Side two is noisy, EX++ or so. Side one is Mint Minus or very close to it.

3S/ 3S. M-. This record plays Like New, with relatively quiet RCA vinyl.

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This is also a very rare title these days. This is the first one that's ever made it to the site.

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This is one of the great RCAs. Classic Records did a passable job with this title, which is about the best they ever do. It's a far cry from the sound heard here but for those of you who do not want to spend the money, or insist on quiet surfaces, check that one out. The performance is excellent as well, and of course the Ravel Concerto is a piece of music that belongs in any serious collection.

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Another Half Speed reviewed and this one's not bad!

The CBS Half-Speed is actually quite good. It's been twenty years since I played one but I used to like it. Of course, once you hear the real thing you can never go back, but it blows the doors off the muddy MoFi.

More Bridge Over...

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An exceptional copy of The Beatles' last and arguably greatest album with THE BEST SIDE TWO WE HAVE EVER HEARD -- QUADRUPLE PLUS (A++++)! If you've heard the disastrous new pressing, then you know how important it is to play a real, vintage, analog pressing. A copy this good might just give you a new appreciation for one of the Greatest Rock Albums of All Time. 5 Stars, a permanent member of the Better Records Top 100, and a Desert Island Disc if ever there was one.

More Abbey Road

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A Hall of Shame Pressing and another Heavy Vinyl Classical LP debunked.

A blog entry on the site from 2005 about the new Mercury reissue series that was coming out noted that:

I am expecting the new Rach 3rd (90283) later this week, and will report my findings as soon as I have a had a chance to evaluate it.

[A few weeks later:] The news on 90283 is here. It came today. Are you ready. In one sentence:

THE MOST OPAQUE, DULL AND LIFELESS 180 GRAM REISSUE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD!

The music of Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

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Unbelievable Shootout Winning Demo Disc quality sound throughout -- QUADRUPLE PLUS (A++++) on the first side and Triple Plus (A+++) on the second. Side one has by far the better music - it's where the most exciting, most percussive movements can be found - and this pressing, with Beyond White Hot sound for that side, is guaranteed to be bigger and more lively than you ever imagined (because that's how we felt about it, hence the fourth plus).

More of the music of Georges Bizet

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With a nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) side two and an excellent Double Plus (A++) side one, this pressing is one of the best sounding Carmen Suites we have ever heard. If you're looking to demonstrate just how good '60s All Tube Analog can be, this killer copy should be just the record to do it. This is only the second Carmen Suite to make it to the site, and it was worth the wait - the sound of this vintage Blueback is absolutely breathtaking. Recorded in 1961 using the amazing Decca Tree mic setup, it's yet another remarkable disc from the Golden Age of Vacuum Tube Recording.

More of the music of Georges Bizet (1838-1875)

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This is a Very Rare Fulton LP. The piece by Mozart on side one has a true 16 cycle note. Since it has virtually no overtones, the note is more often than not completely undetectable; few stereos in my experience have ever been able to reproduce it. If you have a full-range system, this record will allow you to hear deep bass you may have never heard before.

Let me warn you that these records require extremely transparent, full bandwith, neutral stereo systems to sound good. Most records are "goosed up" in various ways to play on any stereo regardless of quality. These are the opposite. From my admittedly prejudiced point of view, tubes are an absolute must for most of the magic of these live recordings to come through. [Or so I thought in 2006.]


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DEMO QUALITY. It''s hard to find a better record with more tubey hear all the way to the back of the hall sound than this, at least on side one.

Fiedler has a way with the Ibert piece here like nobody's business; the performance is definitive, although the sound is not as good as La Boutique Fantasque, which is nothing short of amazing. The Kay piece sounds excellent here and is beautifully performed. Fiedler is hard to beat on music like this.


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A KILLER copy of this Columbia red label pressing with both sides earning Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades.

"... a meeting of three of the greatest guitarists in the world for an acoustic summit the likes of which the guitar-playing community rarely sees... All in all, Friday Night in San Francisco is a fantastic album and one of the best entries in all of these guitarists' fine discographies."

