{"product_id":"benneileft_2606","title":"Bennett, Tony - I Left My Heart In San Francisco - Super Hot Stamper","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*NOTE:\u003c\/strong\u003e There is a stitch that plays 6 times at a light to moderate level at the start of track 2 on side 2, \"Have I Told You Lately?\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVintage covers for this album are hard to find in exceptionally clean shape. Most of the will have at least some amount of ringwear, seam wear and edge wear. We guarantee that the cover we supply with this Hot Stamper is at least VG.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHaving done this for so long, we understand and appreciate that rich, full, solid, Tubey Magical sound is key to the presentation of this primarily vocal music. We rate these qualities higher than others we might be listening for (e.g., bass definition, soundstage, depth, etc.). The music is not so much about the details in the recording, but rather in trying to recreate a solid, palpable, real Tony Bennett standing right in your listening room, along with the 38 other musicians from the session (although they're probably sitting). The better copies have an uncanny way of doing just that.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe space of your stereo room will seem to expand in all directions in order to accommodate them, an illusion of course, but nevertheless a remarkably convincing one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you exclusively play modern repressings of older recordings (this one is now almost 65 years old), 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 less than one out of 100 new records do, if our experience with the hundreds we've played can serve as a guide.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNeed a refresher course in Tubey Magic after playing too many modern recordings or remasterings? This vintage Columbia 360 Stereo pressing is overflowing with it. Rich, smooth, sweet, full of ambiance, dead-on correct tonality -- everything that’s good about All Tube Vocal Recordings from the 50s and 60s is precisely what’s good about the sound of this record.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe huge studio the music was recorded in is captured faithfully here. The height, width and depth of the staging here are extraordinary. We are not big soundstage guys here at Better Records, but we can’t deny the appeal of the space to be found on a record as good as this.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis\u003c\/i\u003e is the sound of Tubey Magic. No recordings will ever be made that sound like this again, and no CD will ever capture what is in the grooves of this record. There actually is a CD of this album but those of us with a good turntable couldn't care less.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of I Left My Heart In San Francisco 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:%221962%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1962\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\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On I Left My Heart In San Francisco\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 vocals aren't \"back there\" somewhere, lost in the mix. They're front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt would put them.\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 note-like 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\u003eReissues\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe played a few decent sounding reissues from the 70s that may eventually make it to the site. Again and again my notes made it clear that those pressings could have used more tubes in the chain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn this record, like so many others you may have read about on the site, the right amount of Tubey Magic -- and by that we mean a very healthy amount -- makes all the difference.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow keep in mind that we are talking about 1962 tubes, not the stuff that engineers are using today to make “tube-mastered” records. Modern pressings barely hint at the Tubey Magical sound of a record like this, if our experience with hundreds of them is any guide.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe, unlike far too many of today’s misguided audiophile reviewers, have a very hard time taking any of the new reissues seriously. We think the data -- the unrelenting mediocrity to be heard on these modern pressings -- are pretty clear in that regard.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you’ve ever heard a pressing that sounds like this one you know from experience there hasn’t been a record manufactured in the last forty years that has its sound. Right, wrong or otherwise, this kind of sound is simply not part of the 21st century world we live in.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you want to be transported back to San Francisco, or in this case New York’s famed Columbia Studios, circa 1962, you will need a vintage record like this to do it right.\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","brand":"Bennett, Tony","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51880468840744,"sku":"benneileft","price":149.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/files\/R-7046856-1478426044-8778_c8a37be4-5dfd-4b3f-9389-c1fd188092e8.jpg?v=1711828175","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/benneileft_2606","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}