Asylum – Reviews and Commentaries

Mobile Fidelity – The Ultimate Pretender

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Jackson Browne Available Now

During the recording of The Pretender, a newly invented piece of electronics was used called the Aphex Aural Exciter. It harmonically “richened” the sound in interesting and, most would say, pleasing ways.

It was designed to have a euphonic effect, and it succeeded in that aim, beguiling its listeners for a while, especially those at the lo- and mid-fi level, the obvious if unspoken target market these days (although the thought of admitting such a thing would surely cause the sky to fall) for the Heavy Vinyl reissue.

The Aphex was clearly creating distortions, but they were the kinds of distortions that many folks of the audiophile persuasion seemed to like. Which is the very definition of euphonic colorations.

The poster boy for euphonic colorations is our friend here, the famous Mac 30, an amp that came on the market in 1954 and one that still has adherents to this day, some of them quite famous. I had a pair and learned some lessons — as I did with every piece of equipment I owned — in the time I spent listening to them.

If you like old school tubey colorations, the kind we’ve found to be antithetical to the proper reproduction of music in the home, this is the amp for you.

How Much Is Too Much of a Good Thing?

When you play the MoFi pressing of The Pretender, it just seems to have more of that Aphex Aural Excitement.

Here’s the $64,000 question: is MoFi’s supposedly superior mastering technology revealing more of the “aphexy” sound already present on the tapes, or is it adding its own distortions that mimic the Aphex distortions?

It seems to me that in the case of The Pretender it’s clearly the latter.

Deja Vu on MoFi has that same too rich, too smooth sound. Where on earth did that extra richness and smoothness come from? No vintage pressings we have ever played has ever had that sound.

Obviously MoFi preferred The Pretender to sound the way they preferred it to sound, or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that they wanted it to sound the way they thought their customers would prefer it to sound.

Or maybe they have no idea what they’re doing and never did. That strikes me as the most likely explanation for a label that should have gone out of business a long time ago.

Is it just EQ? I’m not expert enough to know, but I do know this: Hot Stamper pressings of The Pretender have much more transparency and clarity, while at the same time offering a good balance of of sweetness and smoothness, with less of that thick, blurry, overly-rich quality that you find on the MoFi pressings of the album.

More on the Aphex

Owen Penglis on the Happymag.tv site describes the Aphex Aural effect this way:

The Aural Exciter brought presence, intelligibility, ‘air’ without hiss, and renewed clarity through its arbitrary process of adding phase shift, harmonics, compression, and intermodular distortion.

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The Middle of the Midrange Is Key on Prisoner in Disguise

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Linda Ronstadt Available Now

Here’s what we learned when doing a shootout years ago: many copies sounded like they were Half-Speed mastered.

For those of you who don’t know what that means, or sounds like, the blog is full of commentaries about the sonic shortcomings of this mastering technique.

In this case, these Half-Speed sounding ones had a little something phony added to the top of Linda’s voice; they had a little bit of suckout right in the middle of the midrange, the middle of her voice; and they had an overall diffuse, vague quality, with sound that lacked the solidity we heard on the best of the non-audiophile pressings we played. 

These hi-fi-ish qualities that we heard reminded us of the kind of sound we decry at every turn. We’ve played literally hundreds and hundreds of MoFi’s and other Half-Speed mastered records over the course of the last twenty thirty-plus years, and one thing we know well is that sound.

But stop and think about it for a moment.

What if you only had one copy of the album — why would someone have more than one anyway? — and it had that Half-Speed sound?

You’d simply assume the recording had those qualities, assuming you recognized them in the first place.

(Let’s face it, most audiophiles can’t, or all these companies that use this approach to mastering would have gone out of business and stayed out of business, and their out of print records would sell for peanuts, not the collector prices they bring on ebay and discogs. More on that subject here.)

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Most Domestic Pressings of On The Border Suck, and We Know Why

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Eagles Available Now

This is one of the pressings we’ve discovered with reversed polarity on some songs.

The domestic copies of On The Border have many tracks in reversed absolute phase, including and especially Midnight Flyer, a lifelong favorite of mine. The front and center banjo will positively tear your head off; it’s bright, sour, shrill, aggressive and full of distortion. Don’t look at me — that’s what reverse polarity sounds like!

I’ve known for some time that domestic pressings of On The Border have their phase reversed — just hadn’t gotten around to discussing the issue because I wasn’t ready to list the record and describe the phenomenon.

