Heavy Vinyl Reviewed

Heavy Vinyl Reviews and Commentaries

Blue on Rhino Records Reviewed

Hot Stamper Pressing of the Music of Joni Mitchell Available Now

In March of 2007 we decided we would not be carrying the new 180 gram Rhino pressing of Blue remastered by Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray. We noted at the time: 

Since Kevin and Steve are were friends of mine I won’t belabor its shortcomings. Let’s just say I think you can do better.

The following is an excerpt from our first successful Hot Stamper shootout from that same year. Blue has only gotten better sounding — dramatically better sounding, if I may say so myself — since then.

The copy of Blue we are offering today is one of the few that sounded good before. Now it sounds really good. It got much quieter after applying some of our new cleaning techniques, and the sound became even warmer, richer, sweeter and more transparent.

Both sides sound wonderful — rich, sweet, and delicate. The warmth, breath, and presence of Joni’s vocals take this copy to a place light years beyond the typical copy, not to mention any reissue. The guitars sound amazing, particularly on side two, and the piano has weight without hardness. There’s tons of energy and lots of ambience, plus real depth to the soundfield — you really hear INTO this copy. Try that with your Rhino LP.

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Liszt / Sonata in B Minor – A Speakers Corner Disaster

Hot Stamper Pressings on Decca & London Available Now

Sonic Grade: F

More vinyl dreck from Speakers Corner.

Pure mud. What piano ever sounded like this?

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Tapestry on Classic Records

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Carole King Available Now

Sonic Grade: C

Years ago we wrote the following:

It’s been quite a while since I played the Classic LP, but I remember it as being fairly good.

UPDATE 2020

I doubt if I would care much for it now. Pressings by Classic Records rarely age well.

At the time we had this to say about the sound:

It’s a little rolled off on the top, but it’s a good rolled off, because brightening it up would make it sound modern and wrong. It’s rich and full of body, especially the piano, the way modern recordings almost never are.

So often when we revisit the remastered pressings we used to like on Heavy Vinyl we come away dumbfounded — what on earth were we thinking? These are not the droids sounds we are looking for. Perhaps our minds were clouded at the time.

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Tommy – Simply Vinyl Reviewed

More of the Music of The Who

Reviews and Commentaries for Tommy

Sonic Grade: B

One of the BEST titles on Simply Vinyl! Better than the Classic version, that’s for sure. This one has the bass that’s all but missing from the new 200 gram pressing.  

The Classic Tommy Has No Bass

It could have had amazing bass, like their Who’s Next, but it doesn’t. Why I have no idea. The overall sound is thin, so thin that we immediately knew there was no point in carrying it. (The only Classic Who record we ever carried was Who’s Next; the rest of them are dreadful, some of the worst sounding reissues out there.) Not when there’s a very fine Heavy Vinyl pressing already around. You guessed it: the Simply Vinyl pressing, the one from that label that some reviewer thinks is “screwing up the market.”

Who’s Screwing Whom?

We invite all our readers and listeners to do the shootout for themselves. Both versions of Tommy are in print and widely available. [Woops, not any more, both are long out of print.]

If you do find the Classic to be more to your liking, we simply ask that you send us your copy with a note as to the tracks you compared and what you found, so that we can hear it for ourselves. As you know from reading about Nirvana Nevermind, no two records, not even new audiophile ones, sound the same, so if you managed to get hold of a hot copy of the Classic, we want to hear it too!

After we have picked our jaws up off the floor we will happily send it back to you.

Rachmaninov / Piano Concerto No. 2 – Speakers Corner Reviewed

More of the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

Sonic Grade: Unknown

In the late ’90s, we described the sound of this pressing this way:

“Outstanding Rachmaninoff, dark and rich. Highly recommended.”

Since we have not played a copy of the album in over ten years [now 20], we have taken down our previous Sonic Grade of B as we have no idea how the record would fare today on our much-improved system.

For all we know it may have been recut, which is another problem with our older reviews of records we used to like: the new version could have very different sound from the one we played (and that’s not even taking into account the pressing variability, which we all know is sometimes huge).

