Bill Szymczyk, Engineer

The Eagles – Hotel California

More of the Music of The Eagles

  • Both sides of this vintage copy were giving us the big and bold sound we were looking for, earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades
  • If you have any modern remastered pressing of the album, please order this one so you can hear what you have been missing all these years
  • A Better Records Top 100 pick – here’s a copy that’s transparent and hi-rez, with all the energy and Tubey Magic that can only be found on the right pressings of the originals
  • Speaking of the right pressings, the right stampers are ten or twenty times as rare as the run-of-the-mill stampers that show up on eBay every day, which should explain why this multi-million selling title rarely makes it to the site
  • 5 stars: “Hotel California unveiled what seemed almost like a whole new band… The result was the Eagles’ biggest-selling regular album release, and one of the most successful rock albums ever.”
  • If ever there was a Must Own album from 1976, Hotel California has to be it – who doesn’t love this album?

We are having a devil of a time finding this album in audiophile playing condition these days, which is why you practically never see them on the site anymore, and copies quieter than Mint Minus Minus are rare indeed.

From first note to last, this pressing has superb, mind-blowing, Demo Disc sound. Drop the needle on any track on either side to hear what we’re talking about. The highs are silky and delicate, the bottom end is tight and punchy, and the vocals sound amazing. The bass is perfection, which really brings out the feel of the song “Hotel California.” It’s so deep and loping, the effect is practically narcotic.

“Life In The Fast Lane” is possibly the toughest song on the album to get right — it tends to have that transistory, compressed sound that we’ve come to expect from Bill Szymczyk. On this copy, it really rocks — super-punchy with amazing presence and lots of meaty texture to the guitars. It will always sound a bit harsher than ideal on any copy with real presence, texture, and energy; that’s just the sound they were going for. It is what it is, which makes it not a good track to judge the first side by.

On side two, one of the better sounding tracks is “Try And Love Again.” On a superb copy like this one, it’s off the charts. The wonderful clarity and punchy bass here take this song to a whole new level.

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B.B. King – Indianola Mississippi Seeds

More Electric Blues

  • Indianola Mississippi Seeds debuts on the site with solid Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them throughout this original ABC pressing
  • This side one is big, full-bodied and Tubey Magical, yet still pretty clear, spacious and open, and side two is not far behind in all those areas
  • Credit Bill Szymczyk for the punchy, huge and energetic sound he produced and engineered
  • An exceedingly tough album to find with audiophile surfaces – the top copy and two of the better second-tier copies from our recent shootout didn’t even make it to the site due to vinyl issues, which means that what we’re offering here is as good as it gets for the foreseeable future
  • 4 stars: “B.B. King hasn’t made many better pop-flavored albums than this. Joining King here were Leon Russell, Joe Walsh and Carole King; several pop luminaries who did more than just hang on for the ride.”

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Jimmy Witherspoon – Handbags and Gladrags

More Jimmy Witherspoon

More Soul, Blues, and R&B

  • With INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound from start to finish, this vintage ABC pressing is certainly as good a copy as we have ever heard
  • These sides are doing everything right – they’re super big, rich and lively, with an abundance of extension at both ends
  • Spacious and transparent, this copy has the three-dimensional soundstaging and natural vocal reproduction that makes these kinds of records such a joy to play (and in the process a record this good makes a mockery of the veiled, lifeless, ambience-free sound of the modern Heavy Vinyl reissue)
  • Sorry about the ABC vinyl — it’s the rare copy that plays much quieter, one of the main reasons you never see this title on the site

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The Eagles / The Long Run

More of the Music of The Eagles

  • With KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on both sides, this copy has a rockin’ “Long Run” like you have never heard
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “weighty and rich and punchy”…”jumping out of the speakers”…”very full vox”…”deep and rich and 3D”…”big and round and present”
  • The sonics are full, rich and vibrant with impressive punch down low and nice extension up top
  • The best songs prove that the Eagles were still at the height of their powers, at least some of the time…
  • The first two songs on both sides are practically as good as it gets for mainstream rock from this era – they’re playlist staples of Classic Rock stations from coast to coast to this day
  • “The Long Run is a chilling and altogether brilliant evocation of Hollywood’s nightly Witching Hour, that nocturnal feeding frenzy first detailed by Warren Zevon on his haunting Asylum debut (Warren Zevon, 1976) and the equally powerful Excitable Boy.” – Rolling Stone

The last song on side two, “The Sad Cafe,” is also a standout. Others, as they used to say in school, ‘need improvement.’

