Alive Rock, Pop, Etc.

These 170+ rock, pop and soul titles can only come to life at loud levels on big speakers. We know because we played them on our big speakers at loud levels and heard them do it.

They cannot be reproduced with much more than minimal fidelity using small drivers, small speakers or screens, and they definitely won’t sound their best unless the volume is up good and high.

Neil Young – Harvest

More of the Music of Neil Young

  • This vintage Reprise pressing was giving us the sound we were looking for on Neil’s undeniable classic, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER
  • It’s practically impossible to find an early pressing with sound this good and vinyl that plays as quietly as this
  • I don’t know how many early pressings (which are the only ones that ever sound any good) we would have to play in order to find one this quiet, but my guess is 15 or 20, and that’s probably a conservative estimate
  • A Top 100 album and a sublime recording no audiophile should be without
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…the love songs and the harrowing portrait of a friend’s descent into heroin addiction, ‘The Needle and the Damage Done,’ remain among Young’s most affecting and memorable songs.”
  • If you’re a Neil Young fan, and what audiophile wouldn’t be?, this title from 1972 is clearly a Must Own
  • Harvest is one of the titles that helped us dramatically improve our playback over the course of many years

When you have this kind of open, extended top end, the grit, grain and edge just disappear, leaving you with a clear, Tubey Magical sound that’s way beyond anything you have ever heard for Harvest (or we will happily give you your money back).

Tubey Magical acoustic guitar reproduction is superb on the better copies of this recording. Simply phenomenal amounts of Tubey Magic can be heard on every strum, along with richness, body and harmonic coherency that have all but disappeared from modern recordings (and especially from modern remasterings).

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Jimi Hendrix – Electric Ladyland

More of the Music of Jimi Hendrix

  • An Electric Ladyland like you’ve never heard, with solid Double Plus (A++) sound on all FOUR sides of this UK import copy – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Forget the Track originals – they can’t hold a candle to the Hot Stamper reissues like the one we are offering here
  • Big, clear, tubey, sweet analog sound – we played it good and loud and it was rockin’!
  • Probably the best-recorded of Hendrix’s studio albums – huge studio space and the Tubey Magical richness of analog are key to the best sound
  • 5 stars: “…not only one of the best rock albums of the era, but also Hendrix’s original musical vision at its absolute apex.”
  • If you’re a fan of Jimi and his band, this UK import of his 1968 classic belongs in your collection.
  • If I were to make a list of the best Rock and Pop albums from 1968, this album would definitely be on it.

Some of Jimi’s best songs can be found here, including “Crosstown Traffic,” “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” and his incendiary cover of Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower.” All four sides have truly killer sound, big and full-bodied with a MUCH better low end than you’ll find on most. You get enough energy and weight to make the rock songs really ROCK, and enough clarity and transparency to bring out the more spacey, psychedelic elements that Jimi and Eddie Kramer worked so hard on.

Ready to go on a trip? You’ve come to the right place. While the sound is not Demo Quality on every track, the acid-drenched soundscapes created by Jimi and producer Eddie Kramer are certainly going to be exciting to the kind of audiophile who still digs Classic Rock. Unfortunately, most copies are missing a lot of the magic — the space, the tubes, the ambience, the size, the weight.

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King Crimson – In The Court Of The Crimson King

More of the Music of King Crimson

  • You’ll find incredible Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound throughout this vintage import copy of the band’s Prog Rock Masterpiece – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • We had a wide variety of Islands (Pink and Sunray) and UK Polydor pressings, and only two of those labels can have Hot Stampers based on the many shootouts we’ve done over the years
  • On a pressing as good as this one, turned up to seriously loud levels, the horns blasting away on “21st Century Schizoid Man” are guaranteed to blow your mind
  • 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
  • 5 stars: “The group’s definitive album, and one of the most daring debut albums ever …. it blew all of the progressive/psychedelic competition out of the running, although it was almost too good for the band’s own good — it took King Crimson nearly four years to come up with a record as strong or concise.”
  • We’ve recently compiled a list of records we think every audiophile should get to know better, along the lines of “the 1001 records you need to hear before you die,” but with less of an accent on morbidity and more on the joy these amazing audiophile-quality recordings can bring to your life. In the Court of the Crimson King is a good example of a record many audiophiles may not know well but should get to know better

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The Faces – A Nod Is As Good As A Wink…

More British Blues Rock

  • Two amazing WB Green Label sides, both with INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound from start to finish – The Faces are rockin’ their asses off on this copy
  • Punchy, solid and rich through and through, with driving energy like nothing you’ve ever heard from the band
  • There’s a reason you almost never see this title on the site — it’s a lot of trouble to find enough clean copies to do a shootout
  • We send back, or trade in, 80% of what we buy, and that means the hassle factor for a title like this is jsut way off the charts
  • 5 stars: “[It] doesn’t feel cobbled together and it serves up tremendous song after tremendous song… It’s another classic — and when you consider that the band also had Long Player to their credit and had their hands all over Every Picture in 1971, it’s hard to imagine another band or singer having a year more extraordinary as this.”

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Bad Company – Self-Titled (UK Press)

More of the Music of Bad Company

  • Bad Company’s classic debut LP, here with very good Hot Stamper grades from start to finish
  • We guarantee there is more space, richness, presence, and performance energy on this copy than others you’ve heard or you get your money back – it’s as simple as that
  • A member of the Better Records Rock and Pop Top 100, and a Must Own Classic Rock title from 1974
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Bad Company’s 1974 self-titled release stands as one of the most important and accomplished debut hard rock albums from the 70s … it was one of the most successful steps in the continuing evolution of rock & roll.”
  • If you’re a Classic Rock fan, then Bad Company’s killer debut album from 1974 belongs in your collection.

