Demo Spkr – Rock, etc.

Here you will find about 150 rock, pop and soul recordings that sound absolutely amazing on big speakers at loud levels.

On a dynamic, powerful system in a big room, the best pressings of these recordings are Demo Discs guaranteed to beat any other version you’ve heard, or your money back.

Yes – The Yes Album

More of the Music of Yes

  • You haven’t begun to hear the weight, energy and space of Yes’s brilliant third album until you’ve played one of our killer Hot Stamper copies
  • On the right system, at the right volume (very loud), this very record is an immersive experience like practically no other (also particularly on side two)
  • A Top 100 Album and the band’s best sounding record if you ask us (although Fragile can sound absolutely amazing too, just not as smooth and rich)
  • “Organist Tony Kaye, guitarist Steve Howe and bass player Chris Squire play as though of one mind, complementing each other’s work as a knowledgeable band should.”
  • This Prog Rock Masterpiece from 1971 is one that we feel belongs in every audiophile’s collection
  • The Yes Album (along with Fragile and Close to the Edge) is also one of those albums that helped us dramatically improve our playback quality

Drop the needle on this bad boy and you will find yourself on a Yes journey the likes of which you have never known. And that’s what I’m in this audiophile game for. The Heavy Vinyl crowd can have their dead-as-a-doornail, wake-me-when-it’s-over pressings that play quietly. I couldn’t sit through one with a gun to my head.

With the amazing Eddie Offord at the board, as well as the best batch of songs ever to appear on a single Yes album, they produced both their sonic and musical masterpiece — good news for audiophiles with Big Speakers who like to play their records loud.

These guys — and by that I mean this particular iteration of the band, the actual players that were involved in the making of this album — came together for the first time and created the sound of Yes on this very album, rather aptly titled when you think about it. (more…)

Jethro Tull – Thick As A Brick

More of the Music of Jethro Tull

  • An early Reprise pressing that was doing just about everything right, earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • One of the few copies we’ve found lately with audiophile sound and surfaces – most of the copies we find are just too noisy for the first few minutes, but this one’s intro held up nicely
  • A Top 100 title and the best sounding album Jethro Tull ever recorded – allow us to make the case
  • A stunning Demo Disc to rule them all – sure to be the best you’ve ever heard this band sound, assuming you have the kind of system it takes and a room big enough to hold it
  • 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: “A masterpiece in the annals of progressive rock – a dazzling tour de force, at once playful, profound, and challenging, without overwhelming the listener.”
  • “Whether or not Thick As A Brick is an isolated experiment, it is nice to know that someone in rock has ambitions beyond the four or five minute conventional track, and has the intelligence to carry out his intentions, in all their intricacy, with considerable grace.”
  • TAAB is also one of those albums that helped us dramatically improve our playback quality

The kind of tonal accuracy you hear on the better copies of this album practically disappeared from records over forty years ago, which explains why so many of the LPs we offer as Hot Stampers were produced in the 70s and before. That’s when many of the highest fidelity recordings were made. In truth this very record is a superlative example of the sound the best producers, engineers, and studios were able to capture on analog tape during that very decade.

Which is a long way of saying that the better copies of Thick As A Brick have pretty much everything that we love about vinyl records here at Better Records.

Furthermore, I can guarantee you there is no CD on the planet that will ever be able to do this recording justice. Our Hot Stamper pressings — even the lowest-graded ones — have a kind of Analog Magic that just can’t be captured on one of them there silvery discs.

The Best Sounding Jethro Tull Album Ever Recorded

  • The better copies are shockingly dynamic. At about the three-minute mark the band joins in the fun and really starts rocking. Set your volume for as loud as your system can play that section. The rest of the music, including the very quietest parts, will then play correctly for all of side one. For side two the same volume setting should be fine.
  • The recording can have exceptionally solid, deep punchy bass (just check out Barrie “Barriemore” Barlow’s drumming, especially his kick and floor toms. The guy is on fire).
  • The midrange is usually transparent and the top end sweet and extended on the better pressings.
  • The recording was made in 1972, so there’s still plenty of Tubey Magic to be heard on the acoustic guitars and flutes.
  • 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).
  • The better copies can be as huge, wide and tall as any rock record you’ve ever heard, with sound that comes jumping out of your speakers right into your listening room.
  • Unlike practically any album recorded during the 80s or later, the overall tonal balance, as well as the timbre of virtually every instrument in the soundfield, is correct.

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Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Out of This World Sound at Loud Levels

More of the Music of Emerson, Lake and Palmer

  • Boasting KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it throughout, this UK Island Pink Rim pressing makes the case that ELP’s debut is clearly one of the most powerful rock records ever made – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Spacious, rich and dynamic, with big bass and tremendous energy – these are just some of the things we love about Eddie Offord‘s engineering work on this band’s albums
  • Analog at its Tubey Magical finest – you’ll never play a CD (or any other digitally sourced material) that sounds as good as this record as long as you live
  • “Lucky Man” and “Take A Pebble” on this copy have Demo Disc quality sound like you won’t believe
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Lively, ambitious, almost entirely successful debut album… [which] showcased the group at its least pretentious and most musicianly …there isn’t much excess, and there is a lot of impressive musicianship here.”

