IGD-prone

The titles listed here are prone to Inner Groove Distortion. This is a common problem on Led Zeppelin II (“Thank You”) and the Swan Lake Highlights with Fistoulari, as well as scores of other titles.

Often the distortion is caused by low quality tonearms, as well as tonearms that lacks anti-skate.

Vintage jazz records are notorious for having their inner grooves chewed up by mistracking arms and heavily weighted cartridges. It comes with the territory.

Other titles suffer from the overcutting of very loud passages in the inner grooves, which seems to be the problem on Linda Ronstadt’s Don’t Cry Now album.

As a matter of policy, we check the inner grooves of every record we grade.

LPs that are returned for groove damage — occurring anywhere on the record — rarely display such damage when played back on our painstakingly set up Triplanar/Dynavector combo. If tracking is often a problem, these two can probably solve it for you.

Miles Davis – Jazz Track (Six Eye Pressing)

More Miles Davis

  • Davis’ superb 1959 release arrives on the site with Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound from start to finish
  • Davis partners here with jazz greats, including John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley and others
  • “… it should become clear why ‘Jazz Track’ is a vital Miles album as well as a testimony to the importance of the movies to jazz–as a medium for improvised soundtracks and, more importantly, as a source of theme music potentially as rich as the music of Broadway…”
  • “It’s doubtful that “On Green Dolphin Street” and “Stella by Starlight” would have caught on without Bill [Evans’] artistry (which is not to take anything away from Red [Garland], whose ballads simply lacked the intricate, delicately shaded beauty of Bill’s pensive voicings on the slow ballads).”

We had a number of original pressings on hand, some costing a pretty penny, but this is the only one that did not have serious scratches or inner groove damage.

The vinyl is not quiet, but the ticks stay mainly underneath the music. If for any reason you are not happy with the sound or condition of the album we are of course happy to take it back for a full refund, including the domestic return postage.

The nine minute plus long Green Dolphin Street that opens side two is nothing short of amazing, some of the coolest jazz you will ever hear, on any record, at any price. With Stella by Starlight and Fran Dance on the same side, that gives you about 20 minutes of great sounding jazz by Miles’ classic Kind of Blue lineup. (more…)

The Kinks – Kinda Kinks in Stereo

More of the Music of The Kinks

Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of The Kinks

  • Very good Hot Stamper sound on both sides of this original STEREO copy of The Kinks’ sophomore release
  • You’ll find that there’s a healthy dose of the Tubey Magical Richness here, which is exactly what these recordings need in order to sound their best
  • The monos win the shootouts, but the better original stereo pressings can sound quite good on their own terms
  • “…this album showcased a much more sophisticated sound… it also put them right in the front of the British Invasion pack for seriousness and complexity, out in front of where the Beatles or almost any of the competition were in early 1965…”

(more…)

The Kinks – The Kink Kontroversy

  • Here’s a rare one — a wonderful copy of an early Kinks album, in mono no less, with solid Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER throughout
  • Both sides here are clean, clear, full-bodied and dynamic with excellent bass and tons of energy 
  • Till the End of the Day was the big hit, and Where Have All the Good Times Gone is also a classic 
  • Allmusic raves, “The Kinks came into their own as album artists — and Ray Davies fully matured as a songwriter — with The Kink Kontroversy…

We discovered the hard way that mono is the only way to go for The Kinks’ third album. The stereo version may in fact be the worst sounding stereo record compared to the mono that we have ever played. (more…)

Aretha Franklin – Young, Gifted and Black

More Aretha Franklin

More Soul, Blues, and R&B

This Atlantic pressing is a MONSTER, easily one of the best we’ve ever played, and unusually quiet to boot. You will have a very tough time finding a copy with even one side this good, let alone two. The music, of course, is top notch — and it’s even better when you don’t have bad sound or crappy vinyl getting in the way. I imagine the Queen Of Soul herself would be very impressed with the way she sounds on this White Hot Stamper pressing.  

This WONDERFUL album of Aretha’s is very possibly her most consistent from the period, but it’s sure a tough nut to crack sonically. So many copies are smeary, recessed and lifeless you’d think you were playing a heavy vinyl reissue, not a real Atlantic original. And no matter how hard you try, there just do not seem to be any copies with quiet surfaces and clean inner grooves. (more…)