1973

Stevie Wonder – Innervisions

More Stevie Wonder

More Soul, Blues and R&B

  • With outstanding Double Plus (A++) grades throughout, this copy is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other Innervisions you’ve heard – it also plays about as quietly as this title ever does in our experience
  • A Stevie Wonder classic as well as a proud member of our Top 100, but you will need a copy like this one to prove that it belongs there
  • Richness, warmth, Tubey Magic, and clarity are important to the sound, and here you will find plenty of all four
  • 5 stars: “Stevie Wonder applied his tremendous songwriting talents to the unsettled social morass that was the early ’70s and produced one of his greatest, most important works, a rich panoply of songs addressing drugs, spirituality, political ethics, and what looked to be the failure of the ’60s dream – all set within a collection of charts as funky and catchy as any he’d written before.”
  • This is our pick for Free’s best sounding album. Roughly 150 other listings for the best recording by an artist or group can be found here on the blog.
  • If any record can be called a Must Own, Stevie Wonder’s masterpiece from 1973 is one, slotting in nicely right at the top of any list of the greatest soul albums of all time, if not THE greatest

Millions of these were made, but most of them weren’t made right.

Years ago we made some progress with regard to the various stampers and pressing plants we liked best, but trying to find clean copies with the right matrix numbers has proved challenging. Even when you do get the copies with good stampers, they often don’t sound all that amazing. I had practically given up on making this shootout happen until about ten years ago, when a friend dropped off a copy that had seriously good sound.

It didn’t turn out to be the ultimate copy — that’s why shootouts are crucially important to the discovery of the best pressings — but it was so enjoyable that we decided to give Innervisions another try, and since that time we’ve gotten better and better at finding, cleaning and playing Stevie Wonder’s Masterpiece, a record that should be played regularly and one that belongs in any right-thinking audiophile’s collection.

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Gregg Allman – Laid Back

More Gregg Allman

More Southern Rock

  • A stunning 2-pack copy with Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound on side one of the first disc and Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound on side two of the second disc – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • Here are just a few of our notes for these incredible pressings: “tubey guitars” “very full bodied vox,” “very rich and relaxed.”
  • We were surprised at how well recorded the album is – dramatically better than the Allmans’ album from the same year, Brothers and Sisters
  • Full-bodied and Tubey Magical, with especially smooth, present vocals – this is the sound we love at Better Records
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Recorded in the same year as the Brothers and Sisters album, this solo debut release is a beautiful amalgam of R&B, folk, and gospel sounds, with the best singing on any of Gregg Allman’s solo releases.”
  • This is our pick for Gregg Allman’s best sounding album. Roughly 150 other listings for the best recording by an artist or group can be found here on the blog.

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The Beatles – 1967-1970

More of The Beatles 

More Records We Only Sell on Import Vinyl

  • An excellent 2-LP compilation set from 1973 with roughly Double Plus (A++) grades on all FOUR sides
  • Side two was sonically very close to our Shootout Winner – you will be shocked at how big and powerful the sound is
  • Sides two, three and four of these German import pressings are rich, smooth and sweet, with plenty of Tubey Magic and little of the grain and grunge of the Brits, and side one is not far behind in all those areas (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 (particularly on sides two, three and four)
  • 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 early German 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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Paul McCartney & Wings – Band on the Run

More Paul McCartney

More of The Beatles

  • With two solid Double Plus (A++) or BETTER sides, this outstanding British pressing is doing just about everything right
  • Side two was sonically very close to our Shootout Winner – you will be shocked at how big and powerful the sound is
  • Another record that rarely can be found with audiophile playing surfaces – noisy vinyl is the rule, not the exception
  • The legendary Geoff Emerick engineered the album, a Top 100 title here at Better Records – it’s an impressive recording when it sounds as good as this copy does
  • The title track, “Jet,” “Bluebird,” “Mrs. Vandebilt,” “Let Me Roll It,” “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five” – so many great songs
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…sophisticated, nuanced arrangements and irrepressibly catchy melodic hooks… McCartney’s infallible instinct for popcraft overflows on this excellent release.”

