{"product_id":"crosbdejav_2607","title":"Crosby, Stills, Nash \u0026 Young - Deja Vu - Super Hot Stamper (With Issues)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*NOTE:\u003c\/strong\u003e There is a mark that plays 14 times lightly at the start of track 2 on side 2, \"Our House.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you play this copy at serious levels and have the kind of full range system that's both loud and clean like live music, we guarantee you will be nothing less than gobsmacked at the size and power of the music on this album, the band's inarguable Masterpiece.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBoth sides here are high-resolution, tonally correct, Tubey Magical and \u003ci\u003ealive\u003c\/i\u003e. The vocals are silky sweet, with very little strain or grain (a very common problem in the loudest choruses). The highs are extended, the bass is deep and punchy, and the overall clarity is breathtaking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJust listen to the guitars during the solos -- you can really hear the sound of the pick hitting the strings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe rhythm guitars sound meaty and chunky like the best sounding copies of Zuma and After The Gold Rush.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of The Group's Magnum Opus From 1970 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 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 To Listen For\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNumber one: Too many instruments and voices jammed into too little space in the upper midrange. When the tonality is shifted-up, even slightly, or there is too much compression, there will be too many elements -- voices, guitars, drums -- vying for space in the upper part of the midrange, causing congestion and a loss of clarity. This is especially noticeable on songs like \"Carry On\" on side one and \"Country Girl\" on side two.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith the more solid sounding copies, the lower mids are full and rich; above them, the next \"level up\" so to speak, there's plenty of space in which to fit all the instruments and voices comfortably, not piling them one on top of another as is often the case. Consequently, the upper midrange area does not get overloaded and overwhelmed with musical information.\u003c\/p\u003e \n\u003cp\u003eNumber Two: edgy vocals, which is related to Number One above. Almost all copies have at least some edge to the vocals -- the boys want to really belt it out in the choruses, and they do -- but the better copies keep the edge under control, without sounding compressed, dark, dull or smeary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe highest quality equipment, on the hottest Hot Stamper copies, will play the loudest and most difficult to reproduce passages with virtually no edge, grit or grain, even at very loud levels.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eTough Sledding\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFolks, I have to tell you, the first two Crosby Stills and Nash (and in this case Young) get my vote as the two best records -- musically and sonically -- with the consistently worst mastering in the history of the world. It's astonishing that so many copies can actually sound so bad; it makes no sense that the average copy of either of these two records sounds the way it does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt's very difficult to find a copy that sounds anything like this -- the voices are actually smooth, breathy and sweet, not shrill, harsh and sour the way they are on most pressings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat audiophile in his right mind wants a CSNY record where the voices don't sound right? It's a positive dealbreaker here at Better Records, the number one reason most copies end up in the trade-in pile.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On Déjà Vu\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 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\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 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\u003eClassic Records\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you bought the Classic Record Heavy Vinyl pressing, you should know by now how badly Classic Records ripped you off.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf, on the other hand, you're not too picky about sound quality and just want to play new records, perhaps because old records are hard to find and often noisy, then fine, the Classic should get that job done for you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe of course want nothing to do with records like those remastered by Classic Records because we prefer to play good sounding records, and most Classic Records, including this title, are definitely not good sounding, not by our standards anyway.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eA Must Own Record\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis Demo Disc quality recording is a \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22core-rock-collection%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMasterpiece\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e that demands to be part of any serious rock music collection.\u003c\/p\u003e \n\u003cp\u003eOthers that belong in that category can be found \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22core-rock-collection%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ehere\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52176314958120,"sku":"crosbdejav","price":799.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/files\/crosbdejav.jpg?v=1750778492","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/crosbdejav_2607","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}