This is a very nice looking original Track Black Label British Import LP. As anyone who knows the Who’s back catalog can attest, most of these songs were poorly recorded. Like all compilations, the sound here varies from track to track. Side two definitely has the better sound.
We guarantee that this pressing sounds better than the Classic reissue, which was so bad we never carried it.
Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Tchaikovsky Available Now
This is what we had to say about the Telarc UHQR back in 2005 or so:
Having played this record all the way through, I can say this about it:
It’s about the most dynamic recording I’ve ever heard.
This was the promise of digital, which, as we all know, was never really delivered. On this record, that promise has been fulfilled. The performance is also one of the best on record. It’s certainly the most energetic I can remember.
UPDATE 2015
Now that we’ve heard the best pressings of the Alwyn recording on Decca, I would have to say that Alwyn’s is certainly every bit as energetic if not more so, and dramatically better sounding as well.
In other words, in 2005 we had a lot to learn. Boy, did we ever.
Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Women Who Rock Available Now
We recently auditioned the Mobile Fidelity pressing of Learning to Crawl and wrote down our impressions as the record was playing that you see below.
We try to be very specific about the strengths and weaknesses of the records we play, which is why we reproduce our notes — in this case for audiophile records — whenever possible. (There are plenty of shootout notes for vintage pressings on the blog as well.)
The title at the top of our post-it sets the stage for what you are about to read: the specific faults of an “especially bad MoFi.”
Do they make any other kind? Well, sometimes, to be sure, but the good ones are few and far between.
It must be hard to make a record sound this bad, but if anyone can do it, Mobile Fidelity has proven that they are the men and women for the job. Let’s get down to brass tacks.
Side One
Dull drums at intro.
Bass compressed and wooly.
Vocal present and hard.
Everything else recessed.
Side Two
Very dry snare and guitar.
Flat, edgy and lifeless.
Not even clear.
Just shitty.
Lacks bass here too.
Consensus
NFG.
This one definitely belongs in the Mobile Fidelity hall of shame (along with 66 of their other titles). My CD sounds better.
To aid you in understanding just how lost the buyers of these audiophile records are these days — and who am I to talk? — we reproduce the five most recent reviews from Discogs as of 5/2026 below.
Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Miss Peggy Lee Available Now
UPDATE 2026
It’s highly unlikely we would still agree with all the good things we had to say back in 2003 about Latin ala Lee! on Heavy Vinyl, but here it is anyway.
Plenty of records that sounded good to me back in the day don’t sound too good to me anymore, for the simple reason that, in this case, since 2003 we’ve managed to make a huge number of changes to the system.
These changes resulted in more accurate and revealing playback, derived mostly from the testing we did with this group of records and others like them. (Here is a personal favorite.)
Unfortunately for all concerned, S&P’s releases from this era (as well as DCC’s) had to fight their way through Kevin Gray’s transistory, opaque, airless, low-resolution cutting system, a subject we discuss in more depth here.
As for the difficult remix, the more remixes I hear, the less I like them. The ones Hoffmann did for Nat King Cole (see here) drive me up a wall.
Our Old Review
The Record of the Year for 2003.
I know how crazy that sounds, but it’s true! If you don’t have a smile on your face fifteen seconds after playing track one, you better check your pulse, cuz, as the famous song has it: Jack, You Dead. Amazingly good sound, courtesy of a fabulous and painstakingly difficult remix by the mastering guru himself, Steve Hoffman. This is popular music for the previous generation — but why should we be denied these long forgotten treasures?
Hot Stamper Pressings of Direct-to-Disc Recordings
These are just some of the many recordings on Crystal Clear Direct to Disc that we auditioned over the years and found wanting.
Without going into specifics — who would bother to take the time? — we’ll just say these albums suffer from poor musical performances, poor sound, or both, and therefore do not deserve a place in your collection.
The Big Picture from a Lifelong Audiophile
You may have seen this text in another listing, but it bears repeating. There is nothing new under the sun, and that is especially true when it comes to bad sounding audiophile records. The world is full of them.
Hot Stamper Pressings of Contemporary Jazz Albums Available Now
A newer customer wrote to me years ago about the amazing sounding Hot Stamper pressing of Way Out West that we’d sent him. He noted that his AP Heavy Vinyl pressing was “quite decent,” a characterization we found distressing.
Here is his original letter, along with some of what we wrote back. Newer comments and links have also been added.
As for your 1992 Analogue Productions Heavy Vinyl remaster, I honestly don’t know how anyone can listen to a record with sound like that and consider it acceptable, or, in your words, “quite decent.” I went into the long story of the album in this commentary.
Some things have changed since I wrote that screed many years ago. For example, we don’t find the sound of the OJC pressing of the album acceptable these days, a subject I plan to address before too long [and have yet to do].
The bottom line is this:
The Hot Stamper pressing of Way Out West you have now in your possession is the one that allows you to hear what that album is supposed to sound like.
Not the way Chad Kassem likes his records to sound: opaque, bloated, dull, smeary and compressed.
