Top Artists – Superrtramp

Supertramp – Even In The Quietest Moments

xxxxx

 

A killer pressing! So much clearer, cleaner and more transparent than we remember from last time around, with more Tubey Magic too.

The bottom end is big and punchy, the top is smooth and sweet, and the vocals are present and breathy. On a transparent copy such as this the drums really punch through the dense mixes clearly, giving the music more life and energy. The piano sounds correct, the sax is full and breathy — you’d be very hard-pressed to find better sound for this album than this. Very hard pressed indeed.

Side Two

Big bass, great vocal energy and presence, huge space — this side blew every other side two out of the water.

Scroll down for comments about the piano intro on the second track. The sound is off the charts, practically faultless.

Side One

Superb in its own right. Rich and tubey but not thick or opaque. Great energy and space. Right up there with the best of the side ones we played, and right up there with the best Supertramp we’ve ever heard.

What to Listen For (WTLF)

The piano on Give a Little Bit can get buried in the dense mix. Side ones that are rich and tubey and smooth with a clear piano did very well in our shootout.

Lover Boy is a Demo Quality Track on the best copies. It can be huge, spacious and lively. Getting the strings to sound harmonically rich without sliding into shrillness may not be easy but some copies manage it. On the biggest, richest copies the breakdown at about 2:20 is a lot of fun.

On side two the recording quality of the solo piano at the start of the second track is nothing short of breathtaking. No piano on any Supertramp album sounds as good, and only the White Hot Stamper pressing reproduced it perfectly. (more…)

Supertramp – Supertramp – Reviewed in 2007

xxxxx

A distinguished member of the Better Records Rock and Pop Hall of Fame.  

This is a SUPERB SOUNDING British A&M LP. I don’t think this record can sound any better than it does here. The recording is on a par with the best I’ve ever heard for this band, which is saying a lot. In fact it’s even more tubey magical than an album like ’Crime Of The Century’, which is more about slam and presence than a record like this, which has amazingly sweet, natural sounding acoustic guitars.

“There are some attractive moments, such as the mixture of ardor and subtlety that arises in “Words Unspoken,” “Surely,” and “Nothing to Show,” and some of the fusion that erupts throughout the 12 minutes of “Try Again” is impressive… – AMG

Supertramp – Crisis? What Crisis? – Our Shootout Winner from 2013

xxxxx

A distinguished member of the Better Records Rock and Pop Hall of Fame.  

TWO AMAZING SIDES, including an A+++ SIDE ONE! It’s not the A&M Half Speed, and it’s not a British pressing either. It’s domestic folks, your standard plain-as-day A&M pressing, and we’re as shocked as you are. Hearing this copy (as well as an amazing Brit; they can be every bit as good, in their own way of course) was a THRILL, a thrill that’s a step up in “thrillingness” over our previous favorite pressing, the Half Speed.

The best of the best domestics and Brits are bigger, livelier, punchier, more clear and just more REAL than the audiophile pressing…

…something we knew had to be the case if ever a properly mastered non-Half Speed could be found. And now it has. Let the rejoicing begin! (more…)

Supertramp – Crime of the Century – Ken Scott’s Producing / Engineering Masterpiece

More Supertramp

More Crime of the Century

xxxxx

Yet another in the long list of recordings that really comes alive when you Turn Up Your Volume.

AMAZING White Hot Stampers for the greatest KEN SCOTT production in history. This is his (and the band’s) MASTERPIECE, and now we have a pressing that allows us to revel in the GLORY that is Crime of the Century! 

This killer copy rates A+++ on BOTH sides. Wow is the only word I can think of to describe it. (more…)

Letter of the Week – Breakfast In America and Led Zeppelin IV

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently:

Hey Tom,  

You don’t need any more adulation; you know I am a fan. I just had to send you a note to share an audio phenomena I am experiencing. I recently got Supertramp Breakfast In America 3+ / 3+ and now Zeppelin IV 2.5+ / 3+. These were albums that were always average for me and I previously got copies just to have in the collection. The White Hot Stampers, however, opened up a completely different listening experience. Holy smokes, these albums are really, really good; until I got the WHS’s I just could not hear them. Probably, more accurately, lesser albums were harsh and not engaging. Once you hear copies like these anything less becomes unlistenable. These albums really rock, long live White Hot Stampers! (more…)

Supertramp – Crisis? What Crisis? – An Album We Are Clearly Obsessed With

More Supertramp

More Crisis? What Crisis?

xxxxx

CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS? is an album we admit to being obsessed with — just look at the number of commentaries we’ve written about it. 

We love the album and we hope you do too. If you have some time on your hands — maybe a bit too much time on your hands — please feel free to check out our commentaries.

This link will take you to our other SUPERTRAMP albums. 

This album ticks off a number of boxes that are important to understanding records and their reproduction. (more…)

Supertramp Crime of the Century on MoFi – We Was Wrong, It Can Sound Great

More Supertramp

More Crime of the Century

xxxxx

This MoFi Crime of the Century has two superb sounding sides. I have to admit I was DEAD WRONG about MoFi’s Crime of the Century — on this pressing, anyway. But I can tell you that this is one of the few I have ever played that sounded right to me.

It’s not that MoFi couldn’t cut a record that’s tonally correct. It’s just that most of they time they didn’t. This time they did. 

I’ve been telling people for years that the MOoFi was junk, and that they should get rid of their copy and replace it with a tonally correct version, easily done since there is a very good sounding Speakers Corner 180g reissue currently in print which does not suffer from the ridiculously boosted top end and bloated bass that characterizes the typical MoFi COTC pressing. (more…)

Supertramp – Breakfast In America – An A&M Disaster

More Supertramp

More Breakfast In America

xxxxx

Sonic Grade: F

So washed out, brittle, thin and compressed it practically defies understanding that anyone with two working ears ever considered calling this piece of crap an “audiophile” record. If you don’t think the major labels had anything but contempt for us audiophiles, play this pressing and see for yourself the kind of garbage they were happy to pawn off on an unsuspecting audiophile “community” (if there ever was such a thing. There is now of course, Hoffman’s being the most popular. Wonder what they have to say about this crap).  

Supertramp – Breakfast In America – MoFi Debunked

More Supertramp

More Breakfast In America

xxxxx

Sonic Grade: C-

The MoFi Standard Operating Procedure of boosting the top end does this album no favors; it’s positively ruinous in fact. How dull does a system have to be to make this record sound right? Pretty damn dull. And the bad bass definition just adds to the phoniness. The average domestic copy is not that great either, so let’s give the MoFi a somewhat forgiving grade of C minus.