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The Byrds – Mr. Tambourine Man (Red Label)

More of the Music of The Byrds

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  • With very good Hot Stamper sound from start to finish, this Columbia Red Label pressing will be hard to beat, especially for those looking for quiet vinyl
  • The 360 Label pressings in stereo will always win our shootouts, but there are Red Label pressings like this one that can sound very good, just not as good
  • It’s richer and fuller than the average copy, with notably more presence, and that will be especially true when you compare it to whatever godawful Heavy Vinyl pressing may be currently available
  • This is true of even our lowest-priced, lowest-graded copies – they are guaranteed to sound much better than any pressing you can find on the market today, as well as any pressing you may already own
  • 5 stars: “One of the greatest debuts in the history of rock … nothing less than a significant step in the evolution of rock & roll itself, demonstrating that intelligent lyrical content could be wedded to compelling electric guitar riffs and a solid backbeat.”
  • If you’re a fan of the Byrds, this is a Classic from 1965 that belongs in your collection.

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Crosby, Stills and Nash – Daylight Again

More of the Music of Crosby, Stills and Nash

  • With excellent Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides, this vintage copy is doing just about everything right
  • This is the embodiment of the classic CSN sound we love – rich, full-bodied, warm, punchy, dynamic and clear
  • Steven Barncard, one of our favorite recording engineers, no doubt deserves most of the credit
  • AllMusic on “Wasted On The Way” and “Southern Cross”: “Both were extracted as singles and became among the best-known tracks not only on Daylight Again, but also in the post-60s CSN canon.”

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Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young / 4 Way Street

More of the Music of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

  • These early Atlantic pressings boast roughly Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades or close to them on all FOUR sides, just shy of our Shootout Winner (side four actually won the shootout) – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • This live album gives you the “naked” sound of the real thing – the real voices and the real guitars and the real everything else, in a way that would never happen again
  • Bill Halverson worked his magic, but only the better pressings let his genius shine the way it does here
  • This is a record we rarely do shootouts for, simply because reasonably quiet, unscratched copies are getting more scarce by the day – much of what we can find is not in good enough condition to pass audiophile muster
  • 4 1/2 stars: “4 Way Street, released in April of 1971: a live double-LP set, chock-full of superb music distilled down from a bunch of nights on that tour that more than fulfilled the promise of the group.”
  • Rolling Stone raves that “Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young are all performers of unquestionable talent, and mostly because they stay out of each others’ way, 4 Way Street must surely be their best album to date.”

If you want to hear Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young rock out live in your listening room, this copy will let you do it. It’s not easy to find good sound on even one side of this album, let alone all four!

The Naked Sound of Live Music

The song “Triad,” just to cite one example, presents us with a lone David Crosby and his acoustic guitar. It’s as real sounding as anything I’ve ever heard from the band. Listening to that natural guitar tone brings home the fact that their studio recordings (and studio recordings in general) are processed and degraded compared to what the microphones must have picked up.

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David Crosby – If I Could Only Remember My Name…

More of the Music of David Crosby

  • Outstanding sound throughout this vintage copy of Crosby’s solo debut, with both TAS-approved sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades
  • The ultimate Hippie Folk Rock Demo Disc – both sides are remarkably transparent, with huge amounts of bass, silky highs, in-the-room vocals and an abundance of Tubey Magic
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these Classic Rock records – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
  • 4 1/2 stars: “If I Could Only Remember My Name is a shambolic masterpiece, meandering but transcendentally so, full of frayed threads. Not only is it among the finest splinter albums out of the CSNY diaspora, it is one of the defining moments of hungover spirituality from the era.”
  • This Folk Rock Masterpiece from 1971 is one that belongs in every audiophile’s collection
  • On big speakers at loud levels, this is a Demo Disc with relatively few peers

Here it is, folks…a True Rock Demo Disc! An outstanding copy such as this will show you why we’ve long considered it one of the Aal time Top Ten Rock albums for sound and music. You will not believe how Tubey Magical and three-dimensional this album can be when you have a pressing with this kind of sound. The harmonic complexity and extension on the acoustic guitars are absolutely stunning!

Harry Pearson put this record on his TAS list of Super Discs, not exactly a tough call it seems to us. Who can’t hear that this is an amazing-sounding recording? (We do applaud his decision not to add the Classic pressing of this title to the list, the way he did with so many other Classic pressings that have no business on anything called a Super Disc list.)

