{"product_id":"heartlittl_2609-1","title":"Heart - Little Queen - Super Hot Stamper","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*NOTE:\u003c\/strong\u003e The edge and first 1\/16\" (approx.) of track 1 on side 1, \"Barracuda,\" play a little noisier than Mint Minus Minus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a Classic Rock Demo Disc to beat practically anything you could throw at it. \"Love Alive\" and \"Barracuda\" on this copy will deliver the full Rock and Roll Power your system is capable of. If you've got The Big Sound, this is the pressing that will truly show it off.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are plenty of commentaries that discuss the sound of this recording and what it can really do when you get hold of a good pressing... and have the system that can play it... and turn up the volume good and loud. We proudly present here a copy with the kind of Big Sound that we think backs up every claim we make.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe're huge Heart fans here at Better Records, and we're not ashamed to say so. These ladies can really rock, and on the right pressing their music can and will sound absolutely amazing. Here's a copy that will allow you to hear that magic at home -- the sound is super punchy with incredible energy and wonderful clarity. You'll have a very hard time finding another copy that rocks any harder than this one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of Little Queen 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:%221977%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1977\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 (and effects!) 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\u003eWide and Tall\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA key quality we look for in Hot Stamper copies of Little Queen is Wide and Tall Presentation. What exactly does that mean, you ask? The best copies, the ones that really jump out of the speakers, tend to present some (usually high frequency) information higher and more forward than others. This is not hard to miss.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen you're playing ten or fifteen copies of the same side of the same album and suddenly a cymbal crashes higher and more clearly than all the others did in the part of the track you are testing, you can't help but notice it. Wow! How did that get there? Once you hear it you start to listen for it, and sure enough the next copy won't do it, nor will the next. Maybe the one after that one gets about halfway there, the cymbal crashes higher than normal but not as far as the one that really showed you how high was up. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you've been making steady improvements to your system, or have better cleaning technologies, or better room treatments, or cleaner electricity, maybe \u003cu\u003eall\u003c\/u\u003e the Little Queen pressings do it now. They might \u003cu\u003eall\u003c\/u\u003e do something they never did before, and in fact they \u003cu\u003eshould\u003c\/u\u003e be doing things better now.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOur last shootout was a while back; many, many parts of the chain have undergone improvement. During this shootout we heard things in the recording we never heard before. This is the point of all this audio fooling around. It pays off, if you do it right. You have musical information waiting to be unlocked in your favorite recordings. It isn't going to free itself. You have to do the work to set it free. Do it our way or do it some other way, but do it. You, more than anyone else, will be the one to get the benefit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On Little Queen\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 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 originals.\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. \u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOther 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":"Heart","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52381985767720,"sku":"heartlittl","price":199.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/products\/heartlittl.jpg?v=1788801603","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/heartlittl_2609-1","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}