If you’ve got the system to play this one loud enough, with the low-end weight and energy it requires, you are in for a treat. The organ that opens side two will rattle the foundation of your house if you’re not careful. This music really needs that kind of megawatt reproduction to make sense. This is bombastic prog that wants desperately to rock your world. At moderate levels, it just sounds overblown and silly. At loud levels, it actually will rock your world.

Near The Top Of The List

Without a doubt this record belongs in the Top Rock section. I’d even say it belongs in the Top Ten. It is one of the most dynamic and powerful rock recordings ever made. The organ on this album is wall to wall and floor to ceiling. The quiet interlude during “Take A Pebble” is about as quiet as any popular recording can ever be — the guitar is right at the noise floor. It’s amazing! (Which explains why so many domestic copies have groove damage. The record is just too hard to play for the average turntable. Hell, it’s hard to play with an audiophile turntable.)

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Harry Nilsson / Nilsson Schmilsson – The Robed Man’s Masterpiece

More of the Music of Harry Nilsson

  • Solid Double Plus (A++) sound brings Harry Nilsson’s indisputable Masterpiece of Bent Rock to life on this vintage copy
  • Both sides are remarkably good sounding, thanks to the brilliant engineering skills of Phill (That’s Two L’s) Brown
  • A Better Records favorite (we give it Five Stars) that really comes to life on a superb pressing such as this one
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…it’s a near-perfect summary of everything Nilsson could do; he could be craftier and stranger, but never did he achieve the perfect balance as he did here.”
  • If I were to compile a list of my favorite rock and pop albums from 1971, this album would definitely be on it

Big production pop like this is hard to pull off. Harry did an amazing job, but the recording is not perfect judging by the dozen or so copies we played during our most recent shootout, and the scores w’ve suffered through before. Let’s face it: “Jump Into The Fire” will never be smooth and sweet; neither will “Down” on side one. But other tracks on this album have Demo Disc sound.

Nilsson Schmilsson is an album we think we know well. It checks off a number of important boxes for us here at Better Records:

One of His Best

Son of Schmilsson and the album simply titled Harry are two other superb Nilsson records that both come highly recommended. Harry is my favorite of them all, perhaps because it was so different from anything that I’d ever heard up to that point (I was 15 at the time). A Little Touch… is also a personal favorite, with the great American songbook done in Nilsson’s inimitable style.

By the way, if you get a chance to see the documentary “Who Is Harry Nilsson (and Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him?),” you should definitely check it out. Most of us here have seen it by now and it’s a ton of fun.

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Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – So Far

More Crosby / More Stills / More Nash / More Young

  • Boasting INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on both sides, this copy is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other So Far you’ve heard
  • The two tracks exclusive to this album, “Ohio” and “Find the Cost of Freedom,” are amazingly well recorded – both have Demo Disc quality sound on this amazing side one
  • Huge, rich and energetic, this pressing brings the gorgeous harmonies of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young to life like nothing you have ever heard
  • We don’t imagine we’ll be tracking down too many copies that sound this good so if you’re a fan, scoop this one up!
  • If you’ve made the mistake of buying any Heavy Vinyl pressing containing any of these songs, this record will show you just exactly what you’ve been missing
  • Marks and problems 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
  • If I were to compile a list of my favorite rock and pop albums from 1974, this album would definitely be on it
  • Not many compilation albums offer top quality sound, but this one does, and these are some others

When you get hold of a pressing as good as this one, the sound is so correct it makes a mockery of the phony EQ and just plain bad mastering and pressing of the Heavy Vinyl and Half-Speed mastered versions.

The MoFi and the Classic 200g LP of Deja Vu are both clearly wrong in important ways. This record will make it clear exactly what’s wrong with them, assuming you have the critical listening skills to recognize the differences. If you are on this site, chances are very good you do.

Once you hear this Hot Stamper pressing, you will never be able to enjoy those audiophile pressings again, of that we are quite confident. (more…)

The Who – Who’s Next

More of the Music of The Who

  • Both sides of this vintage UK import were giving us the big and bold sound we were looking for, earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades
  • The bigger your speakers and the louder you play them, the better this pressing will sound because that is the one true test of a rock record
  • This British LP is guaranteed to blow your mind with its phenomenal sound — check out the big, bold, rock ’em, sock ’em bottom end energy
  • These days the UK Track pressings seem to be the only ones that sound right to us – which means no British Polydors and no domestic Deccas (which we actually used to like) are very likely to be coming to the site
  • Compare this to any Heavy Vinyl (or other) pressing and you will hear in a heartbeat why we think the Real Thing just cannot be beat
  • 5 stars: “This is invigorating because it has. . . Townshend laying his soul bare in ways that are funny, painful, and utterly life-affirming. That is what the Who was about, not the rock operas, and that’s why Who’s Next is truer than Tommy or the abandoned Lifehouse. Those were art — this, even with its pretensions, is rock & roll.”
  • If you’re a fan of the band, this title from 1971 is a Masterpiece that belongs in every right thinking audiophile’s collection

Recently we sat down for a massive shootout for Who’s Next, a true Glyn Johns Classic and undeniably one of the greatest rock albums of all time.

