Alive Rock, Pop, Etc.

These 170+ rock, pop and soul titles can only come to life at loud levels on big speakers. We know because we played them on our big speakers at loud levels and heard them do it.

They cannot be reproduced with much more than minimal fidelity using small drivers, small speakers or screens, and they definitely won’t sound their best unless the volume is up good and high.

Peter Gabriel – Self-Titled No. 2 (Scratch)

More of the Music of Peter Gabriel

  • With KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from start to finish, this original UK Charisma pressing is doing practically everything right
  • This has long been a favorite album of mine, a Desert Island Disc if you will, with some of the most powerfully produced, intelligently written and passionately performed songs in the entire PG canon
  • We shot out a number of other imports and the midrange presence, bass, and dynamics on this outstanding copy placed it head and shoulders above most other pressings we played
  • 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 on AllMusic: “‘On the Air’ and ‘D.I.Y.’ are stunning slices of modern rock circa 1978, bubbling with synths, insistent rhythms, and polished processed guitars, all enclosed in a streamlined production that nevertheless sounds as large as a stadium.”
  • If I were to compile a list of my top twenty rock and pop albums of 1978, this album would most likely be one of the most played titles on that list, one that I still listen to regularly to this day

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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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Ten Years After – A Space in Time

More British Blues Rock

  • Here is a vintage UK Chrysalis pressing (the first copy to hit the site in over three years) with solid Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it throughout
  • This side two is tonally correct, big and bold, with the kind of rich, full-bodied sound that is the hallmark of rock recordings in the early to mid-70s, and side one is not far behind in all those areas
  • One of the most important records in my growth as an audiophile from 1971 to the present – my stereo was forced to evolve in order to play this kind of big production rock at the loud levels that the album needs to work its Psychedelic Blues Rock magic
  • No matter how many times you play it, you will hear — or at least gain more of an appreciation for — something new in the exceptionally dense, deep, sophisticated soundfield the engineers no doubt sweated to create for the album
  • And each time you make an improvement to the quality of your playback, this is the album that will show you just exactly what you have accomplished
  • 4 stars: “The leadoff track, ‘One of These Days,’ is a particularly scorching workout, featuring extended harmonica and guitar solos. The production on A Space in Time is crisp and clean, a sound quite different from the denseness of its predecessors [that] has its share of sparkling moments.”
  • This is clearly the band’s best sounding album. Roughly 150 other listings for the best sounding album by an artist or group can be found here.

We always knew this great album could sound good, but it’s not often we heard it sound like this!

A Space in Time is just one of the recordings that made me pursue big stereo systems driving big speakers, right from my earliest days in audio. You need large dynamic drivers with plenty of piston area — the kind that can move a lot of air — in order to bring the power of the music to life.

If you have big speakers and a penchant for giving the old volume knob an extra click or two, it just doesn’t get any better than A Space In Time.

I’ve been playing ASIT for decades and I heard lots of things this time around I never knew were there. This is why we keep improving our systems, right? There is never going to be a time when these 50+ year old recordings have nothing new to offer.

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Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Deja Vu

More of the Music of Crosby, Stills, Nash and (Sometimes) Young

  • Boasting two solid Double Plus (A++) sides or close to them, this early pressing of CSNY’s magnum opus is doing just about everything right
  • The sound is huge throughout – lively, present and rich in a way that nothing you’ve heard can compete with (particularly on side two)
  • And that’s especially true if you own any audiophile pressing of any kind – none of the ones we’ve heard can begin to compete with the real thing we are offering here
  • One of our all-time favorite albums at Better Records and one that almost never sounds this good (unless you know exactly which stampers to buy, of course)
  • We find ten to fifteen RL Zep II’s for every Déjà Vu with the right stampers – we’ve only done three shootouts since 2020, if that tells you anything
  • 5 stars: “…this variety made Déjà Vu a rich musical banquet for the most serious and personal listeners, while mass audiences reveled in the glorious harmonies and the thundering electric guitars…”

If you play this copy at serious levels and have the kind of full range system that’s both loud and clean like live music, we guarantee you will be nothing less than gobsmacked at the size and power of the music on this album, the band’s inarguable masterpiece.

