- Here is the Tubey Magic, presence, size and space we guarantee you have never heard on Meddle no matter what pressing you may own
- A Top 100 audiophile demonstration quality recording on a par with Dark Side of the Moon, which is really saying something
- 4 1/2 stars: “Pink Floyd were nothing if not masters of texture, and Meddle is one of their greatest excursions into little details, pointing the way to the measured brilliance of Dark Side of the Moon and the entire Roger Waters era.”
- This killer reissue puts to shame the originals we’ve auditioned, and the reissues we offer on the site are guaranteed to do the same
- If you’re a Pink Floyd fan, and what audiophile wouldn’t be?, this title from 1971 is clearly one of their best
one-stamper
Elton John – Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player
More of the Music of Elton John
- This vintage copy of Elton’s 1973 release (the first to hit the site in over three and a half years) boasts INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from start to finish
- Forget the dubby, closed-in and transistory domestic pressings – here is the relaxed, rich, spacious, musical, lifelike sound that only the best imports can show you
- Thanks to Ken Scott‘s brilliant engineering and Gus Dudgeon‘s production savvy, every song here sounds better than you imagined, because finally you are hearing it right
- 4 stars: “His most direct, pop-oriented album… a very enjoyable piece of well-crafted pop/rock.”
The amazing engineer Ken Scott (Ziggy Stardust, Magical Mystery Tour, Honky Chateau, Crime of the Century, Truth, Birds of Fire) is the man responsible for the stunning sound here.
The kind of Tubey Magical richness, smoothness and fullness he achieved at Trident in the early ’70s, as well as here at a certain French country estate, have never been equaled elsewhere in our opinion. (more…)
Jethro Tull – Thick As A Brick
More of the Music of Jethro Tull
- An early Reprise pressing that was doing just about everything right, earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
- One of the few copies we’ve found lately with audiophile sound and surfaces – most of the copies we find are just too noisy for the first few minutes, but this one’s intro held up nicely
- A Top 100 title and the best sounding album Jethro Tull ever recorded – allow us to make the case
- A stunning Demo Disc to rule them all – sure to be the best you’ve ever heard this band sound, assuming you have the kind of system it takes and a room big enough to hold it
- 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: “A masterpiece in the annals of progressive rock – a dazzling tour de force, at once playful, profound, and challenging, without overwhelming the listener.”
- “Whether or not Thick As A Brick is an isolated experiment, it is nice to know that someone in rock has ambitions beyond the four or five minute conventional track, and has the intelligence to carry out his intentions, in all their intricacy, with considerable grace.”
- TAAB is also one of those albums that helped us dramatically improve our playback quality
The kind of tonal accuracy you hear on the better copies of this album practically disappeared from records over forty years ago, which explains why so many of the LPs we offer as Hot Stampers were produced in the 70s and before. That’s when many of the highest fidelity recordings were made. In truth this very record is a superlative example of the sound the best producers, engineers, and studios were able to capture on analog tape during that very decade.
Which is a long way of saying that the better copies of Thick As A Brick have pretty much everything that we love about vinyl records here at Better Records.
Furthermore, I can guarantee you there is no CD on the planet that will ever be able to do this recording justice. Our Hot Stamper pressings — even the lowest-graded ones — have a kind of Analog Magic that just can’t be captured on one of them there silvery discs.
The Best Sounding Jethro Tull Album Ever Recorded
- The better copies are shockingly dynamic. At about the three-minute mark the band joins in the fun and really starts rocking. Set your volume for as loud as your system can play that section. The rest of the music, including the very quietest parts, will then play correctly for all of side one. For side two the same volume setting should be fine.
- The recording can have exceptionally solid, deep punchy bass (just check out Barrie “Barriemore” Barlow’s drumming, especially his kick and floor toms. The guy is on fire).
- The midrange is usually transparent and the top end sweet and extended on the better pressings.
- The recording was made in 1972, so there’s still plenty of Tubey Magic to be heard on the acoustic guitars and flutes.
- Tubey Magical acoustic guitar reproduction is superb on the better copies of this recording. 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).
- The better copies can be as huge, wide and tall as any rock record you’ve ever heard, with sound that comes jumping out of your speakers right into your listening room.
- Unlike practically any album recorded during the 80s or later, the overall tonal balance, as well as the timbre of virtually every instrument in the soundfield, is correct.