Folk Singer – Classic Records Reviewed

More of the Music of Muddy Waters

Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Muddy Waters

Sonic Grade: C+

The Classic kills that muddy MoFi, which I must confess I used to like.

Things have changed, that’s for sure. The Mobile Fidelity is thick and fat sounding, like most of their awful Anadisq releases, with much less transparency than this Classic Records pressing.

Further Reading

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Roy Orbison Sings Lonely and Blue on Classic Records Heavy Vinyl

More of the Music of Roy Orbison

Sonic Grade: F

A Hall of Shame pressing and another Classic Records LP debunked.

Can’t recommend this one. It’s too bright. The DCC LP of Orbison’s material is dramatically better [assuming you want a Heavy Vinyl pressing. I doubt I would care for the sound of it now but back in the day we recommended it].

I’ve had some discussions with some audiophiles who liked this album, and I’m frankly surprised that people find this kind of sound pleasing, but if you’re one of those people who likes bright records, this should do the trick! 

Overtures in Hi-Fi – Speakers Corner (Reviewed in the 90s)

Hot Stamper Classical and Orchestral Imports on Decca & London

Sonic Grade: B

One of the better Speakers Corner Deccas.

We haven’t played a copy of this record in years, but back in the day we liked it, so let’s call it a “B” with the caveat that the older the review, the more likely we are to have changed our minds. 

This is a very early stereo recording, which means it is spacious and open, with little spotlighting.

But what is especially memorable is the choice of material, with a few of the more obscure overtures really brought to life here, such as the opening piece by Adam on side one: Si j’etais roi.

Although not long, every second is packed with color and energy, exactly what a good overture needs.

And it even has a glockenspiel! How can you go wrong?

Music From Big Pink – EMI Centennial Reviewed

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Band Available Now

Sonic Grade: At the time: B?

Now: C or D

[I believe this review is from the mid- to late-90s.]

This is the EMI Centennial version we sold years ago for close to thirty bucks. I thought at the time the MFSL Gold CD was better. Now, after many stereo changes, I realize the Gold CD is actually fat in the midbass and a little thick and sucked out in the midrange. (MFSL’s, and quite a few others’, standard audiophile EQ.)

I know this because the EMI LP is correct in those areas and shows you how truly wonderful the recording is. If only it had more bass. Who knows? Between the music and the sound you may not even miss it.

This is an older review.

Most of the older reviews you see are for records that did not go through the shootout process, the revolutionary approach to finding better sounding pressings we developed in the early 2000s and have since turned into a fine art.

We found the records you see in these older listings by cleaning and playing a pressing or two of the album, which we then described and priced based on how good the sound and surfaces were.

(For out Hot Stamper listings, the sonic grades and vinyl playgrades are listed separately.)

We were often wrong back in those days, something we have no reason to hide. Audio equipment and record cleaning technologies have come a long way since those darker days, a subject we discuss here.

Currently, 99% (or more!) of the records we sell are cleaned, then auditioned under rigorously controlled conditions, up against a number of other pressings. We award them sonic grades, and then condition check them for surface noise.

As you may imagine, this approach requires a great deal of time, effort and skill, which is why we currently have a highly trained staff of about ten. No individual or business without the aid of such a committed group could possibly dig as deep into the sound of records as we have, and it is unlikely that anyone besides us could ever come along to do the kind of work we do.

The term “Hot Stampers” gets thrown around a lot these days, but to us it means only one thing: a record that has been through the shootout process and found to be of exceptionally high quality.

The result of our labor is the hundreds of titles seen here, every one of which is unique and guaranteed to be the best sounding copy of the album you have ever heard or you get your money back.

The Body and Soul of Freddie Hubbard – Speakers Corner Reviewed

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Freddie Hubbard Available Now

This is a very old review, probably from the 90s, and one we would likely not agree with now. It’s been a long time since we played any Speakers Corner record and liked it.

An outstanding Freddie Hubbard straight ahead jazz album on Speakers Corner vinyl that belongs in any jazz lover’s collection. 

Further Reading

Here are some of our reviews and commentaries concerning the many Heavy Vinyl pressings we’ve played over the years, well over 200 at this stage of the game.

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