But five Killer Eagles songs is nothing to sneeze at. This is an album that belongs in most rock and pop collections, even if you choose to only listen to the best material on it.

The True Test For Side One

Want to know if you have a good side one on your copy? Here’s an easy test. Timothy B. Schmit’s vocal on “I Can’t Tell You Why” rarely sounds right. Most of the time he’s muffled, pretty far back in the soundstage, and the booth he’s in has practically no ambience. On the good copies, he’s not exactly jumping out of the speakers, but he’s clear, focused, and his voice is breathy and full of emotional subtleties that make the song the heartbreaking powerhouse it is.

This is why you need a Hot Stamper. Most copies don’t let you feel the song. Not like this one does. And the rest of the band is cookin’ here as well. From the big, full-bodied bass to the fat, punchy snare, this side is doing pretty much everything we want it to.

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The Eagles / On The Border – A Must Own Country Rock Classic

More Eagles

More Country and Country Rock

  • An outstanding British SYL copy of this criminally underrated California Country Rock classic
  • If you’ve never heard one of these early pressings, you have simply never heard this album sound the way it should, mastered with the correct polarity, for one thing
  • “You Never Cry Like A Lover” and “The Best Of My Love” (their first No. 1) offer Glyn Johns magically delicious DEMO DISC quality sound
  • We’re HUGE fans of the album here at Better Records; it’s some of the most sophisticated, well-crafted, heartfelt music these guys ever made, and that’s saying a lot coming from us – we’ve been big fans for decades
  • This killer album from 1974 belongs in your collection.
  • We’ve recently compiled a list of records we think every audiophile should get to know better, along the lines of “the 1001 records you need to hear before you die,” but with less accent on morbidity and more on the joy these amazing audiophile-quality recordings can bring to your life. On the Border is a good example of a record most audiophiles don’t know well but should.

Many of you have probably forgotten how good this album is (assuming you were ever familiar with it in the first place) probably because the typical domestic copy you would have played back in the day is fairly hard on the ears. Most pressings, even the British ones, barely hint at the kind of sound you’ll hear on this vintage UK pressing (the only kind we sell of course).

The LIFE and ENERGY of this pressing are going to knock you right out of your seat. Most copies leave you with a headache, but this one will have you begging to turn up the volume.

Tubey Magical acoustic guitar reproduction is superb on the better copies of this album. Simply phenomenal amounts of Tubey Magic can be heard on every strum, along with richness, body and harmonic coherency that have all but disappeared from modern recordings (and especially from modern remasterings). (more…)

The Eagles – One Of These Nights

More Eagles

 More Country and Country Rock

  • INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound brings the Eagles’ first Number One album to life on this early Asylum label pressing
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “big and rich”…”vox silky and relaxed”…”tubey and great detail!”…”huge and rich and weighty”
  • On a copy such as this one, the soaring guitar solo of the title track really comes alive – assuming you have it turned up good and loud
  • “Lyin’ Eyes” and “Take It To The Limit” sound the way they should – we guarantee you have never heard them sound remotely as good as they do here
  • A top quality side two is not easy to find on this album – they are consistently one half to one full grade lower than side one – but not this side two, which won the shootout and is certainly as good as we have ever heard
  • There are some bad marks (as is sometimes the nature of the beast with these Classic Rock records) on “Take It To The Limit,” but once you hear just how incredible sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting ticks and just be swept away by the music
  • 4 stars: “…a lyrical stance — knowing and disillusioned, but desperately hopeful — had evolved, and the musical arrangements were tighter and more purposeful. The result was the Eagles’ best-realized and most popular album so far.”

This is one of the toughest Eagles albums to find with good sound, which is why only a small handful ever make it to the site. This album may never sound quite as good as Hotel California or the self-titled debut, but there are some wonderful songs here and a Hot Stamper pressing like this brings them to life in a way most pressings cannot begin to do.

The better copies are richer and sweeter. When you turn them up, they really come to life. When you play the better sides at rock music volumes they really rock. When a copy is cut really clean, as the best ones are, the louder you play them the better they sound. They’re tonally correct at loud levels and a bit dull at what we would call “audiophile” levels. That’s the way it should be.

Here is the one comment which really gets to the point of the better pressings: “guitar solos rise above.” The big solo on the title track just soars on this copy like we’ve rarely heard in the past.

