top-copy

These Shootout Winning pressings are backed up (in most cases) by the notes we took while playing them.

Our shootouts are always conducted blind, so these notes describe what we heard — only later did we discover which pressing it was that sounded so good.

Many times these very special pressings are not originals, or not pressings that audiophiles know about, or care about, or perhaps they’re not from the country the conventional wisdom says they should be from.

It’s precisely these kinds of records that make our day — they prove to us that the best sounding records in the world can only be discovered, never predicted.

An Amazingly Good Nashville Skyline, But Side Two Fell Short in One Area

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Bob Dylan Available Now

You just can’t beat a well-produced, well-engineered Columbia from this era. There’s a richness and a naturalness to the sound that’s almost completely disappeared from the modern world of music, and by “modern world” we mean both modern recordings and modern remasterings of vintage recordings.

Practically none of them ever have the qualities of this wonderful record from 1969.

You really do have to go back to these old originals to find it. And then you have to find just the right old originals for it to be there. Here are the notes for one we played not long ago.

As you can see from the notes, side one of our most recent White Hot stamper shootout winning copy was doing everything right. We marvelled at these specific qualities in the sound:

Track three

  • Big and spacious and lively
  • The vocals and guitars are big and weighty and jumping

Track one

  • Spacious and great size and detail
  • Vocals jump out
  • Realistic acoustics

However, we had a side two that was slightly better than the side two you see here.

When we played the two best copies back to back, side one of this copy came out on top, earning a grade of 3+, but the side two of another copy showed us there was potentially even more presence to Dylan’s vocals in the recording than we had assumed. As a consequence, we felt it best to drop side two’s grade a half plus to 2.5+.

Track one

  • Tubey bass
  • Weighty
  • Very full vocals
  • A bit veiled but better than most

Track one on side two was doing practically everything right, but it slightly lacked presence, and for that we dropped the grade one half plus to 2.5+.

Midrange presence is one of the most important qualities of any rock or pop recording we might evaluate, and for a Bob Dylan album it is absolutely essential.

You want Dylan to be front and center, neither recessed nor behind a veil.

To aid you in doing your own evaluations, here is a list of records that we’ve found to be good for testing midrange presence.

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This Sibelius Violin Concerto Was Big and Lush but…

Hot Stamper Pressings Featuring the Violin Available Now

We love the way RCA recorded Heifetz back in the day, the day in this case being 1960. We usually have a good supply of vintage Heifetz titles on the site at all times. They often have our favorite performances, and the best copies, as the notes for the one below make clear, can have absolutely amazing sound.

As you can see from the notes, side one of a recent shootout winning copy was doing everything right.

However, we had a side two that was slightly better than the side two you see here. When we played the two best copies back to back, this side one came out on top, earning a grade of 3+, but the side two of another copy showed us there was even more three-dimensionality to be discovered in the recording than we thought. Consequently this side two was dropped a half grade to 2.5+.

This is exactly why we do shootouts. If you really want to be able to recognize subtle (and not so subtle!) differences between pressings, you must learn to do them too.

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Silky Sound? Everybody Knows That’s Impossible

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Neil Young Available Now

This early pressing of EKTIN IS an amazing find, the kind of record the thrillseekers who work here at Better Records live for.

As I was reading the notes, I saw a word there that I had never associated with the sound of the album: “silky.” Since when does Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere have silky vocals?

But there it was, describing the first track on side one (Cinnamon Girl) as well as both the third track on side two (Cowgirl in the Sand) and track one (Losing End (When You’re On)).

We don’t have a tag for silky sound. About the closest we could come would be “glossy sound,” the kind of sound you might find on a Toto album, or Gauch0, or Mirage, or Gorilla, or Abbey Road. Starting in the mid-70s, anything produced by Ted Templeman and engineered by Donn Landee would be sure to have glossy sound.

But this album is from 1969. Silky vocals are not easy to find on recordings from that year, Abbey Road being the obvious exception.

And they’re not easy to find on the vast majority of copies we have played over the years. I doubt that the other copies in the shootout have notes mentioning silky vocals.

But if your equipment is good enough, and you know how to clean your records right, and you dial in your setup to a T, with a big enough stack of copies you may be able to find an Everybody Knows… with silky vocals. Twenty years ago I wrote a commentary about diminishing returns in audio being a myth. Now, finding this amazing pressing of Everybody Knows, is just one more piece of evidence to support just how precient that idea was.

Hey, want to find your own top quality copy?

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Motown Still Had It in 1982

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Marvin Gaye Available Now

With two superb Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sides, this Midnight Love is certainly as good a copy as we have ever heard.

Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “round and punchy”…”jumping out of the speakers”…”good size and weight”…”spacious and relaxed percussion and vox”…”top detail” (side two).

