Top Artists – The Cars

The Cars – Shake It Up

More of the Music of The Cars

  • With two solid Double Plus (A++) sides, this vintage copy is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other Shake It Up you’ve heard – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • It wouldn’t be a Cars Hot Stamper pressing without big, bold sound flying out of the speakers and friends, let me tell you, this baby’s got that in spades
  • Outstanding sound for some of their most memorable songs – “Since You’re Gone,” “Shake It Up,” “I’m Not the One,” “A Dream Away” and more
  • “The band’s sound may have been evolving with each succeeding album, but Ric Ocasek was still writing compelling new wave compositions despite all the change, many of which would ultimately become rock and roll standards.”

If you have big dynamic speakers and like to rock, you can’t go wrong with a Hot Stamper copy of Shake It Up. For a band with thin ties, leather jackets, jangly guitars, synths and monstrously huge floor toms that fly back and forth across the soundstage, Shake It Up is going to be the record for you, no doubt about it.

The first two Cars albums were both in our Top 100 at one time, with good reason: they’re superb recordings. The Cars have been in “heavy rotation” on my system since the albums came out in the late 70s. We started doing shootouts for both albums right around 2006 or 2007 and they continue to be a regular feature of our rock and pop section, not to mention some of the most fun shootouts we do in any given week.

Before then had you ever read a word in any audiophile or record collecting publication about how amazing the originals can sound? Of course not. These people wouldn’t know a good record from a hole in the ground. If anything the typical audiophile probably has one or both of the disastrous Nautilus half-speed mastered versions, and, having played them, would not be inclined to think highly of the sound.

We knew better than to waste our time with that muck. Recently Mobile Fidelity has taken upon itself to remaster a selection of the band’s titles with the same flawed half-speed mastering approach. We haven’t played any of them and don’t intend to. We know that sound and we don’t like it.

Our point, other than to bash a record we have never played, is simply this: if you have any of those MoFi versions, we would love to send you a Hot Stamper copy of the album so that you can hear for yourself what it’s really supposed to sound like.

The End of the Cars Production Line

I consider this to be one of the last good records the Cars made. Side one is fairly consistent, with the first three tracks all being excellent. Side two starts out with one of their best songs, “A Dream Away,” which is a personal favorite of mine.

(more…)

Letter of the Week – “It just came to life in a way that left the MoFi pressing in the dust in every way imaginable.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Cars Available Now

Ray, a new customer, here relates to us the experience of playing his first Hot Stamper pressing:

Pardon the language, Well f**k me!

My brother bought me The Cars, Heartbeat City Super Hot Stamper. And I got it on June 17th.

I opened the well-packed box, and behold! a rather common looking version. I took it out of the well made sleeve and it looked unimpressive.

I then put it on my turntable. And WOW!!! It just came to life in a way that left the MoFi pressing in the dust in every way imaginable. EVERYTHING sounded better, and my speakers SANG!!!

I am beyong impressed with this record and have absolutely no intention of getting rid of it.

I always felt like Tom was being overly harsh with “audiophile” pressings, But DAYUM!!! He is right.

I would gladly pay $100 again to get a record as good as this. I’m hooked!!!

Thank you folks for doing all the work.

Ray, thank you so much for your enthusiastic letter. A few thoughts come to mind.

Indeed, our records are rather common looking. They often look like the standard issue pressing that came out back in the day, because in most case that is exactly what they are.

We are not trying to make fancy good sounding records. Those that try to make good sounding records these days have a failure rate that borders on 100%. Why would we want to follow in their footsteps?

No, all we do is find the copies that were mastered right, pressed right, and therefore sound right.

It sounds like it should be easier to do, and in many ways it is. It is still a lot of work, but we don’t mind, we actually enjoy it.

As for the MoFi, it is not the least bit surprising that our copy smoked their pressing.

No, the surprising thing is how on earth that ridiculous company is still in business. We asked the question here and it is unlikely we will ever get a good answer.

We’re glad to know that a hundred dollars can indeed buy a good record. We have 119 of them in stock at that price as of this writing, and almost as many for $75 and under.