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We award this pressing our very special Four Plus (A++++) grade, which is strictly limited to pressings (really, individual sides of pressings) that take the recording to a level never experienced by us before, a level we usually had no idea even existed.

It sold for $1200 and was, to our way of thinking, surely worth every penny. One out of ten thousand audiophiles has ever heard Tea for the Tillerman sound this good, maybe fewer. Maybe none.

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This original RCA Orange Label pressing boasts dramatically better sound than most pressings - this is a very good way to hear this notoriously problematical album. Featuring a host of stellar guest musicians, including Jerry Garcia, David Crosby, and Stephen Stills.

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This is a very early stereo recording, which means it is spacious and open, with little spotlighting. But what is especially memorable is the choice of material, with a few of the more obscure overtures really brought to life here, such as the opening piece by Adam on side one: Si j'etais roi. Although not long, every second is packed with color and energy, exactly what a good overture needs. And it even has a glockenspiel! How can you go wrong?


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An exceptionally QUIET copy for an early Blueback pressing. The sound is old-fashioned Decca, which seems to suit this music quite well. The hall is reverberant, as it would have been in Mozart''s day, and the perspective is mid-hall. The string tone is excellent. Some of the louder passages might be a bit strained, but overall the sound is correct for this music.

Maag and the LSO are of course Mozart experts and the performances here do not disappoint. A rare title and a lovely one.


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This might be the best copy of DSOTM that we've ever heard and we've heard a lot!

We award these sides our very special Four Plus A++++ grade, which is strictly limited to pressings (really, individual sides of pressings) that take the recording to a level never experienced by us before, a level we had no idea even existed. We estimate that less than one per cent of the Hot Stamper pressings we come across in our shootouts earn this grade. You can't get much more rare than that.

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This original looking Liberty Black Label Stereo LP has White Hot Stamper WONDERFULLY EXOTIC SOUND. This copy is so super spacious and sweet it's positively dripping with ambience. It’s EXACTLY the kind of sound you expect from Denny and his Island bandmates. It’s also quiet, about as quiet as these Liberty pressings ever get.

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A Hall of Shame Pressing, recorded in 1956 and remastered, badly, in 1999.

The Speakers Corner version of this record is awful. It's bright and GRAINY. If you want a good Sarah record, try the album just called Sarah Vaughan that Speakers Corner put out in 2004.

Check out our Heavy Vinyl Scorecard to read all about the latest winners and losers.

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A Hall of Shame pressing and another Classic Records LP debunked.

Classic Records, as expected, ruined this album. Their version is dramatically more smeared and low-rez than our good pressings, with almost none of the sweetness, richness and ambience that the best RCA pressings have in such abundance. In fact their pressing is just plain awful, like most of the classical recordings they remastered, and should be avoided at anything other than a nominal price.

More of the music of Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

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Both sides of this Red Label British Decca Mono are doing it right - they're big, rich and spacious with a huge bottom end. The best word I could use to sum up both the sound and the music on this record is HONEST. If you want to hear how early Rolling Stones records sound when they sound right, this is the ticket. This is the real sound of the early, early Stones.

Probably what any modern engineer would want to do to the album would only end up making it worse. It is what it is and that’s good enough for us. Since the tapes are now more than 60 years old, no modern reissue will sound remotely as good as this one.

More Rolling Stones

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A killer 360 original stereo pressing with Triple Plus (A+++) sound from start to finish - the first copy to hit the site in many years. We recently did a shootout for this album and were thrilled at how natural and immediate the sound on the best copies can be. Good Ol' Babs (actually, a very young Babs here) sounds LOVELY on this pressing -- her voice is rich, breathy and textured with stellar presence. The orchestra backing her sounds wonderful and there's plenty of bass to set a nice foundation for the music.

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The music is excellent as one can see from the track listing. It's hard to go wrong with these later Capitol Sinatra records. They're almost always a fun listen.