Both sides here are super high-resolution, tonally perfect, Tubey Magical and ALIVE. The vocals are silky and sweet with very little strain or grain (a very common problem in the loudest choruses). The highs are extended, the bass is deep and punchy, and the overall clarity is breathtaking.

Just listen to the guitars during the solos — you can really hear the sound of the pick hitting the strings. The rhythm guitars sound meaty and chunky like the best sounding copies of Zuma and After The Gold Rush. (more…)

Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy

More of the Music of Led Zeppelin

  • With two outstanding Double Plus (A++) or BETTER sides, this copy is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other Houses of the Holy you’ve heard
  • Side two was sonically very close to our Shootout Winner – you will be shocked at how big and powerful the sound is
  • For this album, Mint Minus Minus is as QUIET as we can find them
  • Only the pressings mastered by Robert Ludwig have any hope of doing well in our shootouts, and those are the only ones we have ever offered, beginning all the way back in 2006
  • Wall to wall, floor to ceiling Led Zeppelin power – this copy delivers like you will not believe, or your money back
  • A Better Records Top 100 album (along with 4 other Zep titles), 5 stars in AMG and a true Zeppelin Must Own classic
  • The Tubey Magical acoustic guitars here should be a wake up call to everyone that any and all attempts to remaster this album are bound to fail – that sound is gone and it is never coming back
  • 5 stars: “Jimmy Page’s riffs rely on ringing, folky hooks as much as they do on thundering blues-rock, giving the album a lighter, more open atmosphere…”
  • If you’re a fan of the band, this title from 1973 is clearly one of their best, and inarguably one of their best sounding

This copy has the kind of BIG, BOLD ROCK SOUND that takes this music to places you’ve only dreamed it could go. The HUGE drums on this copy are going to blow your mind — and probably your neighbors’ minds as well.

And what would a Zep record be without bass? Not much, yet this is precisely the area where so many copies fail. Not so here. The bottom end is big and meaty with superb definition, allowing the record to ROCK, just the way the band wanted it to.

The vocals too are tonally correct. None of the phony upper-midrange boost that the Classic Records reissue suffers from is evident on this copy.

The louder Robert Plant screams, the better he sounds and the more I like it.

The Classic Records pressing makes me wince, and Jimmy Page’s remaster is not much better.

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The Beatles – The White Album

More of the Music of The Beatles

  • You’ll find solid Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER on all FOUR sides of these vintage British pressings – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • This copy of the Beatles’ Masterpiece (my personal favorite of all their albums) is going to thrill and delight the lucky person who snags it
  • If you’ve heard the Half-Speed and Heavy Vinyl versions of The White Album, then you know how riddled they are with unacceptable flaws
  • “If there is still any doubt that Lennon and McCartney are the greatest song writers since Schubert, then next Friday – with the publication of the new Beatles double LP – should surely see the last vestiges of cultural snobbery and bourgeois prejudice swept away in a deluge of joyful music making…” Right On!
  • Our customers often write us to tell us how much they like their Hot Stamper pressings of The Beatles, and they have been especially enthusiastic when it comes to The White Album

Our White Album Hot Stampers have always been a big hit with the folks who’ve been lucky enough to snare them. If you’re ready for a high-quality copy of The White Album that’s sure to massacre all the pressings you’ve heard up until now, you should jump right on this bad boy.

The Toughest One?

It’s exceedingly difficult to find audiophile quality sound on The White Album. Other than Yellow Submarine, side two of which almost never sounds good, The White Album is surely one of the toughest nuts to crack in The Beatles canon.

The Beatles were breaking apart, often recording independently of each other, with their own favorite engineers as enablers, and George Martin nowhere to be found most of the time. They were also experimenting more and more, pushing the boundaries of recorded sound. These new approaches and added complexity cause a loss of “purity” in the sound. Let’s face it, most audiophiles like simplicity: A female vocal, a solo guitar — these things are easy to reproduce and often result in lovely sound, the kind of sound that doesn’t take a lot of money or effort to achieve.

Dense mixes with wacky EQ are difficult to reproduce (our famous DOR scale comes into play here), and the White Album is full of both, taking a break for songs like “Blackbird” and “Julia.”

This is my favorite Beatles album, a desert island disc if there ever was one, and nothing less than a work of genius. If some songs could have been recorded better, so what? They’re as good as they are going to get, and on a Hot Stamper pressing like this one, that means awfully good.

