Top Artists – The Byrds

The Byrds in Mono – How Do The Original Pressings Sound?

Hot Stamper Pressings of Folk Rock Albums Available Now

Congested and compressed, with no real top, who in his right mind could put up with that kind of sound on a modern audiophile system?

Can the apologists for mono really be taking this ridiculously crappy sound seriously?

I hope not, but I suspect that is exactly what they are doing. The question is: why?

They seem to like the congested, distorted, top-end-lacking Beatles records in mono, so why not The Byrds?

To these ears, the monos for both bands have a lot in common.

And what they have in common is sound we want nothing to do with.

Now, to be fair, we’ve stopped buying these monos, so there may actually be a good copy or two out there in the used record bins that does have good sound.

In our defense, who really has the time to play records with so little potential for good sound?

What about the Sundazed mono pressings?

The best Columbia stereo copies on the original label are rich, sweet and Tubey Magical — three areas in which the Sundazed reissues are seriously lacking.

Does anyone still care? We simply cannot be bothered with these bad Heavy Vinyl pressings. If you’re looking for mediocre sound just play the CD. I’m sure it’s every bit as bad.

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The Byrds – Mr. Tambourine Man (Red Label)

More of the Music of The Byrds

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  • With very good Hot Stamper sound from start to finish, this Columbia Red Label pressing will be hard to beat, especially for those looking for quiet vinyl
  • The 360 Label pressings in stereo will always win our shootouts, but there are Red Label pressings like this one that can sound very good, just not as good
  • It’s richer and fuller than the average copy, with notably more presence, and that will be especially true when you compare it to whatever godawful Heavy Vinyl pressing may be currently available
  • This is true of even our lowest-priced, lowest-graded copies – they are guaranteed to sound much better than any pressing you can find on the market today, as well as any pressing you may already own
  • 5 stars: “One of the greatest debuts in the history of rock … nothing less than a significant step in the evolution of rock & roll itself, demonstrating that intelligent lyrical content could be wedded to compelling electric guitar riffs and a solid backbeat.”
  • If you’re a fan of the Byrds, this is a Classic from 1965 that belongs in your collection.

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The Byrds – The Notorious Byrd Brothers

More of the Music of The Byrds

  • Incredible sound throughout this early 360 Stereo label pressing, with both sides earning Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them
  • David Crosby is shown the door, fittingly replaced on the album jacket by a horse’s ass
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The Notorious Byrd Brothers showed the group continuing to expand the parameters of their eclecticism while retaining their hallmark guitar jangle and harmonies.”

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What to Listen For on Mr. Tambourine Man

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Byrds Available Now

This commentary was written about ten years ago and updated in 2025.

Want to hear what the best copies of Mr. Tambourine Man can do? Play Chimes of Freedom, one of the best sounding tracks on side two, if not THE best. Listen to how breathy Jim (later Roger) McGuinn’s vocals are. Byrds records almost never sound like that.

I Knew I’d Want You is another one that sounds amazingly Tubey Magical on the best pressings.

Years ago we wrote that the 360 Label original pressings were the only ones with the rich, warm sound of tubes:

Looking for Tubey Magic? The best 360 pressings are the only way to go, and even those are often lacking. (Forget most Red Label copies; they have nice qualities but Tubey Magic is not among them.) But the best pressings of The Byrds’ albums — those with truly Hot Stampers — are swimming in it.

This time around we found a Red Label reissue with lovely Tubey Magic. It did not win our shootout — this copy did — but it was very rich and tubey. I had no idea it was a reissue when grading it, because it sure didn’t fit with my idea of what a reissue would sound like. Fortunately I can’t see the labels of the records that I’m grading, which helps make the admittedly subjective evaluation of records somewhat more objective than might otherwise be the case.

UPDATE 2025

We no longer bother with the Red Label pressings of this album. The good ones are too rare, and the time spent finding, cleaning and playing them is just not worth the trouble when the 360 label pressings are often so much better sounding.

