Month: May 2025

John Lee Hooker – The Healer

More Electric Blues

  • Here is a vintage copy with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it throughout
  • On the best pressings like this one, you get something approaching the warmth and unforced clarity of analog we audiophiles crave
  • With Santana, Bonnie Raitt, Los Lobos, Canned Heat and others
  • Four Stars in Rolling Stone: “Brilliant, 100-proof blues… the spirit that animates this album is the ageless voice of John Lee Hooker and his boogie-man blues. He has conjured up a renewed world blues with the canniness of the hoodoo healers and root doctors who first gave birth to the Delta blues.”

These guys (and one gal!) are definitely LIVE in the studio. The amount of studio reverb may be a bit much for some, but we think it works for this music. (more…)

The Scientific Method in a Nutshell, Courtesy of Richard Feynman

An Experimental Approach to Finding Better Records Is the Only One that Can Work

Experimenting with records is the best way to learn about them. Hot Stamper shootouts are simply the name we came up with for the rigorous blinded experiments we do in order to find the best sounding pressings of the albums we play.

If you haven’t run an actual experiment under controlled conditions, you may have an opinion about the sound of a given record, you may even have experts who agree with you about that record, but what you don’t have is evidence to back up anything you or anybody else says.

It’s possible that when carrying out your experiments you may have allowed yourself to be fooled, or maybe you failed in some other way to run a proper shootout,

The audio world is drowning in pretentious knowledge, the kind that has no hard-won experimental evidence to support it.

We here at Better Records do things differently. We run experiments that tell us not which pressings should sound the best, but which ones do sound the best.

Our experimental results regularly disagree with whatever it is that the conventional wisdom of the audiophile community might have predicted.

As Richard Feynman points out below, that makes us right and them wrong, at least provisionally.

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Out of Two Jazz Samba Originals, Only One Had Even One Good Side

Hot Stamper Pressings of Bossa Nova Albums Available Now

Recently we did a shootout for one of our favorite Bossa Nova albums and had this to say about it:

As you can see from the notes, both sides of our most recent White Hot shootout winning copy were doing everything right.

This is by far the best copy of the album we have ever played — we had no idea a copy could possibly sound this good and be pressed on vinyl this quiet.

Remarkably spacious and three-dimensional, as well as relaxed and full-bodied – this pressing was a big step up over all of the other pressings we played in our recent shootout.

No other copy earned a better grade than 2+ on either side, and some of the originals were godawful (watch for the “wrong” stampers coming to the blog soon).

Here are the wrong stampers we aluded to above, the originals with these markings:

As you can see from the notes, these original stereo pressings can be lo-fidelity, crude and midrangey.

This serves to make a very important point that is near and dear to our hearts:

The idea (and operational premise of most record collectors) that the originals are always better is just a load of bunk.

They might be and then again they might not be. If you want better sounding records, you had better open your mind to the idea that some reissues have the potential to sound better than even the best original pressings.

These, for starters, and there are hundreds more on the blog you can read about here.

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Better Sounding Records Are the Only Surefire Cure for Audiophile Burnout

Robert wrote a piece which I rather liked with the heading:

The Cure for Audiophile Burnout, Upgrade-itis and Other Audiophile Ailments

Phil, one of my newer customers, responded to his post with these comments, which Phil has graciously allowed me to repost here:

Hi, Robert, thanks for the post. I recall reading that post on Audiogon too, and I felt at the time I should respond with what I’ve been learning of late from you and Tom Port: Better Records are what count, (pun intended). I know, I’ve purchased a few Hot Stampers from BR, and damn!!! I’m excited!

Those few Hot Stampers are now guiding the rebuilding of my whole system.

I’ve stopped buying reissues, remasters or original pressings just because “they’re supposed to be good.”

And, I’ve begun listening. And I’m buying more than one copy of the same title to learn how to listen, for differences in the stampings, where I can. Granted, not thorough shootouts by a longshot, I’m not deep-pocketed enough for that, but now I understand what you guys have been working at for so long, trying to get it through our thick skulls out here in the audiophile community why it’s important not to blow money just grabbing a single album for the title/mastering house/engineer, etc, and think it’s done.

If I’m understanding you guys, it’s about the listening.

And getting the stereo in shape to get all the music out of these best albums.

So, I’m starting the path. I’m devouring Tom and your posts to follow as best I can.

And you’re absolutely right, since beginning this journey (and oh how I wish I’d started so much earlier), I’ve been excited about this hobby, more so than anything I’ve ever done for personal growth, health, adventure.

Thanks Robert. Thanks for all your hard work. It will not go wasted.

Robert replied:

Phillip,
This is all great to hear. To know that even one person out there appreciates what I’m advocating for is hugely rewarding. Thank you for your wonderful feedback!

Adding:

And to answer your question, listening is, of course, essential for growth in this hobby. How can it be otherwise? If we don’t train our ears to hear what is and what is not on these records, there’s no way forward.
Robert

Could not have said it better myself. It is indeed hard to find the way forward when you’re stuck in a Heavy Vinyl or Compact Disc rut. Which direction would forward be anyway?

