Top Producers – Phil Spector

Listening In Depth to Let It Be

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

This is the first time we’ve discussed individual tracks on Let It Be.

Our recent shootout [now many years ago], in which we discovered a mind-boggling, rule-breaking side one, motivated us to sit down and explain what the best copies should do on each side of the album for the tracks we test with. Better late than never I suppose. 

These also happen to be the ones that we can stand to hear over and over, dozens of times in fact, which becomes an important consideration when doing shootouts, as we must do them for hours on end.

On the better pressings the natural rock n’ roll energy of a song such as Dig A Pony will blow your mind. There’s no studio wizardry, no heavy-handed mastering, no phony EQ — just the sound of the greatest pop/rock band of all time playing and singing their hearts out.

It’s the kind of thrill you really don’t get from the more psychedelic albums like Sgt. Pepper’s or Magical Mystery Tour. You have to go all the way back to Long Tall Sally and Roll Over Beethoven to find the Beatles consistently letting loose the way they do on Let It Be (or at least on the tracks that are more or less live, which make up about half the album).

Side One

Two of Us

Dig a Pony

On the heavy guitar intro for Dig a Pony, the sound should be full-bodied and Tubey Magical, with plenty of bass. If your copy is too lean, just forget it, it will never rock.

What blew our minds about the Shootout Winning side one we played recently was how outrageously big, open and transparent it was. As the song started up the studio space seemed to expand in every direction, creating more height, width and depth than we had ever experienced with this song before.

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John Lennon / Imagine

More of the Music of John Lennon

  • An early Apple import pressing that was doing just about everything right, earning superb Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides
  • These UK pressings are rich, weighty and oh-so-tubey – it took us a long time to find the right stampers, and these are they
  • Two of our favorite engineers worked their magic on this recording – our deepest thanks go to Eddie Offord and Shelly Yakus
  • 5 stars: “While the album had a softer surface, it was only marginally less confessional than its predecessor [and] it is… a remarkable collection of songs that Lennon would never be able to better again.”

Both sides here are excellent, capturing the essence of what Lennon and Phil Spector (and let’s not forget Yoko, who also gets a producer credit here) were going for. Copies that sound as good as this and play as exceptionally quiet as this do not grow on trees. If it wasn’t ridiculously difficult to find Hot Stamper pressings of Imagine it certainly would not have taken us so long to offer another one on the site.

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John Lennon – Rock ‘N’ Roll (UK)

More of the Music of John Lennon

  • You’ll find superb Double Plus (A++) grades throughout this early UK Apple pressing – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • These sides are rich, full-bodied, present and spacious with plenty of extension on both ends
  • Lennon’s voice sounds just right with lots of texture and startling immediacy – you’re going to have a hard time finding better sounding versions of these songs anywhere else
  • 4 stars: “Rock ‘n’ Roll, in fact, stands as a peak in his post-Imagine catalog: an album that catches him with nothing to prove and no need to try… Today, Rock ‘n’ Roll sounds fresher than the rock & roll that inspired it in the first place. Imagine that.”

We recently finished a shootout for this fun album, and few other copies we played sounded remotely as good as this one. It’s got exactly the kind of sound we’d want for these old Rock & Roll classics — super lively, clean and clear, tonally correct, and natural. Most copies are edgy and gritty, but this one is smooth, sweet and very enjoyable.

Lennon’s voice sounds just right with lots of texture and startling immediacy. You’re going to have a hard time finding better sounding versions of these songs anywhere else — excepting, of course, “Be-Bop-A-Lula,” which can sound amazing on McCartney Unplugged.

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The Beatles – Let It Be

More of the Music of The Beatles

  • This vintage UK pressing boasts INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on both sides – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “big and punchy and breathy”…”sweet and spacious”…”jumping out of the speakers”…”weighty and rich and 3D”…”very full vox”
  • There’s no studio wizardry, no heavy-handed mastering, no phony EQ – here is the most realistic, natural Beatles sound you can get outside of the first album
  • Copies like this one make good on the promise that Let It Be captures the greatest rock band of all time playing and singing their hearts out
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The album is on the whole underrated… it’s an album well worth having, as when the Beatles were in top form here, they were as good as ever.”

