Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Charles Mingus Available Now
In general it is best to avoid pressings with the round sticker you see to the left, the one attached to the Columbia Special Products bargain reissue series.
They are rarely much better than awful, although there are a few exceptions to that rule. (There are almost always exceptions to the kinds of rules collectors use to find the best sounding records.)
The 6 Eye label domestic stereo pressings of Mingus Dynasty win our shootouts, in this case without exception.
On this title, the 360 label pressings, Black Print or White Print, can sound very good, but they never win shootouts.
We’ve identified a select group of reissues with the potential to do well in shootouts, typically earning a grade of Super Hot (A++) when up against the best originals, which are the only ones that seem to have the potential to earn our top grade, White Hot (A+++).
One of His Best
It’s hard to imagine that any list of the best jazz albums of 1962 would not have Mingus Dynasty on it. The sound is out of this world on the best copies.
We should know, we’ve played plenty of them over the years.
Like many of the recordings made by Columbia at their famed studio on 30th street, the pressings with the right labels and the right stampers, in stereo, can be — can being the operative word — jazz Demo Discs of the highest order.
If there exists any Heavy Vinyl pressing with sound of such quality, we have yet to hear it.
If you are a very serious audiophile who has a great deal of time and money tied up in his equipment and room, someone whose motto might best be summarized as “nothing but the best,” then you should seriously consider one of our amazing sounding Hot Stamper pressings of the album.
Want to find your own killer copy?
Consider taking our moderately helpful advice concerning the pressings that tend to win our shootouts.
As of 2024, shootouts for this album should be carried out:
How else can you expect to hear this record sound as amazing as we heard it?
Based on our experience, Mingus Dynasty sounds better:
Further Reading