The Rolling Stones – Their Satanic Majesties Request
More of the Music of The Rolling Stones
- Their Satanic Majesties Request is back on the site after a twelve month hiatus, here with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound on this vintage British Decca pressing
- The band’s one and only psychedelic album, one that came out right before the raging bluesy rock of Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers
- This is some crazy Stones music, with loads of psychedelic madness, balanced by a good number of catchy tunes
- It’s a lot of fun on a pressing that sounds as good as this one, with the space, clarity and richness that vintage vinyl offers in such abundance
- Every one of the original Decca stereo pressings we’ve played has come up short against these recuts from the Seventies – if you want an original on this album, the one with the cool lenticular 3-D cover, just know that you’re choosing second-rate sound (which, of course, is your choice)
- 4 stars: “Never before or since did the Stones take so many chances in the studio… a fascinating anomaly in the group’s discography”.
This is the Stones at their most experimental, so there are plenty of strange effects and trippy arrangements. Only the best copies manage to make sense of it, but when you find one this music is a lot of fun.
If you’re looking for the raging bluesy rock of Sticky Fingers and Let It Bleed, you’ll find some of that here but also a lot of psychedelia too. You do get some great rockers though — “Citadel,” “2000 Man,” and “2000 Light Years From Home” to name a few. “She’s A Rainbow” is the poppiest song here, and on this copy it sounds WONDERFUL.
Kraftwerk – Autobahn
More Art Rock
- Stunning sound on this fun, TAS-approved album, with Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them from start to finish
- The right early import pressings (a happy discovery from a few years back) have richness, transparency, space and presence not found anywhere else, I tell you!
- Forget the dubby domestic pressings – they’re disappointing in the extreme
- These imports are tough to find with the right stampers, the right sound and audiophile quality playing surfaces, which explains why it’s been over a year since our last big shootout
- 5 stars: “The 22-minute title track became an international hit single and remains the peak of the band’s achievements – it encapsulates the band and why they are important within one track – but the rest of the album provides soundscapes equally as intriguing.”
This vintage British Vertigo pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records can barely BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing signs of coming back. If you love hearing INTO a recording, actually being able to “see” the performers, and feeling as if you are sitting in the studio with the band, this is the record for you. It’s what vintage all analog recordings are known for — this sound. (more…)
Van Morrison – Moondance
More of the Music of Van Morrison
- An early Green Label pressing that was doing just about everything right, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
- Drop the needle anywhere on the album for a taste of early-70s Tubey Magical analog sound, not to mention the kind of blue-eyed soul that will remind some of you just how good music on vinyl used to be
- A tough title to find in clean condition these days – most are covered in repeating marks – but not this one!
- “An album worthy of an Irish R&B singer who wrote a teen hit called ‘Mystic Eyes’ (not to mention a Brill Building smash called ‘Brown Eyed Girl’), adding punchy brass (including pennywhistles and foghorn) and a solid backbeat (including congas) to his folk-jazz swing, and a pop-wise formal control to his Gaelic poetry.” Christgau – A+ (a grade he does not give out often)
Musically the record Moondance most reminds me of is After The Gold Rush. Neil Young set out to make a commercial album that had nothing but strong songs built around catchy melodies, using the highest quality production values. What better describes Moondance?
Every song is good, you can sing practically every one of them from memory, and in fact you’ll probably feel like singing along with every one of them as you are playing this very copy.
Van Morrison never made another album as good as this one, and After the Gold Rush is still Neil’s Masterpiece (along with Zuma, of course). If there are two records on the planet that belong in everybody’s collection, it’s these two.
Finding good sounding LPs of both of them is a tricky proposition — unless, of course, you are a customer of Better Records, where superb sounding pressings of Classic Rock Albums can be found all day every day.
The Who – Who’s Next
More of the Music of The Who
- Both sides of this vintage UK import were giving us the big and bold sound we were looking for, earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades
- The bigger your speakers and the louder you play them, the better this pressing will sound because that is the one true test of a rock record
- This British LP is guaranteed to blow your mind with its phenomenal sound — check out the big, bold, rock ’em, sock ’em bottom end energy
- These days the UK Track pressings seem to be the only ones that sound right to us – which means no British Polydors and no domestic Deccas (which we actually used to like) are very likely to be coming to the site
- Compare this to any Heavy Vinyl (or other) pressing and you will hear in a heartbeat why we think the Real Thing just cannot be beat
- 5 stars: “This is invigorating because it has. . . Townshend laying his soul bare in ways that are funny, painful, and utterly life-affirming. That is what the Who was about, not the rock operas, and that’s why Who’s Next is truer than Tommy or the abandoned Lifehouse. Those were art — this, even with its pretensions, is rock & roll.”