Fortunately, returning to first principles is the best way to get started when digging yourself out of whatever hole you’ve dug yourself into. I freely admit to being lost in the 90s — this after having been heavily into audio for twenty years — and was fortunate to find my way forward only because I had no other choice. (And being irrationally obsessed with my favorite music helped a lot.)

Phil has started his journey, and because he is dealing with two guys who not only talk the talk but have walked the walk (as our blogs attest), his success is almost assured. If all goes according to plan, he will never suffer the burnout that afflicts the hoardes of credulous audiophiles whose approach to the hobby was doomed from the start, by their lack of skepticism more than anything else. (They should have read Richard Feynman on the subject of the ignorance of experts, ourselves included.)

Phil, thanks again for the kind words and we look forward to finding you even more Better Records to play!

Best, TP

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Lincoln Mayorga – The Missing Linc

More of the Music of Lincoln Mayorga

  • With two STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sides, this Sheffield Direct to Disc recording is certainly as good a copy as we have ever heard
  • Guaranteed to be dramatically richer, fuller and more Tubey Magical than any other copy you have heard, with especially punchy drums and rosiny-textured strings
  • The bass on side one extends all the way into whomp land for that big bass drum at the end of “Limehouse Blues” – what a sound!
  • The top end is key to the better pressings too – lots of string harmonics and bells and other high frequency stuff gets lost on most pressings, but not this one, it’s all there on this pressing
  • The audiophile “Sgt. Pepper” of its day, a record that was so much better than anything else you’d ever heard it made you rethink the possibilities (and they did the same thing with Volume III two years later)
  • If you’re a Sheffield Labs fan, and what audiophile wouldn’t be?, this title from 1972 is clearly one of their best
  • If you’re a fan of big drums in a big room, with jump out of the speakers sound, this is the album for you.

This is definitely not your typical Sheffield pressing. Some of them are aggressive, many of them are dull and lack the spark of live music, some of them have wonky bass or are lacking in the lowest octave — they are prey to every fault that befalls other pressings.

Which shouldn’t be too surprising. Records are records. Pressing variations exist for every album ever made. If you haven’t noticed that yet, start playing multiple copies of the same album while listening carefully and critically.

Just listen to the texture on the saxophone on “Limehouse Blues” — you can really hear the leading edge transients of the brass that are so important to the sound of those instruments. Track after track, the sound gets surprisingly more open and airy. The harpsichord has such great presence it jumps out of the speakers. 

I was selling audio equipment (Audio Research, Fulton speakers) back in the ’70s and this was a favorite demo disc in our store. The bass drum at the end of track two would shake the foundation with a big speaker like the Fulton J.

Every bit as amazing to me was the string quartet on side 2. You could actually hear the musicians breathing and turning the pages on their music stands, just as if you were actually in their “living presence.”

This is one of the albums that made me realize how good audio in the home could really be. In a way this was the Audiophile “Sgt. Pepper” of its day, a record that was so much better than anything else you’d ever heard it made you rethink the possibilities.

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On Barney Kessel’s Easy Like, Stick With the Earlier Contemporary Pressings

Hot Stamper Pressings of Contemporary Jazz Albums Available Now

The Shootout Winning pressing we played in 2024 was yet another killer Barney Kessel recording from the Golden Age of Tube Recording:

Both sides of this vintage Contemporary pressing were giving us the rich, sweet and tubey MONO sound we were looking for, earning INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them

Roy DuNann (at the console on select tracks, with Val Valentin handling engineering duties on the others) always seems to get phenomenally good sound out of the sessions he recorded – amazingly realistic drums in a big room; Tubey Magical guitar tone; deep, note-like string bass, and on and on

For some reason, the guitar sound from this era of All Tube Chain Recording seems to have died out with the times – it can only be found on the best of these vintage pressings, and, as you may imagine, the better the guitar sounds, the more likely it is that the record will win our shootout

If you don’t have an electric guitar jazz record with this kind of off-the-charts Tubey Magical sound, maybe it’s time you got one

You would never know how good the recording was by playing this D14/D9 pressing on the original label.

The sound was hollow and dry with a boosted top end. The 1+ grade awarded to this side two means it’s simply not that good, early label or no early label.

This Is Why

This is why we do shootouts, and why you must do them too, if owning the highest quality pressings is important to you.

Fortunately for readers of this blog, our methods are explained in detail, free of charge.

We’ve also written quite a few commentaries to help audiophiles improve the way they think about records.

I implore everyone who wants to make progress in this hobby to learn from the mistakes we’ve made. There are 146 “we were wrong” listings on the site as of this writing, and we learned something from every damn one of them.

