as you will surely hear for yourself on this wonderful copy.

The sound of the best copies is transparent, undistorted, three-dimensional and REAL, without any sacrifice in solidity, richness or Tubey Magic. The illusion of disappearing speakers is one of the more attractive aspects of the sound here, pulling the listener into the space of the concert hall in an especially engrossing way. (more…)

Muddy Waters – Folk Singer

  • Folk Singer returns to the site after a nearly three year hiatus, here with INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on both sides
  • This is an exceptional live-in-the-studio recording, with some of the best sound Muddy Waters ever managed to get down on tape
  • This early reissue is guaranteed to trounce any heavy vinyl pressing you’ve heard of the album or we’ll give you your money back and then some!
  • We admit we did not have an original mono pressing from 1964 to play – we’ve never seen one in audiophile playing condition and don’t expect to anytime soon
  • An even earlier stereo pressing than the one that won the shootout was ridiculously bright and compressed – not sure how much creedence we should give that information, but our best later pressing was so good, it will be very hard to beat no matter what you throw at it
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Muddy’s ‘unplugged’ album was cut in September of 1963 and still sounds fresh and vital today. It was Muddy simply returning to his original style on a plain acoustic guitar in a well-tuned room with Willie Dixon on string bass, Clifton James on drums, and Buddy Guy on second acoustic guitar.”
  • Although the Chess originals, now that we know which stampers to pick up, will always win our shootouts, the Artisan-mastered reissues still sound quite good to us, just not as good

This 1963 recording has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern pressings rarely BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing any sign of coming back.

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Listening in Depth to Deja Vu

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Crosby, Stills, Nash and (Sometimes) Young

DEJA VU is an album we admit to being obsessed with — just look at the number of commentaries we’ve written about it. It’s yet another in the long list of rock and pop records that really come alive on big speakers at loud levels .

One obvious reason that our turn up your volume is such a good test is that the louder the problem, the harder it is to ignore.

Presenting another entry in our extensive listening in depth series with advice on what to listen for as you critically evaluate your copy of Deja Vu. Here are some albums on our site you can buy with similar track by track breakdowns.

Side One

Carry On

This song is a great test for the quality of the vocals. If you can get through the first part of the song with little to no strain in the voices, you’re on the right track.

The bass on this track always lacks a measure of definition, but you’ll know by track three if your bass is solid enough to set the foundation this music requires to really get going. Carry On has a huge number of overdubs, so it will never have very high resolution, but on a Hot Stamper copy like this one it can sound wonderful.

Teach Your Children 
Almost Cut My Hair

One of the key test tracks we use for side one, this is the only time Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young actually sounds like a rock and roll band. According to Stephen Barncard this was recorded live in the studio. It sure sounds like it. The amount of energy the band generates on this track exceeds all the energy of the first album put together.

The reason this track presents such a tough test is that it has to be mastered perfectly in order to make you want to turn it up as loud as your stereo will play. This song is not for sipping wine and smoking cigars. It positively cries out to be played at serious volume levels on monstrously large speakers. Nothing else will do justice to the power of the band’s one and only live performance.

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The Grieg Piano Concerto – With a Correctly Sized Piano for a Change

More of the music of Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)

This Shaded Dog pressing has exceptionally lively and dynamic sound on side two, which earned an A++ grade and plays quietly to boot.

The sound is BIG and BOLD enough to fill up your listening room and then some.

The piano is clean and clear, the strings are rich and textured.

And his performance of this work is superb, as is his performance of the shorter coupling works on side two (which actually have the best sound here). 

This is wonderfully recorded music. It has a very natural orchestral perspective and superb string tone.

It also boasts a correctly-sized piano, which is quite unusual for Rubinstein’s recordings in our experience.

Some of the titles we’ve auditioned that had noticeably over-sized imaging can be found here.

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The Jam – All Mod Cons

More Rock and Pop

More New Wave

  • An early UK pressing of All Mod Cons (only the second copy to ever hit the site) with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from start to finish – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • We guarantee that you have never heard these songs sound as big, bold and alive as they do here
  • “In 2000, Q placed All Mod Cons at number 50 on its list of the ‘100 Greatest British Albums Ever.’ In 2013, NME ranked All Mod Cons at number 219 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The album is listed in the reference book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.” – Wikipedia
  • 5 stars: “Terms like ‘classic’ are often bandied about, but in the case of All Mod Cons, it is certainly deserved.”

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Steely Dan / The Royal Scam 2-pack

More Steely Dan

  • A stunning 2-pack copy, with side one of the first disc and side two of the second disc both earning Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • The general idea behind our 2-packs — examples of which prove that the two sides of the same album can sound very different from each other — can be found here
  • These pressings of The Dan’s hard-rockin’ classic from 1976 has the right sound for this music – rich and meaty, with powerful rhythmic energy
  • 5 stars: “Drummer Bernard ‘Pretty’ Purdie lashes out the rolling grooves on most of the nine tracks, establishing the album’s anxious feel, and Larry Carlton’s jaw-dropping guitar work provides a running commentary to Fagen’s strangulated vocals… These are not the sort of Steely Dan songs favored by smooth-jazz stations.”
  • Steely Dan’s fifth release is a Must Own album from 1976, Every one of the first 6 albums belong in any audiophile quality Rock and Pop music collection worthy of the name.