The sound of this British Track pressing is wonderful from start to finish. There’s no grain to speak of and dramatically less smearing and veiling than most of the copies we played it against. The presence is startling — turn it up good and loud and The Who will be right there thrashing around in your listening room! The bottom end, on both sides, has the kind of weight that’s absolutely essential to this music.

We’re talking BIG ROCK SOUND and quiet vinyl, a rare combination in our experience, our experience of course coming from dozens and dozens of British Tracks and Polydors, German Polydors, Decca originals, MCA reissues, a few imports from other countries (Japan, thin and bright), and last but far from least, The Classic 200 gram pressing. (Here is our overview.)

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Cat Stevens – Teaser & The Firecat

More of the Music of Cat Stevens

  • A Teaser and The Firecat like you’ve never heard, with solid Double Plus (A++) grades throughout this vintage Island Pink Rim pressing – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Here are the sides that will rock your world with their size, richness, clarity and energy, the likes of which you may have never experienced on vinyl
  • A brilliant classic folk rock recording but only the right pressings have the potential for Demo Disc quality sound
  • 5 stars and a Top 10 album – in some ways it’s surely the Best Sounding record Cat Stevens ever made
  • This Folk Rock Masterpiece from 1971 is one that belongs in every audiophile’s collection
  • “Tuesday’s Dead,” “Morning Has Broken,” “Bitterblue,” “Moonshadow” “Peace Train” – and that’s just side two! What side of any album has five songs of such quality?

Before I get further into the sound of this record, let me preface my remarks by saying this is a work of GENIUS. Cat Stevens made two records which belong in the Pantheon of greatest popular recordings of all time. In the world of folky pop, Teaser and the Firecat and Tea for the Tillerman have few peers. There may be other recordings that are as good but there are no other recordings that are better.

When you hear The Wind, Changes IV, or If I Laugh on this copy, you will be convinced, as I am, that this is one of the greatest popular recordings in the history of the world. I don’t know of ANY other album that has more LIFE and MUSICAL ENERGY than this one. (more…)

The Beatles – Magical Mystery Tour

More of the Music of The Beatles

  • This vintage import copy was doing practically everything right, earning killer Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades from top to bottom, just shy of our Shootout Winner – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • A stunning True Stereo pressing with some of the best Beatles sound money can buy – superb work from Ken Scott here
  • Demo Disc quality sound for “I Am The Walrus,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “Baby You’re A Rich Man” and more
  • You won’t believe how powerful the sound is – it’s big, rich, open and lively beyond all expectation
  • A longtime Top 100 album and psych rock masterpiece that knocks us out every time we do the shootout
  • Any list of the best rock and pop albums of 1967 would have to have this record on it, along with its predecessor, Sgt. Pepper, released in May of the same year if you can believe it

The soft cardboard covers for these German pressings almost always show some seam wear. We will include the best cover we have at the time of your order. Of course, your satisfaction is always guaranteed.

Drop the needle on “Fool On The Hill” and you’ll see why we get so worked up over top copies that sound as good as this one does. This is a STUNNING recording, but you need a killer Hot Stamper pressing to appreciate just how well recorded the album is.

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Bloomfield-Kooper-Stills – Super Session (on 360)

More of the Music of Al Kooper

More of the Music of Stephen Stills

  • With solid Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them from top to bottom, this 360 Label pressing will be very hard to beat
  • Engineered by Roy Halee, the man behind one of the best sounding rock records of all time (the self-titled Blood, Sweat and Tears album), the oh-so-analog sonics here are especially dynamic and spacious (particularly on side one)
  • Our most recent shootout was a tough one: we had six clean 360 pressings, but only two copies earned White Hot grades and one of them was too noisy to sell
  • Even worse, none of our Supers earned even two pluses on both sides, so those of you looking for anything better than what we’re offering here are going to be as disappointed as we are
  • When we talk about some records being hard to find with top quality sound and audiophile playing surfaces, this is the kind of record we have in mind!
  • For fans of BS&T’s first album (and everybody else), Super Session is a Must Own
  • “Season of the Witch” is quite good here on this original Stereo 360 pressing
  • 4 1/2 stars: “This is one of those albums that seems to get better with age… This is a super session indeed.”
  • If you’re a fan of any or all of these guys, this vintage pressing of their 1968 classic belongs in your collection

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T.Rex – Electric Warrior

More Rock Classics

  • A vintage copy of this T.Rex Glam Rock classic with killer Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound on both sides, just shy of our Shootout Winner – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • This early UK pressing is incredible, with the kind of grungy, Tubey Magical guitars that are guaranteed to blow your mind
  • It’s beyond difficult to find quiet copies of this title (same goes for The Slider), let alone those with this kind of sound, so any fan of Mr. Bolan should snap this one up and be quick about it
  • 5 stars: “The album that essentially kick-started the U.K. glam rock craze… it’s that sense of playfulness, combined with a raft of irresistible hooks, that keeps Electric Warrior such an infectious, invigorating listen today.”

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