Speaking of labels, we have two lists for those who would like to know which Columbia label pressings win shootouts — one for 6-Eye winners and one for 360 Label winners.

Side One

The first track rarely if ever sounds as good as those that follow.

By the time you get to track two you’re hearing one of my favorite Byrds song of all time: I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better. It’s energetic and very present on this copy.

Notice that Gene Clark’s vocals usually sound better than Roger McGuinn’s.

For some reason they tend to brighten up his vocals, and the last thing you ever want to do with a Byrds recording is make it brighter. Most of the reissues are too thin and bright compared to the best originals.

The third track has wonderful space and clarity.

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The Byrds – Mr. Tambourine Man (360 Label)

More of the Music of The Byrds

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  • With KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from start to finish, this Stereo 360 pressing is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other Mr. Tambourine Man you’ve heard
  • Lively, balanced and vibrant, with boatloads of the Tubey Magical richness these recordings need in order to work
  • Listen to how amazingly breathy Jim (later Roger) McGuinn’s vocals are – his vocals are key to the best sounding Byrds records
  • 5 stars: “One of the greatest debuts in the history of rock … nothing less than a significant step in the evolution of rock & roll itself, demonstrating that intelligent lyrical content could be wedded to compelling electric guitar riffs and a solid backbeat.”
  • If you’re a fan of the Byrds, this is a Classic from 1965 that belongs in your collection.
  • The complete list of titles from 1965 that we’ve reviewed to date can be found here.

Want to hear exactly what I’m talking about? Play Chimes of Freedom, one of the best sounding tracks on side two, if not THE best. Listen to how breathy Jim (later Roger) McGuinn’s vocals are. Byrds records almost never sound like that.

I Knew I’d Want You is another one that sounds amazingly Tubey Magical on the best pressings.

By the time you get to track two on side one you’re hearing one of my favorite Byrds song of all time: I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better. It’s energetic and very present on this copy.

Notice that Gene Clark’s vocals usually sound better than Roger McGuinn’s. For some reason they tend to brighten up McGuinn’s vocals, and the last thing you ever want to do with a Byrds recording is make it brighter.

But having said that, most of the reissues are too thin and bright compared to the best originals. (more…)

Fifth Dimension – More Dead as a Doornail Sundazed Sound

Hot Stamper Pressings of Sixties Pop Recordings Available Now

This review was written probably more than twenty years ago, back in the day when we actually would order up the latest Sundazed title in the hopes of finding something worth offering to our customers. Looking back, it’s hard to imagine a bigger waste of our time. So few were any good and so many were terrible, why were we bothering to fish where there weren’t any good fish?

Through it all, through the worst of those dark days, somehow we managed to learn some important lessons.

The main lesson we learned was that there was no record with sound so bad that it could not be released.

Even worse, there was no record with sound so bad that it would prevent the better known reviewers from raving about it. (If you think anything has changed, just pull up the latest TAS Super Disc list. The bad souding Heavy Vinyl pressings to be found there far exceed the good sounding vintage pressings they’ve nominated for inclusion over the last 50 years. A small sample.)

Our days playing and selling even the best of these kinds of modern reissues are long gone. By 2007 everything had changed.

Our Old Review

The best stereo copies are rich, sweet and Tubey Magical — three areas in which the Sundazed reissues are seriously lacking.

If anyone still cares, anyone besides Michael Fremer, that is. He seems to like some of their remastered records. We can’t be bothered with mediocrities such as this and the rest of their sorry output, but apparently people are still buying these records. The label is still in business and cranking out more dreck with each passing year. 

And none of the Columbia monos we’ve played did much for us either. Congested and compressed, with no real top, who in his right mind could possibly prefer that sound?

Audiophiles? Record collectors? What in god’s name are they listening with, or for?

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The Byrds / Fifth Dimension

More of the Music of The Byrds

  • Fifth Dimension returns to the site for the first time in years, here with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound throughout this original Stereo 360 pressing
  • Both of these sides are full and rich, yet clear, lively and spacious like nothing you have ever heard
  • It also has an extended top like few Byrds’ records have ever had, in our experience anyway, and we’ve played them by the score
  • 4 1/2 stars: “… its high points were as innovative as any rock music being recorded in 1966.”