This is a TOUGH album to find with great sound and quiet vinyl but when you come across an excellent copy like this, the record is a MONSTER. The track list includes some of the best McCartney songs of the seventies: the title song, “Jet,” “Bluebird,” “Mrs. Vandebilt,” “Let Me Roll It,” “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five” (my personal favorite on the album) — there’s really not a dog in the bunch.

This is clearly the last consistently good studio album the man recorded.

So many copies we play are either murky or a bit edgy, and it takes a very special copy to strike the ideal tonal balance that will allow all the songs to sound their best.

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Genesis / Selling England By The Pound

More Genesis

More Prog Rock

  • An early UK Charisma pressing (only the second copy to hit the site in over three years) with two solid Double Plus (A++) sides
  • If you’re a fan of early Genesis, or 70s progressive rock in general, it’s hard to do much better than this outstanding import
  • One of the Must Own Genesis recordings but also one of the harder titles to find with the right sound and audiophile surfaces in our experience
  • Which we hope will explain the pricing – so many copies come with marks and other surface issues that it does indeed take us three years to get a shootout going
  • 5 stars: “… the album showcases the band’s narrative force on a small scale as well as large that makes this their arguable high-water mark.”

What do the better Hot Stamper copies give you? Remarkable dynamics and clarity, a huge, open soundstage and rich, full-bodied tonality.

It’s beyond difficult to find good sounding copies of the early Genesis albums, but we recently managed to pull together enough clean copies to get this shootout going again and came up with some real knockout sides! Anyone who has tried to find good sounding copies of this album knows what a tough task it can be. We’ve tried to do this shootout a number of times since 2005 and until 2012 had almost nothing to show for it. But Hot Stampers copies do exist, and this very one proves it!

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Roxy Music – For Your Pleasure

More Roxy Music 

More Brian Eno

  • With a KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side one mated to an outstanding Double Plus (A++) side two, we guarantee you’ve never heard For Your Pleasure sound this good
  • Roxy and their engineers and producers manage to capture a deliciously Tubey Magical keyboard sound on their first two albums that few bands in the history of the world can lay claim to
  • It took us a long time to figure what pressings had the sound we were looking for, more than a decade, bit it was worth the wait because For Your Pleasure now sounds the way you want it to sound – Big and Bold
  • 5 stars: “… another extraordinary record from Roxy Music, one that demonstrates even more clearly than the debut how avant-garde ideas can flourish in a pop setting.”
  • If you’re a Roxy fan, For Your Pleasure has to be considered a Must Own Title of theirs from 1973

Spacious, dynamic, present, with HUGE MEATY BASS and tons of energy, the sound is every bit as good as the music. (At least on this copy it is. That’s precisely what Hot Stampers are all about.)

Strictly in terms of recording quality, For Your Pleasure is on the same plane as the other best sounding record the band ever made, their self-titled debut.

Siren, Avalon and Country Life are all musically sublime, but the first album and this one are the only two with the kind of dynamic, energetic, powerful sound that Roxy’s other records simply cannot show us (with the exception of Country Life, was is powerful but a bit too aggressive).

The super-tubey keyboards that anchor practically every song on the first two albums are only found there. If you want to know what Tubey Magic sounds like in 1972-73, play one of our better Hot Stamper Roxy albums.

