Month: June 2025

Dave Brubeck Quartet – Time Further Out 6-Eye in Stereo

More of the Music of Dave Brubeck

  • Outstanding sound throughout this vintage Stereo 6-Eye pressing, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades
  • It’s bigger, richer, more Tubey Magical, and has more extension on both ends of the spectrum than most other copies we played
  • This copy demonstrates the big-as-life Fred Plaut Columbia sound at its best – better even than Time Out(!)
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The selections, which range in time signatures from 5/4 to 9/8, are handled with apparent ease (or at least not too much difficulty) by pianist Brubeck, altoist Paul Desmond, bassist Eugene Wright, and drummer Joe Morello on this near-classic.”

Time Further Out is consistently more varied and, dare we say, more musically interesting than Time Out.

If you want to hear big drums in a big room, these Brubeck recordings will show you that sound better than practically any record we know of. These vintage recordings are full-bodied, spacious, three-dimensional, rich, sweet and warm in the best tradition of an All Tube Analog recording.

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The Thrill of Discovering Great Recordings

Hot Stamper Pressings of Percussion Recordings Available Now

Robert Fine was one of the greatest audio engineers who ever lived. He is the man responsible for recording this audiophile gem for Command, as well as much of the Mercury catalog.

Unfortunately, we rarely have any Command records in stock, but we do make an effort to have a good selection of the most amazing sounding Mercury titles available in the form of Hot Stamper pressings.

If you have the system for it, it’s very possible you have never heard most of these instruments sound this real on any other recording. It’s as if you were standing right in the studio with them. Yes, it’s that crazy good.

Let Me Ask You This

Here’s a question no one seems to be asking:

Who is finding incredible Demo Discs like this Command from 1961 nowadays?

Harry Pearson used to.

Sid Marks reviewed plenty back in the day (reviews which I mostly disagreed with, but still, at least he wrote them).

Jim Mitchell (now long-forgotten) wrote about them back in the 80s.

Moon and Gray published a book full of the best sounding Deccas and Londons.

Anybody else?

Are the audiophile reviewers of today picking up the baton that the giants of the past have dropped at their feet?

I see little evidence of it. [1]

Not to worry. Better Records has taken on the job that no one else seems to want to do. For example, here are 200+ records we’ve discovered with (potentially) excellent sound.

And that’s not all. Not only have we set a higher standard for audiophile-quality records with our vintage vinyl Hot Stamper pressings, but we’ve endeavored to provide a great many other benefits to the audiophile community as well.

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The Blasters – Self-Titled

More Roots Rock

  • An original Slash pressing of The Blasters’ sophomore LP (and only the second copy to ever hit the site) with solid Double Plus (A++) sound from start to finish – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • These two sides are bigger and richer than most of what we played, and they also have more vocal presence and hard-rockin’ energy, two qualities that we found to be key to the better sounding pressings
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The Blasters wasn’t the only great album this group would make, but it was certainly their best, catching them when they were still fresh but with just enough seasoning to bring out their best performances; it’s practically impossible to imagine the roots rock scene of the 80s and onward existing without this album as a roadmap.”

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The Clash – Sandinista!

More of The Clash

  • Sandinista! debuts on the site with solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER on all SIX sides of these early UK import pressings
  • Sides one, two and four were sonically very close to our Shootout Winner – you will be shocked at how big and powerful the sound is
  • We shot out a number of other imports and this one had the midrange presence, bass, and dynamics that were missing from most other copies we played
  • If you want to hear this music explode out of the speakers and come to life the way The Clash wanted you to hear it, these records will do the trick
  • Problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
  • “…there are a number of classic Clash songs that rank among the band’s best, including ‘Police on My Back,’ ‘The Call Up,’ ‘Somebody Got Murdered,’ ‘Charlie Don’t Surf,’ ‘Hitsville U.K.,’ and ‘Lightning Strikes (Not Once but Twice)’…” – AllMusic

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The Jam – Sound Affects

More New Wave

  • A Sound Affects like you’ve never heard, with excellent Double Plus (A++) grades throughout this vintage Polydor domestic pressing
  • Yes, you read that right – the early and later imports we played were by far the worst sounding pressings in our shootout
  • Both of these sides have energy and presence that positively jumps out of the speakers, two of the qualities that we prize most highly in our Hot Stampers, and two of things among many that Heavy Vinyl does so poorly
  • 5 stars: “From beginning to end, the songs are pure, clever, infectious pop – probably their catchiest – with ‘That’s Entertainment’ and the should-have-been-a-single ‘Man in the Corner Shop’ standing out.

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We Was Wrong About The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour (Circa 1985-90)

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

This is a very old and somewhat embarrassing commentary about how ridiculously wrong we were about which are the best sounding German pressings of the Magical Mystery Tour.

Today we would never consider selling a record that sounds as phony as this version of the album does, but we did back in the 90s and probably as late as the 2000s.

