never-again

These are just some of the records that probably won’t go into shootouts again. We encourage you to find your own Hot Stamper pressings of them using the methods we’ve laid out here on the blog.

Bonnie Raitt / Self-Titled – Our Shootout Winner (with Liner Notes)

More Bonnie Raitt

Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Bonnie Raitt

The average Green Label Warner Bros. copy we played was lackluster to say the least.

The words on some of my notes read flat, veiled, dry, dark, edgy.

[Many years later we would characterize the above shortcomings as the Warner Bros. House Sound.]

None too promising, but we persevered and found a good one.

The reissues we heard tended to be modern and thin. Definitely not our sound. 

Bonnie Raitt fans take note: This album did not sell well. It appears that it never even charted, which means that original copies are hard to come by.

On top of that, clean ones tend to be expensive and prices are climbing.

With those things considered, it is unlikely we would ever do this shootout again.

Side One

A++. By track two the sound is rich and solid, yet clear. Lovely Tubey Magic and an unprocessed live quality make this one sound about as right as it’s going to get. The drums are especially real sounding, with little in the way of EQ and compression (not that those are bad things).

The rich piano and vocals on track three seal the deal — It’s Super Hot.

Note that the first track, a cover of Bluebird, was a bad idea from the start. The sour sound did it no favors either.

Side Two

A++. Yes, it’s a dead room, but on the best pressings there is still ambience and space to be heard. 

The vocals, often edgy on other copies, were not edgy here. The sound is rich and clear, the ideal combination.

Based on what were the winners of this shootout, this album should sound better this way:

For those of you who might be interested in finding their own Hot Stamper pressings of other titles, we here provide more moderately helpful title specific advice.

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Kraftwerk – Self-Titled

More Kraftwerk

More Art Rock

  • These original UK Vertigo pressings of the band’s first two German albums boast KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound on THREE of the four sides
  • We shot out a number of other imports and the presence, bass, and dynamics on this copy placed it head and shoulders above the competition
  • All four of these sides are huge, spacious and rich, with prodigious amounts of bass, guaranteed to sound better than any other copy you’ve heard
  • “Kraftwerk [1970] is an exploratory art rock album with psych roots first and foremost, with Conny Plank’s brilliant co-production and engineering skills as important as the band performances. Hütter’s work on the [organ] can especially be appreciated with the extended opening drone moan of the all-over-the-place ‘Stratovarius’ combined with Schneider’s eerie violin work.”
  • “Stripped down to the Hütter/Schneider duo for this release [Kraftwerk 2, 1972], and again working with Conrad Plank as coproducer and engineer (this album alone demonstrates his ability to create performances combining technological precision and warmth), Kraftwerk here start exploring the possibilities of keyboards and electronic percussion in detail. Given that the band’s drummers were gone, such a shift was already in the wind, but it’s the enthusiastic grappling with drum machines and their possibilities that makes [the album] noteworthy.”

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Brian Eno – Music for Films

More Brian Eno

More Art Rock Records

  • Music for Films returns to the site on this original UK pressing with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from first note to last
  • Rich, smooth, tonally correct, spacious, this collection of recordings made between 1975 and 1978 was compiled and transferred with consummate skill, ensuring that the highest fidelity was maintained – this pressing sounds right
  • Marks 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
  • “It is a conceptual work intended as a soundtrack for imaginary films, although many of the pieces had already appeared in actual films.”
  • 5 stars: “Eno’s analog music definitely benefits from presentation in the digital domain… it is essential Eno, and a landmark collection drawn from among his work.”

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Perez Prado – Big Hits By Prado

More Living Stereo Recordings

More Easy Listening Recordings

  • This original RCA stereo pressing boasts KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) Living Stereo sound or close to it from first note to last – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Spacious and transparent, this copy has the three-dimensional soundstaging and layered depth that makes these kinds of records such a joy to play
  • There is plenty on offer for the discriminating audiophile, with the spaciousness, clarity, tonality and freedom from artificiality that are hallmarks of the better Living Stereo recordings
  • “Big Hits actually is a powerhouse anthology: the first definitive, stereo collection of mambo hits. All were re-recorded for stereo in ‘new arrangements’ as the jacket advertises… easy to find [but not in audiophile playing condition with sound this good] and very worthwhile.”

*NOTE: On side 1, there is a mark that plays 5 times lightly near the start of track 4 on side 1, “Guaglione.” On side 2, there is a mark that plays 8 times at a light to moderate level at the end of track 3, “Ruletero.”

This copy of Big Hits By Prado has a lot in common with the other Decca and Living Stereo titles we’ve listed over the years, albums by the likes of Henry Mancini, Esquivel, Dick Schory, Edmundo Ros, Arthur Lyman and a handful of others. Talk about making your speakers disappear, these records will do it!

An album like this is all about Tubey Magical Stereoscopic presentation. For us audiophiles, both the sound and the music here are enchanting. If you’re looking to demonstrate just how good 1960 All Tube Analog sound can be, this killer copy may be just the record for you.

This pressing is super spacious, sweet and positively dripping with ambience. Talk about Tubey Magic, the liquidity of the sound here is positively uncanny. This is vintage analog at its best, so full-bodied and relaxed you’ll wonder how it ever came to be that anyone seriously contemplated trying to improve it.

This IS the sound of Tubey Magic. No recordings will ever be made like this again, and no CD will ever capture what is in the grooves of this record. There may well be a CD of this album, but those of us in possession of a working turntable and a good collection of vintage vinyl could care less.

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Johnny Mathis – Warm

More Pop and Jazz Vocals

We think this record is worth seeking out, but finding clean copies on the original label in stereo has proved to be too hard, even for us and we do this for a living.