Roxy and their engineers and producers manage to capture a keyboard sound on their first two albums that few bands in the history of the world can lay claim to. I love the band’s later albums, but none of them sound like these two. The closest one can get is Stranded, their third, but it’s still a bit of a step down. (more…)

Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy

More Led Zeppelin

More Top 100 Titles

  • You’ll find superb Double Plus (A++) sound throughout this vintage Atlantic pressing – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Only the pressings mastered by Robert Ludwig have any hope of doing well in our shootouts, and those are the only ones we have ever offered, beginning all the way back in 2006
  • Wall to wall, floor to ceiling Led Zeppelin power – this copy delivers like you will not believe, or your money back
  • A Better Records Top 100 (along with 4 other Zep titles), 5 Stars in AMG and a True Zeppelin Must Own Classic
  • The Tubey Magical acoustic guitars here should be a wake up call to everyone that any and all attempts to remaster this album are bound to fail — that sound is gone and it is never coming back
  • 5 stars: “Jimmy Page’s riffs rely on ringing, folky hooks as much as they do on thundering blues-rock, giving the album a lighter, more open atmosphere…”
  • If you’re a fan of the band, this title from 1973 is clearly one of their best, and inarguably one of their best sounding

This copy has the kind of BIG, BOLD ROCK SOUND that takes this music to places you’ve only dreamed it could go. The HUGE drums on this copy are going to blow your mind — and probably your neighbors’ minds as well.

And what would a Zep record be without bass? Not much, yet this is precisely the area where so many copies fail. Not so here. The bottom end is big and meaty with superb definition, allowing the record to ROCK, just the way you know Zep wanted it to.

The vocals too are tonally correct. None of the phony upper-midrange boost that the Classic Records reissue suffers from is evident on this copy. The louder Robert Plant screams, the better he sounds and the more I like it. The Classic makes me wince. (more…)

The Eagles / Desperado

More Eagles

More Country and Country Rock

  • A Desperado like you’ve never heard, with a STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side one mated to a seriously good Double Plus (A++) side two
  • This copy has huge amounts of Tubey Magic, a strong bass foundation, and plenty of space around the guitars and voices – man, that is our sound!
  • This is the second-best sounding Eagles record of all time, no doubt thanks to their brilliant engineer and producer, Glyn Johns
  • “A solid country-rock classic… the music stands the test of time, especially when Desperado is heard in its entirety, from start to finish.”

Acoustic guitar reproduction is key to this recording, and on the best copies the harmonic coherency, the richness, the body and simply phenomenal amounts of Tubey Magic can be heard in every strum.

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Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of The Moon

Pink Floyd Hot Stamper Pressings Available Now

Letters and Commentaries for Dark Side of the Moon

  • A vintage copy of this mindblowing recording that is guaranteed to rock your world with solid Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER on both sides
  • Side one was very close in sound to our shootout winner — you will be shocked at how big and powerful the sound is
  • If this price seems high, keep in mind that the top copy from our most recent shootout went for $1200
  • The transparency, the clarity, the energy, the power – it’s all here on this very special import pressing
  • Just listen to how clear the clocks are on “Time,” how breathy the vocals are on “Breathe,” how textured the synthesizers are and how silky the top end is from the beginning of the album all the way to the powerful finish
  • A Top 100 album (Top Ten actually) and a Rock Demo Disc to rival the most amazing sounding records of all time
  • 5 stars: “…what gives the album true power is the subtly textured music… no other record defines [Pink Floyd] quite as well as this one.”

This vintage import pressing has the presence, the richness, the size and the energy you always wanted to hear on Dark Side — AND NOW YOU CAN! (more…)

Emerson, Lake and Palmer – Brain Salad Surgery

More Emerson, Lake and Palmer 

 More Prog Rock

  • Boasting two solid Double Plus (A++) or BETTER sides, we guarantee you’ve never ELP’s 1973 release sound remotely as good as it does on this superb import copy
  • This early British pressing is huge, spacious and rich, with prodigious amounts of bass, guaranteed to sound better than any other copy you’ve heard
  • Remarkable transparency – you hear into the huge, deep soundfield with almost nothing between you and the musicians
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The songs are… among their best work — the group’s arrangement of Sir Charles Hubert Parry’s setting of William Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’ manages to be reverent yet rocking, while Emerson’s adaptation of Alberto Ginastera’s music in ‘Tocatta’ outstrips even ‘The Barbarian’ and ‘Knife Edge’ from the first album as a distinctive and rewarding reinterpretation of a piece of serious music.”

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