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Warren Zevon – Excitable Boy

More of the Music of Warren Zevon

  • Excitable Boy is back on the site after a three year hiatus, here with solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER on both sides of this vintage Asylum pressing
  • The sound is anchored by an exceptionally fat, rich, punchy low end, and this copy delivers on that promise big time
  • Much like The Pretender, this is a superb recording with the kind of Tubey Magical Analog Richness we go crazy for here
  • 4 stars: “Excitable Boy was an actual hit, scoring one major hit single, ‘Werewolves of London,’ and a trio of turntable hits (‘Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner,’ ‘Lawyers, Guns and Money,’ and the title track).”
  • If you’re a fan of Warren’s, this has to be seen as a Top Title from 1976 that surely belongs in your collection
  • It’s without a doubt his best sounding album, and, to our way of thinking, his only essential one

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.

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Derek and the Dominos – Layla

More of the Music of Eric Clapton

  • A Layla like you’ve never heard, with INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on all FOUR sides of these vintage Polydor pressings
  • Many of our favorite Clapton songs are here: “Bell Bottom Blues,” “Tell The Truth,” “Little Wing,” “Layla” and “Have You Ever Loved A Woman?”
  • One of the most difficult albums to find great sound for, but the music makes it worth all the time and trouble we spent finding this amazing copy
  • We guarantee there is dramatically more richness, fullness, vocal presence, and performance energy on this copy than most others you’ve heard, and that’s especially true if you own whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing is currently on the market, made from who-knows-what tapes, or an original Atco pressing, or an original British import, or… you get the idea
  • 5 stars: “What really makes Layla such a powerful record is that Clapton, ignoring the traditions that occasionally painted him into a corner, simply tears through these songs with burning, intense emotion.”

Sound this good simply means that you will more than likely hear these songs sound better than you ever imagined they could. We guarantee it.

Look at all these classics:

“I Looked Away”
“Bell Bottom Blues”
“Keep On Growing”
“Nobody Knows When You’re Down and Out”
“Tell The Truth”
“Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad?”
“Have You Ever Loved A Woman”

We rarely get around to this shootout because clean copies with potential for good sound are very hard to come by. After not having spent much quality time with the album for many years, we were pleasantly surprised at just how much fun we were having and at how well the music holds up 55 years after its recording.

On the better copies the sound is amazingly lively and rockin’ and, more importantly, completely engrossing. On this copy you’ll find yourself swept up in tracks like “Bell Bottom Blues,” “Tell The Truth,” “Little Wing,” “Layla” and at least a good half dozen more.

If you could only have one Clapton album, wouldn’t it have to be this one?

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The Faces – Long Player

More British Blues Rock

  • An original Green Label pressing of the Face’s sophomore LP with outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER from start to finish
  • Amazing live-in-the-studio sound that conveys completely the raw power of one of the hardest rockin’ bands of all time
  • Click here to see more of our favorite Rock and Pop records with relatively unprocessed sound
  • 5 stars in Allmusic and probably the Faces’ Best Album, for sound and music – “Maybe I’m Amazed”? Hell yeah!
  • “…a ferocious rock & roll band who, on their best day, could wrestle the title of greatest rock & roll band away from the Stones.”
  • This is our pick for The Face’s best sounding album. Roughly 150 other listings for the best sounding album by an artist or group can be found here on the blog.

We knew this album could sound good, but back in the day we sure didn’t know it could sound like this.

Both musically and sonically I don’t think the group ever recorded a better album than this one.

Take the wonderful song “Bad ‘N’ Ruin” (the opening track on side one) for example. It’s the sound of open mics in a big studio space — nothing more, nothing less. It’s totally free from any phony mastering or bad EQ, and on a Hot Stamper copy like this one, it’s absolute magic.

Martin Birch was the engineer for the first two tracks on side one. You may know him from his work with Fleetwood Mac (1969-1973) and Deep Purple (1969-1977), which include the amazingly well-recorded albums Machine Head and Made In Japan.

It’s a rare record indeed that can rock with the best of them while keeping its audiophile credentials intact. Like we said about our Hot Stampers for Never A Dull Moment, we sure wish more Rolling Stones records sounded like this.

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