3/3

Who Knew that Dylan Could Sound This Good in 1983?

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Bob Dylan Available Now

This vintage copy of Infidels could not be beat. Big and rich, with correct tonality from top to bottom, strong bass and plenty of space, this copy sounded just right to us.

Our post-it notes tell the album’s story. (By the way, if you like reading our post-it notes, we’re putting more and more of them on the blog these days. We talk about the importance of taking notes  as part of the shootout advice we share. This post will help you with the basics.)

Side One

Track Three

    • Big and full
    • Not too nasal

Track One

    • Big bass
    • Weighty and rich
    • Has some breath

Side Two

Track One

    • Rich bass and drums
    • Spacious breathy vocals
    • No hardness

What We Learned

What do these notes have to tell us, other than this is a much better recording than it’s given credit for?

On side one, the vocals have a tendency to get nasally, sounding like Dylan is singing through his nose, not his mouth, a common problem with Dylan records from every era.

Also. when we say “has some breath, ” that basically means that most pressings on side one are not especially breathy in the mids, but this one is better in that department.

Not that the original grade was “at least 2,” and after going through all the copies, it turned out nothing could be beat this one. Some breath was probably more breath than any other side one we played.

On side two, the sound had “no hardness, ” and again, that simply means plenty of copies, maybe all the other copies, suffered from hardness in the vocals. “At least 2” turned into our Shootout Winner when no other copy could beat it.

Who Knew?

Has any other audiohile reviewer ever said a kind word about this album, other than us of course?

Not that I know of.

And we’re as guilty as any of them in assuming that 1983 was not a good year to be recording Dylan and expecting audiophile quality sound.

But we were proven wrong once again, by the only method that can possibly be relied upon to supply the truth: experimentation.

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Another Reason to Love Rudy Van Gelder in the 60s

Hot Stamper Pressings Engineered by Rudy Van Gelder Available Now

A Must Own album from Horace Silver, with the kind of sound that only the best vintage pressings can offer.

If you don’t know the man’s music, this is a good place to start. It’s yet another triumph for engineering maestro Rudy Van Gelder – he refined a “live-in-the-studio” jazz sound that’s still fresh today, even after 65 years.

The really good RVG pressings (often on the later labels) sound shockingly close to live music — uncompressed, present, full of energy, with the instruments clearly located on a wide and often deep soundstage, surrounded by the natural space and cool air of his New Jersey studio.

As our stereo has improved, and we’ve found better pressings and learned how to clean them better, his “you-are-there” live jazz sound has come to impress us more and more. (I hope everyone can read the scribble on our Hot Stamper post-it notes by now. If there is any line you need translated, please feel free to let me know.)

You know what’s unusual about these notes?

They’re the kind of notes we’ve never written for any Heavy Vinyl reissue, even for the one that won our shootout not long ago.

They are the kind of notes that make it clear to us what a sham the modern Heavy Vinyl pressing tends to be, even those that are done right.

No modern record we’ve ever played has ever had anything even approaching this kind of big as life sound, and we doubt one ever will.

Records like this vintage vinyl pressing are thrilling in a way that very, very few records ever are.

Surprisingly, many of the most thrilling records we’ve ever played came from the same decade this record came from: the 60s.

Once you hear sound like this, you are not likely to forget it.

It sets a standard that modern remastered records simply cannot meet.

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You Simply Cannot Record a Piano Better than Roy DuNann

Hot Stamper Pressing of Jazz Recordings Featuring the Piano Available Now

The piano sounds uncannily lifelike right from the start, a beautiful instrument in a natural space, tonally correct from top to bottom. I can’t think of any record off the top of my head that gets a better piano sound than this one.

Listen to the tambourine on the third track on side one. Shelly Manne messes about with lots of percussion instruments on this album and all of them are recorded to perfection.

Not to leave Red Mitchell out, check out the bass; it’s deep and note-like throughout the album.

Better Than a Dream, the second track on side two, has one of the best sounding jazz pianos I have ever heard. My notes say “you cannot record a piano any better” and I stand behind that statement one hundred percent.

There is not a modern reissue on the face of the earth that can hold a candle to the sound of this record.

For any of you out there who doubt my words please take this record home and play it against the best piano jazz recordings you own. If it doesn’t beat them all we are happy to pay the domestic shipping back.

Even our amazing sounding 45 RPM pressing of The Three does not present the listener with a piano that sounds as real as the one on this record.


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Porgy and Bess – “This is a serious step up! Crazy good.”

More of the Music of Harry Belafonte

A Living Stereo knockout. We often forget to spend time with records like this when there are Zeppelin and Floyd records to play. We’ve always enjoyed Belafonte At Carnegie Hall, but when we’ve dug further into the man’s catalog we’ve been left cold more often than not.

However, when we finally got around to dropping the needle on a few of these we were very impressed by the music and completely blown away by the sound on the best pressings.

Our Shootout Winner showed us everything we could ever want in this kind of recording and more. More, in this case, was a side two that was a step up over our best side one. We used to give records with a side two like this one a grade of A++++, but we stopped doing that years ago. (We discuss the subject of outliers down below.)

