Top Artists – Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan – This Side Two Was a Little Dry

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This commentary was written about ten years ago.

This 360 Label pressing has a SUPERB A+++ SIDE ONE backed with a strong A++ side two. We had a big stack of 360s and Red Labels with good stampers to compare, and this copy had a side one that could not be beat. 

Side two has amazing clarity and transparency as well. Compared to side one it’s just a bit dry.

Those of you with tubey systems — vintage and otherwise — will probably go crazy for this sound. This was the best side two we heard this time around, but since side one was clearly more impressive we topped off the grade for the second side at A++.

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.

Most of the later pressings are sterile, congested, and lean. [We no longer buy them or put them in shootouts.]

What separates the best copies from the also-rans is more than just rich, sweet, full-bodied sound. The best copies like this one 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 midrangy here because that’s the way they wanted it. One must assume that the songs sound the way Dylan wanted them to, because every other track has a slightly different tonal balance, and that change in tonality seems to have been chosen to be a part of the effect of the song itself.

Or not. Who’s to say?

On a typical pressing of this record, the harmonica can be shrill and aggressive, but on the best copies, like this one, 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 can be just a bit much.

The sound for the best tracks has rich, meaty drums and bass. The sound is smooth, never thin and shrill. 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 recording.

But that has never stopped them before, has it?

Hey, want to find your own top quality copy?

Consider taking our moderately helpful advice concerning the pressings that consistently win our Hot Stamper shootouts.

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Bob Dylan – New Morning

  • New Morning is back on the site for only the second time in three years, here with a Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side two mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side one
  • “If Not For You” was the big hit on this one, and we guarantee you have never heard it sound better than it does on this very copy
  • During our shootout we were reminded how surprisingly enjoyable this album is – it fits in nicely between Dylan’s country era and his later 70s works such as Blood On The Tracks
  • He’s also singing in his familiar Bob Dylan “nasally” voice, not the country croon he developed for Nashville Skyline
  • 4 1/2 stars: “… the overall quality is quite high, and many of the songs explore idiosyncratic routes Dylan had previously left untouched… Such offbeat songs make New Morning a charming, endearing record.”

There are some great songs here like “If Not For You” and “The Man In Me,” and when you find a copy that cuts through the murk and veil of the typical pressing it’s a lot of fun. Big Lebowski fans will be happy to hear “The Man In Me” on side two, one of Dylan’s under-appreciated gems.

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Bob Dylan – Planet Waves

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More of The Band

  • You’ll find KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it throughout this vintage copy of Dylan’s 1974 release
  • With wonderfully rich, natural tonality, these early pressings are by far the best way to hear the album sound the way it should
  • Lots of great material on this one, not sure why it doesn’t get more respect: “On A Night Like This,” “Going Going Gone,” “Forever Young,” “You Angel You”… these are seriously good, very well-recorded songs
  • “Reteaming with The Band, Bob Dylan winds up with an album that recalls New Morning more than The Basement Tapes, since Planet Waves is given to a relaxed intimate tone…”
  • If you’re a Dylan fan, this 1974 release surely deserves a chance to find a home in your collection

This is an excellent recording, boasting not only great Bob Dylan sound, but some of the best sound for The Band that you’ll ever hear. That’s right, Dylan is backed by Messrs. Robertson, Danko, Helm, Manuel and Hudson on this album, and I don’t know when we’ve ever heard such audiophile quality sound from that crew. It’s a real treat to hear their signature styles without the cardboard-y, compressed quality we usually find on their albums.

This is not one of Dylan’s best-known or most-loved albums, but it’s definitely a good one. You can certainly tell that these are very emotional songs for him, and it really shows in the performances.

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Letter of the Week – “I love Blood On The Tracks, I have 6 copies of it and none of them come near yours”

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

Hey Tom, 

Received the LP a few days ago, and thank you. I love Blood On The Tracks. I have 6 copies of it and none of them come near yours. I can stop looking now. Thank you.

Arun,

We love it when our customers take the time and make the effort to do their own shootouts, especially when we win, which is what happens about 98-99% of the time.

It is not the least bit unusual for our customers to take another listen and thereby become convinced of the superior sound of the Hot Stamper pressing we sent them.

Seems our copy of Blood on the Tracks was clearly so much better there was no need to listen further.

When a customer says we lost the shootout he conducted, we promptly refund the buyer’s money and wish him or her a nice day.

What do we do with the record, assuming the customer had no problem with its playing condition?

We put it right back up on the site to sell to the next person who wants it. In only two or three cases that I can recall did it ever come back to us again. Two or three out of thousands and thousands of Hot Stampers sold. Not bad.

Further Reading

The Traveling Wilburys – Volume One

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  • With KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides, this amazing copy of the Wilburys’ debut album is one of the BEST we have ever heard – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Proof that, when you put Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, George Harrison, Bob Dylan and Jeff Lynne in a recording studio together, something good is bound to happen
  • Certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, this album was Grammy nominated Album of the Year in 1989
  • 4 1/2 stars: “There never was a supergroup more super than the Traveling Wilburys… It’s impossible to picture a supergroup with a stronger pedigree.”

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Bob Dylan – Too Up-Front Vocals Can Be a Bit Much

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Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Bob Dylan

It’s hard to find copies of this album that give you the tubey richness and warmth that this music needs to sound its best. We’ve done this shootout a number of times over the years, but I can count the number of Hot Stamper copies that have hit the site on one hand.

A lot of copies seem to be EQ’d to put the vocals way up front, an approach that makes the voice hard and edgy. Copies like that sound impressive at first blush (“Wow, he’s really IN THE ROOM!”) but get fatiguing after a few minutes. When you get a copy that’s smooth, relaxed and natural, the music sounds so good that you may never want it to stop.

