break-2008

This Mud Slide Slim Rocked Like No Other Pressing We’d Ever Heard

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of James Taylor Available Now

This Shootout Winning copy from 2008 or thereabouts showed us a Mud Slide Slim we had no idea could exist.

We have a name for records like this. We call them breakthrough pressings. They are one of the reasons we play so many thousands of records every year. We’re looking for records that sound as good as this one does, even for titles that no one thinks are particularly well recorded.

Especially for those titles. Experience has taught us they can only be found by playing lots of pressings and looking for whatever needles might be hiding in the haystacks. (The haystack for One Man Dog can be seen at the bottom of this post.)

As you will see from our commentary, the first track on side one, Love Has Brought Me Around, is a great test for energy.

If your copy does not seem very energetic to you, then we recommend you keep buying every green label original you see until you find one that does.

Our commentary from the early days of shootouts can be seen below.

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Harvest Was a Struggle in 2008

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Neil Young Available Now

Harvest is undeniably one of the most beloved albums in all of classic rock. We get letters all the time from customers hoping to get their hands on Hot Stamper copies, but we’ll never have the supply to keep up with the demand.

It’s a tough nut to crack, because a Hot Stamper Harvest has to get so many things right — the lovely pedal steel guitar on Out On The Weekend, the LSO on A Man Needs A Maid and There’s A World (engineered by Glyn Johns), Neil’s grungy electric guitar on Alabama, and so much more. 

Many copies we played would work for the heavy songs and then fall behind on the softer numbers. Others had gorgeous sound on the country-tinged numbers but couldn’t deliver any whomp for the rockers.

A Copy For The Ages from 2008

Side two of this copy has STUNNINGLY GOOD SOUND! It’s punchy and lively with some of the BIGGEST BASS we’ve ever heard for this album. You won’t believe the WHOMP on this record — just listen to how hard Alabama ROCKS! The overall sound is big, open, and spacious with amazing transparency and lots of extension up top. The vocals are Right On The Money — very present with loads of texture. We rate side two an A+++ — that’s Master Tape Sound, folks, As Good As It Gets!

Drop the needle on Old Man. On virtually every copy we audition the chorus vocals strain to the point of being unpleasant, but here they are smooth and sweet.

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In Through The Out Door – Zep’s Last But Not Least

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Led Zeppelin Available Now

One of our early shootouts taught us a lot about this album.

On a super transparent, super low distortion copy, all the subtleties really come to life.

Too many copies we played were a bit grainy — you could really hear it on the cymbal crashes. This copy is as smooth and sweet as you could ever ask for.

It’s open and spacious, and the vocals are tonally correct. The bottom end has deep, well-defined bass and an exceptionally punchy kick drum sound.

There’s lots of extension up top and a silky quality to the vocals and cymbals.

The presence is staggering — the guitar solo on All My Love positively JUMPS out of the speakers.

Musically this certainly isn’t Zep’s best work, but there is still some really great material.

We found the best sounding tracks to be “Fool In The Rain” on side one and “All My Love” on side two.

“In The Evening” can rock with the best of them, “South Bound Saurez” can be very rich and sweet, and “I’m Gonna Crawl” can sound out of this world.

In fact, after playing two knockout copies we found back to back, I am a bigger fan of this album than I ever was.

Zep II it ain’t, but it’s still Zep, and that oughta tell you plenty.

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Aqualung – Our Domestic Shootout Winner from 2008

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Jethro Tull Available Now

OH YEAH! This Original Domestic Aqualung has TWO STUNNING SIDES that will MURDER the British Originals and make mincemeat out of any reissue.

Folks, for hard rockin’, tubey magical, psychedelic ’60s analog, it just does not get much better than this album. Here’s a knockout copy that will bring the power of Aqualung to life right there in your living room. Side one rates A+++ and side two rates A++; both easily defeated our best Import pressings, including a handful of sides with 1U, 2U, and 3U stampers — the kind that go for big dollars on eBay no matter what they sound like.

The British copies with the right stampers can sound amazingly rich and sweet, but they can’t ROCK like this copy — not a chance.

Side one has MASTER TAPE SOUND. More importantly, it has the kind of solid bottom end that is ESSENTIAL to this music. When Aqualung is rich and sweet, it’s a nice album, but when it can really rock, it is a BEAST! Few records get the entire Better Records crew bangin’ their heads and drumming on the tables the way the best side ones of Aqualung do, and a copy like this will really show you why.

Drop the needle on Mother Goose for some serious Tubey Magic. The sound of the flute and the guitars is OFF THE CHARTS. The drums are HUGE, punchy, and natural, and the immediacy of the vocals is amazing.

Side two is nearly as amazing — smooth and sweet, clean and clear, lively and dynamic. The openness and transparency allow you to separate the various parts and appreciate each musician’s contributions. You get airy flutes, tight bass, full-bodied vocals and real weight to the bottom end — a combination that you just can’t get from the average pressing or any heavy vinyl reissue. Play Locomotive Breath to see just how hard this copy rocks.

Hopeless Reviewers (Chapter 16,000)

Michael Fremer may think the new reissue is the ultimate pressing, but we sure don’t. By the time the guitars at the end of the title track fade out, you will be ready to take your heavy vinyl Classic and ceremoniously drop it in a trashcan. (Actually, the best use for it is to demonstrate to your skeptical audiophile friends that no heavy vinyl pressing can begin to compete with a Hot Stamper from Better Records. Not in a million years.)

More Fremer / Classic bashing? Of course! We take them to task at every turn when the opportunity presents itself — but not out of spite or vindictiveness (moi?!). We do it for the purest of reasons: as a service to you, dear customer. Where else can you turn for the straight scoop?

And unlike the reviewers, the forum posters and the audiophile man in the street, we offer more than just opinion. We offer the record that proves our case. If your pockets are deep enough, we will happily show you the difference between The Real Thing and The New Wannabe.

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