The best copies of Steely Dan’s brilliant effort from 1976 — so different from the album before, Katy Lied, as well as the album to follow, Aja — manage to combine richness and smoothness with transparency and clarity, a tough combination to find on The Royal Scam. (more…)

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Willy and the Poor Boys

More of the Music of Creedence Clearwater Revival

More Rock Classics

  • Both sides of this early pressing were giving us the big and bold sound we were looking for, earning stunning Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • Whatever you do, don’t waste your money on the awful Heavy Vinyl remasters of CCR’s albums that Acoustic Sounds commissioned – they are so wrong they should make your head ache
  • Features “Down On The Corner,” “Fortunate Son,” “Midnight Special,” and more, and we guarantee you’ve never heard them sound as good as they do on this vintage copy
  • 5 stars: “…a fun record, perhaps the breeziest album CCR ever made. Fogerty’s rage remains, blazing to the forefront on “Fortunate Son,” a working-class protest song that cuts harder than any of the explicit Vietnam protest songs of the era, one of the reasons that it hasn’t aged where its peers have. Also, there’s that unbridled vocal from Fogerty and the ferocious playing on CCR…”
  • This is a Must Own album from 1969, one that deserves a place in any audiophile collection’s pop and rock section, especially for fans of roots rock

The Virtues of Shootouts

The story of our recent shootout is what real progress in audio is all about.

Many copies were gritty, some were congested in the louder sections, some never got big, some were thin and lacking the lovely analog richness of the best — we heard plenty of copies whose faults were obvious when played against two top sides such as these. The best copies no longer to seem to have the problems we used to hear all the time.

Of course the reason I hadn’t heard the congestion and grittiness in the recording is that two things changed. One, we found better copies of the record to play — probably, can’t say for sure, but let’s assume we did, and, Two, we’ve made lots of improvements to the stereo since the last time we did the shootout.

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Cowboy Junkies – The Trinity Session

More Digital Recordings with Hot Stampers

  • A Trinity Session like you’ve never heard, with solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER on both sides of this original UK import (one of only a handful of copies to ever hit the site)
  • The sound is big and rich, the vocals breathy and immediate, and you will not believe all the space and ambience – which of course are all qualities that Heavy Vinyl records have far too little of, and the main reason we have lost all respect for the bulk of them
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Who says you can’t make a great record in one day – or night, as the case may be? The Trinity Session was recorded in one night using one microphone, a DAT recorder, and the wonderful acoustics of the Holy Trinity in Toronto. As an album, it’s still remarkable at how timeless it sounds, and its beauty is – in stark contrast to its presentation – voluminous and rich, perhaps even eternal.”
  • If you want to dig deeper into the sound of the various pressings we played, here is a link to a commentary we think you might enjoy

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Heretics and Believers Clash on the Battlefield in Cyberspace

Seems like our friend ab_ba has something to get off his chest.

Hi Tom,

Suppose somebody wanted to know if your claims about the records you sell are true. How could they find out? They’d have to buy a record from you. There is very little independent commentary or reviews available online, and now I know why.

I started a forum thread, hoping to find some other Better Records enthusiasts, and just sort of have a place where I could share what I’ve discovered, in case anybody else found it of value.

After two weeks and 13 pages, the thread got shut down. This was after skepticism, hostility, and very little sincere curiosity.

They tried to explain to me how wrong I was. They told me I was gullible. They insisted I must work for you. One guy asserted I must *be* you. After all, who, other than you, would ever say the things I was saying?

They seemed particularly irked by two things:

First, the markups you charge.

Second, the fact that you are so vocal about the sound quality of modern pressings.

Regarding the first, what seems to particularly bother some people is that you used to go into used record shops in the LA area, pay the price they were asking for a record, and then for some of those records, you would come to the conclusion that based on its sound it was worth a lot more than they charged you for it.

Tom, they are still upset that you did this. Anybody could have done it. To this day, anybody could still do it. Nobody else is doing it.

People may resent you for now selling for $1000 a record that went for $2.98 40 years ago, but that’s simply how markets operate. I watched an old jazz record sell for $7000 on ebay last week, without a single comment on how it actually sounds.

Regarding the second source of ire, apparently you changed your mind about how some records sound, and you were willing to be very vocal about how you thought they sounded, even if those records were made by good friends of yours.

I get it that a lot of people who found themselves in your situation would have just kept their mouth shut about it, but this was all 20 years ago, and here we are today, and I’ve got a fantastic-sounding shelf of records and a great stereo to play them on, all because I decided to see if I could trust your advice.

ab_ba

ab_ba,

Thanks for writing.

I’m surprised you haven’t been excommunicated by now.

What you are doing, in the eyes of the members of the forum, is spreading a false gospel. They used to burn people like you at the stake. Now the powers that be just delete the threads the troublemakers start. Saves firewood.

You are an apostate. Nothing you say can change the fact that you don’t believe what other members of the Hoffman forum believe. Trying to convince them that there is a better way is a fool’s errand. All you end up doing is making enemies.

Welcome to my world. Everything we do and say irks the people who don’t buy records from us.

Those who actually buy records from us seem fairly pleased, if I do say so myself. They take the time to write us lots of nice letters for one thing.

To be fair, if someone were to post a comment on my blog along the lines that “everybody knows that digital is far superior to the outdated 75-year-old technology of the vinyl LP,” I would not feel the need to reply to it. I would simply delete it. Some folks can’t be saved. (The truth is they will never save themselves because it takes twenty years and many tens of thousands of dollars to build a good system, and for 99% of all the music lovers in the world, that is a journey they are not prepared to take.)

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