Stereo=Best

These records are available in mono, but they sound their best in stereo.

Henry Mancini – Music from “Mr. Lucky”

More Living Stereo Recordings

  • Music from “Mr. Lucky” appears on the site for only the second time ever, here with excellent Double Plus (A++) Living Stereo sound or BETTER throughout this original RCA pressing
  • This copy is super spacious, sweet and positively dripping with ambience — talk about Tubey Magic, the liquidity of the sound here is positively uncanny
  • If you’re looking to demonstrate just how good 1960 All Tube Analog sound can be, this superb copy may be just the record for you
  • Marks 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

Al Schmitt

Al Schmitt recorded and mixed Music from Mr. Lucky and on the best copies it should be clear to all that he knocked it out of the park.

We know his work well; he happens to have been at the controls for many albums with audiophile quality sound: Aja, Hatari, Breezin’, Late for the Sky, Toto IV, as well as some we can’t stand (the entire Diana Krall digital-echo-drenched catalog comes to mind).

The guy’s won 13 Grammy Awards, that ought to count for something.

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Prokofiev / Love for Three Oranges Suite & Scythian Suite – Dorati

More of the Music of Sergei Prokofiev

  • You’ll find INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it throughout this original Maroon Label Mercury LP
  • We have a preference for Dorati’s work with the London Symphony Orchestra, and a record like this will show you exactly why we do
  • If you’re a fan of 20th century orchestral showpieces such as these, Robert Fine and Wilma Cozart have here produced a very special record of two of the best
  • We hope you like your sound big and bold, because that is the sound they were obviously going for
  • I have to admit I was never a fan of this album until only a few years ago, when I finally got my hands on a clean copy and heard the powerful sound of the London Symphony come blasting out of my speakers – what a thrill!
  • This record seems to have been dropped from the TAS Super Disc list, which is only fitting since the current crop of nitwits has been watering it down with one crappy title after another since HP passed in 2014
  • If you’re a fan of Prokofiev’s music, this superb All Tube Recording from 1957 belongs in your collection.
  • The complete list of titles from 1957 that we’ve reviewed to date can be found here.

In the heyday of the 90s, when these records were all the rage, this copy would have sold for as much as $1000 and maybe even more. And the copy that sold for that would have been very unlikely to sound as good as this one, if only for the fact that cleaning technologies have advanced so much over the last twenty years or so (and no, I do not mean ultrasonic cleaning. I mean scrubbing with the right fluids and using the right machines to vacuum them off).

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Michel Legrand – Legrand Jazz

More Large Group Jazz Recordings

  • This original 6-Eye Stereo pressing was doing just about everything right, earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades from start to finish
  • 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 recording of a large ensemble recording such as this
  • 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
  • Legrand rounded up 31 of the greatest jazz players of the 50s, divided them up into three groups, and the result was a landmark 30th Street Studio recording with audiophile sound to die for
  • We’re talking jazz giants: John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Ben Webster, Herbie Mann, Art Farmer, Donald Byrd, Phil Woods — everybody who was anybody is on this record
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Throughout this superlative album, the arrangements are colorful and unusual, making one wish that Legrand had recorded more jazz albums through the years.”
  • Robert Brook recently played the “award winning” Impex 45 RPM pressing from 2019 (as did we) and wants to know what you think of the sound

This album is more common in mono than stereo, but we found the sound of the mono pressing we played seriously wanting. It’s dramatically smaller and more squawky and crude than even the worst of the stereo pressings we played.

We had a copy we liked years ago, but that was years ago. We don’t have that copy anymore and we don’t have a stereo that sounds the way our old one did either.

The unique voices of each of the jazz giants featured on this landmark recording contributes memorable solos then receeds into the group to provide the structure for the rest of the music. Which is an awkward way of saying everybody does his thing in service to the song and then gets out of the way. “The Jitterbug Waltz,” which opens up side one, is a perfect example: the arrangement is completely original, and within its structure, Miles Davis, Phil Woods, John Coltrane and others solo beautifully, each taking a turn at the melody. If three minutes into this song you don’t like what you’re hearing, jazz is just not for you.