Our post-it notes tell the album’s story. (By the way, if you like reading our post-it notes, we’re putting more and more of them on the blog these days. We talk about the importance of taking notes as part of the shootout advice we share. This post will help you with the basics.)

Drop the needle on “Sexual Healing,” then sit back and relax as the rich, warm sound of analog sets the mood!

There’s good frequency extension up top and down low, with plenty of meaty bass and silky highs (check out those bells).

This copy has two qualities which are essential for this music to really work its soulful magic: silky vocals and a BIG meaty bottom end.

Check out all the texture to the synths on Turn On Some Music – this is a highly resolving pressing which takes Marvin Gaye’s music — the last he would make before his death — to another level.

Many copies of Midnight Love suffer from a phony hi-fi-ish quality, sacrificing much of the warmth that is the all-important hallmark of analog. Is that any way to listen to this great Soul Classic? (My sources say no.)

Hey, want to find your own top quality copy?

Consider taking our moderately helpful advice concerning the pressings that consistently win our Hot Stamper shootouts.

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Symphonie Fantastique in Living Stereo – “So Sweet and Tubey”

Hot Stamper Pressings of Living Stereo Recordings Available Now

The size and power of a large orchestra in Living Stereo sound. Maybe it’s the gorgeous Living Stereo strings and hall acoustics that let us forget about the possibility of compromises occurring in other areas.

So open and spacious, with gorgeous, richly textured strings — this is the VIVID sound we love from the Golden Age. The hall is huge, the brass solid and powerful, the top and bottom extends properly, the stage is wide and clear — what more can you ask for? 

Here are the notes from our shootout winning copy from our last go around for the RCA.

Side One

  • Big and tubey brass and bass
  • Very lively and transparent and spacious
  • So sweet and tubey

Side Two

  • Huge and tubey and lively
  • So big and 3-D
  • Deep rich bass
  • Huge peak is the least distorted

That last point is a good one. There is distortion at the climax of the work on side two. It is there on every copy. On some copies it will be worse than on other copies.

You want a pressing with the least amount of distortion on that peak but one that is also dynamic and lively.

This is the reason we do shootouts. We’re listening for how each pressing handles that problem in the recording and then using that metric, along with many others, to grade them.

The copy that had the best sound on side two was the most dynamic and the least distorted, as well as having all the other good qualities we noted.

That is what you are paying for when you buy a White Hot Stamper pressing. You’re not buying a perfect record, there’s no such thing.

Rather, it’s the one that comes closest to perfection as can be found.

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This Pressing of Highway 61 Was Off the Charts

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Bob Dylan Available Now

In 2024, Dylan’s landmark 1965 release returned to the site after a hiatus of almost two years.

In the same way Sgt. Pepper changed popular music less than two years later, Highway 61 Revisited left all of Dylan’s contemporaries behind, scrambling to keep up with the standard he set.

Our 3/3 copy was a knockout. It sold for an enormous amount of money directly to one of our best customers, never making it to the site, and was worth every penny in our estimation, and surely in the estimation of the fellow who now has it in his collection.

Dylan’s records are almost never awarded notes like these. It was an amazing find, the kind of record we live for here at Better Records. I hope you can read our writing.

Highway 61 Boilerplate

When looking for a top copy, in our shootouts we are paying special attention to the qualities listed below. We noted:

Here are some of the things we specifically listen for in an electric folk rock record from the sixties, even one as uniquely groundbreaking as Highway 61 Revisited.

This Hot Stamper copy is simply doing more of these things better than other copies we played in our shootout. The best copies have:

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Robert Fine Does It Again

Hot Stamper Pressings of Mercury Classical Recordings Available Now

The notes you see below are for our Shootout Winner, which earned our top grade of at least 3+ on side one with its Hard to Fault (HTF) sound.

If you are interested in a record with the kind of sound described below, please contact us and we will be happy to put you on the waiting list for the next killer copy that comes along and blows our minds.

As you may well imagine, shootouts for this album are exceedingly rare. For a sought-after TAS List title such as this, we’re lucky to be able to do one every five years or so. Until the next one comes around, please consider trying some of our other classical and orchestral Hot Stamper pressings.

Robert Fine’s recordings for Mercury are some of the most amazing sounding we have ever played. To see what might be available, please click here.

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Tubey Magic Like You Won’t Believe

More of The Most Tubey Magical Rock Recordings of All Time

Here is how we described our recent White Hot Stamper shootout winner:

Manna returns to the site after a twenty-eight month hiatus and, man, was it worth with the wait, with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on both sides of this original Elektra pressing

Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “tubey and spacious”…”huge and rich and 3D”…”really jumping [out of the speakers]”…”vox so silky and rich”

Tubier, more transparent, more dynamic, with that “jumpin’ out of the speakers” quality that only the real thing (an old record) can have

To back up everything we say, here are the notes for that cannot-be-beat pressing. The exclamation marks are typically reserved for the hottest of the hot copies, and here we would have to say they are more than deserved — the sound of this copy was amazing.

