Columbia/Epic

Columbia and Epic are labels we love.

Miles Davis / In Person – Friday and Saturday Nights

More  of the Music of Miles Davis

  • This 2-LP 6-Eye Stereo pressing boasts very good Hot Stamper sound or BETTER 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
  • Skip the Red Label pressings – the ones we’ve played were too thin and dry, which is sadly a sound far too common on Columbia reissues from the 70s
  • Marks and problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these early pressings – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Though short-lived, the unique character of this group was its sheer intensity and diversity of attack. Because of the departure of Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane, Davis had to rely as much on a muscular attack in playing his instrument as his considerable gift for melodic improvisation. For his part, Mobley had the shoes of two monster players to fill, and he does so elegantly with a ton of fire in his playing. But it is Kelly and Chambers who really set the pace for this band.”
  • If you’re a jazz fan, this classic title from 1961 belongs in your collection
  • The complete list of titles from 1961 that we’ve reviewed to date can be found here.

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Weather Report – Heavy Weather

More of the Music of Weather Report

  • Both sides of this vintage copy have excellent sound for the band’s 1977 Masterpiece, earning top grades
  • “Birdland” on this pressing has some of the most dynamic, wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling, jam-packed sound ever committed to vinyl
  • Joe Zawinul and Jaco Pastorius are both here and at the absolute peak of their creative powers – this is a work of genius
  • 5 stars: “‘Birdland’ is a remarkable bit of record-making, a unified, ever-developing piece of music that evokes, without in any way imitating, a joyous evening on 52nd St. with a big band.”
  • We’ve 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 the accent on the joy these amazing audiophile-quality recordings can bring to your life. Weather Report’s seventh (!) album is a good example of a record many audiophiles may not know all that well but do well to find the time to get to know better.
  • As is sometimes the case, there is one and only one set of stampers that consistently wins our shootouts for Heavy Weather.  Click on this link to see other titles with one set of stamper numbers that always come out on top

The hottest of the hot stamper pressings demonstrate that this is a truly amazing recording, with some of the most dynamic, wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling jam-packed sound ever committed to vinyl. The grit, grain and grunge of most pressings is nowhere to be found on these killer sides, and that alone puts them in a very special league indeed. (more…)

Duke Ellington – The Nutcracker Suite

More of the Music of Duke Ellington

  • This original 6-Eye Stereo pressing is doing practically everything right, with killer Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound from first note to last – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • Both of these sides are open and spacious with real depth to the soundfield and lots of separation between the various instruments, a very important quality for a large ensemble recording like this one
  • Rich, solid bass; you-are-there immediacy; energy and drive; instruments that are positively jumping out of the speakers – add it all up and you can see that this copy had the sound we were looking for
  • “The melodies flow out of the jazz ensemble with an easy feel for the manner of Tchaikovsky yet in an unmistakable Ellington style. It’s the kind of traditional jazz arrangement that at once makes it appealing to jazz fans as well as to classical-music afficionados.” – Classical Candor.com

This is a wonderful album featuring Duke and his orchestra doing a jazzy interpretation of the famous Nutcracker Suite, and on a copy like this the sound is incredible!

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Stevie Ray Vaughan – In Step

More of the Music of Stevie Ray Vaughan

  • SRV’s penultimate release from 1989, here with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them from start to finish – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Both of these sides have that big, bold electric blues sound, with plenty of energy and presence that’s surely missing from whatever 180g reissue is being foisted on the unsuspecting record buying public today
  • Mastered by Bernie Grundman, if you can believe it, a man we’ve had plenty to say about over the years (most of it not flattering), but whose work here proves the man did know how to cut great records at one point in his career
  • 5 stars: “The magnificent thing about In Step is how it’s fully realized, presenting every facet of Vaughan’s musical personality, yet it still soars with a sense of discovery. It’s a bittersweet triumph, given Vaughan’s tragic death a little over a year after its release, yet it’s a triumph all the same.”

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Miles Davis / Basic Miles – Here Is the Hot Stamper Sound of Kind of Blue

More of the Music of Miles Davis

  • Demo Disc Jazz sound for this wonderful collection, with both sides earning killer Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades, just shy of our Shootout Winner – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Opening side two, the 9+ minutes of “On Green Dolphin Street” has some of the coolest jazz you will ever hear, on any record, at any price
  • We’re talking Bill Evans, John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley in their prime, 1958, with top 1958 sound to match
  • If you want to know what the better copies of Kind of Blue sound like, this pressing will tell you, because it has that sound
  • And that means it is absolutely NOTHING like the MoFi 45 RPM 2 LP set that some audiophiles (and the reviewers who cater to them) seem to like so much, why, we cannot begin to fathom

Want to know how good our Hot Stamper Kind of Blue pressings sound?

Listen to this very record.

If you play the tracks that were recorded in 1958, the year before Kind of Blue, you will hear practically the same lineup of musicians.

That means Stella By Starlight and Little Melonae on side one, and Green Dolphin Street and Fran-Dance (Put Your Little Foot Right Out) on side two. 

The nine-minute plus Green Dolphin Street that opens side two is nothing short of amazing, some of the coolest jazz you will ever hear. With Fran Dance on the same side, that gives you about 17 minutes of great-sounding jazz by Miles’ classic Kind of Blue lineup.

