Author: niu1970

The Poll Winners – Exploring the Scene

More Contemporary Label Jazz Recordings

  • Exploring the Scene makes its Hot Stamper debut on this early Black Label Contemporary pressing with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound from first note to last
  • Tubier, more transparent, and more dynamic than all the other copies we played, with plenty of that “jumpin’ out of the speakers” quality that only The Real Thing ever has
  • As a matter of fact, no other copy in our shootout earned a 3+ grade on either side
  • The right reissues can be very good sounding, but they don’t stand a chance in a shootout with the best early pressings
  • Roy DuNann always seems to get phenomenally good sound in the sessions he records – amazingly realistic drums in a big room; Tubey Magical guitar tone; deep, note-like string bass, and on and on
  • 4 stars: “The trio performs creative versions of such songs as ‘Little Susie,’ ‘So What,’ ‘Doodlin’,’ ‘This Here,’ and Ornette Coleman’s ‘The Blessing.'”

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Henry Mancini – Music from “Mr. Lucky”

More Living Stereo Recordings

  • Music from “Mr. Lucky” appears on the site for only the second time ever, here with excellent Double Plus (A++) Living Stereo sound or BETTER throughout this original RCA pressing
  • This copy is super spacious, sweet and positively dripping with ambience — talk about Tubey Magic, the liquidity of the sound here is positively uncanny
  • If you’re looking to demonstrate just how good 1960 All Tube Analog sound can be, this superb copy may be just the record for you
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these early pressings – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you

Al Schmitt

Al Schmitt recorded and mixed Music from Mr. Lucky and on the best copies it should be clear to all that he knocked it out of the park.

We know his work well; he happens to have been at the controls for many albums with audiophile quality sound: Aja, Hatari, Breezin’, Late for the Sky, Toto IV, as well as some we can’t stand (the entire Diana Krall digital-echo-drenched catalog comes to mind).

The guy’s won 13 Grammy Awards, that ought to count for something.

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Grant Green – Am I Blue

More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Guitar

  • Green’s 1964 release, here with solid Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides of this vintage Blue Note pressing
  • Only one copy had better sound than this one — our shootout winner — and the sad fact of the matter is that no other copy earned a 2+ grade on either side other than this one — a tough shootout, and one we are unlikely to do again soon
  • Feel free to explore whatever reissues might suit your fancy, but one pressing you should probably steer clear of is anything on the Music Matters label — they really made a mess of Grant’s Green Street album, so unless you have return privileges, you are asking for trouble buying any of their records
  • A copy like this is a real audiophile treat – here are the punchy, clear, natural and lively sonics you want for Am I Blue
  • Rudy Van Gelder was masterful at this kind of spacious, low-distortion, dynamic, energetic sound

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Stravinsky – Les Noces / Symphony Of Psalms / Ansermet

More of the Music of Igor Stravinsky

  • Stravinsky’s Les Noces / Symphony of Psalms appears on the site for only the second time ever, here with bold, dynamic, and Tubey Magical Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound throughout this early London pressing – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • These sides are doing practically everything right – they’re rich, clear, undistorted, open, spacious, and have depth and transparency to rival the best recordings you may have heard
  • The sonics here have the power to transport you completely, with solid imaging and a real sense of space, qualities that allow us to forget we are in our listening rooms and not in a concert hall

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Simply Red / Stars

More of the Music of Simply Red

  • Here is an original import pressing of the band’s fourth studio album (only the second copy to ever hit the site) with solid Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER on both sides – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Richer, warmer, more natural, more relaxed – this is what vintage analog is all about, that smooth sound that never calls attention to itself and just lets the music flow
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…Stars is Simply Red’s best album since their debut. It’s smoother and more polished than their previous work, yet Mick Hucknall is singing better than ever…”

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Quiet Kenny Was Quite the Shootout

Hot Stamper Pressings of Recordings by Rudy Van Gelder Available Now

We had 12 copies to play in our recent shootout, all OJCs from different eras — 1986, 2009 and 2020, so if you want to do your own shootout for this wonderful title, you definitely have your work cut out for you.

And may I point out that only one copy earned 3/3 grades, with the next best copy 2/3, and one at 2.5/2.5.

Our Shootout Winning pressing was tubier, more transparent, more dynamic, and had more of that “jumpin’ out of the speakers” quality.

4 1/2 stars: “Cool and understated might be better watchwords for what the ultra-melodic Dorham achieves on this undeniably well crafted set of standards and originals that is close to containing his best work overall during a far too brief career.”

The boxes you see below are copied from the stamper sheet we compiled for the second of the two shootouts we did in 2025.

To the left of the top box would be the stampers for the shootout winner. The box you see has the same stampers and the grades that two other copies earned.

These are the stampers with the potential to win shootouts. That’s why you can’t see them.

The next box down has the stampers for a copy that was Nearly White Hot (2.5+/2.5+).

Note that other copies with those same stampers did poorly, 1+/1.5+. Such records do not have even minimally Hot Stamper grades. We end up selling them on Discogs and such places.

The group at the bottom included a couple of copies that earned Super Hot grades (2+/2+), but only one of the other also-rans would qualify as a Hot Stamper, the 1.5+/1.5+ copy. There were two others didn’t cut it.

None of these were cheap to buy, and out of 12 pressings, five were a bust.

This is the second time we’ve done this shootout. The first involved 8 copies.

That’s a total of 20 records that we had to buy, clean and play.

After the first shootout we felt we still needed to do more research and development, which is why we got hold of another dozen pressings and went at it again, with somewhat different results. (Seems were right about needing more R&D.)

The pressings you see in the box at the bottom of the sheet are clearly not worth our trouble. They cost just as much as the others, but wth grades like the ones you see, we probably would not break even on them once our labor costs are factored in.

But we love the album and learned a lot, so, all things considered, it was worth it. Now we have a much better idea of what is going on with Quiet Kenny.

You can read here about the pressing The Electric Recording Company produced of the album, along with one that Analogue Productions put out. (The short version of our review: Neither one is worth your time, although one is ridiculously bad and the other, while not terrible, is a mid-fi mediocrity.)

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Stanley Turrentine – The Sugar Man

More of the Music of Stanley Turrentine

  • The Sugar Man appears on the site for only the second time ever, here with a STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side two mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side one
  • Rudy Van Gelder really knocked this one out of the park – the sound here is solid, punchy and present, just the way we like it
  • If you prefer a recessed, vague, washed-out presentation, may we recommend you find whatever Heavy Vinyl reissue pressing is currently available – it will surely be more to your taste than this one
  • Thanks to RVG and Creed Taylor, this is some very well recorded funky Jazz Fusion that we enjoyed the hell out of in our shootout
  • “…Turrentine’s playing is excellent, and the overall results certainly top most of the tenor’s upcoming Fantasy releases.”

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