Many of them punch well above their weight sonically because they have condition issues or are titles that are may not be as popular as others we offer. Either way, many of them are great records that deserve a home, preferably a home with a nice turntable. Won’t you help?

(more…)

Letter of the Week – “…the look on his face when I dropped the needle on my record was absolutely priceless!”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Cars Available Now

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

Hey Tom,  

I really wanted to thank you for The Cars. What a sweet-sounding record! Everything about that one is so right; the guitars, the bass, the drums, the vocals, everything sounds completely natural.  

I have a good friend whose favourite band are The Cars. He has an expensive high-end system, but doesn’t want the “hassle” of vinyl.

Swears blind that nothing beats the DCC gold CD of ‘The Cars’, so I invited him round at the weekend and asked him to bring his DCC CD with him to compare on my relatively modest system.

After we had heard his CD, the look on his face when I dropped the needle on my record was absolutely priceless! A big thank you for the heads-up on that one.

Owais M.

Thanks, Owais, for writing to us. We enjoy hearing that our records are a shock to the system for some audiophiles. Think how much better off your friend would be if he could put up with the hassle of vinyl. He could hear The Cars sound better than he ever imagined.

He imagined that his Gold CD was sonically as good as it gets, but now that he knows just how much better the sound can actually get, courtesy of Better Records, do you think there is any chance the superior sound will help him get over his reservations about vinyl? My intuition says that such a thing is unlikely.

It seems that some aspects of audio are just too much work for a certain group of audiophiles. They pretend their oh-so-convenient CDs sound great, and they get away with believing it because most of them have no way of discovering disconfirming evidence like the kind you supplied your friend.

Unsurprisingly, Gold CD owners and Heavy Vinyl owners are often one and the same. For most of these CD guys, the Heavy Vinyl in this case can only confirm how much better the Gold CD sounds!

And given the choice between the excellent CDs Steve Hoffman (and others) have mastered and the typical Heavy Vinyl pressings being made today, who can be blamed for giving up on vinyl?

The DCC Gold CD is indeed excellent, as are most of Steve’s work. I own one and it sounds right to me. It might even beat most vinyl pressings. It will definitely beat this ridiculously bad sounding Heavy Vinyl pressing, the one ruined by Kevin Gray. (Nothing new there.)

And the MoFi is surely a joke, since all their records are a joke. How this company is still in business is a question we often ask ourselves after playing one of their albums.

And if you are a hard-of-hearing audiophile record reviewer with four copies of the album sitting on your shelves, it will beat at least three of them, and maybe even the fourth, especially if they haven’t been cleaned properly, which is a pretty safe bet for a one man band. I used to be one, so I know whereof I speak. The amount of work required to clean and then shootout the four records you see would take at a minimum two hours, and maybe three. Who can find the time?

But no need to bother. Do a quick needle drop and just tell your readers how great one of the audiophile pressings is, because that’s all they are interested in hearing anyway. Give them the answer and try to make it a record that is still in print so they can afford it. They’ll buy whatever you tell them to buy and they will like it because they don’t know any better, just like Owais’s friend.

(more…)

The Cars – Self-Titled

More of The Cars

Hot Stamper Pressings of New Wave Recordings

  • This original Elektra pressing was giving us the sound we were looking for on The Cars’ debut album
  • You may have heard these songs a million times, but you’ll be shocked at just how much better they sound on this early pressing
  • Despite what you may have read, the Rhino Heavy Vinyl pressing is a joke next to the Hot Stampers we offer
  • A Better Records Top 100 title, the band’s masterpiece, and a New Wave Must Own classic from 1978
  • 5 stars: “Whereas most bands of the late ’70s embraced either punk/new wave or hard rock, the Cars were one of the first bands to do the unthinkable — merge the two styles together. With flawless performances, songwriting, and production (courtesy of Queen alumnus Roy Thomas Baker), the Cars’ debut remains one of rock’s all-time classics.”
  • This is an amazing album from 1978 that belongs in every rock- and pop-loving audiophile’s collection
  • It’s our pick for the band’s best sounding album. Roughly 150 other listings for the Best Recording by an Artist or Group can be found here.