A while back [January 2005, time flies] I happened to play a copy of One Of These Nights and was appalled by the dismal quality of the sound. Last night I put two and two together. I pulled out both Eagles records and listened to them with the phase reversed. Voila! (On The Border is a favorite record of mine, dismissed by everyone else, but loved by yours truly.)

[I don’t think One of These Nights has its polarity reversed anymore, although some copies may.]

I’m of the opinion that only a very small percentage of records have their absolute phase reversed. Once you’ve learned to recognize the kind of distortion reversed polarity causes, you will hear recordings that may make you suspicious, and the only way to know for sure is to switch the positive and negative, wherever you choose to do so. 

With the help of our EAR 324 Phono Stage, the phase is reversible with the mere touch of a button, a wonderful convenience that we have grown to love, along with the amazingly transparent sound of course. (Hard to imagine living without either at this point.)

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Letter of the Week – “Miles of Aisles, which sounded so good it made my wife cry (seriously).”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Steve Winwood Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently:

Hey Tom, 

Yesterday I was marveling at the bottom-end and overall clarity of my new Stevie Winwood album.

I think it’s right up there with Miles of Aisles, which sounded so good it made my wife cry (seriously) .

But as always, I came up with a dark thought: Are Hot Stampers the only way to get my system to sound this good?

I have VERY few personally-selected LPs that can compete with a Hot Stamper. Even though I usually buy the “Budget” stampers, it looks like a future of hundred-buck-plus albums for me.

Gordon R.

Gordon,

Tears of joy I hope!

The right record can indeed be powerful and moving, enough to bring tears to one’s eyes.

I wrote about having powerful emotional experiences in a commentary that answers the question: “why would you want to go into a room and just play a record by yourself?”

Alas, finding those very special records is hard to do and not cheap, whether we do it or you do it.

We’re glad to know that a hundred dollars can still buy a good record. We have 119 of them in stock at that price as of this writing, and almost as many for $75 and under.

Many of them punch well above their weight sonically because they have condition issues or are titles that are may not be as popular as others we offer. Either way, many of them are great records that deserve a home, preferably a home with a nice turntable. Won’t you help?

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Letter of the Week – “This copy is a completely different musical experience.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Grover Washington, Jr. Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased:

Hey Tom, 

I really liked the Oscar Peterson West Side Story and appreciate the effort you put in to find me a Hot Stamper. This was an album my mother bought for me and I have fond memories of lying on my back under my parents RCA console stereo looking up at the glowing tubes and listening to it. Thank you. Much better than the DCC CD. It now sounds like I remember it.

Mr. Magic was also a surprise. It never sounded that good and was better than I remember it. 

The one that has completely blown me away was the Jackson Browne 3+ side one.

It never sounded like that ever. I had a 1.5 and it was good; kind of like I remember it.

This copy is a completely different musical experience. I enjoy the presentation more and have a much better appreciation of the music. You guys did it again.

Thanks as usual,
Mike H.

Mike,

Thanks for your letter.

A 3+ Jackson Browne first album is a very special record indeed, so rich and smooth.

Would make a great Demo Disc, the opposite of the kind of phony trash they play at audio shows.

Other letters from customers recounting the incredibly powerful experiences they’ve had while playing one of our shootout winning pressings can be found here.

If you think you would enjoy kicking your musical satisfaction up a notch or two, nothing can get you to the next level faster than playing one of our killer Hot Stamper LPs.

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Are All the Original Asylum Pressings of Desperado Demo Discs?

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Eagles Available Now

No, and this should come as not much of a surprise to anyone that’s bought records from us or spent much time reading this blog.

As you can see from the notes below for this particular pressing of Desperado, both sides are passable, earning a minimal Hot Stamper grade of 1.5+.

It’s a decent sounding copy I suppose, but a long, long, long way from the best.

1.5+ is four grades down from the top copy. That’s a steep dropoff as far as we’re concerned. 1.5+ only hints at how good a recording Desperado can be on the best vintage pressings.

To see more records that earned the 1.5+ grade, please click here.

Incidentally, some of them are even on Heavy Vinyl. The better modern pressings have sometimes, if rarely, been known to earn Hot Stamper grades, and one shocked the hell out of us by actually winning a shootout. Wouldn’t you like to know which one!

For those who might be interested, there’s more on our grading scale here.

Desperado Is a True Super Disc 

Of course, the best sound on an Eagles record is found on the first album. For whatever reason, that record was left off the TAS super disc list, even though we feel that both musically and sonically it beats this one by a bit.