The notes for side one read:

Track One

Big, dynamic and rich vocals. Very full and rich.

Track Four

Good bass, rich and note-like.

Vocals are silky and present and hi-rez.

The notes for side two read:

Track Two

Dynamic, three-deimensional vocals.

Frequencies extend high and low.

Sweet and breathy flutes and vocals. Tubey.

Track One

So sweet and rich, can’t complain.

This is a serious step up! Crazy good.

If you want to hear a record with sound like that, focus your attention on the pressings made in 1959 – that’s where that sound can be found, and you will have a hard time finding it on any record made in the last 50 years, no matter what anybody may tell you.

If someone disagrees with that assessment, have them play you the record that beats this one, something they will have a devil of a time managing to do.

1959 Tubes?

You just can’t beat ’em.

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This Is Why We Love Columbia in the 60s

More of the Music of Al Kooper

More of the Music of Michael Bloomfield

Please excuse the copying and pasting from previous listings. When records are this good, we tend to say the same things about them, because they are doing all the things we want them to do.

From time to time a record comes our way that sounds absolutely amazing, “Way better than it used to sound” amazing. Progress in audio is a feature, not a bug, of record collecting and music reproduction at the most advanced levels.

If it’s the kind of record that sounds like the best copy of The Live Adventures of Bloomfield and Kooper from our most recent shootout, we might even let our enthusiasm for its superb fidelity get the better of us. That’s the effect a record as good as the copy we played can have. You just can’t stop yourself from saying one great thing after another about it.

Our over-the-top notes, like those you see below, attempt to convey what it’s like to experience the superb sound we were hearing.

But where is the harm in that? These are notes that no one outside of the staff are ever expected to see. They are helpful to us in writing our commentary and pricing the specific copy we auditioned, but they are practically never quoted in the listings.

The Live Adventures of Bloomfield and Kooper is an example of one of those recordings that comes along from time to time in order to show us sound that we’d almost forgotten was possible.

Oh yes, with the rare properly-cleaned, properly-mastered, properly-pressed vintage vinyl LP, played back on top quality equipment in a heavily treated, dedicated soundroom, we can assure you it is very possible indeed. Allow us to make the case with the Shootout Winning original pressing you see below.

The notes for side one read: 

  • Big, Tubey and jumping out
  • Breathy vocals
  • Deep, sustained bass

Side two:

  • Spacious
  • Glowing and rich drums are weighty and 3-D
  • No congestion
  • Extending high and low
  • Silky and present vocals

Side three:

  • Weighty and rich
  • No hardness
  • Extending high and low

Side four:

  • Rich and ? and space
  • More dynamic and 3-D
  • All around good weight

You know what’s unusual about these notes?

They’re the kind of notes we have never written for any Heavy Vinyl reissue, even for the one that won our shootout not long ago.

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This Is Why We Love Rudy Van Gelder in the 60s

Hot Stamper Pressings of Rudy Van Gelder Recordings Available Now

The top copy from our most recent shootout went for $1500 and, in our opinion, was worth every penny of that amount, being one of the best sounding jazz records we have ever played

It probably took us ten years to get this shootout going, but the best copies we played were so impressive that they made all the time and money it took to pull it off worth the effort — what a record!

The notes on side one read: 

Track Two

  • Fingered plucky bass
  • Rich and spacious
  • Extending (high and low)
  • Horns are rich and breathy

Track One

  • Fat, rich bass and drums
  • So big and lively and no hardness

The notes on side two read: 

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The Talking Heads Were Hard to Beat in 77

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Talking Heads Available Now

For some recent listings for the album, we noted:

If I were to compile a list of my favorite rock and pop albums from 1977, this album would definitely be on it.

In the four years since we last played it, we’d forgotten how amazing this album can sound on the best pressings. I’d even say that it’s a sonic step up from Fear Of Music and Remain In Light, probably tying with More Songs About Buildings and Food and Little Creatures for top Talking Heads honors.

That seems to have undersold just how good this album can sound on the right pressing. Having just done the shootout in our new custom-built studio, we could not have been more impressed with the recording, as you can see from the notes for the winning copy shown below.

Side One

Here are our notes for side one, for those who have trouble reading our scratch. We started off with track two.

Track two

  • Big, spacious vocals and guitars
  • Very detailed

Track one

  • Fat drums
  • Rich and relaxed

The initial grade was one we often give out, “at least 2.” We knew the sound was great, but how great? We would need to play more copies to see how this one compares to the others that seem to be doing everything right, everything being the operative word. What is everything, and how right can it get?

Yes, that’s right, we needed to answer the most important question in all of audio: Compared to what?

We typically take the two or three best side ones — we call them “contenders” — and listen to them again to see which of them has the real Shootout Winning magic in its grooves, the one that does everything right and then some.

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This Is Why We Love Records from the 50s

Hot Stamper Pressings of Mercury Classical Recordings Available Now

From time to time a record comes our way that sounds absolutely amazing, “I can’t believe it’s a record” amazing.

If it’s the kind of record that sounds like the best copy of Fiesta in Hi-fi from our most recent shootout, we might even let our enthusiasm for its superb fidelity get the better of us. That’s the effect a record as good as the copy we played can have. You just can’t stop yourself from saying one great thing after another about it.