This album comprises the last group of singles Capitol released of Sinatra's music. Reprise had started in 1960 and the rest of Sinatra's music would come out on his own label. Somehow he managed to record and release six studio albums in 1962, with this compilation making a total of seven for the year. Even more remarkable, all seven of them made the Top Ten of the pop charts.

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This White Hot Stamper 2-pack has Demo Disc Live Latin Jazz sound and crazy fun music. Both sides are so clear, rich, natural and present you'll have a very hard time finding fault with the sound. And the music is great too - this is a Big Band with a swarm of Latin percussionists added to kick up the heat.

More Herbie Mann

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Sonic Arts Box Version. A poor man's Bang-Baaroom with a stage full of percussionists playing a variety of instruments. This LP presents a realistic soundstage and an amazing array of sounds. There's also some incredibly deep bass drum work.

More Exotica

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This IMMACULATE Reference LP with No Sogn Of Play (NSOP) is the best sounding record RR ever made!

".. heady, explosive, weird, bizarre and brilliant playing..." - S.F. Chronicle


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This Decca Phase 4 record from 1962 has Demo Disc sound of a sort on side one. Super Hot sonics coupled with the Super Phase 4 "jumping out of the speakers" recording techniques that were employed, mean that this is one LIVELY record!

See all of our Exotica albums in stock

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Di Meola's 1978 release finally makes it to the site, with outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER throughout - exceptionally quiet vinyl too. A fusion classic featuring the stunning technique and superb improvisations that keep us on the hunt for great Di Meola pressings like this one.

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The average copy of this album is compressed and congested, recessed and veiled, grainy and thin; in other words, it sounds like an old Doobie Brothers album. It takes a copy like this to show you just how good the Master Tape must really be. Most copies don't even hint at the sound you will hear on this record. And if we hadn't had plenty of copies to play with, we would never have known, now would we?

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This QUIET, hard-to-find Blue Note Blue Label LP has EXCELLENT SOUND AND MUSIC! It’s transparent, open and spacious with deep, tight bass. The piano has nice weight to it and the trumpet has the right amount of bite. We never have enough of these around to do a full shootout, but based on my experience with this album I’m going to rate side one between solid A and A+ and side two A+. There may be a better copy out there somewhere, but good luck tracking it down.

More Lee Morgan

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LOVELY SOUND AND EXCELLENT MUSIC on this unusually quiet, exceptionally good sounding Verve T-Label LP. We compiled enough of these to do a shootout and this was one of the better copies, earning A++ grades for both sides. It's full of energy with big time immediacy and wonderfully breathy female vocals. The organ sounds gorgeous!

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This Columbia 360 Label LP boasts rich, full-bodied, clear sound with the space and three-dimensionality that was difficult to find on the later pressings we played

This is one of the all-time classic progressive jazz albums, and a copy like this allows you to appreciate the contributions of Miles and his top-notch band (Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams and the great Ron Carter on most of the songs). This one's not as "out there" as Bitches Brew, but it gives you a taste of the various directions these guys would take in the years to come.

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This is the best record the Stones ever made (along with Let It Bleed and Beggars Banquet - all three have the potential for outstanding sound -- the trick is, as always, finding the right pressing).

The sound is exactly what you want from a Stones album: deep punchy bass and dynamic grungy guitars. This record is to be played loud like it says on the inner sleeve and the surface noise is to be ignored. The louder you play it, the less bothersome the noise will be. This album ROCKS and it was not made to be listened to in a comfy chair with a glass of wine.

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This is a Decca In The Box Blue Label LP with EXCELLENT SOUND! Some of the tracks here sound WONDERFUL, but even more surprisingly, none of them sound bad the way so many Stones compilations often do. Virtually nowhere on this record can you find shrill, thin, edgy, typical compilation Stones sound. Playing songs like 'She's a Rainbow' or 'Dandelion' on this album is so refreshing and enjoyable because they really sound the way you want to hear those songs. They have that rich and sweet analog quality that's usually lost on later and/or digital versions.