On the TAS Super Disc list. Harry Pearson recommends the British SYL pressings for this album. SYL pressings can sound very good; in fact, one of the top copies from a recent (2024) shootout was SYL. A bit of a surprise since our champion for both sides during the previous shootout was domestic.

Does that mean the best domestics will always beat the best SYL pressings? Not at all. Only critical listening can separate the superb pressings from the typical ones. After playing more than a dozen copies of this album this week, we can definitively tell you that there are far more mediocre copies of this record — both domestic and import — than truly exceptional ones. The typical pressing of this album, whether the domestic or SYL, falls far short of belonging on a Super disc list.

There are killer domestic copies and killer SYL imports out there, and the only way to know which ones sound good is to collect ’em, clean ’em, and play ’em.

Remember: TAS list doesn’t guarantee great sound, but Better Records does — if you don’t think a record sounds as good as we’ve stated, we’ll always happily take that record back and refund your money. Good luck getting ol’ Harry to send you a check when the TAS-approved pressings you pick up don’t deliver.

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Greg Ladanyi’s Tubey Magical Analog Richness from 1978

Hot Stamper Pressings on the Asylum Label Available Now

The sound is anchored by an exceptionally fat, rich, punchy low end, and the best copies deliver that sound big time.

Much like The Pretender, this is a superb recording with the kind of Tubey Magical Analog Richness we go crazy for here.

Just listen to ‘Excitable Boy’ and ‘Werewolves Of London’ to hear how full-bodied the sound of this album can be — the louder you play it the better it gets!

That’s the big speaker quality we live for around here. You turn it up and it starts to really rock.

The Fleetwood Mac Connection

Speaking of Werewolves of London, some of you may not know that the rhythm section for that song is made up of John McVie and Mick Fleetwood, otherwise known as Fleetwood Mac. Over the years I have come to appreciate the fact that they are clearly one of the top rock rhythm sections in the history of popular music. One can listen to Fleetwood Mac’s albums for the sole purpose of hearing the bass and drums create the ideal support for the songs as well as to drive the music rhythmically forward. On Werewolves their contribution is every bit as important to the success of the song as Zevon’s, IMHO.

Want to find your own killer copy?

Consider taking our moderately helpful advice concerning the pressings that consistently win our shootouts.

As of 2025, shootouts for this album should be carried out:

How else can you expect to hear this record at its best?

Based on our experience, Excitable Boy sounds its best:

Which means the domestic Asylum pressings with the right stampers are practically guaranteed to win our shootouts.

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Letter of the Week – “…was floored by the sound quality and dynamics…”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Jackson Browne Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased quite a while ago:

Hey Tom, 

After years of buying the latest reissue LPs at premium pricing and being frustrated with the sound quality, I bought a copy of Jackson Browne’s “The Pretender” from you and was floored by the sound quality and dynamics and realized that your company takes all the BS out of the Audiophile shopping experience. Since then I’ve used your store a bunch.

Rob R.

Rob,

Taking the BS out of buying records is the essence of the service we think we provide, so thanks for that.

We don’t try to make good sounding records. Judging by the crap pressings that we auditioned in 2024, that is a job no one seems able to do. We sure wouldn’t know to where to begin.

The only one we’ve played that sounded like one of our killer White Hot Stamper pressings, this one, was mastered by someone working for Fantasy who didn’t bother to attach his name to the record in question!

Can you imagine? All the big name guys turn out one bad record after another, and the guy who just comes to work in the morning to make a jazz record for the OJC label knocks it out of the park.

And, even better, the guys who notice are the ones who work in some little studio in Westlake, far from where the action is.

We are happy to be as far from where the action is as possible, because the action of making at-best-mediocre records is not the kind of action that we want to be involved in.

What Is the Point?

All the way back in 2007, after playing the Hoffman-Gray remastered Blue, we asked ourselves what was the point of these nothingburger records.

Do they bring anyone even a fraction of the joy the real thing does?

The answer was obvious even back then, close to twenty years ago.

If you are stuck in a Heavy Vinyl rut, we can help you get out of it. We did precisely that for these folks, and we can do it for you.

You may of course not be aware that you are stuck in a rut. Most audiophiles aren’t. The best way out of that predicament is to hear how mediocre these modern records sound compared to the vintage Hot Stampers we offer. Once you hear the difference, your days of buying newly remastered releases will most likely be over. Even if our pricey curated pressings are beyond your budget, you can avail yourself of the methods we describe to find killer records on your own.

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Letter of the Week – “…as if I were sitting in that Southern California recording studio all those years ago.” 

