Top Artists – JImi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix – Electric Ladyland

More of the Music of Jimi Hendrix

  • An Electric Ladyland like you’ve never heard, with INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound on all FOUR sides of this UK import copy – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Forget the Track originals – they can’t hold a candle to the Hot Stamper reissues like the one we are offering here
  • Big, clear, tubey, sweet analog sound – we played it good and loud and it was rockin’!
  • Probably the best-recorded of Hendrix’s studio albums – huge studio space and the Tubey Magical richness of analog are key to the best sound
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these Classic Rock records – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
  • 5 stars: “…not only one of the best rock albums of the era, but also Hendrix’s original musical vision at its absolute apex.”
  • If you’re a fan of Jimi and his band, this UK import of his 1968 classic belongs in your collection.
  • If I were to make a list of the best Rock and Pop albums from 1968, this album would definitely be on it.

Some of Jimi’s best songs can be found here, including “Crosstown Traffic,” “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” and his incendiary cover of Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower.” All four sides have truly killer sound, big and full-bodied with a MUCH better low end than you’ll find on most. You get enough energy and weight to make the rock songs really ROCK, and enough clarity and transparency to bring out the more spacey, psychedelic elements that Jimi and Eddie Kramer worked so hard on.

Ready to go on a trip? You’ve come to the right place. While the sound is not Demo Quality on every track, the acid-drenched soundscapes created by Jimi and producer Eddie Kramer are certainly going to be exciting to the kind of audiophile who still digs Classic Rock. Unfortunately, most copies are missing a lot of the magic — the space, the tubes, the ambience, the size, the weight.

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Jimi Hendrix – Axis: Bold As Love

More of the Music of Jimi Hendrix

  • With STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on both sides, this vintage UK import reissue is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other Axis: Bold As Love you’ve heard – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • This copy was just bigger and richer than any other we played in our recent shootout, with rock solid energy to beat them all
  • You get clean, clear, full-bodied, lively and musical analog sound from first note to last
  • 5 stars: “…the beautiful, wistful ballads ‘Little Wing,’ ‘Castles Made of Sand,’ ‘One Rainy Wish,’ and the title track set closer show [Hendrix’s] remarkable growth and depth as a tunesmith, harnessing Curtis Mayfield soul guitar to Dylanesque lyrical imagery and Fuzz Face hyperactivity to produce yet another side to his grand psychedelic musical vision.”
  • It’s hard to conceive of any list of the best rock and pop albums of 1967 that would not have this record on it

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Jimi Hendrix – The Cry of Love

More of the Music of Jimi Hendrix

  • With two outstanding Double Plus (A++) sides, this copy is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other The Cry of Love you’ve heard – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Big, bold Hendrix sound – powerful energy and presence with the size and space of a fresh analog tape
  • The first and probably best of the posthumous Hendrix albums, with top tracks including “Angel,” “Ezy Rider,” “Freedom,” “Drifting” and more
  • VH1 called it “the greatest posthumous classic rock record of all time” and they just might be right

With Eddie Kramer and Robert Ludwig on the payroll, doesn’t this record have to be spectacular? Good, yes, but spectacular? Not really. Some copies just don’t rock, and those copies lose a huge number of points for that shortcoming, especially on a Monster Rock record such as this.

Some are leaned out, some have no real top end — as Murphy’s Law makes clear, if something can go wrong it will go wrong.

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Jimi Hendrix – The Jimi Hendrix Concerts

More of the Music of Jimi Hendrix

  • This 2-LP set of previously unreleased performances boasts very good Hot Stamper sound or BETTER on all FOUR sides
  • It’s richer, fuller and with more presence than the average copy, and that’s especially true for whatever godawful Heavy Vinyl pressing is currently being foisted on an unsuspecting record buying public
  • 4 stars: “With top-notch performances, consistently inspired solos, and excellent sound, this is probably the best introduction to Hendrix’s live recordings.”

This live album, taken from concerts recorded from 1968 to 1970, is wonderful sounding on the best tracks. If you’re in the market for live Hendrix on a Hot Stamper, you’ll be hard-pressed to do any better.

The bass on this recording is huge, which is exactly what this kind of music needs most. At the levels we were playing this album, it really came to life. That’s the true test of a good live rock record — the louder you play it the better it sounds!

