WOW! This White Hot Stamper Asylum pressing has TWO AMAZING A+++ SIDES -- better than every other copy we played it against. Side one is huge, rich and full. The sound is absolutely jumpin' out of the speakers and Linda's vocals are wonderfully present and breathy. Side two is every bit as good. It's nice and clear with a great top end, present vocals and lovely sounding pianos. P> Linda really belts it out on this album -- face it, it's what she does best -- and only the rarest copies allow you to turn up the volume good and loud and let her do her thing.

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As much as I admire Steve Hoffman’s work for DCC, on this title the DCC is not as good as the best domestic copies. The best domestic pressings are leaner and meaner than the DCC, and just plain more fun. The DCC sounds thick in the midrange and fat in the bass, although some of that boost in the bass could have been used to the advantage of some of the domestic pressings we played. 1 DB or so at 50-60 cycles would help, but the DCC has a boost in the middle and upper bass that causes the bass to sound bloated next to a good pressing.

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This copy is huge, rich and lively, with Linda's vocals reproduced to near perfection.

The sound is rich, smooth, full-bodied and natural on both sides. In other words, this is Classic Analog from the '70s, recorded by none other than Val Garay, one of our favorite engineers.

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This original Capitol Orange Label LP has TWO SUPERB sides, with side two earning our top grade of A+++ for its White Hot sound! And side one was nearly as good at A++ to A+++. These are the highest grades we are awarding to any copy on the site, folks. It doesn't get any better. The sound is uncharacteristically smooth, sweet, clear and Tubey Magical, light years from the grungy grit and grain that plagues most copies of Heart Like a Wheel.

Things are different since our last big shootout back in 2009. We learned a lot about the record and have added plenty of new commentary to back it up. If you're a fan check it out.

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This link will take you to all of our other LINDA RONSTADT albums.


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This pressing beats the typical Capitol LP, which is an aggressive, grainy piece of crap. Take my word for it: I easily have 30-40 copies of this album, and I can tell you from years of experience that it is extremely difficult to find good sounding pressings of this music. Cisco has done a service to the audiophile community by producing a very enjoyable LP of this, Linda’s masterpiece. It’s music that belongs in your collection. (If you have the bread, check out our Hot Stamper copies, guaranteed to kill any modern pressing -- including this one -- or your money back.)

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Both sides here are rich and smooth yet still clean and clear, precisely the kind of sound we've come to expect from the team of Val Garay and Peter Asher in the '70s. The bass is deep and punchy, the keyboards tubey rich, and the whole of the ensemble displays both energy and conviction on this top quality batch of songs.

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Val Garay (JT, Simple Dreams) does it again! Both sides of this Asylum pressing have SUPERB SOUND, and side one I would go so far as to say has MASTER TAPE SOUND.

Side one is simply OFF THE CHARTS. It’s super-transparent; the clarity is amazing, and from the moment the needle hits the groove you hear the kind of stunning immediacy that brings Linda right INTO your listening room! This is EXACTLY the kind of sound a pop record is supposed to have. This copy gives it to you big time, on both sides.

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We played several copies of this album, and while it's no demo disc by any means, this copy was far and away the best sounding of the group. We can't quite bring ourselves to call it a Hot Stamper. Technically of course it is -- it's a pressing that's superior to all the others we've played -- but as the recording itself has some serious shortcomings we'll just call it a Pretty Good Stamper.

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Clearly this is one of Linda's best albums, and I would have to say, based on my fairly extensive experience with her recorded output, that it is in fact THE BEST SOUNDING record she ever made. I love Heart Like a Wheel, but it sure doesn't sound like this, not even on the Triple Plus copies that win our shootouts.

Kudos once again must go to VAL GARAY, the man behind so many of our favorite recordings: James Taylor's JT (a Top 100 title), Andrew Gold, Prisoner In Disguise, etc.

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White Hot on side one, and by far the best sound we heard in our shootout for these 1975 pressings.The originals from 1967 have never impressed us. Much more folk than pop, for the most part the sound here is tubey, rich and sweet. Re-released when HLAW hit big, this album features three great Linda solos.

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The sound is EXTRAORDINARILY rich, smooth, full-bodied and natural on both sides. We have never heard What's New sound like this.

With two White Hot sides this pressing gets two critically important elements of the recording more right than any copies we have ever heard: the strings in the orchestra, and, even more importantly for obvious reasons, Linda's voice. Both sides give you a much more natural sounding Linda than you have ever heard. She's fuller, sweeter, breathier, less spitty (some tracks more than others) and just plain less artificial than any others we played.

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