Hot Stamper Pressings of TAS List Super Disc Albums
The typical pressing of this record doesn’t even hint at how magical the album can sound. If your copy isn’t exceptionally full-bodied, rich, and sweet, you can bet that it will sound edgy and irritating with the extensive amount of listening required to appreciate and enjoy this music.
There’s a reason this record was on the TAS list [not sure when it was removed, maybe ten years ago] but you’d never know it by playing the average Warner Brothers pressing. Most copies of this record just sound like an old record. You would never even know how magical this recording is by playing a copy that, for all intents and purposes, appears to be the pressing Harry Pearson was recommending on his Super Disc list.
The catalog number is the same, the sound is not. Unless you have at least a half-dozen copies of this record, you have little chance of finding even one exceptional side.
This has always been the problem with the TAS list.
The pressing variations on a record like this are HUGE and DRAMATIC. There is a world of difference between the best copies and what the typical audiophile owns based on HP’s list. I’ve been complaining for years that the catalog number that Harry supplies has very little benefit to the typical audiophile record lover.
Without at least the right stampers, the amount of work required to find a copy that deserves a Super Disc ranking is daunting, requiring the kind of time and effort that few audiophiles could ever devote to such a difficult and frustrating project.
As is sometimes the case, there is one and only one set of stampers that consistently wins our shootouts for this album. Click on this link to see other titles with one set of stamper numbers that always come out on top.
Further Reading