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XTC – English Settlement

More of the Music of XTC

  • With outstanding Double Plus (A++) grades on all FOUR sides, these early Virgin UK import pressings will be very hard to beat
  • You won’t believe how good these records sound – on a big system with lots of firepower down low, this is a sonic tour de force, a monster Demo Disc
  • These sides have huge amounts of open studio space and that Tubey Magical, rich, fat, dense, bass-heavy British Rock Sound we love
  • It takes us years to get this shootout going – what happened to all the clean British pressings? They have disappeared over the last five years it seems
  • 4 stars: “There are plenty of pop gems – ‘Senses Working Overtime’ stands as one of their finest songs — but the main focus seems to be the more expansive sound…the textural sound of the album is quite remarkable.”

This is an AMAZINGLY well-recorded album, with huge amounts of open studio space and that Tubey Magical, rich, fat, dense British Rock Sound. That sound isn’t easy to reproduce, but this copy absoluely nails it. Nothing else in our shootout came close to it!

If you have big speakers and the room to play to play them good and loud , this is quite the sonic tour de force.

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Steve Miller Band – Fly Like An Eagle

More of the Music of the Steve Miller Band

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  • Here is a vintage copy with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them from start to finish – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • A surprisingly difficult record to find with good sound and quiet surfaces – they pumped these out by the millions and most copies aren’t worth even the bad vinyl they’re pressed on
  • The sound is clear, full-bodied and detailed with tremendous space, critical to reproducing the recording’s spacey (and pretty cool) effects
  • The title track and “Take The Money And Run” both sound excellent (but so does pretty much everything else)
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The key is focus, even on an album as stylishly, self-consciously trippy as this, since the focus brings about his strongest set of songs (both originals and covers), plus a detailed atmospheric production where everything fits.”
  • If you’re a Steve Miller fan, or perhaps a fan of mid-’70s Classic Rock, this title from 1976 is surely a Must Own.

On this copy, you get richness and warmth, front and center immediacy, extension up top and down low, and loads of energy. The synths have texture, the guitars are full-bodied and the bottom end is nice and meaty.

The soundfield is especially open and transparent, with three-dimensional space that brings out the trippy effects the band threw in all over the place. When they sound this good, they really work some Seventies Analog Magic. (more…)

Level 42 – World Machine Is Back

More Records We Only Sell on Import Vinyl

  • The sound is huge — far richer, bigger, clearer and more open than most other copies we played
  • A Better Records favorite for more than thirty years, the rare 80s album that holds up today
  • The big hit here is “Something About You” and we guarantee you’ve never heard it with more space, richness, presence, and performance energy than on this very copy
  • 4 stars: “World Machine pushes their newfound radio-friendly sound into the forefront, and the result is one of the finest pop albums of the mid-80s. ‘Something About You’ exemplifies Level 42’s sound at the peak of its success.”

This British Polydor pressing of Level 42’s BEST ALBUM makes a mockery of most of what’s out there — who knew the sound could be this good? Punchy bass, breathy vocals, snappy drums; it’s all here and it reallyl comes JUMPIN’ out of the speakers on this pressing.

What was striking this time around was just how smooth, rich and tubey the sound was on the best copies. It’s been a few years since we last did this shootout and it’s amazing to us how much better this title has gotten in that short span of time.

Of course, the recording very likely got no better at all, but our system, set-up, room, electricity and who-know-what-else sure did.

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Traffic – The Best of Traffic

More Music on Island Records

For those who wish to find their own Hot Stamper pressings of the album, we say more power to you. Our helpful advice can be found at the bottom of the listing,

  • This original Pink Label Island pressing was doing practically everything right, with both sides earning killer Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades, just shy of our Shootout Winner – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Here are the full-bodied mids, punchy lows and clear, open, extended highs that let this 1969 release come alive
  • This amazing compilation boasts superb sound, often dramatically better than the very same tracks on many of the original British releases
  • Top 100 and 4 stars: “The entire second side of the LP, comprising ‘Medicated Goo,’ ‘Forty Thousand Headmen,’ ‘Feelin’ Alright,’ ‘Shanghai Noodle Factory,’ and ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy,’ was the kind of progressive rock that would define Traffic and give it its place in the rock pantheon.”
  • For our current take on the sound of the various labels and stampers for Mr. Fantasy and The Best of Traffic, please click here.

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Deep Purple – In Rock

More British Blues Rock

  • Both sides of this early UK pressing have stunning sound for the band’s 1970 Classic, earning Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them
  • Only the Brit Harvest LPs such as this one seem to be made from the actual master tape, and it sure ain’t hard to hear the difference that mastering from a fresh, real master tape makes
  • In our experience, these import pressings are the only way to hear the band with the big, rich, Tubey Magical sound they’re famous for
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these Classic Rock records – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Deep Purple’s soon to be classic Mark II version made its proper debut and established the sonic blueprint that would immortalize this lineup of the band on 1970’s awesome In Rock.”
  • If you’re a fan of the band, this classic from 1970 belongs in your collection.
  • We think 1970 was one of the greatest years ever for popular music, and you will be pleased to know that we have compiled a handy list of Must Own Albums from 1970 to celebrate our love for these wonderful releases

The best pressings give you exactly what you want from this brand of straight ahead rock and roll: presence in the vocals; solid, note-like bass; big punchy drums, and the kind of live-in-the-studio energetic, clean and clear sound. (AC/DC is another band with that kind of live studio sound. With big speakers and the power to drive them YOU ARE THERE.) (more…)