Blue Note Pressings with Hot Stampers Available Now
The three copies we had in our recent shootout for Maiden Voyage on the 70s Black B label did poorly.
Like a lot of the records we play when they weren’t mastered properly, they were small, smeary and weak. Considering how bad they sounded, it’s possible — accent on the word possible — that someone remastering the album for a modern audience could do a better job than Blue Note was doing in the late-70s.
This, of course, is not our standard, nor should it be anyone else’s.
Below you will find links to other records with the same problems as this Blue Note reissue.
- These are some of the pressings we’ve played that tended to be small sounding
- These are some of the pressings we’ve played that tended to have smeary sound
- These are some of the pressings we’ve played that tended to have weak sound
Our Pledge of Service to You, the Discriminating Audiophile
We play mediocre-to-bad sounding pressings so that you don’t have to, a free service from your record-loving friends at Better Records.
You can find this one in our hall of shame, along with others that — in our opinion — are best avoided by audiophiles looking for hi-fidelity sound.
We also have an audiophile record hall of shame for records that were marketed to audiophiles with claims of superior sound. If you’ve spent much time on this blog, you know that these records are some of the worst sounding pressings we have ever had the misfortune to play.
We routinely put them in our Hot Stamper shootouts, head to head with the vintage records we offer. We are often more than a little surprised at just how bad an “audiophile record” can sound and still be considered an “audiophile record.”
If you own any of these so-called audiophile pressings, let us send you one of our Hot Stamper LPs so that you can hear it for yourself in your own home, on your own system. Every one of our records is guaranteed to be the best sounding copy of the album you have ever heard or you get your money back.
Further Reading
- More jazz albums we think we know well
- Is it a good idea to judge records by their labels?
- More stamper and pressing information (you’re welcome!)
The Black B label we refer to above is similar to this one.