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Casino Royale from Canada – Not Fit for Us Audiophiles

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Burt Bacharach Available Now

I can honestly say that until we discovered the Hot Stampers for this album, I never thought this record deserved the praise The Absolute Sound’s Harry Pearson heaped upon it.

One of only thirteen entries in the Best of the Bunch: Popular section?

Not that hard to believe if, like me, you think a number of the titles there don’t really deserve to be called Super Discs in the first place. (See here and here and plenty more where those two came from.)

In case you are tempted to pick up a Canadian pressing of the album, don’t. Judging by the one we had, they are godawful.

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Casino Royale Is Truly a Demo Disc, Assuming You Have a Copy that Sounds Like This One

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Burt Bacharach Available Now

This is one of those rare and delightful instances where the RCA mastering engineer (the stampers are, famously, 1s, 2s, 3s, etc.) was exceptionally skilled, because both sides of this record are Demo Discs of the highest order.

Just look at our notes for one of the top two copies from our recent shootout.

I can honestly say that until we discovered the Hot Stampers for this album, I never thought this record deserved the praise The Absolute Sound’s Harry Pearson heaped upon it.

One of only thirteen entries in the Best of the Bunch: Popular section?

Not that hard to believe if, like me, you think a number of the titles there don’t really deserve to be called Super Discs in the first place, For Duke and The Sheffield Track Record being two that spring immediately to mind.

And by the way, does his copy sound as good as this one? I would bet money right now that this monster is clearly the better pressing. 

The highest-numbered stampers I have seen were 5s. That means there are five choices of stampers for each of the sides. Where are you going to find five clean copies of this album with the five different stampers in order to see which one seems to hold the most promise? We do this for a living, but most audiophiles and the reviewers who write for them simply lack the resources to do this kind of work at the level it needs to be done in order to find the amazing pressing we found. T

Let’s face it: Harry’s not the kind of guy to sit down with ten copies and shoot them out. That would be far beneath the great and powerful Oz himself. We put the question this way: Was it even possible for Harry Pearson to create a meaningful Super Disc list?

Note that side one fell a little short of the full 3+ sound found on side two, something that happens more often than not. One out of five records that has a shootout winning side will have a matching shootout winning other side.

The math works like this. 3+/3+ records go in this section, which currently holds 23 titles as of 7/2024. Records with at least one 3+ side go in this section, and there are 125 of those as of the same date — five times as many.

Side One

Track Three

    • Tubey and spacious and relaxed

Track Two (The Look of Love)

    • Immediate and silky vocals
    • Very tubey and spacious
    • Not as fat as the best

Side Two

Track Three

    • Huge and rich and transparent
    • Excellent space

Track One

    • Big and silky
    • Tubey and dynamic

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Burt Bacharach – Casino Royale

More Soundtrack Recordings of Interest

  • Casino Royale finally returns to the site after a two and a half year hiatus, here with solid Double Plus (A++) sound throughout this original Stereo Colgems pressing
  • A record that has its share of problems, but if you’ve got the system for it (huge, heavily tweaked, fast, undistorted, highly resolving and free from obvious colorations), this pressing is guaranteed to handily beat anything else you’ve heard
  • A TAS list favorite – “The Look of Love” with warmth, richness and immediacy? Here is the sound you never thought you’d hear
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The more recognizable and certainly more straightforward side of Bacharach is here, too, on the Dusty Springfield smash ‘The Look of Love.’ This is one of Bacharach’s best soundtracks…”

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Casino Royale Is Really a Mess on Classic Records Vinyl

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Burt Bacharach Available Now

Casino Royale under the sway of Bernie’s penchant for bright, gritty, sour, ambience-challenged sound? Not a good match. There is no reissue, and there will never be a reissue, that will sound as good as a properly-mastered, properly-pressed, properly-cleaned original.

And I hope it would go without saying that most copies cannot begin to do what a real Hot Stamper original can.

As is often the case, the Classic Heavy Vinyl Reissue is simply a disgrace.

Is it the worst version of the album ever made?

That’s hard to say. But it is the worst sounding version of the album we’ve ever played, and that should be good enough for any audiophile contemplating spending money on this Heavy Vinyl trash. Our advice: don’t do it.

Casino Royale Can Be Amazing on the Right Copy, If You’ve Got the System For It…

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Burt Bacharach Available Now

This is a record that has its share of problems, but if you’ve got the system for it (huge, heavily tweaked, fast, free from obvious colorations and capable of tremendous resolution), the best pressings are sure to impress.

Having heard the best sounding pressings I now understand why this has been such a highly regarded long-term resident of the TAS Superdisc List. The best copies are SUPERDISCS… while the average copy of this album is anything but. Who could take such harsh, grainy, thin, veiled, compressed sound seriously? What was Harry Pearson smokin’?

I can honestly and truthfully say that until we discovered the Hot Stampers for this album, I never thought this record deserved the praise Harry heaped upon it. Now I do. I once was blind but now I see, or something like that.

And by the way, does his copy sound as good as this one? Let’s face it: the late Harry Pearson was simply not the kind of guy who would sit down with five or ten copies and shoot them out.

When you listen to the average pressing of Casino Royale, you get the feeling that you’re hearing a standard-issue, boxy, lightweight, blary ’60s soundtrack. Perhaps you hear some promise in the recording, but it’s a promise that’s unfulfilled by the record on your turntable. This copy will completely redefine what you know about the sound of this music.

The space is big and the sound relatively rich (although the sound does vary quite a bit from track to track). The vocals have notably less hardness than most and the orchestra is not as brash as it can be on so many of the copies we audition. Huge amounts of Tubey Magic as well, which is key to the best sounding copies, and critical to The Look of Love.

The sound needs weight, warmth and tubes or you might as well be playing a CD.

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Casino Royale – Our Killer Copy from 2008

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Burt Bacharach Available Now

TWO STUNNING SIDES!

With sound like this, I now understand why this has been such a highly regarded long-term resident of the TAS Superdisc List.

A copy like this IS a TRUE SUPERDISC — but the average copy of this album is anything but.

Who could take such harsh, grainy, thin, veiled, compressed sound seriously? What was Harry smokin’?

I can honestly and truthfully say that until we discovered the Hot Stampers for this album, I never thought this record deserved the praise Harry heaped upon it. Now I do. I once was blind but now I see, or something like that.

And by the way, does his copy sound as good as this one? I would bet money right now that this monster is clearly the better pressing.

Let’s face it: Harry’s not the kind of guy to sit down with ten copies and shoot them out. That would be far beneath the great and powerful Oz himself. We put the question this way:

This is one of those rare (and delightful) instances where the mastering engineer had serious talent and knew how to use it, because both sides of this record are OUTSTANDING — Demo Disc quality all the way. (more…)