Our Hot Stamper Pressings from Years Ago

Side one is lively and present with a punchy bottom end and real depth to the soundfield. It’s also open and transparent with lots of natural ambience. Compared to the A+++ side two here, there’s a touch of grit and grain at times, but dramatically less than you get on most copies. We rated side one A++, which means you get excellent sound for Subterranean Homesick Blues, Maggie’s Farm, She Belongs To Me and a few more classic Dylan tracks.

Side two was UNSTOPPABLE — it was clearly As Good As It Gets based on years of listening and scores of copies auditioned over the years. Everything sounds right — the vocals and guitar sound wonderfully natural and correct with superb clarity and lots of richness and warmth. 

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Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home

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More Vintage Columbia Pressings

  • This vintage 360 Stereo copy was doing pretty much everything right, earning superb Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER from start to finish – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • If this price seems high, keep in mind that the top copy from our most recent shootout went for $1200, and the vinyl was just as quiet
  • These early pressings can be killer when you find one like this – they’re clearly more lively, more transparent, and richer, with dramatically more immediacy in the midrange so that Dylan’s voice is front and center and in the room with you
  • You would be hard pressed to find a copy that sounds this good and plays this quietly – we should know, this was one of the better copies from our most recent shootout
  • 5 stars: “With Bringing It All Back Home, he exploded the boundaries, producing an album of boundless imagination and skill. And it’s not just that he went electric, either, rocking hard on “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” “Maggie’s Farm,” and “Outlaw Blues”; it’s that he’s exploding with imagination throughout the record.”
  • For those of you who are fans of the pop, folk and jazz music of the mid-sixties, Bringing It All Back Home (along with Highway 61 Revisited from later the same year) has to be seen as a Must Own Album from 1965.

It’s tough to find copies of this album that give you all the tubey richness and warmth that this music needs to sound its best. Too many copies seem to be EQ’d to put the vocals way up front, an approach that renders Dylan’s voice hard and edgy. Copies like that sound impressive at first blush (“Wow, he’s really in the room!”) but become fatiguing in short order. When you get a copy like this one that’s smooth, relaxed and natural, the music sounds so good that you forget about the sound and just get lost in the music.

Having done this for so long, we understand and appreciate that rich, full, solid, Tubey Magical sound is key to the presentation of this primarily vocal music. We rate these qualities higher than others we might be listening for (e.g., bass definition, soundstage, depth, etc.). The music is not so much about the details in the recording, but rather in trying to recreate a solid, palpable, real Bob Dylan singing live in your listening room. The better copies have an uncanny way of doing just that.

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Bob Dylan – Slow Train Coming

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  • A KILLER sounding copy with Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from start to finish
  • We guarantee there is dramatically more space, richness, vocal presence, and performance energy on this copy than others you’ve heard, and that’s especially true if you made the mistake of buying whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing is currently on the market
  • The big hit here is “Gotta Serve Somebody” – Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits is featured throughout
  • I doubt this is anyone’s very favorite Dylan album, but it’s sure a lot more enjoyable when you have sound like this

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Bob Dylan / Blonde on Blonde – A Joke on Sundazed in Mono

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Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Bob Dylan

Flat as a pancake and dead as a doornail, sounding like most of the Sundazed records we used  to play all those years ago (and, shamefully, we even sold a few of their titles too).

Is it the worst version of the album ever made? Hard to imagine it would have much competition.

Sundazed is clearly a label that should be avoided by audiophiles looking for high quality sound. Their incompetent remastering hack work on Blonde on Blonde is just more evidence to back up our low opinion of them.

There is an abundance of audiophile collector hype surrounding the hundreds of Heavy Vinyl pressings currently in print. I read a lot about how wonderful their sound is, but when I actually play them, I rarely find them to be any better than mediocre, and many of them are downright awful.

Music Matters made this garbage remaster. Did anyone notice how awful it sounded? I could list a hundred more that range from bad to worse — and I have!

Audiophiles seem to have approached these records naively instead of skeptically.

(But wait a minute. Who am I to talk? I did the same thing when I first got into audio and was avidly collecting records in the Seventies.)

How could so many be fooled so badly? You would think that some of these people have good enough equipment to allow them to hear how substandard these records sound.

Apparently that is not the case. The embrace of one third-rate Heavy Vinyl pressing after another by the audiophile community has rendered absurd the pretense that their members ever developed anything beyond the most rudimentary critical listening skills, with stereo systems that are much better at hiding the faults of these records than revealing them.

Sadly, the Dunning-Kruger effect, the best explanation for the sorry state of audio these days, means they simply don’t know how little they know, and therefore see no reason to doubt their high opinions of their equipment and their audio acumen.

Progress in audio is possible, but only if you know that you are not already at the top of the mountain. For the vast majority of audiophiles, a lot of serious climbing remains to be done — but only if you want to hear your records right.

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Bob Dylan – Blonde On Blonde on the 360 Label

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More Vintage Columbia Pressings

  • These early 360 Stereo pressings were doing just about everything right, with all FOUR sides earning outstanding Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them – remarkably quiet vinyl too
  • You won’t believe how rich, full and lively this album can sound on a copy this good (particularly on sides two and four)
  • Includes tons of quintessential Dylan classics: “Rainy Day Women,” “I Want You,” “Just Like A Woman,” and more – they all sound phenomenal
  • 5 stars: “Blonde on Blonde is an album of enormous depth, providing endless lyrical and musical revelations on each play… It’s the culmination of Dylan’s electric rock & roll period — he would never release a studio record that rocked this hard, or had such bizarre imagery, ever again.”

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