More Rolling Stones

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This Rhino 180g LP is the BEST SOUNDING Heavy Vinyl reissue to come our way in a long long time. Those of you who’ve been with us for a while know that that’s really not saying much, but it doesn’t make it any less true either, now does it. Let’s look at what it doesn’t do wrong first.

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This early Pink Label import pressing boasts Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on both sides, making this one of the best copies to hit the site in many years, if not THE best. We used to think that The Best of Traffic had better sound, but in a head to head comparison with this very copy, we were proved WRONG. Big, full-bodied and lively, with huge amounts of space and off the charts Tubey Magic, the sound here is Hard to Fault.

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A Hall of Shame pressing and another DCC LP debunked.

As I recall it isn't very good -- thick and dull and closed-in; in other words, boring -- but I played it quite a while ago. If your copy sounds better, more power to you, but I bet it doesn't. Any copy we sell is guaranteed to blow the doors off of it -- as well as any other pressing you own -- or your money back.

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A classic from 1966, a combination of proto-punk and psychedelia featuring My Little Red Book, Hey Joe and more. The first Love album is without a doubt the punchiest, liveliest, most POWERFUL recording in the Love catalog. Engineered by none other than Bruce Botnick, here is the kind of massive bottom end weight and energy that we like to call WHOMP.

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This original Shaded Dog pressing has EXCELLENT SOUND AND QUIET VINYL ON SIDE TWO, where you'll find a wonderful rendition of Hernando's Hideaway! The sound is excellent -- lively, full-bodied and super three-dimensional. Check out how great the castanets sound!

Side one is nothing special and a bit noisy in the right channel, so we're really only charging you for the strong side two. Hernando's Hideaway is really worth the price of admission alone, you'll see! As I'm sure you know by now, Fiedler on this sort of material is very hard to beat.

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This is a Minty looking London Red Label LP with Virtually No Sign Of Play (VNSOP).

You can feel the cool air in the hall! Some audiophiles buy organ records to show off their subwoofers. Records like this can do that but records this good have musical qualities far beyond simple demonstrations of bass reproduction. Karl Richter understands this music perfectly and makes it come alive in a way I've never heard any other musician.

More of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach

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This London Whiteback pressing of CS 6173 has SUPERB SOUND! Like its brother, CS 6172, recorded by Richter in 1954, probably on the same day, the sound of this early stereo 2 mic recording is amazingly spacious and rich.

Here's what I said about 6172; You can feel the cool air in the hall! Some audiophiles buy organ records to show off their subwoofers. Records like this can do that but records this good have musical qualities far beyond simple demonstrations of bass reproduction. Karl Richter understands this music perfectly and makes it come alive in a way I've never heard any other musician manage to do.

More of the music of JS Bach (1685-1750)

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It takes a properly mastered, properly pressed copy like this one to get both Dylan's voice and harmonica -- two of the most critically important elements on any of his recordings -- to sound smooth, full-bodied and clear. Any pinched quality will be painfully obvious to the listener, and for that shortcoming you lose a lot of points here at Better Records. That said, upper-midrangy sound on any vintage Dylan record to one degree or another is almost always audible. The less the better, but none is really not an option.

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This original pressing has two excellent sides, which is two more than the typical cardboardy, flat, thin, lifeless copy has. If you like your music dry and clean, try the remixed version, the CD, or perhaps there is a heavy vinyl version out there (at one-tenth the price). That's not our sound here at Better Records. The best recordings from the era do not have that sound, so when we find that kind of analog richness, sweetness and naturalness on a pressing such as this, we know the record is right.

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The best copies of Gold's sophomore release are incredibly rich, sweet and Tubey Magical. They also have tons of deep punchy bass and wonderfully breathy vocals.

If you own many Asylum records, you know this title is yet another example of classic Asylum Analog. Think of the sound of the Eagles first album and you won't be far off.

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Amazing Triple Plus (A+++) sound on both sides! This music ain't for everyone, but when you find good sounding Tom Waits pressings like this one the sonics can be out of this world. It's tough to find clean copies of this stuff these days and even tougher to find ones that really deliver the way this one does. Bones Howe sure knew how to record this kind of music, and a copy like this will really let you appreciate his work.