The material is superb — just check out the first three tracks: “Let The Good Times Roll,” “My Best Friend’s Girl,” and “Just What I Needed” — how many albums start off with that kind of a bang? Each of those tracks sounds amazing. If you’ve got big speakers and a front end capable of resolving musical information at the highest levels, put this record on, turn it way up and get ready to hear some serious Demonstration Quality Sound.

(more…)

You Mean to Say You Don’t Have the Nautilus Half-Speed in Your Collection?

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Cars Available Now

A well-known audiophile reviewer posted pictures of the Cars albums you see below.

As would be expected, it looks like he has rounded up the usual suspects from his collection:

  • A domestic pressing (probably), perhaps even an early one.
  • A Japanese pressing.
  • A Mobile Fidelity pressing (notice how contrasty the jacket photo is), and
  • The Rhino Heavy Vinyl pressing, which we reviewed recently here.

What are the chances that any of these pressings are any good?

Let me guess. One out of four?

(more…)

The Cars – Candy-O

More of The Cars

Hot Stamper Pressings of New Wave Recordings

  • You’ll find solid Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides of this excellent copy of The Cars’ New Wave classic (one of only a handful to hit the site in nearly three years)
  • We guarantee this is some of the best sound you’ll ever hear on any Cars album – Roy Thomas Baker‘s production makes this one jump out of the speakers like few recordings we’ve heard (and not many of them are from 1979, that’s for damn sure)
  • An underrated album by the band – we consider it a Must Own, along with their brilliant debut, two records that belong in any audiophile’s rock and op collection
  • 4 1/2 stars: “As it stands, it may be one of the best second albums ever made, full of great songs, inspired performances, and sporting a still-perfect sound. If this had been the Cars’ debut album, people might consider it a classic. Coming after The Cars, it has to be rated a little lower, but not by much.”
  • If you’re a Cars fan, or maybe just somebody looking for a killer Demo Disc to play, this title from 1979 surely deserves a place in your collection

(more…)

It’s 2007 and We’ve Just Discovered a New Wave Record to Beat Them All

Hot Stamper Pressings of New Wave Recordings

This review/commentary was written in 2007.

As far as we know, this is the only New Wave rock record with DEMO DISC sound ever made. We’re talking huge amounts of dynamic energy, tons of bass, a luscious midrange, all topped with a sweetly extended high end. I always knew there were superb sounding copies of this album, but I honestly had no idea they any could sound like this. There is only one copy that earned our coveted Triple Plus designation for both sides, and this is it. As Good As It Gets.

One other copy received a Triple Plus on side one, but this copy was still a step up from it. We hold the line at three pluses but three doesn’t begin to tell the whole story. This record is really just plain off the charts.

On our two day journey through this shootout we discovered that Candy-O only offers two things on its menu*:

1) Open Top Sandwich – extended and open top end with not enough bass 
2) Topless Tacos – driving solid punchy bass with not enough top end extension

But here’s Today’s Special:

Delicious Combo Platter – a sampling of the highest highs, the deepest punchiest bass, and the most open transparent mids, all beautifully laid out on a slab of vinyl, a veritable feast for the ears. Ahem.

(*all items come with free side of shipping when ordered from our mailer.)

What other New Wave band ever recorded an album with this kind of DEMONSTRATION QUALITY sound? It positively JUMPS out of the speakers.

No album by Blondie, Television, The Talking Heads or ANY of their contemporaries can begin to compete with this kind of sound.

[UPDATE: Not true, this one does.]

The Cars very own first album is excellent, but it doesn’t have this kind of LIFE and ENERGY. No way, no how.

If you have big dynamic speakers and like to rock, you can’t go wrong here. Neil Young albums have the Big Rock sound, and if you’re more of a Classic Rock kind of listener, that’s a good way to go. We’re behind you all the way, just check out the commentary for Zuma.

For a band with thin ties, leather jackets, jangly guitars, synths and monstrously huge floor toms that fly back and forth across the soundstage, Candy-O is the girl for you, no doubt about it.

2007 was a long time ago. It was the year we made many breakthroughs.

In fact, we made more breakthroughs in that year than in any other in the history of the company, including this singularly important break with the past.

(more…)

Are Our Heavy Vinyl Reviews Based on Faulty Reasoning?

