{"product_id":"beatlpleas_2607","title":"Beatles, The - Please Please Me (UK Vinyl) - Super Hot Stamper (Quiet Vinyl)","description":"\u003cp\u003eFolks, if you’re looking for a killer copy of the first Beatles release, here it is! Big and lively with superb presence and energy, this is \u003cu\u003eexactly\u003c\/u\u003e the right sound for this music. The album itself is nothing short of amazing. It captures more of the live sound of these four guys playing together as a rock and roll band than any record they ever made afterwards. (Let It Be gets some of that live quality, too, and makes a great bookend for the group.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis vintage import pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records rarely even 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 -- \u003ci\u003ethis sound\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you exclusively play modern repressings of vintage recordings, I can say without fear of contradiction that you have never heard this kind of sound on vinyl. Old records have it -- not often, and certainly not always -- but maybe one out of a hundred new records do, and those are some pretty long odds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of Please Please Me Have To Offer Is Not Hard To Hear\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe most Tubey Magic, without which you have \u003ci\u003ealmost\u003c\/i\u003e nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%221963%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1963\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNatural tonality in the midrange -- with all the instruments having the correct timbre\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTransparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo doubt there's more but we hope that should do for now. \u003ci\u003ePlaying the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above,\u003c\/i\u003e and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22tubey-magical-acoustic-guitars%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTubey Magical acoustic guitar\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e 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).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eSubtle Effects\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere's a subtle smearing and masking that occurs on most pressings. You don't notice it often because you have no better pressing to compare yours to. But when you have many copies of the same pressing, and you are lucky enough to discover a Hot One lurking among them, you can hear instantly how much better defined all the instruments and voices are. You hear the ambience and presence that's veiled on other LPs. Dynamic contrasts increase.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt all starts to sound right, so right in fact that you forget it's a record and you find yourself just enjoying the music. Disbelief has been suspended.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eStartling Presence\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the better copies like this one, the presence of the vocals and guitars is so real it's positively startling at times. What started out as a great Beatles recording had turned into a great Beatles album. Now it's a piece of music as opposed to a piece of plastic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJust play \u003cstrong\u003eBaby It's You\u003c\/strong\u003e to hear what we're talking about. When the boys all say \"Oooooh,\" you can pick out \u003cu\u003ewho\u003c\/u\u003e is saying it and \u003cu\u003ehow\u003c\/u\u003e they're saying it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAnna (Go To Him)\u003c\/strong\u003e is another stunner. It's Tubey Magical with remarkable immediacy and presence. The voices are smooth, sweet, rich, full and breathy. The overall sound is lively and energetic with a meaty bottom end -- in other words, it really \u003cem\u003erocks.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On Please Please Me\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEnergy\u003c\/strong\u003e for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThen: \u003cstrong\u003epresence and immediacy\u003c\/strong\u003e. The instruments and voices are jumping right out of the speakers as The Beatles' brilliant engineer for their early albums up through Rubber Soul -- \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22norman-smith%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNorman Smith\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e -- intended.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Big Sound\u003c\/strong\u003e comes next -- wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThen \u003cstrong\u003etransient information\u003c\/strong\u003e -- fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness so common to these LPs.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTight punchy bass\u003c\/strong\u003e -- which ties in with good transient information, also the issue of frequency extension further down.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNext: \u003cstrong\u003etransparency\u003c\/strong\u003e -- the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eExtend the top and bottom\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003ci\u003evoila\u003c\/i\u003e, you have The Real Thing -- an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eStampers\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlease Please Me Hot Stampers are a regular feature on our site. We've been telling anyone who will listen for years that The Beatles in their early days were exceptionally well-recorded, but only the right pressing will prove that.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd the odd thing -- not so odd to us anymore but odd to most record collectors I would guess -- is that many of the hot copies have exactly the same stampers as the less than hot copies. It's a mystery, and the only way to solve such a mystery is... to play the record. That's what we do around here all day, and what we heard on this copy was musically involving Hot Stamper sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhere Can I Find Your Mono Beatles Records?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe do not sell Beatles records in mono.\u003c\/p\u003e\nThey spent time on the mono mixes because getting the levels right for all the elements in a recording is ten times harder than deciding whether an instrument or voice should be placed in the left, middle or right of the soundstage.\n\u003cp\u003eAnd they didn’t even do the stereo mixes right some of the time, in our opinion. But wall to wall beats all stacked up in the middle any day of the week.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you like mono Beatles records you will have to do your own shootouts for them, because we have never heard a mono Beatles record sound good enough to compete with our Hot Stamper stereo pressings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVinyl Condition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMint Minus Minus and maybe a bit better is about as quiet as any vintage pressing will play, and since only the right vintage pressings have any hope of sounding good on this album, that will most often be the playing condition of the copies we sell. (The copies that are even a bit noisier get listed on the site are seriously reduced prices or traded back in to the local record stores we shop at.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThose of you looking for quiet vinyl will have to settle for the sound of other pressings and Heavy Vinyl reissues, purchased elsewhere of course as we have no interest in selling records that don't have the vintage analog magic of these wonderful recordings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you want to make the trade-off between bad sound and quiet surfaces with whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing might be available, well, that's certainly your prerogative, but we can't imagine losing what's good about this music -- the size, the energy, the presence, the clarity, the weight -- just to hear it with less background noise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eTrack Commentary\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003eTracklist\u003c\/strong\u003e tab above will take you to a select song breakdown for each side, with plenty of What to Listen For advice. Other records with track breakdowns can be found \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22track-commentary%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ehere\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Beatles, The","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52157097083176,"sku":"beatlpleas","price":149.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/files\/pleasepleasemeUK_2a6a3314-b8b1-4753-9fb0-ec46b77a61e2.jpg?v=1763743978","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/beatlpleas_2607","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}