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The Byrds / Younger Than Yesterday Sure Sounds Better than It Used To

More Sixties Pop Recordings

  • An original Stereo 360 pressing (the first copy to hit the site in years) with an INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side one mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side two
  • Here are just a few of of the things we had to say about this amazing Triple Plus side one in our notes: “big and tubey vox & bass”…”great size and energy”…”jumping out [of the speakers]”…”crazy good”
  • The sound is Tubey Magical, lively and dynamic, with exceptional transparency and immediacy
  • We’re always blown away at just how much further the better copies are able to take the music – what a difference the right pressing makes
  • Until we hear something better — a possibility we would never rule out — this is The Byrds’ best sounding album
  • In our experience, no red label reissue is even worth the trouble of cleaning and playing it. Some Byrds records have the potential to sound good on the red label, but this is not one of them
  • 5 stars: “Younger Than Yesterday was somewhat overlooked at the time of its release during an intensely competitive era that found the Byrds on a commercial downslide. However, time has shown it to be the most durable of the Byrds’ albums… David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, and especially Chris Hillman come into their own as songwriters on an eclectic but focused set blending folk-rock, psychedelia, and early country-rock.”

Back in 2019 we had this to say about the best sounding copy from the shootout we had just done:

Most Byrds’ records are far from audiophile demo discs. However, what the best originals give you is relatively good sound.

This album will never sound as good as Abbey Road. Keeping that rather obvious point in mind, as I listened to this copy the thought that went through my mind is that this tape had been mastered about as well as it could be.

It’s tonally correct from top to bottom; the frequency extremes are there; and the vocals have a silky, sweet quality to them (when they haven’t been bounced down too many times of course).

Do you know how you can tell when you’re listening to a properly mastered record? It’s very simple. You find yourself getting into the music. Liking songs you never used to like. When music sounds right, it bypasses the intellect and goes straight to the emotional center.

You can analyze these recordings until you’re blue in the face but ultimately it all comes down to this: Do you want to hear the whole album? Do you want to turn it up? If the answer to those two questions is yes, you have a great record. This pressing gets two yeses.

As you can see from the rave at the top of this listing, now the best copy from the shootout we just did in 2024 sounds great! (Yes, it only took us five years to find enough clean 360 label pressings to get another shootout going.)

How did that happen?

Who knows. We just keep working on improving the system using blind faith as our guide.

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The Byrds – Ballad of Easy Rider

More of The Byrds

More Country and Country Rock

  • We’re always blown away at just how much further the best copies are able to take the music – what a difference the right pressing makes
  • Jesus Is Just Alright is the killer track here and it rocks like you will not believe
  • 4 stars: “The band sounds tight, self-assured, and fully in touch with the music’s emotional palette, and Clarence White’s guitar work is truly a pleasure to hear…”

Every now and then we manage to stumble on a copy with some serious magic, and this is the best of those to ever make it onto our site. You won’t believe how much better this great country-rock material sounds when you have a copy that sounds as good as this one does.

Jesus Is Just Alright is the killer track here and it rocks like you will not believe! It’s one of the All-Time Best Byrds tracks, especially for sonics, with Rock and Roll energy that shows just how good a band these four guys had become. (more…)

The Byrds – Turn! Turn! Turn!

More of The Byrds

More Sixties Pop Recordings

  • This outstanding 360 Label pressing of the band’s sophomore release boasts solid Double Plus (A++) sound from start to finish – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • You will not believe how punchy, lively, dynamic, and exciting some of these tracks sound here
  • One of the better sounding Byrds recordings, with a number of their best songs, including the title track
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…more Bob Dylan covers were included, as well, and “Satisfied Mind” was their first foray into country-rock, a direction they would explore in much greater depth throughout the rest of the ’60s.”

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