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This RCA Plum Label Victrola LP has many shortcomings, but its strengths more than compensate for them. The MIDRANGE is pure MAGIC. The sweet, textured strings, the back of the stage percussion, the placement of the orchestral sections in the soundstage, the performance itself -- all combine to make you forget you are listening to an old, somewhat flawed record. What has been captured in the grooves of the vinyl allows the listener to do what few recordings can -- suspend his disbelief.

More of the music of Georges Bizet (1838-1875)

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This is a Minty RCA Reader’s Digest 3 LP Box set with SUPERB SOUND! These recordings are DEMO DISC QUALITY.

HP put the Rachmaninoff Box on the TAS List, and when you get a properly mastered one, it belongs there. But this G&S box is every bit as good sonically. This may not be high brow classical music, but it's music that belongs in any record collection, and especially in an audiophile record collection, because the sound is OUT OF THIS WORLD.

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The soundstage is huge, and the overall quality of the recording is big and bold like you will not believe. Creed Taylor (the CTI man) produced, Don Sebesky and Deodato did the arrangements, and Val Valentin engineered - what's not to like?

"This 1967 Verve LP has the breezy bossa novas and sambas Astrud was famed for, but also a Lovin' Spoonful duet with her young son and some seriously impressive scatting, too." - Amazon

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A Hall of Shame pressing and another Classic Records LP debunked.

It should go without saying that a good original pressing kills the Classic reissue, and the Classic version is one of the better Classics. Still, it's no match for the real thing, not even close. The Classic is airless, smeary and low-rez, which means that all the subtleties of the music and the performance will be much more difficult to appreciate. I dare say that were you to hear this copy it would be all but impossible to sit through the Classic ever again.

More of the music of Max Bruch

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Superb sound. The violin is wonderful on both sides. The Mozart is absolutely gorgeous; the best I''ve ever heard it.

The orchestra on the Bruch side gets a little congested in the louder passages, which is typical for records of this era.

Laredo plays these pieces beautifully. The Bruch is an especially romantic work and his violin sings sweetly and with deep emotion throughout. The Mozart is more spritely and he plays it with the light touch it requires. You will have a hard time finding a better violin concerto record. This ranks with the best of them.

More of the music of Max Bruch

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Both sides of this Shaded Dog pressing of Heifetz and the New Symphony Orchestra of London have sound that earned the quite respectable sonic grades of A+ to A++.

Side one is tonally correct and lively, but suffers from a bit of the all-too-common tube smear, no doubt from the mastering chains and record presses that were in use at the time. (Most modern mastering chains and record presses are, to our ears, even worse, so this is not to denigrate the engineers at RCA in any way. It's simply to say that with Tubey Magic you often get tubey smear.)

More of the music of Max Bruch (1938-1920)

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CS 6337. This Minty looking London Whiteback LP has THE MOST AMAZING SCOTTISH FANTASIA I have ever heard! Folks, it doesn't get any better than this. I would say this is one of the five best sounding violin recordings I have ever heard. Interestingly, the violin sound that we typically put up with is found on side two of this very album. It's easy to forget that there are actually records that sound like side one, and that side two really isn't the way an orchestra is supposed to sound.

More of the music of Max Bruch (1938-1920

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A Hall of Shame pressing and another Heavy Vinyl Classical LP debunked.

Classic Records ruined this album, as expected. Their version is dramatically more aggressive, edgy and smeared than the better vintage pressings. In fact it's just plain awful, like most of the classical recordings they remastered.

More of the music of Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

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This BETTER than Super Hot Stamper (A++ to A+++) White Dog pressing has DEMO DISC QUALITY SOUND on side one for the Mendelssohn concerto! It really has the Breath of Life. On top of that it's quiet, playing mostly Mint Minus, something that we don't run into too often with fifty year old Living Stereo pressings! Now I see why Harry Pearson put this record on his TAS List. Most copies do not sound remotely as good as this one on side one. (Side two is a step down; it would almost have to be.)

