1959

Beethoven – Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”) / Solti

More of the Music of Ludwig van Beethoven

  • Both sides of this vintage copy were giving us the rich and Tubey Magical Decca / London sound we were looking for, earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • It’s simply bigger, more transparent, less distorted, more three-dimensional and more real than most of what we played
  • A top performance from Solti and the Vienna Phil – it’s classic Solti: fast-paced, exciting and powerful
  • Solti’s Beethoven recordings from 1959 are superb, with the 5th and 7th being every bit as good – it’s his later recordings, the ones from the early 1970s, that we find fault with
  • There are about 150 orchestral recordings we think offer the best performances with the highest quality sound. This record is certainly deserving of a place on that list.
  • And if you have an original Decca or London of this title, be prepared to be knocked out by how much better this later pressing sounds — knocked out like we were, truth be told

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Beethoven – Symphony No. 4 / Ansermet

More of the Music of Ludwig van Beethoven

  • A vintage London pressing of Ansermet and the Suisse Romande’s wonderful performance, here with big, rich, Tubey Magical Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound throughout – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • Both of these sides have an abundance of energy, loads of detail and texture, remarkable transparency and excellent clarity – all qualities the best classical pressings have in abundance
  • The texture on the strings is captured perfectly – this is an area in which modern pressings fail utterly, and without good string reproduction, especially in the lower registers, a Beethoven symphony is simply not a pleasurable experience when reproduced on highly resolving equipment

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The Gerry Mulligan Quartet – What Is There To Say?

More of the Music of Gerry Mulligan

  • With STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides, this early 6-Eye Stereo LP is doing practically everything right
  • The sound here is tubier, more transparent, more dynamic, with more of that “jumpin’ out of the speakers” quality that only The Real Thing ever has
  • With explosive dynamics and rich, full-bodied, Tubey Magical sax sound, it’s hard to imagine any reissue, vintage or otherwise, can hold a candle to the sound of this amazing record
  • Recorded at Columbia’s famous 30th Street studios, here is a record that sounds like Kind of Blue, Ah Um and Time Out, for the simple reason that all were recorded in the same studio using the same equipment (and perhaps even the same engineers)
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these early pressings – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
  • 5 stars: “The last of the pianoless quartet albums that Gerry Mulligan recorded in the 1950s is one of the best … every selection is memorable…”

Clean and Clear Yet Rich and Sweet

This copy managed to find the perfect balance of these attributes; you want to find that rare copy that keeps what is good about a Tubey Magical analog recording from The Golden Age of ’50s Jazz but manages to avoid the pitfalls so common to them: compression, opacity and blubber. To be sure, the fault is not with the recording (I guess; again, not having heard the master tape) but with the typical pressing. Bad vinyl, bad mastering, who knows why so many copies sound so thick, dead and dull?

The Big Room

Huge amounts of ambience fill out the space the extends from wall to wall (and all the way to the back wall of the studio), leaving plenty of room around each of the players.

Full-bodied sound, open and spacious, bursting with life and energy — these are the hallmarks of our Truly Hot Stampers.

If your stereo is cookin’ these days, this record will surely be an unqualified Sonic Treat. We guarantee that no heavy vinyl pressing, of this or any other album, has the kind of analog magic found here. Or your money back.

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Beethoven – Symphony No. 7 / Karajan

More of the Music of Beethoven

  • This Decca-recorded, Shaded Dog pressing of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 debuts on the site with big, spacious, and lively Double Plus (A++) Living Stereo sound or close to it from first note to last
  • Side one is doing just about everything right – it’s rich, clear, undistorted, open, and has depth and transparency to rival the best recordings you may have heard, and side two is not far behind in all those areas
  • The texture on the strings is captured perfectly (particularly on side one) – this is an area in which modern pressings fail utterly, and without good string reproduction, especially in the lower registers, a Beethoven symphony is simply not a pleasurable experience on highly resolving equipment

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Esquivel – Exploring New Sounds in Stereo

More Exotica Recordings

  • An original Living Stereo pressing (one of only a handful of copies to ever hit the site) with two solid Double Plus (A++) sides
  • This copy is remarkably spacious and open, yet rich and and oh-so-Tubey Magical, with brass that has little to none of the “blarey” quality that plagues so many copies
  • Speaking of blarey brass, the first track on side one of every copy we played had a bad case of it, probably an EQ choice made in the mix to help it get more play on the radio
  • Folks, I can tell you right now, most original Living Stereo Popular (LSP) pressings, of this or any other LSP title, do not begin to recreate the studio wizardry found on this 1959 album
  • 4 1/2 stars: “There is a lot to recommend it. ‘Whatchamacallit’ is probably his second best-loved tune… Other highlights include the exotic ‘Bella Mora,’ the cheesy ‘My Number One Love,’ and ‘The 3rd Man Theme.'”

