Top Artists – Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan – Shot of Love

  • Dylan’s Shot of Love debuts here with stunning Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound from start to finish – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • The sound here is bigger, tubier, more dynamic, more lively, more present and just plain more involving than any other copy you’ve heard
  • “Shot of Love finds Dylan still in born-again mode, but he’s starting to come alive again — which isn’t as much a value judgment as it is an observation that he no longer seems beholden to repeating dogma, loosening up and crafting songs again. And it’s not just that his writing is looser, the music is, too, as he lets himself — and his backing band — rock a little harder, a little more convincingly… has flashes of brilliance, such as “Every Grain of Sand,” which point the way to the rebirth of Infidels.”

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Honky Mids and Veiled Vocals Are Common on Another Side of Bob Dylan

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Bob Dylan Available Now

This commentary was written many years ago.

We played a bunch of these this week and only a very small handful of sides had enough magic to be considered Hot Stampers.

The typical pressing loses its steam in (at least) one of two ways:

  • honky mids, and
  • veiled vocals.

The copies with the honk can be nearly unlistenable when Dylan starts blowing his harmonica, and the copies with veiled vocals and no real immediacy bored us to tears. 

This copy has the magic on side two. The sound is full-bodied, natural, and rich with excellent presence and real depth to the soundfield.

It’s also SUPER open and spacious with lots of ambience and clearly audible transients on the acoustic guitar. The clarity is off the charts, and the sound is wonderfully natural throughout.

Side one is clean, clear and transparent with correct tonal balance. The vocals have a touch of honk to them and the presence is nowhere near as amazing as on the flipside. We rated side one A – A+. It’s musical and enjoyable but not superb like side two.

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Bob Dylan – Self-Titled

  • An outstanding MONO copy of Bob Dylan’s self-titled debut (recorded in mono) with Double Plus (A++) sound from start to finish 
  • Both sides here have the immediacy, the warmth and the studio space the red label reissues fail to reproduce
  • “… a sterling effort, outclassing most, if not all, of what came before it…”

This is a true solo album — Dylan himself plays the guitar and harmonica — and it’s a lot of fun to hear a young (20!) Bob playing the way he might have played in the coffee shops and folk clubs of Greenwich Village.

This is clearly a recording that sounds best in mono. The stereo copies put the vocal, guitar and harmonica — you know, the sounds that the one skinny kid in the middle of the room is making all by himself — in separate locations widely spaced in the soundfield. This sound may have been cool when playing on the old consoles of the day, but on a modern system it’s just plain ludicrous. (more…)

Bob Dylan – Knocked Out Loaded

  • You’ll find outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound on both sides of this superb pressing of Dylan’s 1986 release – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Both sides here are super rich and full with excellent bass and tons of energy
  • “… the 11-minute epic “Brownsville Girl”, co-written by Sam Shepard, has been cited as one of his best songs by some critics.”
  • “… [Dylan’s] scattershot approach has its charms, especially when it results in winding epics like the Shepard collaboration ‘Brownsville Girl.'”

This is one of the better sounding Dylan records from the ’80s. It’s not exactly Blood on the Tracks, the only Dylan album we think is qualified to be on our Top 100 Rock and Pop List, but it sounds good for a record from this era. (more…)

Bob Dylan – Another Side of Bob Dylan (in Mono)

  • An excellent Mono copy of this early Dylan classic with surprisingly good Double Plus (A++) sound throughout   
  • We were impressed by just how clear and present Dylan’s voice sounded on this copy – this is the way you want to hear the man
  • Many classics are here: All I Really Want To Do, Chimes Of Freedom, My Back Pages, It Ain’t Me Babe and 7 more
  • 5 stars: “Another Side of Bob Dylan is a more varied record and it’s more successful, too, since it captures Dylan expanding his music, turning in imaginative, poetic performances on love songs and protest tunes alike. The result is one of his very best records, a lovely intimate affair.”

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Letter of the Week – “The Aurios actually seem to enlarge the scale of the music…”

Basic Audio Advice — These Are the Fundamentals of Good Sound

One of our customers had this to say about the Aurios we used to sell.

Hey Tom,  

Wow! Were you ever right when you said the Aurios MIBs are “Quite Possibly the Biggest Analog Upgrade Out There.” After listening with the MIBs in place for about 3 hours, there’s no doubt they make a huge difference.

Every record/track I heard on LPs I know very well sounded more dynamic. I don’t want to use the worn phrase “on steroids.” The music had much better pace and sounded more real and natural. The contrasts from high to low across the bandwidth were more apparent. The timbre of the instruments also sounded more real and natural. Soundstage became more dimensional in all directions. I heard details that previously were not as audible or were not audible at all.

One thing that was most impressive is that the Aurios actually seem to enlarge the scale of the music; it sounder bigger. LPs I listened to: Love Over Gold (Dire Straits); Slow Train Coming (Bob Dylan); The Hunter (Jennifer Warnes); One Flight Up (Dexter Gordon).

All of these sounded significantly better than I had ever heard before adding the MIBs. Love Over Gold was just incredible! It simply was not the same record without the Aurios MIBs.

It blew me away. After listening to both sides, I had to listen again and asked my wife to join me. She was as impressed as I was. So your string of satisfied customers remains intact. I will not let these out of my sight!

John A.

On Street-Legal, Play Side Two First

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Bob Dylan Available Now

This copy from years back had an insanely good Triple Plus (A+++) side one backed with an excellent Double Plus (A++) side two. 

Which breaks the rules a bit because most side twos earned a sonic grade that was about a half plus higher than the average copy’s grade for side one.

Side two most of the time just plain sounds better than side one, so when evaluating your copy be sure to check side two first to hear what is probably going to be the best sound on the album.

Here are some other albums with notable Side to Side Differences.

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Blood on the Tracks – What To Listen For

More of the Music of Bob Dylan

Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Bob Dylan

Many copies have no bass, while other copies are bright, a combination which ruins the sound of the acoustic guitars that dominate the album. On the better Hot Stamper pressings, the bass will be deep and well-defined and the tonal balance will be correct.

The copies that fared the best in our shootouts were rich, warm, tubey and full-bodied — in other words, analog sounding. 

What To Listen For

It’s nice when the copy in hand has all the transparency, space, layered depth and three-dimensionality that makes listening to records such a fundamentally different experience than listening to digitally-sourced material, but it’s not nearly as important as having that rich, relaxed tonal balance.

A little smear and a lack of resolution is not the end of the world on this album. Brightness, along with too much grain and grit, can be. 

What To Listen For — Side Two

The harmonica on the second track is devilishly difficult to get right. If there is any aggressiveness or grit in the sound of your copy, you will have no trouble recognizing it when that harmonica starts to play. (more…)

Highway 61 Revisited – Not So Good on Sundazed in Mono

More of the Music of Bob Dylan

Sonic Grade: D

I don’t think mono works for this album, so we never carried this pressing, and we certainly would not have recommended it back in the days when we were selling Heavy Vinyl (before 2007).

To see our current selection of Hot Stamper pressings that sound better in mono, click here.

To see our current selection of Hot Stamper pressings that sound better in stereo, click here.