More of the music of Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

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This is an INCREDIBLY RARE Wilson Audio LP in IMMACULATE condition, with works by Bach, Mendelssohn, Widor and others. Click on the images of the record labels for a full track listing. This is actually an amazing sounding record. I’ve owned a copy for over 20 years. It's some of the best sounding organ music with the deepest bass I've ever heard.

More of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

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Imagine a Three Blind Mice piano date recorded Direct-to-Disc -- that's the sound of this album. This is one of the few audiophile records worthy of the name. It's also five times as rare as Blues to East and the music is better. There are two Stevie Wonder songs given a wonderful piano trio arrangement here that are just out of this world.

More Direct to Disc recordings / More Audiophile recordings

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This is a SUPERB sounding Sonic Arts Direct-to-Disc LP with Super Hot Stamper sound on both sides. I gave this one rave reviews twenty years ago (when we could still find them) and I'm happy to see that the sound has held up just fine in the intervening decades. Recorded in a dry acoustic, immediacy and clarity are the sonic strengths of this side one. This is one of the most natural Direct-Disc I’ve heard in a long time. One could easily use it as Demo Disc, depending on your taste and system.

More of the music of Antonio Vivaldi

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Superb sound!

"Rare 1978 audiophile limited edition Japanese lp with Sumire Yoshihara on percussion performing experimental works. The Ichiyanagi work has a unique graphical score and allows the performer to select different classes of percussion. Takemitsu's piece is based on a work of art in the form of a book made for the composer by Italian artist Bruno Munari. Takemitsu's score consists of this book and an accompanying set of musical instructions on how to interpret its abstract collages and designs. Includes extensive notes inside the gatefold cover."

More Direct to Disc recordings

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Big Decca sound! Powerful deep bass. Beautiful string tone and sharply articulated brass sound. This is a wonderful record. Ansermet is of course a master of the ballet. The performance here is outstanding, perhaps even definitive.

More music conducted by Ernst Ansermet (1883-1969)

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This is a QUIET RCA Soria Shaded Dog Box Set with some of the BEST SOUND I HAVE EVER HEARD for this music on Disc One. This is truly DEMONSTRATION QUALITY SOUND if what you are demonstrating is not the merely Hi-Fi, but the relaxed beauty and naturalness of what many consider to be the finest example of Living Stereo Magic brought to the greatest performances of ballet music ever committed to tape.

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In the late '90s we described the sound of this pressing this way: "Outstanding Rachmaninoff, dark and rich. Highly recommended." Since we have not played a copy of the album in over ten years, we have taken down our previous Sonic Grade of B as we have no idea how the record would fare today on our much-improved system. For all we know it's been recut, which is another problem with our old reviews of records we used to like: the new version could have very different sound from the one we played (and that's not even taking into account the pressing variability, which is sometimes huge).

More of the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

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The sound is SUPERB overall, with correct tonal balance and plenty of life. I was WAY TOO HARD on this album when it first came in. It’s playing right now and really swinging!

I just learned the secret to getting this one to sound right, and I am happy to share it with you. TURN IT UP!. When you get some volume going, the musicians really come to life on this album. It may sound crazy, but you need to play this one as loud as you would play your average rock record.

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No Classic Records RCA (or Mercury or anything else for that matter) ever sounded like this! Cisco here jumps to the head of the pack, taking a superb Golden Age Capitol recording and bringing it to life again on quiet vinyl, improving the sound in the bargain, as originals of this title only hint at the sound captured on the tapes.

No transistory upper midrange hardness and glare spoil the fun here. But watch out: this record will bring most systems to their knees. Make sure everything is singing along before you drop this one on the platter.

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The domestic pressings of Leon Russell and the Shelter People that we'd auditioned over the years always seemed flat, dry, and closed-in. We know that sound well; it's the sound you hear on records that have been made from dubbed tapes (and it's the hallmark of the modern Heavy Vinyl reissue, truth be told). It bores us to tears, and had us questioning what we could possibly have seen in the album in the first place. What happened to the glorious sound of early '70s analog we were expecting to find?