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Sonny Rollins – The Standard Sonny Rollins

More Sonny Rollins

  • The Standard Rollins is back on the site for only the second time in over four years, here with outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound throughout this original stereo pressing
  • Once again the brilliant engineering of Ray Hall for RCA conveys the vitality of live music for these sessions (which were undoubtedly recorded live)
  • Includes superstars like Herbie Hancock, Jim Hall, and Bob Cranshaw, who’ve lent their talents to some of the greatest jazz recordings of all time
  • “Each standard is given a brief performance that basically gives us a solid dose of Rollins waxing rhapsodic, sometimes backed by just bass and drums, with guitar and piano added sparingly. It all adds up to a mighty package that contains small, but ample doses of undiluted Rollins.” – All About Jazz.com

This original stereo RCA pressing from 1965 has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records rarely even BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing signs of coming back. If you love hearing INTO a recording, actually being able to “see” the performers, and feeling as if you are sitting in the studio with Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock, and the band, this is the record for you. It’s what vintage all analog recordings are known for — this sound. (more…)

How Not to Conduct a Proper Shootout for Aqualung

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Jethro Tull Available Now

UPDATE 2023

This commentary was probably written in 2010 or thereabouts, since that’s the date on Fremer’s Aqualung review, which, for those with much more tolerance for audiophile BS than I am able to muster, can be found here. I’ve made a few changes to the commentary below, but most of the original text is intact.

We recently put up a Hot Stamper Aqualung that just BLEW THE DOORS OFF the CLASSIC 200g pressing. Michael Fremer may think the new reissue is the ultimate pressing, but we sure don’t. 

The Aqualung shootout on his site is priceless. He has so many silly things to say about it, let’s not waste any more time and get right to them.

His Shootout Begins

He says he “… compared Classic’s new 200g reissue with: 1) an original UK Chrysalis 2) an original American Chrysalis/Warner Brothers, 3) an original French Pink Label Island, 4) The Mobile Fidelity ½ speed mastered edition and 5) DCC’s 180g issue mastered by the team of Hoffman and Gray.”

How many of each? One, right? (All the articles in front of the nouns are singular. Assuming MF is using good grammar, how many could there be?)

Mikey, that’s your first mistake.

When it comes to the domestic release, one is a wholly inadequate sample size for pressings that were pumped out by the millions and therefore mastered multiple times. Go to Discogs if you want to see just how many different stamper numbers can be found in the original Reprise pressings. Hint: it’s a lot. Some of them are known to us to be awful, some fall into the middle of the pack, and some we like. Figuring out which are which has taken us a lifetime of work and is well beyond the ability of any single person to decode for more than a few dozen records.

Maybe you got hold of a bad sounding “original American Chrysalis/Warner Brothers,” did you ever think of that? The record bins are full of them.

If you did get hold of a bad one — and all the evidence points in that direction — the time and effort you put into your shootout just went flying out the window, defenestrated as they say.

Shootouts using only a small number of pressings have very little value. Anybody who claims to know anything about records ought to know that.

This next line just floors me.

Now rather than make value judgments, let’s just compare without prejudice.

This guy may not be good for much, but he sure is good for a laugh.

Does he really expect us to believe that the comments that follow are not biased in any way, that they are The Truth, that he is able to measure “intimacy and warmth” and tell us precisely how much of each there is on any given pressing? Who in his right mind thinks like that?  (At this rate he may end up wandering about a park with snot running down his nose, greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes, but let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Help is available; perhaps Stereophile has a mental health plan under which he could be covered.)

Soon enough he goes on to give his opinion as to the merits of each of the pressings noted above. I’m sorry, did I say opinion? I meant comparisons without prejudice. Sorry, my bad.

The Big Truth

And of course he is more than welcome to make any and all the comparisons he deems fit, each from that lovely sample size of one. And if he wants to add another sample (size = 1) to the mix by playing the DCC gold CD, he’s welcome to do that too, which he did. I’m guessing that his CD player is every bit as accurate as his front end (comprising turntable/ arm/ cartridge/ phono stage/ cables), which, if he were to ascribe a percentage to the accuracy of all the pieces that make up this chain, would have to be in the range of 100% or thereabouts. Or as the late John McLaughlin might say, on a scale of one to ten: ten, meaning Metaphysically Accurate.

No colorations. No imperfections. Pure Truth, and nothing but.

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Donovan – Wear Your Love Like Heaven

More Donovan

  • An Epic Yellow Label copy of Donovan’s 1967 release with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from start to finish
  • This pressing was a big step up from practically all of what we played – it’s guaranteed to put Donovan right in the room with you
  • We guarantee there is dramatically more space, richness, vocal presence, and performance energy on this copy than others you’ve heard, and that’s especially true if you made the mistake of buying whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing is currently on the market
  • 4 1/2 stars: “… one of the brightest, most pleasant works Donovan ever recorded… Donovan’s voice is better than ever, playful and unassuming…”
  • If you’re a Donovan fan, this vintage pressing from 1967 surely belong in your collection

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Herb Alpert – Herb Alpert’s Ninth

More Sixties Pop

  • A vintage pressing with seriously good Double Plus (A++) sound from first note to last
  • It’s big, lively, clear and present, with the kind of Tubey Magical richness we flip out for here at Better Records
  • You get lovely extension up top, good weight down low, as well as remarkable transparency in the midrange, all qualities that were much less evident on the average copy we played
  • “[Alpert] gives the Supremes’ ‘The Happening’ a bouncy workout. There is also a touching memorial to the late Ervan Coleman (‘Bud’) and another underrated contribution from the Alpert songwriting team, Sol Lake’s swinging ‘Cowboys and Indians.'”

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