Top Artists – David Crosby

Various Artists / Woodstock Two

More Live Albums

  • This early Cotillion pressing ROCKS with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or very close to it throughout
  • With Mint Minus Minus vinyl and no marks that can be heard, you will have a VERY hard time finding a copy that plays this well
  • We guarantee there is dramatically more richness, fullness, 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
  • Fifteen amazing live tracks from Jimi Hendrix; Jefferson Airplane; The Butterfield Blues Band; Joan Baez; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Melanie; Mountain; and Canned Heat
  • “If anything, this set, more concise and more focused, is a better bet than its predecessor.” — All Music

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Deja Vu – This Classic Records Knockoff Is Not the Answer, But We Have One

More Crosby / More Stills / More Nash / More Young

An audiophile hall of shame pressing and another Classic Records rock LP badly mastered for the benefit of audiophiles looking for easy answers and quick fixes.

If you bought the Classic Record Heavy Vinyl pressing of Deja Vu, I hope you know how badly Classic Records ripped you off.

If you feel disrespected, you should. They took your money and gave you nothing of real value for it. The right CD (not the current one, that’s for damn sure) is dramatically better sounding than their vinyl reissue.

On the other hand, if you’re not too picky about sound quality and just want to play new records, perhaps because old records are hard to find and often noisy, then fine, the Classic should get that job done for you.

We of course want nothing to do with records like those remastered by Classic Records.

We only want to play good sounding records, and most Classic Records, including this title, are definitely not good sounding, not by our standards anyway.

Records Are in a Sorry State – Here’s What You Can Do About It

It’s a sad state that we currently find ourselves in, but is it really any different than it used to be? Audiophiles used to like half-speeds, they used to like Japanese pressings, they used to like direct to disc recordings with questionable sound and even more questionable music.

Now they like SACDs, Heavy Vinyl and 45s. If you ask me it’s the same old wine in a different bottle.

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The Byrds – Byrds

More of The Byrds

  • Rich, tubey, solid, with tight, note-like bass, what early Byrds record sounds this good?
  • Top quality covers of great songs by Joni Mitchell (For Free) and Neil Young (Cowgirl in the Sand, See the Sky About to Rain)

The album features the original Byrds lineup of McGuinn, Gene Clark, Michael Clarke, David Crosby, and Chris Hillman.

Even though this is not one of The Byrds’ stronger albums, it does have some very nice material. For Free on side one may very well be the high point of the album for me. They also do a nice version of Neil Young’s Cowgirl In The Sand. (more…)

Music Does the Driving

More Crosby / More Stills / More Nash / More Young

As a budding audiophile I went out of my way to acquire any piece of equipment that could make these records from the ’70s (the decade of my formative music-buying years) sound better than the gear I was using. It’s the challenging recordings by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, as well as scores of other pop and rock artists from the era, that drove my pursuit of higher quality audio, starting all the way back in high school.

And here I am — here we are — still at it, forty years later, because the music still sounds fresh and original, and the pressings that we find get better and better with each passing year.

That kind of progress is proof that we’re doing it right. It’s a good test for any audiophile. If you are actively and seriously pursuing this hobby, perhaps as many as nine out of ten non-audiophile pressings in your collection should sound better with each passing year.

As your stereo improves, not to mention your critical listening skills, the shortcomings of some of them will no doubt become more apparent. For the most part, however, with continual refinements and improvements to your system and room, as well as cleaning techniques, vintage pressings will continue to sound better the longer you stay active in the hobby.

That’s what makes it fun to play old records: They just keep getting better!

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Crosby Stills & Nash – Classic Records Reviewed

crosbcrosb_new

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Crosby, Stills and Nash Available Now

Nice enough I suppose, but where is the Tubey Magical Midrange you hear on the best pressings?

The Classic Records 180g version of Crosby, Stills and Nash’s debut was a revelation when it came out years ago. Bernie actually cut it pretty darn right. However, his mastering chain cannot compete with the one used on the best vintage pressings. (Not the originals; the best vintage reissues.)

The evidence for this is overwhelming. There simply is no Bernie-Grundman-cut record that is the equal of the best pressings not cut on his current chain that I have heard over the years.*

His old cutting system, the one that cut Stardust and Blue and much of the Contemporary catalog, was KILLER. Wonder what happened to it?

Having said that, the Classic version gets you 70-75% of the way there and gives you quiet vinyl to boot, so it must be appreciated for what it is: a very good reissue, maybe even the best one Classic ever made. But not the real thing. Not even close. (more…)

Letter of the Week – “I almost fell off my listening chair.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Crosby, Stills, Nash and (Sometimes) Young

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

Hey Tom,   

I wanted to thank you and the crew at Better Records for fulfilling my dreams when it comes to your Super hot stampers and, of course, the mind blowing White hot stampers. Two White hot stampers with A+++ sound on all sides come to mind.