- If you’re a fan of the band, this title from 1971 is a Masterpiece that belongs in every right thinking audiophile’s collection
Recently we sat down for a massive shootout for Who’s Next, a true Glyn Johns Classic and undeniably one of the greatest rock albums of all time.
The sound of this British Track pressing is wonderful from start to finish. There’s no grain to speak of and dramatically less smearing and veiling than most of the copies we played it against. The presence is startling — turn it up good and loud and The Who will be right there thrashing around in your listening room! The bottom end, on both sides, has the kind of weight that’s absolutely essential to this music.
We’re talking BIG ROCK SOUND and quiet vinyl, a rare combination in our experience, our experience of course coming from dozens and dozens of British Tracks and Polydors, German Polydors, Decca originals, MCA reissues, a few imports from other countries (Japan, thin and bright), and last but far from least, The Classic 200 gram pressing. (Here is our overview.)
Ry Cooder / Jazz
More of the Music of Ry Cooder
- You’ll find solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER throughout this vintage copy – fairly quiet vinyl too
- These are the stampers that always win our shootouts, and when you hear them you will know why – the sound is big, rich and clear
- A one-time TAS list Super Disc that proves its worth on this superb pressing
- “The complexity of the material on Jazz, as well as the arrangements by Joseph Byrd, dictate that this is Cooder’s most polished and orchestrated effort to date.”
- We’ve discovered a number of titles in which one stamper always wins, and here are some others
- If you’re a fan of Ry Cooder’s, this classic from 1978 belongs in your collection.
- “The complexity of the material on Jazz, as well as the arrangements by Joseph Byrd, dictate that this is Cooder’s most polished and orchestrated effort to date.”
We’re big fans of Ry Cooder here at Better Records, and it’s always fun to hear the eccentric instruments and arrangements he and his cohorts cook up. Of course, it’s even more fun when you have a great sounding pressing like this one that lets you hear what the musicians were up to. (more…)
Cat Stevens – Teaser & The Firecat
- A Teaser and The Firecat like you’ve never heard, with solid Double Plus (A++) grades throughout this vintage Island Pink Rim pressing – fairly quiet vinyl too
- Here are the sides that will rock your world with their size, richness, clarity and energy, the likes of which you may have never experienced on vinyl
- A brilliant classic folk rock recording but only the right pressings have the potential for Demo Disc quality sound
- 5 stars and a Top 10 album – in some ways it’s surely the Best Sounding record Cat Stevens ever made
- This Folk Rock Masterpiece from 1971 is one that belongs in every audiophile’s collection
- “Tuesday’s Dead,” “Morning Has Broken,” “Bitterblue,” “Moonshadow” “Peace Train” – and that’s just side two! What side of any album has five songs of such quality?
Before I get further into the sound of this record, let me preface my remarks by saying this is a work of GENIUS. Cat Stevens made two records which belong in the Pantheon of greatest popular recordings of all time. In the world of folky pop, Teaser and the Firecat and Tea for the Tillerman have few peers. There may be other recordings that are as good but there are no other recordings that are better.
When you hear The Wind, Changes IV, or If I Laugh on this copy, you will be convinced, as I am, that this is one of the greatest popular recordings in the history of the world. I don’t know of ANY other album that has more LIFE and MUSICAL ENERGY than this one. (more…)
Jimi Hendrix – Axis: Bold As Love
More of the Music of Jimi Hendrix
- With STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on both sides, this vintage UK import reissue is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other Axis: Bold As Love you’ve heard – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
- This copy was just bigger and richer than any other we played in our recent shootout, with rock solid energy to beat them all
- You get clean, clear, full-bodied, lively and musical analog sound from first note to last
- 5 stars: “…the beautiful, wistful ballads ‘Little Wing,’ ‘Castles Made of Sand,’ ‘One Rainy Wish,’ and the title track set closer show [Hendrix’s] remarkable growth and depth as a tunesmith, harnessing Curtis Mayfield soul guitar to Dylanesque lyrical imagery and Fuzz Face hyperactivity to produce yet another side to his grand psychedelic musical vision.”
- It’s hard to conceive of any list of the best rock and pop albums of 1967 that would not have this record on it