At its best, Let It Be has the power of live music, but it takes a special pressing such as this one to show you that sound. It’s a bit trickier trying to find good sound for this album than it is for some of the other albums in the Beatles’ catalog.

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John Lennon – Rock ‘N’ Roll (Domestic)

More of the Music of John Lennon

  • Rock ‘N’ Roll is back on the site after a ten month hiatus, here with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on both sides of this early Apple pressing – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • And if you think the better sounding pressings would be UK imports, you’ve got another thing coming – they’re usually made from dubs, and they have the dubby sound to prove it
  • When we say usually, we don’t mean always, as this excellent UK pressing proves
  • These sides are rich, full-bodied, present and spacious with plenty of extension on both ends
  • Lennon’s voice sounds just right with lots of texture and startling immediacy – you’re going to have a hard time finding better sounding versions of these songs anywhere else
  • 4 stars: “Rock ‘n’ Roll, in fact, stands as a peak in his post-Imagine catalog: an album that catches him with nothing to prove and no need to try… Today, Rock ‘n’ Roll sounds fresher than the rock & roll that inspired it in the first place. Imagine that.”

We just finished a shootout for this fun album, and no other copy we played sounded remotely as good as this one. It’s got exactly the kind of sound we’d want for these old Rock & Roll classics — super lively, clean and clear, tonally correct, and natural. Most copies are edgy and gritty, but this one is smooth, sweet and very enjoyable.

You’re going to have a hard time finding better sounding versions of these songs anywhere else — excepting, of course, Be-Bop-A-Lula, which can sound amazing on McCartney Unplugged.

Credit must obviously go to the man behind the console, Shelly Yakus, someone who we freely admit, now with a sense of embarrassment, has never been one of our favorite engineers. After hearing a White Hot Stamper pressing of Damn the Torpedoes and a killer copy of Crack the Sky’s Animal Notes, as well as amazing sounding pressings of Moondance (his first official lead engineering gig) and Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, we realize that we have seriously underestimated the man.

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The Beatles – 1967-1970

More of the Music of The Beatles 

  • With KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on all FOUR sides, this vintage 2-LP compilation set from 1973 is certainly as good a copy as we have ever heard
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “weighty and rich and jumping out [of the speakers]”…”silky and upfront vox”…”massive…no veil” (side three)”…”natural and rich”…”no smear or boost” (side four)”
  • These import pressings are rich, smooth and sweet, with plenty of Tubey Magic and little of the grain and grunge of others (and don’t get us started on the domestics)
  • You get clean, clear, full-bodied, lively and musical analog sound from first note to last
  • Twenty-seven(!) incredible songs, including “Penny Lane,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,” “All You Need Is Love” – and that’s just side one
  • 4 1/2 stars: “As a précis of the group’s final 36 months, it’s all mightily impressive…”
  • Not many compilation albums offer top quality sound, but this one does, and here are some others

This is a wonderful sounding import 2-LP set. We are on record as finding the British pressings of 1967-1970 too bright; certainly most of them are anyway.

(The original domestic pressings, as anyone who has ever played one can attest, mastered at Sterling no less, are absolutely godawful.)

Like most compilations, some songs sound better than others, but “Don’t Let Me Down” and “Come Together” are two that really stand out here. For those of you out there who have never tried one of our Hot Stamper Beatles records, this may be the best sound you’ve ever heard from them. The CDs — even the new ones — sure don’t sound like this!

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Leonard Cohen – I’m Your Man

  • This outstanding pressing boasts solid Double Plus (A++) sound from first note to last – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • These sides are doing everything right — big, rich and full of Tubey Magic with a wonderfully extended top end and a more natural sound than most other copies we heard
  • Top tracks here include First We Take Manhattan, Take This Waltz, and the classic Everybody Knows
  • 4 1/2 stars: “A stunningly sophisticated leap into modern musical textures, I’m Your Man re-establishes Leonard Cohen’s mastery….”

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Leonard Cohen – Death of a Ladies’ Man

What are the criteria by which a record like this should be judged? Pretty much the ones we discuss in most of our Hot Stamper listings: energy, vocal presence, frequency extension (on both ends), transparency, harmonic textures (freedom from smear is key), rhythmic drive, tonal correctness, fullness, richness, and on and on down through the list. (more…)