Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Linda Ronstadt Available Now
Big, rich, smooth, and sweet, how did George Massenburg pull off this kind of analog sound in 1987?
We don’t know, but we do know good sound when we hear it, and we heard remarkably good sound on this copy.
The first track on side one was big and rich, with vocals that were breathy and present, just the way we like ’em.
The third track was every bit as good, with sound that was rich and weighty. The vocals wer so present and open, sweet and silky. This is exactly what you want on this album.
And the way we know that is we played a bunch of copies and nothing could beat it. This side one took top honors for having sound we described above.
Side two is another matter. We came across a side two that was slightly better than the side one you see here.
How did that kind of thing happen, you ask?
Well, when we played the two best copies back to back, side one of this copy came out on top, earning a grade of 3+, but the side two of another pressing showed us there was even more space in the recording than we noticed the first time around.
We knew side two was “at least 2+,” the crossed-out text you see in the notes.
With another copy earning a better grade, 3 pluses, we felt the right grade for this side two was 2.5+.
This is why we do shootouts. If you really want to be able to recognize subtle (and sometimes not so subtle!) differences between pressings, you must learn to do them too.
And make sure to take notes about what you are hearing, good and bad.
One side falling short of the full Three Pluses happens all the time.
One out of five records that has one shootout winning side will have a matching shootout-winning other side.
The math works like this. 3+/3+ records go in this section, which currently holds 28 titles as of 3/2025. Records with at least one 3+ side go in this section, and there are 146 of those as of the same date, more than five times as many.
The Sound of Trio
With three brilliant and accomplished singers harmonizing in the studio you can imagine that faultless midrange tonality is key to the best copies, and you would be right.
And what richness! How did so much Tubey Magic get recorded onto a tape produced in the dark ages of 1987? I can’t think of another recording from the period that sounds this good.
A big fat solid snare, full-bodied yet breathy vocals, huge amounts of space around the musicians, a wide and deep stage, dead-on tonality from top to bottom — once we got into our shootout, these unexpected sonic qualities took us completely by surprise.
As a point of comparison, I am not aware of any Emmylou Harris album that is as well recorded as Trio.
As for Linda, only her best 70s recordings are this rich and natural.
Can’t say much about Dolly’s albums as we have never done a shootout for one, not that we wouldn’t like to.
Hey, want to find your own top quality copy?
Consider taking our moderately helpful advice concerning the pressings that consistently win our shootouts.
This record has been sounding its best for many years, in shootout after shootout, this way:
Further Reading