Reissue=Best

In our experience, the records linked here potentially sound their best on the right reissue.

What the “right” reissue is — from which era, from which country, with which stampers — is something I have spent most of my adult life trying to figure out. Now that I have retired, our staff of ten is carrying on that work and constantly discovering new and better pressings.

Sometimes the new and better pressings turn out not to be the reissues we used to like, and when that happens we learn from our mistake, admit we were wrong and offer our customers something even better sounding than before.

We call them Hot Stampers, and we make them available to the serious audiophile who appreciates — and is willing to pay a premium price for — the best sounding vinyl in the world.

Naturally, they are almost exclusively pressed on vintage vinyl, since modern remasterings, in our experience, consistently fail to provide the higher sound quality they promise.

Thelonious Monk / Monk’s Blues

More Thelonious Monk

  • Seriously good Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER brings Monk’s 1969 release to life on this vintage Stereo 360 pressing – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Both of these sides are rich, full and open throughout, with excellent transparency and real weight to the piano
  • This is not your typical Monk album – here he joins a big band, conducted by the great Oliver Nelson
  • It’s an interesting collaboration that may not succeed in every way, but it’s certainly a fun listen and even more so when you have an outstanding copy like this one
  • Marks 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

I wish more Blue Note records had this kind of sound — natural, full-bodied, and sweet up top. The bass here is well-defined with real weight and lots of punch. Monk’s piano sounds correct from the highest notes all the way down to the lower register, and Charlie Rouse‘s sax sounds just right — totally free of the “RVG squawk” we often hear on some Blue Notes. The clarity and transparency are superb throughout.

(more…)

The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band

More of the Music of The Beatles

  • Huge, spacious and detailed, with the Tubey Magic of a fresh tape, this is the way to hear Sgt. Pepper in all its analog glory, not remixed and not remastered
  • Most pressings – especially the new ones – have nothing approaching the Tubey Magic, space and energy of this LP
  • A Better Records Top 100 title – “It’s possible to argue that there are better Beatles albums, yet no album is as historically important as this.”
  • It’s hard to conceive of any list of the best rock and pop albums of 1967 that would not have this record on it, and there is a very good chance it would be perched right at the top of that list
  • Quite a few customers have written us letters telling us how much they enjoyed the Hot Stamper pressing of Sgt. Pepper we sent them

The sound here is so big and rich, so clear and transparent, that we would be very surprised, shocked even, if you’ve ever imagined that any pressing of Sgt. Pepper could sound this powerful and REAL. (more…)

Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd – Jazz Samba

More Stan Getz

More Charlie Byrd

  • An outstanding copy of Jazz Samba (only the second to hit the site in over four years) with Double Plus (A++) sound from first note to last – fairly (and unusually) quiet vinyl too
  • Remarkably spacious and three-dimensional, as well as relaxed and full-bodied – this pressing was a solid step up over most of the other pressings we played in our recent shootout
  • No other copy outside of our Shootout Winner 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)
  • Problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs, but once you hear how excellent sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting stitches and just be swept away by the music
  • If you can find a quiet copy of this album with top quality sound more than once every five years, congratulations, because we sure can’t
  • 5 stars: “[Jazz Samba] was the true beginning of the Bossa Nova craze, and introduced several standards of the genre… But above all, Jazz Samba stands on its own artistic merit as a shimmering, graceful collection that’s as subtly advanced – in harmony and rhythm – as it is beautiful.

(more…)

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Self-Titled

More Creedence Clearwater Revival

  • With excellent Double Plus (A++) grades from top to bottom, this copy of the band’s debut album will be very hard to beat
  • These sides are amazingly low-distortion, solid, dynamic, with the neutral tonality completely missing from the vast majority of reissues
  • Featuring classics such as “I Put a Spell on You,” the extended-length jam “Susie Q” (8:34, perfect for Underground Radio), “The Working Man,” “Porterville,” and more
  • 4 stars: “CCR’s self-titled debut album was gloriously out-of-step with the times, teeming with John Fogerty’s Americana fascinations. … the band’s sound is vibrant, with gutsy arrangements that borrow equally from Sun, Stax, and the swamp.”

It’s unlikely you will be demonstrating your system with this record, but you may find yourself enjoying the hell out of it for what it is — an early example of Roots Rock that still holds up today.