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Grant Green – Am I Blue

More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Guitar

  • Green’s 1964 release, here with solid Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides of this vintage Blue Note pressing
  • Only one copy had better sound than this one — our shootout winner — and the sad fact of the matter is that no other copy earned a 2+ grade on either side other than this one — a tough shootout, and one we are unlikely to do again soon
  • Feel free to explore whatever reissues might suit your fancy, but one pressing you should probably steer clear of is anything on the Music Matters label — they really made a mess of Grant’s Green Street album, so unless you have return privileges, you are asking for trouble buying any of their records
  • A copy like this is a real audiophile treat – here are the punchy, clear, natural and lively sonics you want for Am I Blue
  • Rudy Van Gelder was masterful at this kind of spacious, low-distortion, dynamic, energetic sound

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Tchaikovsky, Schumann, et al. / Ballet Favorites / Ansermet

More of the Music of Tchaikovsky

  • This wonderful collection of ballet highlights debuts on the site with rich, spacious Tubey Magical Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound throughout this early Maroon Label Victrola stereo pressing (VICS-1066)
  • The music here has been excerpted from the Royal Gala Ballet Soria Set that sells for many thousands of dollars these days, and the sound here is so good it’s hard to imagine the original being better
  • We will never know of course — finding an affordable (say under $2k) set seems to be getting less likely with each passing year
  • The music here is of course excerpted from the Royal Gala Ballet Soria Set that sells for many thousands of dollars these days, and the sound here is so good it’s hard to imagine the original being better
  • These sides are clear, full-bodied and present, with plenty of live venue space around the players, the unmistakable sonic hallmark of the properly mastered, properly pressed vintage analog LP
  • A record like this lets you get lost in the world of its music, and what could be more important in a recording than that?
  • Enchanting music and sound combine here to make one seriously good Demo Disc, if what you are trying to demonstrate is how relaxed and involved vintage analog can make you feel

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Charles Mingus – Pre Bird

More of the Music of Charles Mingus

  • You’ll find solid Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it throughout this original Mercury Stereo LP
  • We used to think the early Limelight pressing was impossible to beat, but this superb original Mercury showed us just how wrong we were – it takes the recording to another level (particularly on side two)
  • This copy sounds like a big room full of musicians (25 in all!) playing live, which is exactly what it was
  • The Tubey Magical richness of this 1960 recording (released in 1961, and again in 1965 as Mingus Revisited) is breathtaking (also particularly on side two) – no modern record can touch it
  • AllMusic gives it 4 stars and we think it’s maybe even a bit better than that
  • Two tracks are contrapuntal arrangements of two swing era pieces, whereby “Take the ‘A’ Train” (left channel) is paired with a simultaneous “Exactly Like You” (right channel), and likewise “Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me” with “I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart.”
  • An outstanding member of our Core Jazz Collection of currently available exceptional recordings.

The better copies recreate a live studio space the size of which you will not believe (assuming your room can do a good job of recreating their room). The sound is tonally correct, Tubey Magical and above all 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 50s and 60s jazz, you cannot go wrong here. Mingus was a genius and the original music on this record is just one more album’s worth of proof of the undeniability of that fact.

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Andre Previn & His Pals – Pal Joey

More Contemporary Label Jazz

  • Pal Joey returns to the site for only the second time in nearly five years, here with solid Double Plus (A++) sound throughout this vintage Contemporary label pressing – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Our better Hot Stamper copies will show you just how good 50s All Tube Analog can sound
  • Yet another Demo Disc for Contemporary, more brilliant work by the engineering team of Dunann and Holzer
  • One of Andre Previn’s better jazz performances on record – his pals Manne and Mitchell are no slouches either
  • 1957 just happens to be a wonderful year for analog recordings, as evidenced by this amazing group of albums, all recorded or released in that year.