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Suppe – Overtures / Solti

More Imported Pressings on Decca and London

  • Solti and the Vienna Phil’s exquisite performance of Suppe’s Overtures debuts on the site with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them throughout this original London Stereo pressing
  • Lovely string tone and texture, rich bass, a big hall, no smear, lovely transparency – the sonics here are hard to fault
  • This recording is overflowing with the kind of rich, spacious, Tubey Magical sound that can only be found on vintage vinyl

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Various Artists – For My True Love / Almeida

More TAS List Super Discs

  • For My True Love makes its Hot Stamper debut with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it throughout this original Stereo Capitol pressing
  • Both of these TAS-approved sides have all the qualities that make analog so involving and pleasurable – the warmth, the naturalness, and above all the realism
  • Dramatically richer, fuller and more Tubey Magical than practically all other copies, with breathy vocals and some of the most tubey, warm acoustic guitar sound you could ever ask for
  • This is a lot of money for a somewhat noisy copy, but the sound is so awesome and quiet pressings of the album so hard to come by that we hope someone will take a chance on it and get the thrill we did from hearing it sound so right
  • You may notice that we do not put up a lot of Capitol pressings from the 50s — many of the great Nat “King” Cole titles come to mind — because we simply cannot find early pressings that play quiet enough for our customers
  • If you don’t have a quiet cartridge installed in a top quality ($10k+), highly-tweaked front end, this is probably not the record for you

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Wynton Kelly Trio & Sextet – Kelly Blue

More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Piano

  • Wynton Kelly’s hard-to-find second album, here with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on both sides of this vintage OJC pressing
  • A superb pressing, with lovely richness and warmth, good space, separation between the instruments, and real immediacy throughout
  • Kelly brings in jazz greats Nat Adderley, Bobby Jaspar, and Benny Golson, as well as several of his bandmates from Miles Davis’s sextet, including Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb
  • There are some bad marks (as is sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs) on “Old Clothes,” 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 1/2 stars: “Kelly was renowned as an accompanist, but as he shows on a set including three of his originals and four familiar standards… A fine example of his talents.”
  • “Wynton Kelly demonstrates once again why he has been a major influence in the history of jazz piano.”

Jack Higgins was the engineer for these sessions. He recorded Chet Baker’s brilliant Chet album the same year, as well as many other albums for Riverside in New York in the 50s and 60s.

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Milt Jackson – Bags & Flutes

More Recordings Engineered by Tom Dowd 

  • This 70s Atlantic reissue pressing boasts seriously good Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them from top to bottom
  • Forget whatever dead-as-a-doornail Heavy Vinyl record they’re making these days (as well as the early mono pressings) – if you want to hear the Tubey Magic, size and energy of this wonderful album from 1959, a vintage pressing like this one is the only way to go (particularly on this side one)
  • “Jackson is partnered alternately with Frank Wess and Bobby Jaspar — two of the leading pioneers that helped bring the flute into the mainstream of jazz. For these performances, the rhythm section blends and balances superbly, creating supple, meaty, hard bopping grooves for Jackson’s limitless capacity for invention and for the stellar, swinging performances of Jaspar and Wess.” -The Jazz Record Review (more…)

Marty Robbins – Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs on Six Eye in Stereo

More Country and Country Rock

  • You’ll find stunning Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound on both sides of this original 6-Eye Stereo pressing – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • This copy is remarkably clear and open, superior to practically all others in that regard, with smooth and rich vocals to boot
  • Transparency and Tubey Magic are critical to the sound of the arrangements, and you will find both in abundance on these sides
  • Is the original 6-Eye stereo the only way to go on this record? Based upon our recent shootout, the first one we’ve done since 2023, the answer is a resounding yes
  • Marks and problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these early pressings, but once you hear how killer sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting ticks and pops and just be swept away by the music
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The single most influential album of Western songs in post-World War II American music. The longevity of the album’s appeal is a result of Marty Robbins’ love of the repertory at hand and the mix of his youthful dynamism and prodigious talent…”
  • 1959 was a phenomenal year for audiophile quality recordings – as of 2025 we’ve auditioned and reviewed more than one hundred and seventy titles and we’ve found close to 50 that we think belong in any audiophile record collection worthy of the name.

These Nearly White Hot Stamper pressings have top-quality sound that’s often surprisingly close to our White Hots, but they sell at substantial discounts to our Shootout Winners, making them a relative bargain in the world of Hot Stampers (“relative” meaning relative considering the prices we charge). We feel you get what you pay for here at Better Records, and if ever you don’t agree, please feel free to return the record for a full refund, no questions asked.

Two incredible sides, with the kind of 50s Tubey Magical analog sound that’s been lost to the world of recorded music for decades — decades, I tell you! Nobody can manage to get a recording to sound like this anymore and it seems clear to us that no one can remaster a recording like this nowadays, if our direct experience with hundreds of such albums counts as evidence.

Albums such as this live and die by the quality of their vocal reproduction. On this record, Mr. Marty Robbins himself will appear to be standing right in your listening room, along with the other other musicians on the sessions of course.

Each of the huge studios the music was recorded in are captured faithfully here. The height, width and depth of the staging are extraordinary. We are not big soundstage guys here at Better Records, but we can’t deny the appeal of the three-dimensional space to be found on a recording as good as this.

This vintage 6-Eye Stereo pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records can barely BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing signs of coming back.

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