UPDATE 2026
In 2018 we put up a killer Hot Stamper pressing of Big Band and Quartet and had a few thoughts about the sound of the best copies we played.
On this record, more than most, the tubes potentially make all the difference.
Keep in mind that we are referring specifically to 1963 tubes, not the stuff that engineers are using today to make so-called “tube-mastered” records.
Today’s modern records barely hint at the Tubey Magical sound of a record like this, if our experience with hundreds of them is any guide. We, unlike so many of the audiophile reviewers of today, have a very hard time taking any of the new pressings seriously. We think our position is pretty clear, and we have yet to hear more than a stray record or two that would make us want to change our minds.
If you’ve ever heard a pressing that sounds as good as this one, you know there hasn’t been a record manufactured in the last forty years that has this kind of sound.
Right, wrong or otherwise, this sound is simply not part of the modern world we live in.
[Well, not quite, but close.]
If you want to be transported back to Philharmonic Hall in New York circa 1963, you will need a record like this to do it.
Further Reading