Stephen Cook writes “With top-notch performances, consistently inspired solos, and excellent sound, this is probably the best introduction to Hendrix’s live recordings.” We agree on all three points completely — but only when you hear it on the right pressing.”

Sonically, this recording has the key elements that a good live album needs: correct tonality, powerful dynamics, and Rock and Roll ENERGY.

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Letter of the Week – “What a mind-blowing experience!”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Jimi Hendrix Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently (italics and bolding added):

Hey Tom,    

Well, you found another INCREDIBLE Hot Stamper with “Axis: Bold as Love.” What a mind-blowing experience!

This was at least my fifth copy of this album and it shamed all other sad sacks I had bought.

I really don’t know how you do it, but I’m infinitely grateful that you do. The notion of a “great sounding Hendrix album” almost sounds like an oxymoron, but again you struck sonic gold and unearthed one of those rare few that offer a deeply satisfying listening experience – to put it mildly!

My appreciation for Hendrix’s towering musical achievements has doubled, maybe even tripled, from hearing this Hot Stamper. That’s quite a feat for an artist I already considered to be one of the best ever! All this because of those magical Hot Stamper grooves. This goes to show what a difference amazing sound can have on the ability to appreciate an album or artist.

Oh, and I once owned a copy of the abysmal Classic pressing. Among its many other failings is the decision to re-release it in mono. Mono!? “Axis” is one of the creative examples of stereo mixing known to man! Reducing this album to mono is a travesty, but I guess that didn’t bother Classic Records.

Anyhow, keep ’em coming, Tom! You indeed sell the best sounding records in the world.

Dan L.

Dan,

Thanks for your letter. We didn’t care for the Classic Records Axis in mono either. We wrote at the time:

One of the worst things those dummies at Classic ever did. The mono mix sounds just plain awful.

Their reissue of the mono mix is flat and dry with practically no Tubey Magic whatsoever.

It positively screams “CHEAP REISSUE.” That two word description reminds me of this record, although to be fair the sound is quite a bit worse on the Hendrix.

If you want to know more about records that really sound bad in mono, we’ve played and reviewed a few.

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Jimi Hendrix – Hendrix In The West

More Jimi Hendrix

  • Hendrix in the West is back on the site for only the second time in over three years, here with incredible Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound throughout this early UK import pressing, just shy of our Shootout Winner – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • This is a fun live album with stellar performances by Jimi – the best of his many posthumous releases
  • The awesome version of “Little Wing” is just killer on this copy – it’s Jimi’s best performance of the song
  • 4 stars: “…it’s a hodge-podge, made of live tracks largely from 1969 and 1970. But it’s a bunch of great live tracks, including some real rarities… In the West is a great sampling of Hendrix’s late-period live material (and his sense of humor) making its long awaited appearance.”

We’re still surprised at how well recorded the album is. It takes a pressing like this to really show you the live Jimi Hendrix magic Eddie Kramer got onto tape. Drop the needle on “Little Wing” and you are going to be floored.

The size and space here are really something, miles beyond most. The resolution and clarity of the open live sound of this copy bring out all the instrumental textures and details of the recording like few we played. More importantly, the extended top keeps the highs from getting hard or harsh the way they do on so many pressings we’ve played.

As these performances are culled from different concerts, the sound varies a bit from track to track, but every track on here sounds good and the best tracks sound amazing.

Almost Famous

It’s hard to understand why this album isn’t more widely known. The performances are great and the sound is excellent for a vintage live recording.

Naturally not every copy sounds as good as this one. We heard a lot of pressings with too much grit and grain, and many that badly lacked presence. When I play a live album, I want to feel like I am there at the show (and to do that I set the volume accordingly, of course) but with most copies that just isn’t possible.

Thanks to Eddie Kramer’s amazing engineering, this album will have Jimi playing live in your listening room, and what a thrill it is to hear it all these years later (and on dramatically better equipment).

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Jimi Hendrix – Are You Experienced

More Jimi Hendrix

  • This UK Polydor import pressing will blow you away with INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on both sides – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “huge and fat and tubey”…”super present and 3D”…”so full and big and weighty”…”great energy”…”HTF [hard to fault]” (side one)…”vox present and breathy”…”rich and lively”
  • The sound is dramatically bigger, cleaner, livelier, richer, tubier, more present and more energetic than you’ll hear on any other copy, or your money back
  • Stunning sound for “Purple Haze,” “Hey Joe,” “The Wind Cries Mary,” “Fire,” “Foxy Lady” and every other song on his brilliant debut
  • No matter what version you’ve been playing, we guarantee you’ll be blown away by the Master Tape Sound found on this import and only this import
  • 5 stars: “One of the most stunning debuts in rock history, and one of the definitive albums of the psychedelic era.”