Bad sounding records I once liked are common enough on the blog to have their own category, with 76 entries to date. If we had the time to make listings for them, there would surely be hundreds of others. If you’ve been in the audio game for as long as we have, you should have plenty of records that fit that bill. All those old records sitting on the shelves that you haven’t played in years might not sound they way you remember them, but the only way to know that is to pull them out and play them. If you’ve been making regular audio progress, most of them should sound better than ever, but there have to be plenty that won’t. You just don’t know which are which as long as they sit on the shelf.

This German pressing has sound that is dramatically different from that found on other Hot Stamper pressings of MMT we’ve had on the site. I used to be convinced that its sound was clearly superior to the regular German MMT LPs.

Back in the late 80s and into the 90s this was the pressing that I was certain blew them all out of the water.

We know better now. We call this version the “Too Hot” Stamper pressing — the upper mids and top end are much too boosted to be enjoyable on top quality equipment.

It does have some positive qualities though. It has substantially deeper bass than any other version; in fact, it has some of the deepest bass you will ever hear on a pop recording. It can literally rattle the room when Paul goes down deep on Baby You’re A Rich Man.

It also uses a slightly different mix on some tracks and is mastered differently in terms of levels. The level change is most obvious at the beginning of Strawberry Fields, where it starts out very quietly and gets louder after a short while, unlike all other versions which start out pretty much at the same level.

The effect is pleasing, you might even say powerful, but probably not what The Beatles intended, as no other copy I’ve ever heard makes use of the same quiet opening. An unknown mastering engineer made the choice, he created a new sound for the song, probably because he didn’t like all the tape hiss at the opening, during which few instruments were playing loud enough to mask it.

With this mix the record is now more of a Hi-Fi spectacular — great for waking up sleepy stereo systems but not the last word in natural sound.

Records that are boosted on the top and bottom suffer from what we like to call the smile curve. This pressing, as well as lots of records remastered to appeal to audiophiles, have a bad case of it.

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Suzanne Vega – Solitude Standing

More of the Music of Women Who Rock

  • Suzanne Vega’s sophomore LP debuts on the site with INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound throughout this original A&M pressing
  • Both sides are big, rich and sweet with wonderfully breathy vocals, excellent clarity and a plenty of bottom end weight
  • Exceptionally present, real and resolving, this pressing is guaranteed to murder any remastering undertaken by anyone – past, present and future
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The songs on Solitude Standing, Suzanne Vega’s second album, had years listed beside them on the lyric sheet, so you could see that some of them dated back to 1978. But that bold admission heralded the album’s triumph – its diversity was what made it so good.”

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Benny Carter – Swingin’ the ’20s

More of the Music of Benny Carter

  • Boasting seriously good Double Plus (A++) grades from top to bottom, this vintage Contemporary pressing is doing just about everything right
  • These sides are bigger and more open, with more bass and energy, than most others we played – the saxes and trumpets are immediate and lively
  • Mr. Earl Hines himself showed up, a man who knows this music like nobody’s business – Leroy Vinnegar and Shelly Manne round out the quartet
  • “Great musicians produce great results, and most of the LP’s tracks were done in one or two takes. The result is ‘a spontaneous, swinging record of what happened’ when Carter met Hines ‘for the first time. . . .'”

For us audiophiles, both the sound and the music here are enchanting. If you’re looking to demonstrate just how good a 1959 All Tube Analog recording can sound, this killer copy will do the trick. (more…)

How Is It that the Earliest Pressings from the Tube Era Often Lack the Sound of Tubes?

Hot Stamper Pressings of Music on Island Records Available Now

Please note that the album you see pictured on the left is not the one we are discussing here.

It has been our experience going back many years that the earliest pressings for many records on the Island label are not very good.

To be fair, this one — again, not Mr. Fantasy — is not a bad sounding pressing.

With grades of 1.5+ on both sides, it fits comfortably in our section for good, not great sounding LPs. But the right reissues are a big step up in class sonically. They’re the ones that win shootouts, not these Pink Label LPs.

It’s big and clear but dry and spitty and badly needs tubes — or the sound of tubes — in the cutting chain.

That’s not supposed to happen, the early pressings are supposed to be the most Tubey Magical ones, with the reissues being less Tubey Magical — but in the world of records, when has that rule of thumb ever counted for anything?

Been There, Done That

We’ve run into so many sonically-flawed Pink Label Islands by now that hearing one sound lackluster if not actually awful doesn’t phase us in the least. Some of the other Pink Labels that never win shootouts can be found here.

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Mel Torme – My Kind of Music

More Pop and Jazz Vocal Recordings

  • Here is an original Stereo Verve pressing (and only the second copy to ever hit the site) with solid Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER from start to finish
  • Remarkably spacious and three-dimensional, as well as relaxed and full-bodied – the Velvet Fog is right in the room with you on this one
  • The reproduction of Torme’s voice is exactly what you would expect from a Hot Stamper – he sounds rich, smooth, tonally correct and above all real
  • “The mellow arrangements…wrapped Tormé in soft strings, but also allowed for many individual voices, including guitar and trumpet. It’s a style of arranging that perfectly suited Tormé’s growing inclination toward breezy, contemplative adult-pop during the 60s.”

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