Welcome to the Skeptical Audiophile

The short answer is that our reviews aren’t based on reasoning at all.

The full story follows. The comments you see below were left on our listing for the Rhino pressing of The Cars’ first album.

The grievances the writer lists are long and mostly unserious, but I think they have some value, just not the value the writer intended, so of course I am happy to reproduce them here and take a crack at explaining the mistaken audiophile thinking they represent.

If you’ve ever stumbled upon the Wikipedia page for logical fallacies, you will have no trouble recognizing all the shortcomings this writer has called us out for in our review of The Cars on Rhino, as well as, we assume, the hundreds of other Heavy Vinyl disasters we take to task on this blog.

Rather that attempt to rebut the individual charges, which seem to be grounded in issues of logic, semantic hair-splitting, a deep misunderstanding of the unwritten rules of criticism, what does and does not constitute an ad hominem attack, my use of injudicious language, and who knows what else, I have an answer that I believe gets to the heart of why none of this matters, which you will find below in my reply to his comments. [Bolding added by me,]

Ad Hominem Attack: The author attacks Kevin Gray personally, suggesting that his work is consistently poor without addressing the specific issues with the remastering process.

Appeal to Authority: The author mentions Steve Hoffman and his successful remastering of The Cars’ first album on Gold CD, implying that because Hoffman did it well, Kevin Gray should have done the same. This disregards the possibility of differences in approach and technique between the two engineers.

Appeal to Popularity: Popularity does not equate to quality.

False Dichotomy: The author presents a binary choice between their preferred pressing and the Rhino pressing, suggesting that the Rhino pressing is objectively bad without considering the possibility of subjective preferences or different listening experiences.

Appeal to Emotion: The author uses emotive language (“just awful,” “godawful”) to elicit a strong negative reaction from the reader, rather than providing objective evidence to support their claims. This would be very difficult considering that taste and preference is subjective.

Hasty Generalization: The author assumes that anyone who disagrees with their assessment of the Rhino pressing must have inferior audio equipment or lack understanding of audio quality. This overlooks the possibility of legitimate differences in opinion or subjective preferences.

Appeal to Ignorance: The author suggests that because they personally find the Rhino pressing to be of poor quality, it must be objectively bad. However, personal experience or opinion does not necessarily reflect objective truth.

I would hope that no one reading this blog could possibly find these sophistic arguments persuasive, for the simple reason that none of them have very much to do with the sound of the records, by The Cars or anybody else, that we discuss in our 5000+ listings and commentaries.

Everything we say about records is backed up by the evidence we have discovered by actually playing them.

Failures of logic and generally fallacious thinking have nothing to do with whatever “truths” we believe we have discovered about records, because we didn’t use either one — logic nor reasoning — to learn what we know about them.

I also don’t think we would be comfortable characterizing our claims about the sound of records to be objectively true. Our claims may be objectively true for us; the same stampers of scores of records win our shootouts over and over again, even though no one playing or reviewing the pressings in question knows which stampers are which until the grades are in.

But that objectivity extends only to the records we play on our stereo, and the kind of sound we like our records to have. (May I point out here that the other two guys who took over the job of doing our shootouts more than five years ago heard things the same way I did, and we never quarreled even once about which pressings were the best. They didn’t need teaching, they just needed good records to play on a good system. If your stereo is good enough, the right answers come naturally and effortlessly.)

Fortunately for us, thousands of customers have found that their stereos play our records just fine, and these same customers seem to like the kind of sound we like. That didn’t have to be the case, but we’re glad it is. Otherwise I would have had to find some other way to make a living. I sure wasn’t going to keep selling Heavy Vinyl once it was clear to me how consistently inferior the sound was more than likely going to continue to be.

Logic and Evidence

To understand the records we offer, and the reviews we write, logic is of no use whatsoever.

The only thing that has any real value is experimental evidence.

Without experimental evidence, you simply have no evidence, because logic is not evidence.

(more…)

If This Guy Isn’t on the Payroll…

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Cars Available Now

He sure ought to be!

Based on what I’ve just read, if Rhino Records is looking for a cheerleader, they could hardly do better than Mr. Youman.

I stumbled upon this fellow’s review of The Cars first album on Positive Feedback just a few days ago.