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Eagles Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased back in 2022:

Hey Tom, 

First a short thank you. I was slow in ordering a record I needed for an audiophile’s friend’s birthday this week, and you guys got it to me. There is a personal service aspect of your team that just adds to the quality of the product. As to that…..

This morning I went to my record collection looking for the right one to listen to with morning coffee at the start of a beautiful Friday. I came across the very first Hot Stamper I ever purchased from you. A copy of Carol King’s Tapestry. I remember the nervousness I felt when making that first “investment”…. Have to tell you, it sounds even better today. The dynamic range, the lingering cymbal clash, the clarity of James Taylor’s acoustic guitar…as if I were sitting in that Southern California recording studio all those years ago. 

BTW… I had a very cool experience last week. My boss is friends with a guy who’s name is Herb Tobin. Herb bought an ocean front house in a small berg north Miami called Golden Beach back in 1982. He bought it from a Miami recording studio that use to be called Criteria, later changing their name to the current The Hits Factory. My boss arranged for us to have lunch with Mr. Tobin on my birthday. By now, you no doubt have guessed the address….461 Ocean Blvd. Not only did Eric Clapton stay there and was so inspired at the turning point in his life that time meant he named the album, and used the image looking back from the beach at the back of the house in 1974 as the album cover. The Eagles also stayed there while recording Hotel California.

We met Mr. Tobin out for lunch and he told me many stories of all the strange, and some unwelcome visitors he has had since 1982. One most welcomed visitor was in the 1990’s he got a call from Clapton’s agent and Eric wanted to bring his wife by and show her the house. They ended up having lunch out on the back patio, where the palm tree is on the album cover. Eric autographed 10 records for Mr. Tobin that day and he had 4 left plus one he had framed. My boss made arrangements with Mr. Tobin in advance and he gave me one…. I am having it framed. I have always loved that record, since ’74. Not looking for agreement, but I have never been able to warm up to any of the Cream, Derek and the Dominos, etc. and anything after what are for me the 4 best (461; Backless; No Reason to Cry; and There’s One In Every Crowd), is simply not my cup of tea. But 461 for me is not only Clapton’s best work, it is one of my top 10 albums of all time. Something totally authentic about it.

Wanted to share a little with you of the impact all your good work makes. (more…)

Listening in Depth to The Eagles’ Debut

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Eagles Available Now

We consider this album a Masterpiece.

It’s a recording that belongs in any serious rock music collection.

Let’s talk about the specifics of some of the tracks.

Side One

Take It Easy

On most copies the vocals in the chorus will be a little bit strained. When you hear the vocals sound completely free from harmonic distortion or “edge” of any kind, you have yourself an exceptionally well-mastered, well-pressed copy.

Witchy Woman 

Witchy Woman is one of the key test tracks we use for side one. Take It Easy, the opening song, often sounds amazingly good — it’s got that driving beat and those acoustic guitars and it just seems to be one of those songs that usually sounds right on the original pressings.

Witchy Woman starts out with huge, powerful drums: they should just knock you out. Next comes an acoustic guitar with a lot of echo: the more echo the better, because that means the pressing has lots of resolution. The echo is on the tape, and the more of the tape that ends up on the record the better. Then comes the vocal. It should not be too bright, spitty or grainy. The vocals also have tons of ambience surrounding them on the best copies.

This is a HUGE Demo Quality track. If this song doesn’t knock your socks off something is not working right.

Chug All Night 
Most of Us Are Sad 
Nightingale

Side Two

Train Leaves Here This Morning 

This is my favorite track on the album. In fact I like it so much I think it’s the best Eagles song ever recorded. (Dillard and Clark recorded it on their album as well.) The acoustic guitars and vocal harmonies on this track are simply as good as it gets. If somebody can play me a CD that sounds like this I will eat it.

Take the Devil 
Early Bird 

This is another tough track to master properly. The mix is very complicated, and there’s a banjo that figures prominently in it. Getting that banjo to sound musical is the trick. The bass is very rich on the best copies. On those copies that are a bit on the lean side, the banjo can take on an edgy and aggressive quality.

The best copies get the banjo JUST RIGHT and place it perfectly in the mix. On The Border, their third album and my personal favorite, makes wonderful use of the banjo. When the band changed their sound to take them in the direction of more straight ahead rock (One of These Nights) they lost me. The public felt differently, sending the album to Number One in the charts, which set the stage for the monster success of Hotel California.

Peaceful Easy Feeling 
Tryin’

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