I received the Frank Sinatra and Count Basie Live at the Sands about a week ago, and the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Deja Vu a couple of days ago. Not in a million years did I ever think a record could have a truly master tape sound. And man, these two White hot stamper have it in spades.

On the Frank Sinatra and Count Basie Live at the Sands, from the moment I dropped the needle on side four or any other side, I almost fell off my listening chair. The presence and immediacy is so staggering on this Lp its as if Frank Sinatra rose from the dead and he transforms into a living, breathing person in my listening room.

Well, this Lp is so darn realistic it boggles my mind that the long playing Lp is capable of sounding like this. The highs are silky sweet and extended, and the bass is extremely tight. As far as the midrange and life on this recording, I’m not sure if there is a single word in the dictionary to describe it.

The Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Deja Vu absolutely blew my mind and then some. First of all, it absolutely trashed my MoFi into bits and pieces which I have for sale on Ebay, as well as every other MoFi I own. I can’t believe how many Audiophiles love the MoFi version of this Lp.

Back to this mind blowing Lp, nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to hear on this recording. The power of the sound and resolution was so captivating it took my breath completely away. The midrange and highs was one of the best I have ever heard from a Classic rock recording. OMG the textures and vocals on this recording have to be heard to be believed and the bass was extremely deep and tight. I’m talking rock solid right down to the lowest region. Clarity and transparency were simply off the charts on this Lp.

I truly believe in order for you to fully understand what I’m talking about when it comes to these two White hot stampers, you have to experience it for yourself. I’m sure some of you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Some folks who read this might think spending $1,500.00 for two Lp’s is absolutely crazy — not for this discriminating music lover who wants to get master tape sound. I know for a “fact” once you hear the sound of a White hot stamper with A+++ sound, there is no going back to anything else, period!

Tom, I want to thank you and the crew at Better Records for having the unique hearing ability to seek out these mind blowing Hot Stampers. They are truly what I call Masterpieces.

Thanks, N.

The Red Labels on Fifth Dimension Can Rock (Well, Some of Them Can)

Hot Stamper Pressings of Sixties Pop Recordings Available Now

[UPDATE 2024: This commentary was written many years ago. In our most recent shootout, no Red Label pressing could compete with our best 360 Label Columbia originals.]

There was not another Red Label that could hold a candle to this copy in our recent shootout, and no 360 label copy could either. It’s the exception that proves the rule.

Does it have 100% of the Tubey Magic of the best 360 Label copies? Maybe not, but it has quite a healthy dose, and it does so many things so much better than any of the tube-mastered originals we played that it was simply no contest. There was nothing that communicated the music remotely as well as this Red Label copy did.

Last time around we wrote that the 360 Label original pressings were the only ones that could win our shootouts.

If you want to hear the real sound of The Byrds in early ’66, only the authentic original tube mastering chain seems to be able to get the job done. The Red Label reissues on Columbia can be decent, even good in their way, but they sure don’t sound like this record.

Needless to say this copy proved us wrong.

We also said this about our best 360 Label pressing at the time:

These old Byrds records tend to be seriously lacking in the frequency extremes, with not much deep bass or extension on the top end. This pressing has SOME extension on both ends, which is a lot more than most.

Aha, now it makes sense. Most of the better 360 pressings we’ve played did not have especially good extension on either end, but this record sure does. (more…)

Deja Vu – Our Four Plus Side Two from 2016

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Crosby, Stills, Nash and (Sometimes) Young

We award this copy’s side two our very special Four Plus A++++ grade, which is strictly limited to pressings (really, individual sides of pressings) that take a recording to a level never experienced by us before, a level we had no idea could even exist. We estimate that less than one per cent of the Hot Stamper pressings we come across in our shootouts earn this grade. You can’t get much more rare than that.

We no longer use this grade for a number of reasons we won’t go into here. Suffice to say, if you buy a White Hot Stamper pressing from us, you are getting the best sounding pressing we know to exist.

  • Our lengthy commentary entitled outliers and out-of-this-world sound talks about how rare these kinds of pressings are and how to go about finding them.
  • We no longer give Four Pluses out as a matter of policy, but that doesn’t mean we don’t come across records that deserve them from time to time.
  • Nowadays we most often place them under the general heading of breakthrough pressings. These are records that, out of the blue, revealed to us sound of such high quality that it dramatically changed our appreciation of the recording itself.
  • We found ourselves asking “Who knew?” Perhaps a better question would have been “How high is up?”

This FOUR PLUS (A++++) side two boasts insane energy, size and power. Deja Vu is one of our all time favorite albums at Better Records and one that almost never sounds THIS good.

If you play this copy good and loud, and have the kind of full-range system that plays loud and clean like live music, we guarantee you will be nothing less than gobsmacked at the size and power of the sound.

Just listen to the guitars during the solos — you can really hear the sound of the pick hitting the strings. The rhythm guitars sound meaty and chunky like the best sounding copies of Zuma and After The Gold Rush.

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