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This Minty Columbia Grey label Stereo LP is one of the most amazing copies ever! You will be hard pressed to find a better sounding Grand Canyon suite.

Bernstein’s Columbia recordings usually leave much to be desired. This is a notable exception. The normal Columbia shrillness is gone, replaced by sweet and liquid sound. I wish more of his records sounded like this one: I'd be picking them up left and right.

More of the music of Leonard Bernstein

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SUPERB sound can be found on these two Columbia stereo pressings of the Broadway Cast recording. This is a huge, spacious, natural, exciting All-Tube Golden Age recording that impressed us no end here at Better Records.

We heard an amazing sounding copy many years ago, and the only reason we haven't done the shootout since then is that we just couldn't find enough clean copies with which to do it. To be clear, we're not talking quiet vinyl, we're talking about not beat-to-death, not all-scractched-up vinyl. People loved this music and they played the hell out of it.

More of the music of (or music conducted or performed by) Leonard Bernstein

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The big sound on both sides lets this Greatest Hits compilation hold its own against the originals. Side One has amazing CLARITY and PRESENCE, which is especially noticeable on the vocals. Side Two has plenty of bottom end that drives these songs with energy and life. Listen for the bells on 'Tin Man'; they have the correct transients and harmonics. You never quite get back all of the Tubey Magic of the originals, but the detail and richness are enough to make you fall in love with this high quality George Martin (re) production.

More America

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A Hall of Shame Pressing and another Heavy Vinyl Classical LP debunked.

This Minty looking Athena LP shows Virtually No Sign of Play (VNSOP). A famous recording, now long out of print, it received rave reviews when it was released! (We quote many of them below.) This album is a member of the TAS Super Disc list, but we found the sound awfully opaque, smeary, slow and compressed, the kind of bad "analog" sound that Doug Sax brought to the early AP releases.

Check here to read more of our Classical Music Reviews .

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Folks, we have some good news for those of you who have been waiting for one of the best sounding, most beautifully performed Four Seasons ever recorded. THIS IS IT! White Hot on both sides, I can't say the sound is better than the White Hot Shaded Dog pressing we heard in our recent shootout. It's certainly different, and one could easily make the case for either. Of course one's taste enters into the calculation, so choosing a clear winner is simply not possible with markedly superior pressings such as these.

More of the music of Antonio Vivaldi

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This second label very quiet Liberty Stereo LP has at least Super Hot Stamper EXOTIC SOUND on both sides, with a side two that may be White Hot. It's hard to know for sure whether side two can get any better than this -- it's pretty darn amazing, some of the most Magically Delicious sound we played in our recent shootout.

Recorded in 1958, you can imagine there is a healthy amount of Tubey Magical richness and sweetness, although this second label copy seems to be cut a bit more cleanly and correctly than some of the first label Denny records we auditioned. The tonality is dead on the money, a quality that the most tubey recordings rarely exhibit; they can easily get overly lush and appear murky.


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This Liberty '60s Label Stereo LP has Hot Stamper EXOTIC SOUND on both sides. The cover says it's The Ultimate in Transistorized Stereophonic Hi-Fidelity Sound, but I hear an awful lot of Tubey Magical richness and sweetness. The tonality is actually right on the money, a quality that the heavily tubey recordings rarely exhibit: they can easily get overly lush and turn murky.

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The sound is rich and full-bodied in the best tradition of a classic vintage jazz vocal album. You could easily demonstrate your stereo with a record this good! The space is HUGE and the sound so rich.

Prodigious amounts of Tubey Magic as well, which is key to the best sounding copies. The sound needs weight, warmth and tubes or you might as well be playing a CD.

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This Philips recording from 1970 on exceptionally quiet Dutch vinyl has SUPERB Super Hot Stamper sound on side one for one of Ravel's best known piano works, the Piano Concerto in G. Most Philips records are much too thick, dull and opaque to be taken seriously, by us anyway. (In this respect they have many sonic attributes in common with Londons from the '70s and '80s.)