No, your White Hot Stamper has the brilliant sound that Roy DuNann recorded all those years ago, sounding, I believe, the way he wanted it to. This is of course only an opinion, but it is an opinion based on playing dozens of early Contemporary pressings and well as many vintage reissues that actually can beat them. Examples of both can be found here.
But Somebody Needed to Figure It Out, Right?
All that was needed was for some group to come along who could properly clean a batch of vintage pressings, original or otherwise, play them, figure out what the best copies do that the average copy doesn’t, identify that best copy, and send it your way.
This budget Whitehall pressing is one of the most incredible sleepers in the entire classical catalog, with SUPERB sound as well as performances of the highest quality from the Vienna Festival Orchestra.
The sound is big and bold, spacious, open and sweet in the best golden age tradition. Superior pressings of this recording would give all but the best Shaded Dogs, Londons and Mercs a serious run for their money, beating most of them handily. Yes, it’s that good. The string tone and rosiny texture on side two are especially noteworthy.
There’s a freedom from coloration on either side that is positively refreshing after playing so many second-rate vintage classical recordings. (more…)
Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Who Available Now
UPDATE 2026
In 2005 I think it was the stereo version we played of the Classic Heavy Vinyl pressing, not the mono. Both were mastered by Chris Bellman, one of our least favorite mastering engineers.
Most of the records he’s cut for Bernie Grundman Mastering have such poor sound quality that they end up going into our hall of shame, which is exactly where they belong. If you have any of his badly-remastered vinyl in your collection, now is the time to pull it out, play it and see for yourself just how far off the mark this guy’s records are.
At this point, it’s no longer astonishing to us that there are still audiophiles who defend his work. Naturally, these include self-styled audiophile reviewers who are obviously in the wrong business and too clueless to know it.
We find it hard to say anything good about the man except this: he did an excellent job cutting Brothers in Arms on two discs. (Our review for that pressing has been delayed since 2022 but it is coming one of these days, I swear on a stack of records.)
Our review from 2005:
Not our idea of good sound.
The only Classic Who record we ever carried was Who’s Next, which is actually pretty good — we gave it a B back in the day.
I suspect it would earn a poorer grade now. We had lower standards for Heavy Vinyl back then.
(Which is the understatement of all time. We had lower standards for every kind of record back then.)
We have since discussed how wrong we were about a great many records, including the Classic Records reissue of The Who’s Masterpiece, and in the case of that title more than once.
Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Billy Joel Available Now
Sonic Grade:
Side One: F / Side Two: C+
The Impex (Cisco) 180 gram remastering of 52nd Street was cut by Kevin Gray, under the direction of Robert Pincus (aka Mr Record), at the now defunct AcousTech Mastering in Camarillo. We noted the following in a recent review for a much superior (how could it not be?) Hot Stamper pressing:
Side one is a joke (not much ambience, resolution, energy, etc.) but side two is actually quite good. Side two fixes the biggest problem with the album: hard, honky vocals.
In his review appearing in The Absolute Sound, Neil Gader plucks two songs out of the album’s nine as especially worthy of praise. Oddly enough they’re both on side two. If I didn’t know the album as well as I do, I might wonder why.
In our review we went on to say:
But at a cost. It still sounds like a modern record, with not much in the way of space, transparency, richness, resolution and the like. You know, all that ANALOG stuff that old dinosaurs like us like our records to have.
For those of you who have thirty three dollars to spend, you could do a lot worse on side two. Side one is pretty bad and you would have a hard time doing worse.
Allow me to now quote Mr. Gader from The Absolute Sound, October 2011, Issue 216, Pg. 129
The Impex 180-gram remastering by Kevin Gray is superb. It replaces the spongy timing and dull top of the original Columbia LP with expansive space and sharp details. Its vivid and brightened treble is welcome compared to the warm but smothered original. Listen for Joel’s doubled harmonies, the pennywhistle in “Rosalinda’s Eyes,” and the burning horn section in “Half a Mile Away,” and you’ll hear what a difference a great remastering makes.
Mr. Gader has a bad original pressing, and like most reviewers he makes the mistake of assuming that other originals, and probably all the originals, perforce sound like his. Speaking from experience, they most assuredly do not. We will not be addressing his specific complaints in this commentary for one simple reason.
Nothing in his review describes the sound of the best copies.
Hot Stamper Pressings Featuring the Violin Available Now
Our review for LSC 2314, with both the Mendelssohn and Prokofiev Violin Concertos, described the wonderful sound we heard on some of the better copies as follows:
As usual for a Living Stereo Heifetz violin concerto recording, he is front and center, with his fingering and every movement of his bow clearly audible, without being hyped-up in the least. (Well, maybe just a bit.)
No violin concerto recording can be considered to have proper Living Stereo sound if the violin isn’t right, and fortunately we found the violin on this copy to be very, very right, with the kind of rosiny texture and immediacy that brings the music to life right in your very own listening room.
Audiophiles who cannot hear what is wrong with the Classic Records repressings of Heifetz’s RCA recordings by the greatest composers who ever lived, including:
may want to seek out a nice — maybe even one that’s not so nice — vintage RCA Shaded Dog of any of his albums, if only to see just how poorly the Classics stack up (with the exception of the LSC 2734, which we have to say, against all odds, is very good).