*Must Own Titles

Elton John – Self-Titled

More of the Music of Elton John

  • With two solid Double Plus (A++) or BETTER sides, this copy was giving us the sound we were looking for on Elton’s sophomore release – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • These sides are huge, and the music positively jumps out of the speakers – accept no substitutes!
  • A vintage British DJM pressing with sound this good is a Must Own for all right thinking music lovers of the audiophile persuasion – this is a very special recording, one that will reward countless plays for as long as you live
  • Some of the most remarkable string arrangements (and Tubey Magical string sound) ever recorded for a pop album
  • Top 100 and 4 1/2 stars: “Even with the strings and choirs that dominate the sound of the album, John manages to rock out on a fair share of the record. …Elton John remains one of his best records.”
  • A permanent resident of our Top 100 rock and pop list — this album is a Must Own from 1970
  • We’ve recently 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,” with an accent on the joy these amazing audiophile-quality recordings can bring to your life. Elton John is a good example of a record many audiophiles may not know well but would certainly benefit from getting to know better.

Folks, if you’re looking for classic popular music that still appeals to sophisticated adults fifty-plus years after it came out, this is the album for you. It’s one of the four classic Elton John records (five if you count GYBR) that belong in every right-thinking audiophile’s collection.

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Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery – The Dynamic Duo

More of the Music of Jimmy Smith

More of the Music of Wes Montgomery

  • With solid Double Plus (A++) grades from top to bottom, this is an wonderful sounding pressing of Jimmy and Wes’s classic jazz collaboration from 1966
  • Big, rich and lively, thanks to Oliver Nelson’s arrangements (and RVG’s engineering), this big group of top players is having a blast and we think you will too
  • 5 stars: “The romping, aggressive big band charts [represent] Oliver Nelson at his best… The results are incendiary — a near-ideal meeting of yin and yang… They are an amazing pair, complementing each other, driving each other, using their bop and blues taproots to fuse together a sound.”

The sound of this Verve stereo pressing is tonally correct and natural. The timbre of each and every instrument is right and it doesn’t take a pair of golden ears to hear it. So high-resolution too. If you love ’60s jazz you cannot go wrong here. (more…)

Dave Mason – Alone Together (Marble Vinyl)

More of the Music of Dave Mason

  • Mason’s Masterpiece, here with solid Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER on both sides of this vintage Blue Thumb pressing – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Listen to how big and rich the dynamic chorus gets on the first track, “Only You Know and I Know” – what a thrill to hear it like that
  • A killer Bruce Botnick recording – Tubey Magical analog, smooth and natural, with the whole production sitting on a rock solid bottom-end foundation
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Alone Together represents Dave Mason at his peak… everything comes together perfectly.”

Before I get too far into the story of the sound, I want to say that this album appears to be criminally underrated as music nowadays, having fallen from favor with the passage of time.

It is a surely a Masterpiece that belongs in any rock collection worthy of the name. (Others that belong in that category can be found here.) Every track is good, and most are amazingly good. There’s no filler here.

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America – Self-Titled

More of the Music of America

  • Boasting a KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side one mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side two, this early Green Label pressing could not be beat – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • This was the only copy in our shootout to earn a 3+ grade on any side that did not have a sizable number of marks that played, which is disappointing considering how hard it is to find top quality sound on this title!
  • One of our favorite Hippie Folk Rock albums – the instruments and voices are so well recorded they will seem to be floating right in front of you
  • The Tubey Magical acoustic guitars on this record are a true test of stereo reproduction – thanks, Ken Scott
  • 4 stars: “America’s debut album is a folk-pop classic, a stellar collection of memorable songs that would prove influential on such acts as the Eagles and Dan Fogelberg…”

This is clearly America’s best album. You’ll find the kind of immediacy, richness and harmonic texture that not many records (and even fewer CDs) are capable of reproducing. The version we are offering here has the song “A Horse With No Name.” Some copies without that song can sound very good as well, but with grades this good, this copy is going to be very hard to beat.

Interestingly, “A Horse With No Name” never sounds quite as good as the rest of the album. It was recorded in 1971, after the album had already been released, and subsequently added to newer pressings starting in 1972. Unlike the rest of the album, it was not engineered by Ken Scott at Trident, but by a different engineer at Morgan Studios. The engineer of that song took a different approach to that which Scott had taken, and we leave it to you to decide how well it worked out.

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Dvorak / Violin Concerto – A Killer Philips Recording

More of the Music of Antonin Dvorak

  • Excellent sound throughout this Philips import pressing of Dvorak’s Classical Masterpieces, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • The orchestral passages are rich and sweet, the violin present, its harmonics gloriously intact
  • We audiophiles are fortunate indeed that a violinist of Accardo’s skill and taste recorded this piece for Philips at a time when their recording technology was still capable of capturing the sound of his violin in rich, warm, sweet, clear analog
  • A superb performance from Salvatore Accardo, not only competitive with the best we have heard, but superior – we know of none better
  • A superb performance from Salvatore Accardo, not only competitive with the best we have heard, but superior – we know of none better
  • These links will take you to some of the orchestral “sleeper” recordings we’ve discovered with Demo Disc sound

Yes, it was still possible to record classical music properly in 1980, though not many labels managed to pull it off. (Londons from this era are especially opaque and airless. We find them as irritating and frustrating as most of the Heavy Vinyl releases being foisted on the audiophile public today.)

This is still analog, with the better copies displaying much of the Tubey Magic of 50s and 60s vinyl without as much compressor distortion (the Achilles’ heel of so many of the great recordings from the Golden Era).