This is an album that’s nearly impossible to find with excellent sound and clean surfaces. This is one of the best copies we’ve managed to come across. (more…)

Billie Holiday – Lady In Satin

More Pop and Jazz Vocal Albums

  • A vintage Columbia Red Label pressing (one of only a handful of copies to hit the site in fourteen months) with solid Double Plus (A++) grades from top to bottom
  • Dramatically richer, fuller and more Tubey Magical than most other copies we played, with breathy vocals and rosiny, fairly smooth strings
  • There may be amazingly good sounding original pressings, but we’ve never run into one and we have our doubts about the existence of such a magical LP – where could they all be hiding?
  • “I’m a Fool to Want You” on this very copy may just send chills racing up and down your spine
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Lady Day herself said that this session was her personal favorite.”
  • Reviews and commentaries for some of the amazing music recorded in the 30th Street Studios
  • If you’re a fan of Lady Day, this Columbia recording from 1958 surely belongs in your collection.
  • The complete list of titles from 1958 that we’ve reviewed to date can be found here.

On the better copies both the sound and music are absolutely breathtaking. They reproduce clearly what, to our minds, are the three most important elements in the recording — strings, rhythm, and vocal — and, more importantly, the are reproduced properly balanced with one another.

The monos, as you might expect, balance the three elements well enough, but the problem with mono is that the vocals and instruments are jammed together in the center of the soundfield, layered atop one another. Real clarity, the kind that live music has in abundance, is difficult if not impossible under the circumstances. Only the stereo pressings provide the space that each of the elements need in order to be heard.

Naturally, the vocals have to be the main focus on a Billie Holiday record. They should be rich and tubey, yet clear, breathy and transparent. To qualify as a Hot Stamper, the pressings we offer must be highly resolving. You will hear everything, surrounded by the natural space of the legendary Columbia 30th Street Studio in which the recording was made.

(more…)

Mendelssohn / Symphony No. 3 / Maag

More of the music of Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

More music conducted by Peter Maag

  • With two seriously good Double Plus (A++) sides, you’ll have a hard time finding a copy of Mendelssohn’s famed concert overture and orchestral symphony that sounds remotely as good as this vintage Ace of Diamonds pressing
  • A truly superb recording with huge, spacious, dynamic, lively sound – Tubey Magical richness is a big plus too
  • There is a rosiny texture to the strings that no record made in the last 30 years can capture, and if you don’t believe me, we offer this pressing as proof
  • When you hear how good this record sounds, you may have a hard time believing that it’s a budget reissue from the 60s, but that’s precisely what it is
  • Even more extraordinary, the right copies are the ones that win shootouts
  • This is one of our favorite performances with top quality sound

Audiophiles have known of this record’s sublime sonic qualities for decades. As our stereos get better, so do amazingly powerful recordings such as this one.

Both sides of this record have that classic Decca rich, sweet sound. It’s not for everybody, it’s probably not the sound one would hear in a concert hall, but we love it and so do many audiophiles.

The performance here by Peter Maag and London Symphony Orchestra is legendary and definitive. The sound is perfectly suited for this music, with massed strings to die for. This is classic Tubey Magical Decca orchestral sound.

If you want immediacy, buy a Mercury. If you want luscious, rich string tone, this vintage Ace of Diamonds reissue should be right up your alley. This is a sweetheart of a record, full of the Tubey Magic for which Decca recordings are justly famous.

(more…)

What We’ve Learned About Peer Gynt Over the Last 20 Years

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Edvard Grieg Available Now

The commentary reproduced down below is from 2005. It is unlikely that the pressing we liked at the time, a Stereo Treasury LP of the famous Fjeldstad performance, would come anywhere close to winning a shootout these days. We simply don’t buy them anymore. We stick to the pressings that have done well for us over the last twenty years in shootout after shootout.

Peer Gynt is a Masterpiece that deserves a place at the heart of any classical collection of the greatest recordings of all time.

If you want to improve the quality of pressings in your collection, by far the best way to go about it is to start doing your own shootouts. A great deal of this blog is dedicated to helping you learn how to do that.

Oddly enough, there actually are budget reissues that win shootouts. They just happen to be Ace of Diamonds pressings and not Stereo Treasurys. (You can see a picture of the pressing we like at the bottom of this post.)

The Wonderful Peer Gynt

Our favorite recording of Peer Gynt is the one by Otto Gruner-hegge and the Oslo Philharmonic from 1959.