Not sure I would even call it a review. It comes across to me as more of a PR release.

I don’t think Positive Feedback cares either way. They need content, and apparently they consider this content.

The New Rhino High Fidelity Series – The Cars And John Coltrane Kick It Off in Grand Style!

One thing I have noticed about PF is that they do not seem to employ editors of any kind. My friend Robert Pincus writes for them — here is his review of a Dillards album that no one would be likely to buy from us at our prices but is probably worth picking up for the five or ten dollars a record store might charge. There are plenty of typos throughout his reviews and others I have read.

You’re on your own with PF. And they are good with however many exclamation marks you may want to use. Four in one paragraph? Bring it on they say!

The following paragraph from Youman’s review contains a ridiculous mistake that any knowledgeable editor should have noticed. Can you spot it? If so, email me at tom@better-records.com

Mastered by George Marino, the 1978 original would seem hard to beat, as the level of detail and attack is quite impressive. It absolutely rocks, and I would be very happy if this was my one and only copy. The 1980 Nautilus, which was half speed mastered by Jack Hunt, is surprisingly very much like the original with some minimal improvement in transparency and dynamic punch. Most would be hard pressed to hear the difference. Of course, the super quiet Japanese vinyl might be contributing to this. We also have the 2009 Mofi, which was half speed mastered by Shawn Britton. In my system, I found it to be dark and somewhat veiled. Bass was just too prominent to my ears. It was almost impossible to sit through the entire Mofi after hearing the OG and the Nautilus. I am a huge Mofi fan, so this was very disappointing.

When someone as clearly lacking in critical listening skills as this fellow has the temerity to compare “the” original and the Nautilus remaster (reviewed here) and declare “Most would be hard pressed to hear the difference,” it rubs me the wrong way.

I want to sit such a person down and say that it’s unlikely that anyone with two working ears and a halfway-decent stereo would not hear the difference.

You can hardly hear it, that seems clear, but why insult others of a Cars-loving persuasion?

The reference to Giant Steps below is yet more evidence of this fellow’s inability to recognize a bad record when he hears it:

Let’s return to that Rhino catalog and all that it could possibly offer to the audiophile enthusiast. We need to send our wish lists and raise our hands if not bring out the megaphones!  Of course we have the Led Zeppelin catalog, but that has been debated ad nauseum on several internet websites and forums. It seems that those in control will not allow it. Can you imagine a Kevin Gray mastering for Led Zeppelin II? There have been several very good reissues for the Black Sabbath catalog, but the original UK pressings are still the ones to beat based on my own comparisons with various other collectors. Lets [sic] get those original analog UK tapes and hand them over to Kevin!  I also have a copy of the 45 RPM John Coltrane, Giant Steps released by Rhino in 2008. Some argue that this is best pressing ever and by a wide margin! One of the top ten jazz releases of all time as ranked by many jazz experts. Bernie Grundman did a fantastic job on that reissue but there was only a limited production of 2500 copies. Lets [sic] take another shot at those tapes as part of the new Rhino High Fidelity series!

We make the case that Bernie’s recutting of Giant Steps for Rhino is possibly the worst sounding version of the album ever, and perhaps by a wide margin! He already had his shot, the patient did not survive the operation, what good would it do to put another bullet in the corpse?

Jazz experts may rank it one of the top releases of all time — I certainly would — but it is unlikely they have ever heard Rhino’s bloated, thick, dull, lifeless and altogether unsatisfactory pressing of the album. We gave it an a F and felt that we were being too kind. There is some consolation to be had though: The limited production meant that only 2500 people had to suffer through it upon release. (According to Discogs, these days the average price paid for a copy is $225. We may charge a lot for records, but we charge a lot for good sounding records, not bad sounding records, and that should count for something, shouldn’t it?)

And Kevin Gray already ruined the album once for Rhino, so why would anyone want to hand him the tapes to do it again? Is he now a better mastering engineer than he was in the mid-2000s? What evidence to support this proposition could you possibly supply to those of us who question his competence? The shockingly bad sounding records he’s cut recently — Stand Up, Moondance and Rickie Lee Jones are three that spring to mind — make a mockery of the very idea that this guy knows what he is doing.