The piano sounds uncannily lifelike right from the start, a beautiful instrument in a natural space, tonally correct from top to bottom. I can’t think of many records off the top of my head that get a better piano sound than this one. Dunann and Holzer in 1957 are hard to beat. (more…)

Frank Sinatra – Strangers In The Night

More of the Music of Frank Sinatra

  • Boasting two solid Double Plus (A++) sides, this vintage Reprise pressing is doing just about everything right – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • This Sinatra title surprised us with its Demo Disc sound – on the blog, it’s one of the records we “discovered” with audiophile quality sound, because who knew the album could sound this good but us?
  • Clearly one of the better sounding Reprise-era Sinatra albums we have ever played
  • Credit must be given to the extraordinarily inventive arrangements of Nelson Riddle and the Tubey Magical engineering of Lee Herschberg
  • Marks 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
  • “Sinatra’s singing is relaxed, confident, and surprisingly jazzy, as he plays with the melody of ‘The Most Beautiful Girl in the World’ and delivers a knockout punch with the assured, breathtaking ‘Summer Wind.'”

We cannot recommend this pressing highly enough. If you want to know what the best sounding Sinatra records sound like, this is your chance. Folks, in my opinion it simply does not get any better than a killer White Hot Stamper of Strangers In The Night.

These originals are the only way to go for ’60s Sinatra, but finding them in good shape on quiet vinyl is no picnic and only a few of them actually sound the way we want them to. It’s a real treat to be in the presence of the Chairman Of The Board, in his prime, working his magic — but only an exceptional copy like this one has the power to put him right in the room with you.

What to Listen For

The Tubey Magic has to be heard to be believed. I cannot recall hearing a richer, smoother, tubier Frank Sinatra album in all my born days.

Weighty brass is key to the sound of more than just the horn section. Any leanness or thinness in the brass is instantly heard as Sinatra without weight and richness to his voice. This is the instantly recognizable sound of most reissues, the main reason we stopped buying them years ago. Having played so many amazing original stereo pressings for our shootouts over the years we don’t think that will change anytime soon. There simply is no substitute for a clean stereo pressing on the original label.

Full, Rich, Breathy, Present vocals are obviously critically important as well. This copy delivers some of the best we heard.

On this copy the orchestra and band are putting out plenty of low end, reaching down well into whomp land. It’s a thrill to hear to hear that sound on these swinging arrangements coming out of my speakers.

And of course the copies that are rich and tubey but also big, clear and open did the best in our shootout. (more…)

Tchaikovsky / Rimsky-Korsakoff – Capriccio Italien / Capriccio Espagnol / Kondrashin

More of the Music of Tchaikovsky

More of the Music of Rimsky-Korsakov

  • Kondrashin and the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra’s performance of these sublime orchestral works makes its Hot Stamper debut with solid Double Plus (A++) Living Stereo sound or BETTER throughout this vintage pressing of LSC 2323
  • Capriccio Espagnol takes up all of this Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) side two and is practically as good as we have ever heard it, right up there with our Shootout Winner
  • Our Shootout Winner was a White Dog pressing as well, with these same stamper numbers – lucky us!
  • The Shaded Dog pressings can be excellent, but the one pressing that came in last in our shootout was — drum roll, please — a Shaded Dog with a 1s side one, if you can wrap your head around it
  • Both of these sides are full, rich and clear, with more space and more three-dimensional staging than practically all of the other copies we played
  • And of course it will completely destroy any pressing you may have on Heavy Vinyl, from any label, at any playback speed
  • If you like orchestral spectaculars, this is the record for you!

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Harry Belafonte / Sings The Blues

 More Living Stereo Recordings

  • Here is a vintage pressing of Sings the Blues with seriously good Double Plus (A++) grades from top to bottom
  • So hugely spacious and three-dimensional, yet with a tonally correct and natural sounding Harry, this is the way to hear it
  • Lively, balanced and vibrant, with a healthy dose of the Tubey Magical Living Stereo richness these recordings need to sound the way they should
  • This is yet another title that has taken us more than ten years to do and believe us when we tell you they usually don’t come as quiet as this
  • “Belafonte nails every song on the album … his version of ‘Cotton Fields’ is as good as there is and his ‘God Bless the Child’ is outstanding”

If you’re looking to demonstrate just how good 1958 All Tube Analog sound can be, this killer copy may be just the record for you.

Naturally the vocals have to be the main focus on a Harry Belafonte record. He should sound rich and tubey, yet clear, breathy and transparent.

To qualify as a Hot Stamper the pressings we offer must be highly resolving, not crude and ambience-challenged the way so many modern LPs seem to be.

You should be able to hear every element of the recording, with the voice and instruments surrounded by the natural space of the studios in which the recording was made.

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