The only other reading of the work with top quality sonics is the one that won our proto-shootout twenty years ago, the one with Fjeldstad and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Speaking of budget reissues, we are on record as having been fans of a great many budget classical LPs stretching back decades. My catalogs from the 90s were full of reissues with exceptionally good sound.

Doing things as we do them now, by following rigorous testing protocols, has made it possible for us to discover some budget pressings that are so well-mastered they have the potential — accent on the word potential — to win shootouts.

(more…)

Roxy Music – For Your Pleasure

More Roxy Music 

More Brian Eno

  • With two INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sides, we guarantee you’ve never heard For Your Pleasure sound this good
  • Roxy and their engineers and producers manage to capture a deliciously Tubey Magical keyboard sound on their first two albums that few bands in the history of the world can lay claim to
  • It took us a long time to figure what pressings had the sound we were looking for, more than a decade, bit it was worth the wait because For Your Pleasure now sounds the way you want it to sound – big and bold
  • There are some bad marks (as is sometimes the nature of the beast with these Classic Rock records) on “Grey Lagoons,” but once you hear just how amazing sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting ticks and pops and just be swept away by the music
  • 5 stars: “… another extraordinary record from Roxy Music, one that demonstrates even more clearly than the debut how avant-garde ideas can flourish in a pop setting.”
  • If you’re a Roxy fan, For Your Pleasure has to be considered a Must Own Title of theirs from 1973

Spacious, dynamic, present, with HUGE MEATY BASS and tons of energy, the sound is every bit as good as the music. (At least on this copy it is. That’s precisely what Hot Stampers are all about.)

Strictly in terms of recording quality, For Your Pleasure is on the same plane as the other best sounding record the band ever made, their self-titled debut.

Siren, Avalon and Country Life are all musically sublime, but the first album and this one are the only two with the kind of dynamic, energetic, powerful sound that Roxy’s other records simply cannot show us (with the exception of Country Life, was is powerful but a bit too aggressive).

The super-tubey keyboards that anchor practically every song on the first two albums are only found there. If you want to know what Tubey Magic sounds like in 1972-73, play one of our better Hot Stamper Roxy albums.

Roxy and their engineers and producers manage to capture a keyboard sound on their first two albums that few bands in the history of the world can lay claim to. I love the band’s later albums, but none of them sound like these two. The closest one can get is Stranded, their third, but it’s still a bit of a step down. (more…)

The Beatles – Let It Be

More of the Music of The Beatles

  • This vintage UK pressing boasts INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on both sides – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “big and punchy and breathy”…”sweet and spacious”…”jumping out of the speakers”…”weighty and rich and 3D”…”very full vox”
  • There’s no studio wizardry, no heavy-handed mastering, no phony EQ – here is the most realistic, natural Beatles sound you can get outside of the first album
  • Copies like this one make good on the promise that Let It Be captures the greatest rock band of all time playing and singing their hearts out
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The album is on the whole underrated… it’s an album well worth having, as when the Beatles were in top form here, they were as good as ever.”

At its best, Let It Be has the power of live music, but it takes a special pressing such as this one to show you that sound. It’s a bit trickier trying to find good sound for this album than it is for some of the other albums in the Beatles’ catalog.

(more…)

Jimi Hendrix – Are You Experienced

More Jimi Hendrix

  • This UK Polydor import pressing will blow you away with INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on both sides – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “huge and fat and tubey”…”super present and 3D”…”so full and big and weighty”…”great energy”…”HTF [hard to fault]” (side one)…”vox present and breathy”…”rich and lively”
  • The sound is dramatically bigger, cleaner, livelier, richer, tubier, more present and more energetic than you’ll hear on any other copy, or your money back
  • Stunning sound for “Purple Haze,” “Hey Joe,” “The Wind Cries Mary,” “Fire,” “Foxy Lady” and every other song on his brilliant debut
  • No matter what version you’ve been playing, we guarantee you’ll be blown away by the Master Tape Sound found on this import and only this import
  • 5 stars: “One of the most stunning debuts in rock history, and one of the definitive albums of the psychedelic era.”

It is no easy task trying to find good copies of this album (or any Hendrix album, really). This one is absolutely killer. The bottom end is big and weighty, the top is open and transparent, and there’s plenty of rich, full tubey magic. Good luck finding this kind of sound for Are You Experienced on your own — it took us DECADES! (more…)