Stereo=Best

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

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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Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited

More of the Music of Bob Dylan

  • Dylan’s 1965 release, here solid Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it on both sides of this vintage Stereo 360 pressing
  • In the same way Sgt. Pepper changed music a mere two years later, Highway 61 Revisited left all of Dylan’s contemporaries behind, scrambling to keep up with the standard he set
  • 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
  • 5 stars: “Dylan had not only changed his sound, but his persona, trading the folk troubadour for a streetwise, cynical hipster … it proved that rock and roll needn’t be collegiate and tame in order to be literate, poetic, and complex.”

We had a big stack of 360s and Red Labels with good stampers to compare for this shootout. On the better copies, the bottom end was punchy with real weight and the soundfield was open, spacious and so transparent.

Of course, the music is GENIUS. What separates the best copies from the also-rans is more than just rich, sweet, full-bodied sound. The better copies make Dylan’s voice more palpable — he’s simply more of a solid, three dimensional, real presence between the speakers. You can hear the nuances of his delivery more clearly on a copy like this.

What separates the best copies from the also-rans is more than just rich, sweet, full-bodied sound. The better copies make Dylan’s voice more palpable — he’s simply more of a solid, three dimensional, real presence between the speakers. You can hear the nuances of his delivery more clearly on a copy like this.

Now it should be noted that some songs here definitely sound better than others. Do not expect “Tombstone Blues” to become a favorite demo track. It’s upper midrangey here because that’s the way they wanted it. One must assume that the songs sound the way Dylan wanted them too, because every other track has a slightly different tonal balance, and that change in tonality seems to be a conscious choice designed to bring out the best in each song.

Or not. Who’s to say?

The 360 label pressings are a mixed bag, running from mediocre to mindblowing. Most of the time they are too trashed to even consider playing on an audiophile turntable. Many of the later pressings are sterile, congested, and lean.

On a typical pressing of this record, the harmonica can be shrill and aggressive, but on the best copies, it will sound airy and full-bodied (for the most part). There are times on every copy we’ve ever played where the harmonica solos get to be just a bit much.

The best tracks have fat, meaty, oh-so-analog drums and bass. There’s a certain amount of opacity that modern mastering engineers would be tempted to fix by boosting the highs. This is a very bad idea. Brighter, in this case, is going to destroy what’s good about the sound of the album.

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Bill Evans / Moon Beams on Riverside

More of the Music of Bill Evans

  • This Riverside reissue pressing of Evans’s 1962 classic boasts solid Double Plus (A++) sound from first note to last
  • Full-bodied and warm, exactly the way vintage analog should sound, yet as clear and as open as any pressing you’ve heard (or your money back)
  • The first album Evans recorded after Scott LaFaro’s death and it is a deeply immersive experience
  • AllMusic raves it’s “…so well paced and sequenced the record feels like a dream … Moonbeams was a startling return to the recording sphere and a major advancement in his development as a leader.”

Moon Beams is one of the best sounding Bill Evans records we’ve ever played. Play “It Might As Well Be Spring” for the kind of sublime musical experience you only find on 20th century analog.

Both sides are Tubey Magical, rich, open, spacious and tonally correct. We’ve never heard the record sound better, and that’s coming from someone who’s been playing Bill Evans’s albums since the 80s when they were first reissued in their current form.

These guys are playing live in the studio and you can really feel their presence on every track — assuming you have a copy that sounds like this one.

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Peggy Lee – If You Go

More of the Music of Peggy Lee

  • Outstanding sound throughout, with solid Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them from first note to last
  • Side two of this vintage Capitol stereo pressing is rich, full-bodied and Tubey Magical – we’re talking All Tube Analog from 1961, after all – with wonderfully sweet and breathy vocals, and side one is not far behind in all those areas
  • Both our top copies in the shootout were too noisy to sell, ouch! I doubt if we will be doing this title again, the vinyl is just too noisy on these old Capitol pressings
  • “… the man writing the charts here is Quincy Jones, and he is only occasionally interested in underscoring the heartbreak with suitably sad music… Lee responds to the music with a world-weary tone, but an occasional swing in her step, as if this is not her first romance, nor her first one to go wrong.”

This vintage Capitol pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records rarely begin to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing any sign of coming back. (more…)