More comments from the above paragraph of the exploding head variety:

There have been several very good reissues for the Black Sabbath catalog…

Have there? Would someone please name one? We would love to hear it.

but the original UK pressings are still the ones to beat based on my own comparisons with various other collectors.

Then you need to get out more. The UK pressings we have played are not competitive in the least with the best domestic originals. Maybe there are some new reissues that are comparable to the UK pressings, but that is clearly setting the bar much too low. For our last shootout, we noted:

(more…)

The Cars on Rhino – Man, This Record Is Bad

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Cars Available Now

I mean, really bad.

Kevin Gray has struck again. He’s a modern one man demolition crew, taking exceptionally well recorded analog albums and turning them into the vinyl equivalent of CDs, and bad CDs at that.

Steve Hoffman did the first Cars album on Gold CD and it sounds quite good. I still own mine. How can Kevin Gray, his former assistant, make such a mess of the album on vinyl?

This question has a rather obvious answer, and much of what we have to say about this record was said in our review of the disastrous Stand Up Gray cut for Analogue Productions.

Allow us to repeat ourselves:

We were finally able to get our hands on the newly remastered Cars first album, a record we know well, having played them by the score. Our notes for the sound can be seen nearby.

If ever a record deserved a “no” grade, as in “not acceptable,” this new pressing mastered by Kevin Gray deserves such a grade, because it’s just awful.

Here is what we heard on side one of the new Cars remaster.

Good Times Roll

  • Top is sandy  [Sandy typically refers to transistory, dry, grainy, or gritty sound.]
  • Hi-hat is spitty and gritty

My Best Friend’s Girl

  • No real space or punch
  • Flat and sandy

You’re All I’ve Got Tonight

  • Flat
  • No real space or weight
  • No dynamics

Bye Bye Love

  • Soft and sandy
  • Small and smeary

Grant Green on Music Matters had many of these same problems. Unsurprisingly, it too was mastered by Kevin Gray.

How this guy is still getting work is beyond me.

I am clearly being facetious here. These guys get work because audiophiles will buy the records they master. The market has decided these records sound just fine, and who am I to say otherwise?

Of course, people can say anything they want about these records, opinions being worth what you pay for them.

We take a different approach. We will sell you the pressing of the album that can mop the floor with this Heavy Vinyl trash. We rarely have the first album in stock, but if you want one, just let us know and we will be glad to put you on the waiting list. Email Fred at fred@better-records.com.

Compared to What?

Is the Rhino pressing the worst version of the album ever made? In our view, it’s only competition would be this disaster, a record that also sold well back in the day. The more things change…

If I were to try to reverse engineer the sound of a system that could play this record and hide its many faults, I would look for a system that was thick, dark and fat, with plenty of tube colorations and no real top end to speak of.

I know that sound. I actually had a system thirty years ago with many of these shortcomings, but of course I didn’t have a clue about any of that. Like every audio enthusiast I met back then, I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

I’m glad to say things are different now, I think.

If you made the mistake of buying this record and can’t stand the phony top end, try covering your tweeter with something absorbent. Foam might work. Also you could try disconnecting your super tweeters if you have any. This is good advice for any record mastered by Stan Ricker as well.

Since that old school vintage tube sound takes the opposite approach to music reproduction that we’ve spent the last few decades working on here at Better Records — our goal being neutrality above all else — we are clearly not playing the record back on equipment that is capable of making it sound anything but godawful, hence our relentlessly negative reaction to the record.

On any properly setup, halfway decent stereo system, any original pressing with RTB in the dead wax should murder this Heavy Vinyl piece of junk. If you don’t have a system like that, we encourage you to get one. You will save a lot of money by not buying crap vinyl like this, only to discover later just how bad it sounds on the higher quality equipment you eventually end up with. (Here is some good news on that subject.)

Although, to be honest, if you are buying these kinds of awful records, it’s hard to see how you will ever get out of the hole you are in. Some audiophiles manage it, but I suspect that most never do.

You can also buy the CD — whether on DCC Gold or just whatever disc Elektra put out — and hear for yourself if it isn’t better sounding. I would be very surprised if it were not.

(more…)