These Records Helped Us Dramatically Improve Our Playback

Some of the Most Important Albums We Employed to Tune, Tweak and Improve the Stereo, Room, Table Setup, Electrical Quality and More

The records on this list (limited to rock and pop for the most part at this time) all have one thing in common: I made practical use of them to improve my equipment, room treatments, table setup, electrical quality and anything else that I could think of that might result in higher quality playback.

Were it not for my desire (obsession may be the better word) to get the wonderful music on these albums to improve with each passing year, Hot Stamper pressings would be at most a niche part of my collection. Worse, and a thought some may find too unpleasant to contemplate, Hot Stampers might have then accounted for only a small part of Better Records’ business.

By the mid-2000s when we started down this road for real, the stereo needed to evolve dramatically. It needed to become much more revealing and truthful than any system I had ever heard if we were going to carry out Hot Stamper shootouts all day.

The best of the best Hot Stamper pressings are often like needles in haystacks. No one in his right mind would go to all that trouble for music that was not emotionally powerful enough to be, for all intents and purposes, practically irresistible.

If you have records you can’t wait to play every time you make a change to your equipment, room, setup, etc., you know what I am talking about.

I favor large scale dynamic speakers because they are the only ones that seem capable of reproducing the demanding recordings you see listed below.

There is no question that the artists that made these albums, in concert with remarkably talented producers and engineers, sweated every detail of these exceptional recordings. For the last five decades I (now we) have been doing all we could to get these wonderful records to sound their best.

We know how good they can sound on systems that have what it takes to play them, because these are the records we used to test, tune and tweak the new studio we built.

The more of that kind of work you do — on your system, room and electricity — the more progress you will make in this hobby. With each improvement, these are the very recordings that will sound bigger and bolder than you ever imagined.

They are the most difficult-to-reproduce albums we know of. Difficult records are the ones that will help you make more real, demonstrable progress in this hobby than any others.

Again and again it was meeting the challenge of reproducing recordings such as these that allowed us to get to the next level, and the next one, and the one after that, and they can do the same for you.

The Top Two

By far the two most helpful records for testing over the last two decades were Tea for the Tillerman (going all the way back to 1984) and Bob and Ray Throw a Stereo Spectacular. We wrote about their uniquely valuable contributions to our audio progress in this commentary.

Led Zeppelin II is probably the main record our current listening panel uses to dial-in the 17dx replacement cartridges we mount three or four times a year.

The records below in bold have been especially important for our work. There should be quite a number of commentaries on the blog for each of them.

Also, at the bottom you will notice that some jazz and classical records are being added to the list as time permits.

Rock, Pop, etc.

  • 10cc / The Original Soundtrack
  • 10cc / Deceptive Bends
  • 801 / Live
  • Ambrosia / Self-titled
  • America / Self-titled
  • The Beatles / Please Please Me
  • The Beatles / Rubber Soul
  • The Beatles / Revolver
  • The Beatles / Sgt. Pepper’s
  • The Beatles / Magical Mystery Tour
  • The Beatles / Abbey Road

Vocals

  • Harry Belafonte / Belafonte at Carnegie Hall
  • June Christy / Something Cool
  • Nat “King” Cole’s / Love Is The Thing
  • Ella Fitzgerald / Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie
  • Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong / Ella and Louis
  • The Hi-Lo’s / And All That Jazz
  • Thelma Houston / I’ve Got The Music In Me
  • Helen Humes / Songs I LIke to Sing
  • Julie London / Julie Is Her Name
  • Dean Martin / Dream With Dean
  • Harry Nilsson – A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night
  • Frank Sinatra – September of My Years
  • Frank Sinatra / Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim

Jazz

Classical and Orchestral

More titles coming soon I hope!

Further Reading

We are in the process of making some lists (more lists!) for records we’ve found to be good for testing, tweaking and tuning your system, your room and your table setup, among other things. You may want to check them out.

These are the records that challenged me and helped me to achieve more audio progress. If you want to improve your stereo, these are some of the best records we know of to help you drag your system (no doubt punctuated by some kicking and screaming) to another level.

The pictures below show me hanging out with my friend, the skeptical (which is a good thing if you’re a reporter) Geoff Edgers. If you’ve never seen the video these screen shots are taken from, click here to watch it.

And if you’re jealous of our beautiful listening room, well, why wouldn’t you be? The special audiophile-quality lattice you see is available at any Home Depot. Make sure to buy the design we are using — it’s the one that sounds better than all the other kinds we’ve tried, although your results may vary, and you should probably buy a variety and test them for yourself.

As for our moving blankets, try some that are thicker and some that are thinner to dampen room reflections, especially at the points of first reflection, which occur on the side walls between the speaker and the listener.

Leave a Reply