Excellent sound throughout with Double Plus (A++) or BETTER on both sides. This superb pressing is especially Analog Sounding – lively, warm, with rich bass and breathy, clear vocals. Features one of Orbison’s greatest legacies, “Oh, Pretty Woman,” in stereo no less, and it sounds incredible here. (more…)
If you think that buying original pressings of an album like this one is the way to find the best sound, you are sorely mistaken. The originals and most reissues on the Monument label are mostly dreadful sounding.
The monos sound bad and the originals sound bad, which means that all the conventional wisdom of record collectors and audiophiles alike has failed to produce the desired result: a good sounding pressing of the album. What’s a mother to do?
Well, you could do what we did: try them all! If you keep at it long enough eventually you will run into the right pressing, and then you can focus on getting a large enough batch which will allow you to find one that sounds great and plays quietly.
Or you could just buy this one. We already did all that other stuff and this is the pressing that resulted from our labors.
A distinguished member of the Better Records Rock and Pop Hall of Fame.
MASTER TAPE SOUND ON SIDE ONE backed with an excellent side two, both on very quiet vinyl! It took us ages to put together enough clean copies to get this shootout going again. Many of the pressings we played suffered from too much compression and a phony hi-fi quality. We knew there had to be great copies out there somewhere, so we kept dropping the needle until we found a few good men. Here’s the best of them all — it rates our top grade of A+++ on side one and A++ on side two. Drop the needle on Handle With Care to hear how wonderful this music can sound when it’s cut right!
Side one of this copy is As Good As It Gets! The sound is natural, balanced, and tonally correct from top to bottom. Most copies we played weren’t nearly this open or transparent. The energy factor here is OFF THE CHARTS and the clarity is superb. We heard a lot of copies with a spitty, gritty top end, but this one is smooth like butter and sweet like candy! Side two is nearly as good but doesn’t have quiet the same energy factor. It’s still dramatically better than most copies out there.
It’s hard not to enjoy this music. Put Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, George Harrison, Bob Dylan and Jeff Lynne in a recording studio together and something good is bound to happen, right? This may not be these guys at the very top of their game, but the songs are still a lot of fun. Now that we’ve discovered these Hot Stampers, the sound is finally where we want it to be. Until this week, we were convinced that these songs sounded better on the radio! (That’s what tons of compression will do for you.) (more…)
One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently:
Hey Tom,
I would like you to do me a favor and pull this record and ship it to me. I will ship the super Hot stamper I paid $399.99 because one side had A+++ grade. Please let me know ASAP if you can do me this favor.
Thanks, Naz
Naz,
Not a problem, happy to do it for you. And if you are not thrilled with it make sure to tell us within the 30 day window so we can give you full credit towards something else.
Best, TP
Thanks 🙏
Tom I’m going out of my frigging mind on this White Hot stamper of Roy Orbison Greatest hits. What a piece of shit is my Dcc test pressing.
It’s hard not to enjoy this music. Put Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, George Harrison, Bob Dylan and Jeff Lynne in a recording studio together and something good is bound to happen, right?
This album is proof that it did! (more…)
This ’60s LP has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern pressings cannot BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing any sign of coming back. (more…)
Sonic Grade: F
A Hall of Shame pressing and another Classic Records LP debunked.
Can’t recommend this one. It’s too bright. The DCC LP of Orbison’s material is dramatically better [assuming you want a Heavy Vinyl pressing. I doubt I would care for the sound of it now but back in the day we recommended it].
I’ve had some discussions with some audiophiles who liked this album, and I’m frankly surprised that people find this kind of sound pleasing, but if you’re one of those people who likes bright records, this should do the trick!
For us audiophiles, both the sound and the music found here are positively enchanting. If you’re looking to demonstrate just how good ’60s All Tube Analog sound can be, this killer copy may be just the album for you. (more…)
Sonic Grade: C
Another Classic Records LP reviewed. Not sure if we would still agree with what we wrote back in 2003 when this record came out, but here it is anyway.
“This is actually a very good sounding record, unlike the first Orbison that Classic did. It’s also a better album.” (more…)