I fell in love with the sound of Bread’s recordings 25 years ago. My system has gone through dozens and dozens of changes and — hopefully — improvements since then, and never have Bread’s album failed to reflect the positive effects of whatever had been done.

Other reviews with post-its can be found here. More note taking advice here.

This original Elektra pressing has amazingly sweet and rich 1971 ANALOG sound on both sides. That big bottom end and the volume of space that surrounds all the instruments and singers are the purest and most delightful form of Audiophile Candy we know.

The acoustic guitars? To die for. Talk about Tubey Magical Analog, this copy will show you just what’s missing from modern remastered records (and modern music generally). Whatever became of that sound?

This record put Bread’s heavily Beatles-inflected Pure Pop back on the charts after their the single from their previous album, On The Waters, made it to Number One, that song of course being Make It With You. “If”, the big hit off this album, went to number five, but we like it every bit as much as that earlier chart topper. Both represent the perfect melding of consummate songcraft and pure emotion.

We used to think that only the Best of Bread album could get those two songs to sound as luscious and Tubey Magical as they do when they’re playing in our heads, but it seems we were wrong — they’re positively amazing on the best copies of Manna, and this is a VERY good copy indeed.

Analog Heaven

In many ways this recording is state-of-the-art. Listening to the Tubey Magical acoustic guitars on the best copies brings back memories of my first encounter with an original Pink Label Tea for the Tillerman. Rich, sweet, full-bodied, effortlessly dynamic — that sound knocked me out twenty-odd years ago, and here it is again.

Of course I’m a sucker for this kind of well-crafted pop. If you are too then this will no doubt become a treasured demo disc in your home as well.

Pay close attention to the sound of the drums. We really like the way famous session player Mike Botts’ kit is recorded, not to mention his Hal-Blaine-like — which means god-like — drumming skills.

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This Phenomenally Well Recorded Montoya Album Is an Amazing Find

Hot Stamper Pressings of Living Stereo Titles Available Now

Flamenco meets Jazz in this extraordinary Living Stereo all analog recording from 1958 (only the second copy to hit the site in years).

Ed Begley is the engineer here and he knocked this one out of the park. The sound is shockingly real – proof positive that the cutting systems of the day are capable of much better sound than many audiophiles might think. If more evidence is what you’re after, see here and here

Need a refresher course in Tubey Magic after playing too many modern recordings or remasterings? This record is overflowing with it.

Side One

Track One

    • Tubey and 3-D
    • Jumping out
    • Lots of room and depth and width
    • Dynamic guitar

Track Three

    • Rich and present
    • Extending high and low

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Can Houses of the Holy Get Any Better? Apparently It Can

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Led Zeppelin Available Now

Wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling Led Zeppelin power – our most recent Shootout Winning copies of Houses of the Holy knocked us out with their Demo Disc sound.

The Tubey Magical acoustic guitars here should be a wake up call to everyone that any attempt to remaster this album — to outdo Robert Ludwig and his awesome tube compressors and hi-rez transistor cutting equipment — is bound to fail.

This kind of sound is gone and it is never coming back.

Here are our notes for the top two copies from our recent shootout, each of which had one Shootout Winning side and one that came close but did not quite earn the top grade.

Side One

Track Three (Over the Hills and Far Away)

  • Upfront and detailed and breathy
  • Spacious
  • Big and wide when it kicks in

Track One (The Song Remains the Same)

  • Huge and rich and weighty
  • Vocals are less veiled
  • Richest, with the most extension high and low

Note that we played both a rocker as well as a quieter, more acoustic track. This is standard operating procedure. Both of these very different sounding songs have to sound their best.

Side two had a few problems which kept it from doing as well as side one.

Side Two 

Track One (Dancing Days)

  • Clear and lively
  • Has some weight but a little flat and veiled

Track Two (D’Yer Mak’er)

  • Solid but not quite as huge
  • Pretty tubey and weighty

If you had never heard a side one that sounded as amazing as this side one, how would you know the sound on side two was a little flat and veiled and not quite as huge?

You wouldn’t. That is precisely what shootouts are for, so that you can learn how good the sound can get in order to judge how good each side is relative to the others, on a curve, which is the only meaningful way it can be done.

Anyone hearing side two of this copy would be very likely be knocked out by it. But we know that side two can be even better sounding, because the copy below showed us sound that we simply could not find fault with.

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