{"product_id":"weathheavy_2603_5x__","title":"Weather Report - Heavy Weather - White Hot Stamper (With Issues)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*NOTE:\u003c\/strong\u003e There is a mark that plays 10 times loudly near the start of track 1 on side 1, \"Birdland.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe hottest of the Hot Stamper pressings demonstrate that this is a truly amazing recording, with some of the most dynamic, wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling jam-packed sound ever committed to vinyl. The grit, grain and grunge of most pressings is nowhere to be found on these killer sides, and that alone puts them in a very special league indeed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat To Listen For\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe've discovered that the key to the hottest sounding pressings is a fairly simple one: the copies with high-frequency extension and the tremendous rhythmic energy that results from it are consistently the best sounding.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou may have read elsewhere on the site that what separates many of the best Columbia LPs from their competition is an open, extended top end. For some reason, Columbia, seemingly more than any other label, had a bad habit of making slightly dull records. Slightly dull does not work for this album.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy notes on \"Palladium\" under the \u003cstrong\u003eTracklist\u003c\/strong\u003e heading sum it up: when the highs on the record are right, it almost always comes together. Unfortunately, most copies don't have those highs. There's more to it of course: some copies lack bass, some sound a bit grainy and gritty -- the normal problems associated with vinyl records are all here.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut when you have good highs, you are way more than halfway home; you are about 80 to 85% of the way toward a Hot Stamper. Just fill in the last few details (bass, dynamics, etc.) and the sound will more than likely blow your mind.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of Heavy Weather 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 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\u003eTheir Masterpiece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo much for sonics. Musically there are only a handful of jazz-rock fusion albums that I can still listen to: Return to Forever's Romantic Warrior, John McLaughlin's Birds of Fire, Caldera's Sky Islands, Weather Report's Sweetnighter, and this Weather Report LP. Wayne Shorter, \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22Jaco-Pastorius%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJaco Pastorius\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e, and Joe Zawinul are at the top of their game on this album. Since they are some of the most talented jazz musicians to have come up in the last 40+ years, that's saying something.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI consider this album nothing less than a work of \u003cu\u003egenius\u003c\/u\u003e. It's completely original. There's not another record I can think of that sounds anything like it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On Heavy Weather\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, not the smear and thickness so common to these LPs.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTight, full-bodied 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 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 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eA Tough Record to Play\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHeavy Weather 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\n\u003ch3\u003eExtensive Track Commentary\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe really spent some quality time on the \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22track-commentary%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003etrack commentary\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e for this one, so make sure you refer to it while comparing what we are saying to what you are hearing at home, using whatever copy you own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you end up with one of our Hot Stampers, listen carefully for the effects we describe. This is not an easy record to reproduce -- everything has to be working in tip-top form to even begin to get this complicated music sounding the way it should -- but if you've done your homework and gotten your system really cooking, you are in for the time of your Weather Report life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eA Must Own Jazz Record\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe consider this Weather Report album a \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22jazz-masterpiece%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMasterpiece\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e. It's a Demo Disc quality recording should be part of any serious audiophile jazz collection, assuming you like jazz fusion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOthers that belong in that category can be found \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22core-jazz-collection%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ehere\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Weather Report","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51574479192360,"sku":"weathheavy","price":399.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/products\/weathheavy.jpg?v=1768934801","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/weathheavy_2603_5x__","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}