Dropping the needle on this pressing, however, was a pleasant surprise. It's big and spacious on side one, with zero smear on a piano that is both full and clear.

More of the music of Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

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White Hot on both sides, DEMO DISC QUALITY sound. Side one has some of the most realistic live jazz club sound you will ever hear. Side two is dynamic, huge and immediate like you few records we know. This is what an audiophile record is supposed to sound like - AMAZING.

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The reproduction of the violin here is superb -- harmonically rich, natural, clean, clear, resolving. What sets the truly killer pressings apart is the depth, width and three-dimensional quality of the sound, as well as the fact that they become less congested in the louder passages and don't get shrill or blary. The best copies display a Tubey Magical richness -- especially evident in the basses and celli -- that is to die for.

More of the music of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

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Court and Spark deserves to be heard with all the clarity, beauty and power that only the best Hot Stamper pressings can convey.

What you hear is the sound of the real tape; every instrument has its own character because the mastering is correct and the vinyl -- against all odds -- managed to capture all (or almost all; who can know?) of the resolution that the tape had to offer.

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This pressing has Beyond White Hot Stamper (A++++) sound on side one - sound that must be experienced to be believed! The finest Prokofiev No. 3 and Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 1 - these performances by Janis are legendary, and with phenomenal sonics like these, this combination of sound and performance is all but unmatched in our experience. So big, so, rich, so transparent, so dynamic and full of life, we guarantee you have never heard a better piano concerto record in your life.

More of the music of Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)

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An incredible 'Triple 'Triple' copy of American Pie giving you amazing sound for the famous title track. This Number One album from 1971 has KILLER sound on both sides. It's dynamic too -- the end of American Pie gets good and loud, with a very solid piano holding it all together.

Beware of copies that are thin, dry or edgy; they take much too much of the fun out of the music.

See all of our Don McLean albums in stock

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Check out Clapton's superb arrangements and performances of two of the best songs from his short-lived Blind Faith period: Presence of the Lord and Can't Find My Way Home. They're two of the highpoints on an album filled with good material that does not seem to get the credit it is due. I bought this album when it came out in 1975 and never really got into it. Of course I had an inferior domestic pressing and a stereo that couldn't have done the album justice anyway, but in my defense I would have to say that there really wasn't any such stereo system on the face of the earth; we still had a long way to go.

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Like many of the best Mel Torme recordings from back in the day, the sound here is rich, warm and smooth, with Vintage Analog Tubey Magic to die for. Turn it up and The Velvet Fog will be standing right between your speakers, putting his heart and soul into these American standards.

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This Deutsche Grammophon German Import LP is especially warm and sweet for a DG record. The tape hiss here is exactly right, which tells me that the smooth sound that I’m hearing is what the tape actually recorded and the engineers wanted. The cello sound is wonderful with an especially woody tone and nice texture to the strings.

More of the music of Antonin Dvorak

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We've found Red Label copies in the past that sound pretty darn good but this Six-Eye was a HUGE step up in class over the reissues this time around. It was not even close. This one is doing it all, with in-the-room presence, massive amounts of energy, clear, note-like bass and a rich, breathy quality to Miles's horn that is simply not to be found on most pressings, be they originals, reissues, on Heavy Vinyl, at 45 RPM or what have you.

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This is the successor to Bang Baaroom, and as you can imagine it's music in the same percussive style, the major difference here being the addition of a giant gong which the producers justifiably take great pride in. This title is also at least 5 times as rare as LSP 1866; I haven't seen one of these in years!

Features standards Caravan, Fascinating Rhythm and Stranger In Paradise, among others.

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This Sinatra release from 1963 has out of this world Triple Plus (A+++) sound practically from start to finish. Forget the reissues - the stereo original we are offering here is the only way to go for rich, tubey, dynamic, musical sound. Frank rerecorded some of his biggest hits in stereo for this album - the record is one Sinatra Classic after another.

See all of our Frank Sinatra albums in stock

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