Our over-the-top notes, like those you see below, attempt to convey what it’s like to experience the absolutely breathtaking sound we were hearing.

But where is the harm in that? These are notes that no one outside of the staff are ever expected to see. They are helpful to us in writing our commentary and pricing the specific copy we auditioned, but they are practically never quoted in the listings.

Fiesta in Hi-Fi is an example of one of those recordings that doubles as a thrill ride. They come along from time to time in order to show us the kind of sound that we’d almost forgotten was possible on a record.

Oh yes, with the rare properly-cleaned, properly-mastered, properly-pressed vintage vinyl LP, played back on top quality equipment in a heavily treated, dedicated soundroom, we can assure you it is very possible indeed. Allow us to make the case with the Shootout Winning original pressing you see below.

The notes read: 

So rich and big / Great space and detail / Everything sweet + clear + breathy / 3D too / Great dynamics / A touch hot but so fun / Deep bass.

You know what’s unusual about these notes?

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Inner Secrets Is One of the Best Sounding Rock Records We’ve Ever Played

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Santana Available Now

In our most recent shootout (11/2023), the first we’ve done in quite a few years, my main listening guy was blown away by the sound of the Shootout Winning copy. This warmed my heart no end, as I have been raving about the sound of this album for fifteen years or more.

We created a section for phenomenally good sounding records like Inner Secrets, and this link will take you to it.

His notes from the session can be seen below.

And he’s not wrong about much of the album being “blah.” There are really only about four top quality songs out of the nine on the album, but three of those four are killer, and, even at our prices, make the album a Must Own for those of you with big speakers that can play good and loud.

Phase One and Phase Two of a Shootout

Like other Hot Stampers you may have read about, sometimes the instruments and voices just jump out of the speakers. When that happens I usually write “It’s Alive!” on the post-it, and I know exactly what to do with it. I put it right in the Contender pile, to be compared with the other top contender copies at some point.

It’s definitely a crazy-good Hot Stamper; just how hot we still need to find out.

Which is what happens in Phase Two of these affairs. We go back through all the best copies to see in what areas they really shine and in what areas they may fall a bit short of the best.

Of course there’s no way to know what accounts for any of the sound we hear. Not for sure anyway. It’s just interesting to ponder what makes one record sound one way and the next record, with stampers as little as one letter off in the alphabet — sometimes with exactly the same stampers! — sound so different from one another.

Doug Sax Is The Man

All the originals (the only ones with the potential for good sound in our experience) are cut by The Mastering Lab, one of the greatest cutting houses to ever master records.

Doug Sax may or may not have had anything to do with the making of this record, but one thing we can be sure of: he knew how to keep his lathes and amplifiers working at state-of-the-art levels. The sound quality is unsurpassed.

And he did it all with tubes.

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Our First Shootout Winner for Dolphy’s Brilliant Out To Lunch Album

More Hot Stamper Pressings on Blue Note Available Now

This review was written in 2019, the year we did our first shootout for Out to Lunch.

A SUPERB JAZZ DEMO DISC on unusually QUIET vinyl! Blue Note fans, take notice — this is a VERY special pressing!

Folks, Out To Lunch is one of the ultimate Blue Note titles for both music and stereo sound, and I don’t think you could find another pressing of the album that sounds this good and plays this quietly no matter how many you played, realistically speaking of course. If you’ve been watching our better Blue Note offerings, you probably know that this is the first Hot copy to ever make it to the site. And what a way to start off — both sides earned A+++ grades.

Dolphy’s debut for Blue Note is an absolute KNOCKOUT musically, and the quality of the sound on this pressing was everything we could have ever hoped for — more, really — (which is not a bad definition of a White Hot Stamper LP when you come to think about it). It’s 100% guaranteed to blow your mind.

This is an amazing album — All Music Guide calls it “Dolphy’s magnum opus, an absolute pinnacle of avant-garde jazz in any form or era” and we think that hits it right on the head.

Thankfully, for us audiophiles the sound on the better pressings can be stunning. The trick of course is finding those copies, and it’s a tough enough job that we’ve never been able to get any Hot Stamper copy up on the site until now. For the fellow who snaps this bad boy up, I am positive this White Hot Stamper will prove well worth the wait.

White Hot All Over

Both sides are KILLER, with mindblowing transparency, stunning immediacy and exceptional clarity. There is tremendous separation between the various players and plenty of natural ambience. This is exactly the kind of record that will make your speakers disappear. Turn this one up good and loud and revel in the glory that is Out To Lunch. Get ready to get lost.

I wish I could tell you to look forward to more great copies like this in the future, but I’m not sure we’d be able to back that up. Clean copies of Out To Lunch are extremely scarce nowadays, and it’s going to take us ages to build up a big enough stack of ’em to get this shootout going again.

One last note — Bobby Hutcherson MURDERS on the vibes on this album. Hearing his stellar, groundbreaking work played back on a White Hot Stamper copy through a high-end stereo is nothing less than a THRILL. We look forward to hearing about it from the lucky person who takes this one home.

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