Accardo is an accomplished performer of the works of Paganini, but those recordings are on DG and we would not expect them to be of acceptable audio quality for our customers. We will investigate further of course, as Paganini’s works for violin are some of the most sublime in the repertoire.

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James Taylor – JT

More of the Music of James Taylor

  • A vintage copy of Taylor’s 1977 breakthrough album that was doing practically everything right, earning STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides
  • It’s a superb recording – a member of our Top 100, in fact – but it takes a pressing like this to show you just how big and lively it can sound
  • The big hits “Your Smiling Face” and “Handy Man” both sound great here – thanks, Val Garay!
  • Don’t waste your money on any copy that doesn’t have TML stampers on both sides – they never sound any good
  • Interestingly, this time around even the worst side of any TML pressing earned a (1.5+) Hot Stamper grade
  • If you are using the Prelude Record Cleaning system on the right machines, you can’t go wrong with the early pressings of this title (although you can go much more right if you do a shootout and find a top copy like this one)
  • Marks 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
  • 4 stars: “JT was James Taylor’s best album since Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon because it acknowledged the darkness of his earlier work while explaining the deliberate lightness of his current viewpoint, and because it was his most consistent collection in years.”
  • If I were to compile a list of my favorite rock and pop albums from 1977, this album would definitely be on it

The good copies really rock on songs like Honey Don’t Leave L.A. or I Was Only Telling A Lie, yet have lovely, delicate vocals on ballads such as Another Grey Morning or There We Are (two of our favorite songs on the album).

Just turn up the volume and play the opening to Honey Don’t Leave L.A. — this is James Taylor and his super-tight studio band at the peak of their powers. Russ Kunkel hits the drum twice, then clicks his sticks together so quickly you can hardly notice it, then goes back to the drums for the rest of the intro.

On the best copies, the subtleties of his performance are clearly on display. Until the right copies came along, we had never even noticed that stick trick. Now it’s the high point of the whole intro.

Here are more of our favorite records with exceptionally punchy bass and here are more of our favorite records with exceptionally punchy drums.

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Paganini – Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 / Menuhin

More of the Music of Paganini

  • This vintage EMI pressing of two of the truly great virtuoso/romantic violin concertos boasts a STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side two mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side one – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • It’s simply bigger, more transparent, less distorted, more three-dimensional and more real than practically all of what we played
  • The best balance of orchestra and soloist we know of for both works, with sound to rival the greatest works for the violin we’ve played

Another remarkable Demo Disc from the Golden Age of Vacuum Tube Recording Technology, in this case 1961, with the added benefit of mastering using the more modern cutting equipment of the ’70s. (We are of course here referring to the good modern mastering of 40 years ago, not the bad modern mastering of today.)

This combination of old and new works wonders on this title as you will surely hear for yourself on this wonderful copy.

The sound of the best copies is transparent, undistorted, three-dimensional and REAL, without any sacrifice in solidity, richness or Tubey Magic. The illusion of disappearing speakers is one of the more attractive aspects of the sound here, pulling the listener into the space of the concert hall in an especially engrossing way. (more…)

Ravel / Daphnis et Chloé / Monteux

More of the Music of Maurice Ravel

  • Boasting INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them throughout, this original London pressing was giving us the sound we were looking for on Ravel’s complete Masterpiece
  • It’s also remarkably quiet at the high end of Mint Minus Minus, a grade that even our most well-cared-for vintage classical titles have trouble playing at
  • The sound is big and rich, lively and open, with an abundance of depth and huge climaxes that hold together
  • The voices in the chorus are clear, natural, separate and full-bodied — this is the hallmark of a vintage Golden Age recording: naturalness
  • We know of no other recording of the work that does as good a job of capturing such a large orchestra and chorus
  • Of course, Monteux is a master of the French idiom – his performance of the complete ballet is definitive in our opinion
  • There are about 150 orchestral recordings we think offer the best performances with the highest quality sound. This record is certainly deserving of a place on that list.

Both sides here are big, with the space and depth of the wonderful Kingsway Hall that the LSO perform in. John Culshaw produced the album, which surely accounts for the huge size and space, not to mention quality, of the recording. The sound is dynamic and tonally correct throughout.

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The Beatles – Magical Mystery Tour

More of the Music of The Beatles

  • 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

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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Lou Reed – Transformer

More Rock Classics

  • This copy of Lou’s Rock Masterpiece boasts solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER from top to bottom – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • A superb pressing that is guaranteed to blow your mind – there is practically no chance that you have ever heard this album sound this good, especially if you have an original import or domestic pressing
  • A side one this good means “Walk on the Wild Side” is a Demo Quality track that will have your audiophile friends turning green with envy
  • Our vintage British import Hot Stamper pressing here showed us just how Tubey Magical the midrange of the album could be – thanks, Ken Scott!
  • 4 1/2 stars: “… Bowie and Ronson gave their hero a new lease on life – and a solid album in the bargain.”
  • Transformer is his Masterpiece, a Core Collection title, and possibly a case of One and Done since it’s the only Lou Reed album we sell. (You, of course, may feel differently.)

Transformer is an absolute tour de force of 70s Glam Rock / Classic Rock / Alternative Rock. You’ve got Lou Reed teamed up with David Bowie (in the producer’s chair), Mick Ronson, Herbie Flowers and Klaus Voorman, and on top of that the album was recorded at Trident and mixed by the great Ken Scott.

Throw in the fact that this is the best set of post-Velvets material Lou would ever write and it is a recipe for success. There are so many good songs on here I won’t bother to list them one by one. Satellite Of Love is especially good though, if you ask me. If you agree, and you’ve never heard the VU demo version, make sure to seek it out. It’s completely different and good fun.

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