The Beatles in Mono, Our Grading System, Our Cleaning System and More
We discuss a number of issues with our letter writer, the kinds of questions we often get, so here are some of the answers we often give out.
- While Prices for Many Records Have Trended Down, Others Have Gone Up
- The Beatles in Mono
- Our White Hot Triple Plus Grade
- Why Our Stereo Is Good at Its Job, and
- Record Cleaning
Hey Tom,
First off, I got to say, congratulations on a great concept. Also, congrats on having the balls to charge what these albums are worth.
Thanks. Like any business, we charge what the market will bear, and it seems people are willing to pay a lot for these records, although less for some than they used to — some of our records now sell for half or even less than what we were getting two or three or five years ago.
That said, the top copies have held their prices pretty well over the years and often gone up substantially. It’s the second tier and third tier titles and the Super Hots that have really fallen in price. That’s where the real “bargains” are these days.
Ok – I spent a fortune on my system. Including acoustic design, the best of everything – speakers, turntable, preamp, amps – you get it. The whole set up probably cost me over $600k.
Wow. I don’t have $600k in my system, but I do have about $600k worth of labor in it (!) You can read all about Our Stereo here.
I am a crazy fanatic – audio perfection is something that really moves me.
Me too. I wrote about it here, when I fell in love with a record that gave me a good reason to get seriously into audio.
So, you can imagine I am intrigued with what you are doing. I will try you guys out (already bought my first album – CSNY) very hopeful that I will notice a difference between your albums and others.
Hard to imagine that you won’t hear a huge difference. Most versions of Deja Vu, including audiophile ones, are terrible.
I’d love to set up a call to discuss some questions I have regarding some of your best vs. say, they latest Neil Young releases with his archive release bundles. I have first pressings of the newly analog remasters and they are amazing.
I hope we’re not talking about this pressing: After the Gold Rush
I also purchased the Beatles mono set and have a separate mono cartridge and tone arm just for this set. They are real nice – not as great sonically as the Neil releases, but better than the Beatles Stereo box set.
We had a mono set in and spent about a half hour trying to figure out what was wrong with it. I realized in the end that the sound was dead as a doornail. If you want to hear The Beatles sound better than you ever imagined, we can make that happen.
But not in mono. Here are our in-stock Hot Stampers pressings of The Beatles, guaranteed to blow your mind.
I am also curious as to the system you use to evaluate your albums – and what you see as the holy grail of the A+++ standard.
Triple Plus means this:
Our Top Grade, awarded only to sides that sound just right to us. The ultimate in sound for that album, often Demo Disc Quality. These are very special records, the best we can find.
We have a section for records that earned out Top Grade on both sides and another section for any record that earned a Top Grade on at least one side. Note that there are about three times as many of the latter as there are of the former.
I’d certainly love to hear/purchase the best albums there. (I’d even be willing to fly out to hear your set up).
You probably would not be all that crazy about our system. It’s neutral, like a studio monitor, with zero forgiveness. Only the best sounding records actually sound right on it, which is why it is so useful to us.
We talk about it at length here and throughout the site: Our System Just Loves Certain Records – Why Do You Suppose That Is?
I am also curious as to your best vinyl cleaning system – I am having a problem cleaning my albums. I have the Nessie system on loan from my dealer – not crazy about it.
Here is our take on record cleaning: Record Cleaning – An Overview
Doing it yourself using our methods is expensive and a pain but there is no other way to do it right.
I am to the point where I only want vinyl at the A++ level to listen to, otherwise, I think I will opt for the digital HD Tracks version.
If you have that kind of money in your system, A++ records and up are the only way to go. And Triple Plus will blow your mind.
It are questions I am interesting in asking and getting your POV.
Thanks for the order by the way. Let us know what you think!
Best, Tom
UPDATE 2021
Rocco has gone on to become a very good customer since he wrote this letter. He regularly buys top quality records and no doubt enjoys the hell out of them.
He has written a number of letters to us about our Hot Stampers that we think are well worth reading.