{"product_id":"creedpendu_2608","title":"Creedence Clearwater Revival - Pendulum - Super Hot Stamper","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*NOTE:\u003c\/strong\u003e There is a bubble in the vinyl that plays as 4 light thuds at the start of track 2 on side 1, \"Sailor's Lament.\" There is another bubble in the vinyl that plays as 4 light thuds about 1\/4\" from the end of track 1 on side 2, \"Born to Move.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis copy will surely beat any pressing you put it up against. This will be especially true of the Analogue Productions Heavy Vinyl from years back, which will sound thick, opaque, airless and congested next to a properly mastered Fantasy pressing (deep groove or otherwise) such as this one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis Fantasy stereo 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 Creedence Clear Revival, 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 Pendulum 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:%221970%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1970\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 space of the studio\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo doubt there's more but we hope that should do for now. Playing the record is the only way to hear all of the above.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOverall the most common problem we run into with Creedence's records are edgy vocals, a problem that we noticed varied quite a bit from track to track on any given side. Lack of frequency extension on the top and bottom is another big one; few copies have any real highs (and if we weren't so good at cleaning these old records with the Walker fluid, none would have. If you want your records to sound transparent and open, both the right cleaning fluids and the right cleaning machine are essential).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On Pendulum\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\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 for the guitars, keyboards and drums, not the smear and thickness common to most LPs.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTight, note-like bass with clear fingering\u003c\/strong\u003e -- which ties in with good transient information, as well as 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 players.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThen: \u003cstrong\u003epresence and immediacy\u003c\/strong\u003e. The musicians aren't \"back there\" somewhere, way behind the speakers. They're front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt -- Russ Gary in the case -- would have put them.\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\u003eHeavy Vinyl\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you own any of the new heavy vinyl pressings of CCR's albums mastered by SH and KG, hearing this Hot Stamper pressing will surely be a revelation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe were never big fans of the recuts from the early 2000s, but back in the day we thought they were tolerable. We have much better reproduction (equipment, room, tweaks, electrical quality) these days than we did then, and now we can't stand them. They bore us to tears.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHead to head in a shootout, our Hot Stampers will be dramatically more transparent, open, clear and just plain \u003cu\u003ereal\u003c\/u\u003e sounding, because these are all the areas in which heavy vinyl pressings badly fall short. Those looking for a list of specific shortcomings can easily find reviews and commentaries for hundreds of titles on the site.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVinyl Condition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMint Minus Minus 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 later 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\u003eA Tough Record To Play\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePendulum is a \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22difficulty-of-reproduction%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003edifficult record to reproduce\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e. Do not attempt to play it using anything other than the highest quality equipment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnless your system is firing on all cylinders, even our hottest Hot Stamper copies -- the Super Hot and White Hot pressings with the biggest, most dynamic, clearest, and least distorted sound -- can have problems. Your system should be thoroughly warmed up, your electricity should be clean and cooking, you've got to be using the right room treatments, and we also highly recommend using a demagnetizer such as the Walker Talisman on the record, your cables (power, interconnect and speaker) as well as the individual drivers of your speakers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a record that's going to demand a lot from the listener, and we want to make sure that you feel you're up to the challenge. If you don't mind putting in a little hard work, here's a record that will reward your time and effort many times over, and probably teach you a thing or two about tweaking your gear in the process (especially your VTA adjustment, just to pick an obvious area many audiophiles neglect).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Creedence Clearwater Revival","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52238499348776,"sku":"creedpendu","price":149.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/files\/R-573252-1384386305-8007_fc30d372-ee6a-4b3e-9866-52c627fbdd08.jpg?v=1706456883","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/creedpendu_2608","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}