It is no easy task trying to find good copies of this album (or any Hendrix album, really). This one is absolutely killer. The bottom end is big and weighty, the top is open and transparent, and there’s plenty of rich, full tubey magic. Good luck finding this kind of sound for Are You Experienced on your own — it took us DECADES! (more…)

Axis: Bold As Love Is More of the Same Heavy Vinyl Trash from Classic Records

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Jimi Hendrix Available Now

One of the worst things those dummies at Classic ever did. The mono mix sounds just plain awful.

Their reissue of the mono mix is flat and dry with practically no Tubey Magic whatsoever.

It positively screams “CHEAP REISSUE.” That two word description reminds me of this record, although to be fair the sound is quite a bit worse on the Hendrix.

Is it the worst version of the album ever pressed? It almost has to be, doesn’t it?

Further Reading

Even as recently as the early 2000s we were still impressed somewhat with the better Heavy Vinyl pressings. If we had never made the progress we’ve worked so hard to make over the course of the last twenty or more years, perhaps we would find more merit in the Heavy Vinyl reissues so many audiophiles are enamored with these days.

We’ll never know of course; that’s a bell that can be unrung. We did the work, we can’t undo it, and the system that resulted from it is merciless in revealing the truth — that these newer pressings are second-rate at best and much more often than not third-rate and even worse.

Some audiophile records have such bad sound that I was pissed off to the point of creating a special sh*t list for them. As of 2025, it contains close to 300 titles. That is a lot of bad sounding audiophile records! I should know, I played an awful lot of them.

Having now retired, I’m pleased to be able to leave that job in the more than capable hands of the listening crew at Better Records. They have been playing many of the newer releases and finding the sound is every bit as bad or worse these days.

Setting higher standards — no, being able to set higher standards — in our minds is a clear mark of progress. Judging by the hundreds of letters we’ve received, especially the ones comparing our records to their Heavy Vinyl and Half-Speed mastered counterparts, we know that our customers see things the same way.

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Jimi Hendrix – Band of Gypsys

More Jimi Hendrix

  • A Band of Gypsys like you’ve never heard, with solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER throughout this original pressing – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Huge amounts of bass; rich, smooth vocals; here is the big, bold sound that we’re pretty sure you had no idea the album could have
  • Wonderful clarity and freedom from distortion characterize the overall sound of both sides, and that’s unusual because there are a lot of dreadful sounding copies floating around
  • These Robert Ludwig-mastered Capitol pressings are the only ones good enough to be called Hot Stampers – accept no substitutes!
  • Trust us on this one – you’re going to have a difficult (and expensive!) adventure finding a copy that sounds as good as this one on your own
  • We have a staff of ten and even we have a hard time with Classic Rock titles like these — people loved this album and played it to death on their shitty turntables, leaving few copies in clean condition for us audiophiles to enjoy 54 years later [see below]
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Although he could be an erratic live performer, for these shows, Hendrix was on — perhaps his finest performances… not only an important part of the Hendrix legacy, but one of the greatest live albums ever.”
  • If you’re a fan of Jimi’s, this 1970 release belongs in your collection.
  • When it comes to rock and pop music in 1970, our picks for the best of the best, numbering less than 30 titles, can be found here.

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Various Artists / Woodstock

More Live Albums

  • These original pressings boast seriously good Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER on all SIX sides
  • 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
  • “As potent a musical time capsule as ever existed, it captures the three-day, 1969 concert event that united close to half a million members of what came to be known as the ‘Woodstock Generation.’ It topped the Billboard Charts for four weeks and sold two million copies.”

You will have a very hard time finding a quieter copy!

Folks, it was a struggle, let me tell you! Not as much of a struggle as putting on the concert itself to be sure, but a struggle for those of us charged with finding good sound on this famously badly recorded album.

First off there are six sides to play for every copy.

Secondly the sound is problematical at best; figuring out what the best copies do well that the run-of-the-mill copies don’t takes quite a bit of concentration, and one has to stay focused for a long time (most of the day in fact). After a while it can really start to wear on your nerves. (more…)