Side one has the same cats playing for more than 12 minutes. By my calculation, that’s close to another album’s worth of material from the group. The rest of the material on this compilation is best seen as gravy; maybe not essential, but never less than interesting. (more…)

Michael Jackson / Thriller – A Rock, Pop and Soul Masterpiece

More of the Music of Michael Jackson

  • With solid Double Plus (A++) grades from top to bottom, we guarantee you’ve never heard Michael Jackson’s Masterpiece of hard rockin’ funky pop sound this good – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • The sound is huge – big, wide, deep, and open, with a punchy bottom end and rhythmic energy to spare, as well as cleaner, smoother, sweeter upper mids and a more extended top
  • A Top 100 title and 5 stars on AMG: “This was a record that had something for everybody, building on the basic blueprint of Off the Wall by adding harder funk, hard rock, softer ballads, and smoother soul — expanding the approach to have something for every audience.”
  • In our estimation, there are about 40 Must Own rock, pop and soul records from the 80s, and if there’s any album that belongs on that list, it’s Thriller
  • There is a version cut at Half-Speed by Mobile Fidelity, and as you can imagine, we did not much care for it

This is some of the best High-Production-Value rock/pop/soul music of the 80s. The amount of effort that went into the recording of Thriller is comparable to that expended by the engineers and producers of bands like Supertramp, The Who, Jethro Tull, Ambrosia, Pink Floyd and far too many others of our favorites to list. It seems that no effort or cost was spared in making the home listening experience as compelling as the recording technology of the day permitted.

Sound that came lumping-out-of-the-speakers coupled with driving rhythmic energy were the hallmarks of the best copies. These qualities really brought this complex music to life, gave it room to breathe, and made it possible for us to enjoy the hell out of it. This is yet another definition of a Hot Stamper — it’s the copy that lets the music work as music. (more…)

Gershwin / Rhapsody In Blue / An American In Paris – Bernstein

More of the Music of George Gershwin

  • This vintage 6-Eye Stereo pressing boasts INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades from top to bottom
  • Here is sound that is both tubey and real, with much more space and a much bigger and more realistic presentation of the hall than any of the other copies we played
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Paired with his buoyant 1958 performance of An American in Paris with the New York Philharmonic, Bernstein’s rendition of Rhapsody is lively, flashy, bluesy, and intensely romantic in feeling, and these positive characteristics no doubt contributed to keeping this album in print for many years as one of Columbia’s great successes.”

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Kansas – Leftoverture

More of the Music of Kansas

  • An early Kirshner pressing that was doing everything right, with both sides earning INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • The best copy from our recent shootout – the sound is big, full and lively with real Prog Rock energy and a huge punchy bottom end
  • Kansas’s most consistent and engaging album, their true Masterpiece by our lights – a copy as good as this will show you the awesome energy the band brought to their music
  • “Undoubtedly their finest album, Leftoverture warrants Kansas a spot right alongside Boston and Styx as one of the fresh new American bands who combine hard-driving group instrumentation with short, tight melody lines…” – Rolling Stone
  • As is sometimes the case, there is one and only one set of stampers that consistently wins our shootouts for this album.  Click on this link to see other titles with one set of stamper numbers that always come out on top

On the hottest of our Hot Stampers the recording is a glorious example of the Big Rock Sound we love here at Better Records. Wall to wall and floor to ceiling barely begins to do it justice. Like so many of the great rock recordings we offer, when you play one of our Hot Stampers, the sound commands your attention.

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What Is There To Say?

Hot Stamper Pressings of Vintage Columbia Albums Available Now

UPDATE 2025

We have two new lists for those who would like to know which Columbia label pressings win shootouts — one for 6-Eye winners and one for 360 Label winners.

Recordings made at their 30th Street Studio are pretty hard to beat. There is no Heavy Vinyl reissue on the planet that can compete with the sound of one of our Hot Stamper pressings of any of the albums you see available, guaranteed or your money back.

This Six Eye stereo LP put every other copy we played to shame on side one with shootout winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound. Side two earned a Double Plus (A++) grade for its explosive dynamics and rich, full-bodied, Tubey Magical sax sound. Tubier, more transparent, more dynamic, with that “jumpin’ out of the speakers’ quality that only The Real Thing ever has. Hard to imagine any reissue, vintage or otherwise, can hold a candle to the sound of this amazing record. 

Recorded at Columbia’s 30th Street studios, here is a record that sounds like Kind of Blue, Ah Um and Time Out, for the simple reason that all were recorded in the same studio using the same equipment and perhaps even the same engineers.

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George Michael – Faith

More of the Music of George Michael

  • Incredible sound for this George Michael classic, with both sides earning Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this stunning copy in our notes: “punchy and solid and weighty”…”deep, rich bass”…”vox focused and breathy”…”present and rich and open”
  • The domestic pressings are a dubby joke next to these original imports; here is the size, clarity and Tubey Magic you’ve always wanted this music to have
  • With six (6!) Top Ten hits, this album is chock full of brilliantly produced and passionately performed material
  • There are some bad marks (as is sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs) on “Father Figure,” but once you hear just how killer sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting ticks and just be swept away by the music
  • 5 stars: “A superbly crafted mainstream pop/rock masterpiece, Faith made George Michael an international solo star… All of it adds up to one of the finest pop albums of the 80s, setting a high-water mark that Michael was only able to reach in isolated moments afterward.”

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