This is the guitar sound that Bill Szymczyk achieved with the band that Glyn Johns had not. Of course, Johns had never tried; he saw them as a country rock band. The Eagles saw themselves as a rock band, it’s as simple as that.

Also note on side one that the loud choruses and huge guitars on the second track, “Too Many Hands,” hold up on this side one amazingly well. It’s a great test track as well as the first, providing positive confirmation that what you will hear for the song “One of These Nights” — the size and the power — will carry all the way through this side one.

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James Gang – Thirds

More Joe Walsh

  • This excellent pressing boasts Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER on both sides – reasonably quiet vinyl too
  • Big, present and lively, with good weight to the bottom end, this is clearly the right sound for this music and may just make you a fan of Joe Walsh’s grungy guitar artistry
  • We guarantee there is dramatically more richness, smoothness, 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
  • 4 stars: “… Walsh was being hailed as a guitar hero to rank with the best rock had to offer… Thirds quickly earned a respectable chart position and eventually went gold…”

The copies that did well in our shootout managed to keep the grit and grain in the sound under control without smothering the top end or smearing the upper midrange. Clear, breathy vocals that don’t strain when loud were tough to find, but some copies did a whole lot better than others, and those are typically the ones we preferred.

Plenty of tight bass and lively rock energy are every bit as important of course. Nobody wants a leaned-out or boring James Gang record.

Although this record will never be a demo disc, at the very least the best copies should make you a fan of Joe Walsh‘s grungy guitar work, and we think this copy should do just that.

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Joe Walsh – So What

More Joe Walsh

More of The Eagles

  • You’ll find outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound on both sides of this classic from Joe Walsh
  • Forget whatever dead-as-a-doornail Heavy Vinyl record they’re making these days – if you want to hear the Tubey Magic, size and energy of this wonderful album, a vintage pressing like this one is the only way to go
  • Includes a couple of classics, notably “Welcome to the Club” and a remake of “Turn to Stone”
  • You’ll hear most of the Eagles playing on this one, produced and engineered by the redoubtable Bill Szymczyk
  • “So What sees Walsh in top form as a guitarist. Most of the nine tracks feature solos of unquestionable quality in his usual rock style.”

We were impressed with how rich and punchy this copy sounded after hearing dozens of dry, thin, lifeless pressings over the years. Once we had heard that at least one copy sound good we proceeded to gather up every LP we could get our hands on and make this shootout happen.

Unfortunately, most of what we ended up playing had the kind of mediocre sound we had been suffering through for decades. The best copies had real energy, surprising dynamics, and lots of that ’70s Tubey Magic we love so much and never tire of talking about. (It’s also a sound that you will have a very hard time finding on most Heavy Vinyl pressings being made these days, as you doubtless know.)

The best pressings have (relatively; this is still Joe Walsh album we’re talking about) rich, warm guitars and vocals, supported by tight, punchy bass. Most copies were far less energetic and dynamic than this one. Excellent transparency as well.

All in all, this is pretty much as good as it gets for Joe Walsh in 1974. The very next year he would become an Eagle and help those boys knock it out of the park with Hotel California, their indisputable Magnum Opus.

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Joe Walsh – The Smoker You Drink…

More Joe Walsh

  • A superb copy of Walsh’s sophomore release with outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound from start to finish
  • This copy has Walsh sounding clear and present, with much less grit to his vocal
  • The bass is tight and punchy, with real weight to the bottom end
  • More importantly than all of those, Joe’s guitars are meaty, grungy and huge – that guitar sound is the sine qua non of Classic Riff Rock, and this copy delivers plenty of it
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get features some of the most remembered Joe Walsh tracks, but it’s not just these that make the album a success. Each of the nine tracks is a song to be proud of. This is a superb album by anyone’s standards.”

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Joe Walsh – But Seriously, Folks…

More Joe Walsh

  • A hard album to find with sound like this AND quiet surfaces, but here one is@
  • We guarantee there is dramatically more richness, fullness and presence on this copy than others you’ve heard, and that’s especially true for whatever godawful Heavy Vinyl pressing is currently being foisted on an undiscerning record buying public
  • 4 1/2 stars: “As far as studio albums go, But Seriously Folks is Joe Walsh’s most insightful and melodic… The album’s introspective outlook glides through rejuvenation (‘Tomorrow,’ ‘Over and Over’), recapturing the simple pleasures of the past (‘Indian Summer’), mid-career indecision, and a melancholy instrumental.”

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