Top Artists – Buffalo Springfield

You Too Can Get an Old Buffalo Springfield Record to Sound This Good

More of the Music of Buffalo Springfield

This commentary is from 2005 or thereabouts.

Not long ago we found a White Hot Stamper pressing of Last Time Around that really blew our minds. We were surprised to hear some of the breathiest, silkiest vocals we’ve ever heard on ANY Buffalo Springfield album, with startling presence and immediacy to boot! Side two had BY FAR the most energy and life of any side of any copy we’ve ever played. Man, does it ROCK.

Even as recently as 2010 we would not have expected to find that kind of sound on a vintage ’60s pop/rock album. We know better now.

When you get hold of the right copy and know how to clean it and play it right, these vintage pressings (well, the White Hot ones anyway) are a damn sight better than the vast majority of audiophiles think they are. How is such apparently never-before-possible sound being heard now, 45 years after the record came out? Our answer can be found below. 

The kind of MIDRANGE MAGIC found on this pressing let us hear into the music in a way we (and you too I’m guessing) never imagined was possible.

Most copies have no bass, no real top, and are compressed so badly they sound more like cardboard than vinyl. But not this copy — it breaks the mold, revealing to the world (well, our world anyway, the world at Better Records) that those badly recorded Buffalo Springfield records from the ’60s weren’t so badly recorded after all. (more…)

Buffalo Springfield – Finally, a Pressing with Some Highs and Lows

Hot Stamper Pressings of Country and Country Rock Available Now

Note to customers: We rarely have Hot Stamper pressings of Buffalo Springfield available on the site, so albums with Stephen Stills or Neil Young playing on them are about the best we can do these days. We regret we must go many years between shootouts for this seminal band’s albums, two of which are personal favorites and have been since they were released, 1968’s (Again) and 1969’s (Last Time Around).

The following review was written many years ago.

This is the first White Hot Stamper pressing of Buffalo Springfield’s self-titled LP to ever hit the site, and folks, you are in for shock if you know the album well at all. Although for the most part this is no Demo Disc, this pressing is SO MUCH BETTER than any other version we know of that it just blows our minds. I had my mind blown about ten years ago when I found my first one, and nothing has changed. It’s still the best pressing ever.

Side One

A+++, and my notes say that this is the only side one that actually has any frequency extension on either end. For whatever reason, the mastering engineers who cut this first album rarely managed to put any real top or bottom on the record. Why I can’t imagine. Highs and lows are on the tape; this copy proves it.

Again, notes for this side say it’s by far the best, with Tubey Magic, richness, bottom end, presence and freedom from distortion that no other copy could touch. You will not believe it, and the more copies you have tried in the past, the more astonishing the sound of this copy will be to you.

Side Two

A+++, yes, it won both sides in our shootout, and there actually is Demo Disc sound on this side. Track three, Do I Have to Come Right Out and Say It, is AMAZING sounding here, probably because the arrangement is so simple that not much studio trickery was needed. (Kind Woman on the third album is that way too — Demonstration Quality on the best pressings.)

So rich and Tubey-Magical, yet clear and very high-rez, this version of the album changes everything. There is simply nothing like it, and when you hear it you will know that that is no hype.

Want to find your own killer copy?

Consider taking our moderately helpful advice concerning the pressings that tend to win our shootouts.

As of 2025, this record should sound its best this way:

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