You Don’t Have to Be High to Hear It

When you drop the needle on this record, all barriers between you and the musicians are removed. You’ll feel as though you’re sitting at the studio console while Crosby and his no-doubt-stoned-out-of-their-minds Bay Area pals (mostly Jefferson Airplaners and Grateful Deads) are laying down this emotionally powerful, heartfelt music.

The overall sound is warm, sweet, rich, and full-bodied…that’s some real analog Tubey Magic, baby! And the best part is, you don’t have to be high to hear it. You just need a good stereo and the right pressing.

Tubey Magical acoustic guitar reproduction is superb on the better copies of this album. Simply phenomenal amounts of Tubey Magic can be heard on every strum, along with richness, body and harmonic coherency that have all but disappeared from modern recordings (and especially from modern remasterings).

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Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – So Far

More Crosby / More Stills / More Nash / More Young

  • Boasting INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on both sides, this copy is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other So Far you’ve heard
  • The two tracks exclusive to this album, “Ohio” and “Find the Cost of Freedom,” are amazingly well recorded – both have Demo Disc quality sound on this amazing side one
  • Huge, rich and energetic, this pressing brings the gorgeous harmonies of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young to life like nothing you have ever heard
  • We don’t imagine we’ll be tracking down too many copies that sound this good so if you’re a fan, scoop this one up!
  • If you’ve made the mistake of buying any Heavy Vinyl pressing containing any of these songs, this record will show you just exactly what you’ve been missing
  • Marks and problems 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
  • If I were to compile a list of my favorite rock and pop albums from 1974, this album would definitely be on it
  • Not many compilation albums offer top quality sound, but this one does, and these are some others

When you get hold of a pressing as good as this one, the sound is so correct it makes a mockery of the phony EQ and just plain bad mastering and pressing of the Heavy Vinyl and Half-Speed mastered versions.

The MoFi and the Classic 200g LP of Deja Vu are both clearly wrong in important ways. This record will make it clear exactly what’s wrong with them, assuming you have the critical listening skills to recognize the differences. If you are on this site, chances are very good you do.

Once you hear this Hot Stamper pressing, you will never be able to enjoy those audiophile pressings again, of that we are quite confident. (more…)

The Byrds – Mr. Tambourine Man (360 Label)

More of the Music of The Byrds

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  • With KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from start to finish, this Stereo 360 pressing is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other Mr. Tambourine Man you’ve heard
  • Lively, balanced and vibrant, with boatloads of the Tubey Magical richness these recordings need in order to work
  • Listen to how amazingly breathy Jim (later Roger) McGuinn’s vocals are – his vocals are key to the best sounding Byrds records
  • 5 stars: “One of the greatest debuts in the history of rock … nothing less than a significant step in the evolution of rock & roll itself, demonstrating that intelligent lyrical content could be wedded to compelling electric guitar riffs and a solid backbeat.”
  • If you’re a fan of the Byrds, this is a Classic from 1965 that belongs in your collection.
  • The complete list of titles from 1965 that we’ve reviewed to date can be found here.

Want to hear exactly what I’m talking about? Play Chimes of Freedom, one of the best sounding tracks on side two, if not THE best. Listen to how breathy Jim (later Roger) McGuinn’s vocals are. Byrds records almost never sound like that.

I Knew I’d Want You is another one that sounds amazingly Tubey Magical on the best pressings.

By the time you get to track two on side one you’re hearing one of my favorite Byrds song of all time: I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better. It’s energetic and very present on this copy.

Notice that Gene Clark’s vocals usually sound better than Roger McGuinn’s. For some reason they tend to brighten up McGuinn’s vocals, and the last thing you ever want to do with a Byrds recording is make it brighter.

But having said that, most of the reissues are too thin and bright compared to the best originals. (more…)

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Deja Vu

More of the Music of Crosby, Stills, Nash and (Sometimes) Young

  • Boasting two solid Double Plus (A++) sides or close to them, this early pressing of CSNY’s magnum opus is doing just about everything right
  • The sound is huge throughout – lively, present and rich in a way that nothing you’ve heard can compete with (particularly on side two)
  • And that’s especially true if you own any audiophile pressing of any kind – none of the ones we’ve heard can begin to compete with the real thing we are offering here
  • One of our all-time favorite albums at Better Records and one that almost never sounds this good (unless you know exactly which stampers to buy, of course)
  • We find ten to fifteen RL Zep II’s for every Déjà Vu with the right stampers – we’ve only done three shootouts since 2020, if that tells you anything
  • 5 stars: “…this variety made Déjà Vu a rich musical banquet for the most serious and personal listeners, while mass audiences reveled in the glorious harmonies and the thundering electric guitars…”

If you play this copy at serious levels and have the kind of full range system that’s both loud and clean like live music, we guarantee you will be nothing less than gobsmacked at the size and power of the music on this album, the band’s inarguable masterpiece.