It’s unlikely that we will be able to offer this album in Hot Stamper form any time soon. If you see one locally on the early label, in stereo, pick it up. There’s a good chance it will sound very good if not downright amazing.

Our review from many years ago:

Side one is killer sounding, with the All Tube Analog sound that Columbia was famous for. The vinyl is fairly quiet as well for a ’50s Columbia 6 Eye pressing. I don’t know how many unscratched, lightly-played Mathis records you’ve ever seen, but in our experience they are few and far between — hence the fact that this is the first one to make it to the site.

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Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, et al. / Music of Old Russia / Milstein

Hot Stamper Pressings Featuring the Violin

  • Music of Old Russia finally returns to the site on this rare, hard to find original Blue Angel Stereo pressing with two INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sides
  • To call this title hard to find with the right stampers is quite an understatement — our last shootout for the album took place in 2013 (!)
  • Both of these sides are remarkably transparent, with huge amounts of space around the players, the unmistakable sonic hallmark of the properly mastered, properly pressed vintage analog LP
  • This is one of the better violin showpiece albums we have ever offered on the site

This rare, hard to find original Blue Angel stereo pressing has exquisite sound. As we noted in our listing for Milstein’s Saint-Saens Third, it is the rare Heifetz album on Shaded Dog that can compete with it.

We would rank this Angel recording/pressing with the best of Rabin and Milstein on Capitol, as well as the wonderful Ricci and Campoli discs on London/Decca.

The transparency of both sides lets you “see” the orchestra clearly, without sacrificing richness or weight.

What a record! What a performance from Nathan Milstein.

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Edmundo Ros / Ros On Broadway

More Exotica

More Easy Listening

Edmundo Ros and his orchestra don’t command much respect these days from the general record buying public. As for audiophiles, it’s doubtful that many even know who he is. But we at Better Records are going to change that, starting with this very record, because it’s one of the best sounding records we have ever heard. Stampers just do not get any HOTTER than these! 

UPDATE 2023: We thought we were going to change that, but our customers had other ideas and didn’t seem interested in his records.

From the perspective of a level playing field, I cannot think of a single rock record that sounds as BIG and DYNAMIC, nor one that is as spacious and clear, as is the side two of this London Blueback. As good as the best imported pressings of Dark Side of the Moon may be, shockingly good in fact, this recording is clearly more exciting and lifelike, with instrumental timbres that are uncannily accurate.

Over the years we’ve played a lot of Edmundo Ros records on London — you name it, Blueback, Whiteback, Phase 4 — but I sure never heard one sound like this until we did this shootout.

We’ve played a lot of Ted Heath records too; few know or care who he is anymore either. And, like Ros on Broadway, there is a Ted Heath title on London that has mind-blowingly good sound, comparable to this amazing Ros record. Watch for it down the road because it’s coming. It’s another Demo Disc destined to give the rest of your Demo Discs a run for their money.

I suspect it was this one, but this review was written a long time ago so I would not want to say for sure that it was.

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Chicago – 3

More Chicago

More Rock and Pop

  • Boasting KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on sides one and four, and outstanding Double Plus (A++) grades on sides two and three, this copy of Chicago’s third album will be very hard to beat
  • The sound is lively, punchy, and powerful – with all due respect, it should MURDER whatever copies you may have
  • 4 stars: “Chicago’s third effort…is packed with a combination of extended jams as well as progressive and equally challenging pop songs. Their innovative sound was the result of augmenting the powerful rock & roll quartet with a three-piece brass section – the members of whom are all consummate soloists. Once again, the group couples that with material worthy of its formidable skills.”

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The Fabulous Thunderbirds – Girls Go Wild

More of The Fabulous Thunderbirds

More Electric Blues

  • The Fabulous Thuderbird’s superb debut finally returns to the site with excellent Double Plus (A++) sound from first note to last – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • This vintage pressing is well balanced, yet big and lively, with excellent clarity in the mids and highs as well as plenty of bass and a big open soundfield
  • “…generated an excitement among many blues fans on a par with that brought on by the first couple of Paul Butterfield albums more than a decade before.” – The Cleveland Scene

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Gounod / Borodin / The World of Ballet, Vol. 2

More Orchestral Music Conducted by Ernest Ansermet

Reviews and Commentaries for Guonod / Faust Ballet Music

Side one contains one of the most famous and sought-after pieces of music in the entire Living Stereo catalog, the wonderful Faust Ballet Music that takes up side one of LSC 2449. (The Carmen that makes up side two of the original Shaded Dog has never impressed us sonically. There are so many better recordings of the piece, the Ansermet recording on London being one of the best.) 

The hall is HUGE — so spacious and three-dimensional it’s almost shocking, especially if you’ve been playing the kind of dry, multi-miked modern recordings that the ’70s ushered in for the major labels such as London and RCA. (EMI is super spacious but much of that space is weird, coming from out of phase back channels folded in to the stereo mix. And often so mid-hall and distant. Sorry, just not our sound.)

Or maybe you own a batch of dense Londons from the ’70s. How many Solti records are not ridiculously thick and opaque? One out of ten? If that. We’re very wary of records recorded in the ’70s; we’ve been burned too many times.

And to tell you the truth we are not all that thrilled with most of what passes for good sound on Mehta’s London output either. If you have a high-resolution system these recordings, like those on Classic Heavy Vinyl we discuss below, leave a lot to be desired. (The Planets is a favorite whipping boy around here as you may know.)

Opacity is a real dealbreaker for us. Most of the classical records we play from later eras simply do not have the transparency that’s essential to us suspending our disbelief. (more…)