Both sides here are super high-resolution, tonally perfect, Tubey Magical and ALIVE. The vocals are silky and sweet with very little strain or grain (a very common problem in the loudest choruses). The highs are extended, the bass is deep and punchy, and the overall clarity is breathtaking.

Just listen to the guitars during the solos — you can really hear the sound of the pick hitting the strings. The rhythm guitars sound meaty and chunky like the best sounding copies of Zuma and After The Gold Rush. (more…)

Crosby / Nash – Graham Nash / David Crosby

More of the Music of David Crosby and Graham Nash

  • This early Atlantic pressing (only the second copy to hit the site in over twenty-one months) boasts solid Double Plus (A++) sound from start to finish
  • Quiet vinyl for this album, especially considering how rare clean copies of formerly common titles like this one have become in the last twenty years
  • The vocals are remarkably breathy, smooth and sweet here – this recording is the very definition of Midrange Magic, thanks to the brilliant engineering of Bill Halverson
  • 4 stars: “This self-titled release is one of most impressive side project to arise from CSN. The best elements of each are readily available here, punctuated at every turn by their complicated vocal arrangements and air-lock harmonies.”

Where in the world did all the Midrange Magic that we were hearing on this copy of the album come from?

On a song like “Where Will I Be” the sound is so unbelievably transparent, open and intimate it sounds like an outtake from David Crosby’s first album, one of the ten best sounding rock records ever made.

I was in high school when I first played this album and I remember being disappointed with it, mostly because I was expecting another Deja Vu. As I’ve grown older, I have come to appreciate other qualities in a recording than those found on Deja Vu.

I’ve come to appreciate this album for what it is: not the grand musical statement that Deja Vu is, but a simpler, more intimate portrait of two artists at the start of a lifelong, harmonious collaboration (which ended prior to Crosby’s passing because he was such a jerk).

This is a damn fine batch of songs they’ve written and the two men sing them well.

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Crosby / Nash – Wind on the Water

More of the Music of David Crosby and Graham Nash

  • With a STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side two mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side one, we guarantee you’ve never heard Wind on the Water sound this good
  • These are just a few of the things we had to say about this incredible copy in our notes: “lots of space”…”huge and present and tubey”…”very detailed vox”…”tons of weight…”present and lively”
  • Here you will find noticeably richer sonics than practically all other pressings (hence the high grades) – many tended to be leaner and drier than we would have liked, and we take a lot of points off when they sound that way
  • It’s possible to get the clear, breathy vocals that bring out the wonderful harmonies these two are so rightly famous for – it’s just not easy
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs – those on “Carry Me” are especially bad – but if you can tough those out, this copy is going to blow your mind
  • 4 stars: “Wind on the Water has an instant classic, lived-in sound and is a definite must-have.”

Solo and In Combination

Of course it’s easy to argue that finding good sound on an album with two or more members of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, in any configuration, has never been easy. It’s the rare copy of either of the first two albums that’s even listenable, and the CSN album from 1977 doesn’t sound nearly as good as any of the first three Crosby/Nash albums (of which this is the second). Which simply means that the “good” sound of our Hot Stamper copies is far better than what most audiophiles own of any of these guys in combination.

Their solo albums are a different story altogether. The first solo albums by David Crosby (1971), Stephen Stills (1970) and Graham Nash (1971) are three of my favorite records of all time; each is a brilliant recording, each is powerfully compelling music (the Nash album especially). Two made our Top 100. It’s puzzling to contemplate just how well-recorded each of their first solo albums are considering their less-than-stellar group recording efforts. Too many cooks spoiling the broth might make a good guess, but at this point it’s no more than speculation and mostly a waste of time. With so many records to play, we find we do better when we confine ourselves to the realities of the vinyl in front of us.

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The Byrds / Fifth Dimension

More of the Music of The Byrds

  • Fifth Dimension returns to the site for the first time in years, here with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound throughout this original Stereo 360 pressing
  • Both of these sides are full and rich, yet clear, lively and spacious like nothing you have ever heard
  • It also has an extended top like few Byrds’ records have ever had, in our experience anyway, and we’ve played them by the score
  • 4 1/2 stars: “… its high points were as innovative as any rock music being recorded in 1966.”

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