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A fellow sent me this email a while back. Normally when people find fault with what we do, or how we do it, or the prices we charge, or the things we say, we figure live and let live and just go about our business (you know, the one where we find the best sounding records ever made).
This fellow took me to task for speaking ill of “people in the record industry,” which is a common complaint their number one apologist, Michael Fremer, likes to make, rather foolishly in my opinion, so I thought I would write a few words addressing the topic.
Ray’s letter:
Everytime I am tempted to make a purchase I always read something where Mr. Port is insulting people in the record industry. I get it. Your records may sound better than an audiophile pressing but for the price, they better! I respect the fact that you put a lot of time and effort into what you do, but insulting people is petty and makes you sound as though you are jealous of their success, you can sell records by simple stating that they sound great and with your money back guarantee (which few people actually take advantage of, from what I have read) You should be able to continue doing what you do with great success.
Just my unsolicited opinion.
Ray
I replied as follows:
Ray,
Thanks you for your letter.
Part of the problem with our approach to vinyl is that we not only sell a product that directly competes with those produced by others in the industry, but we also review the products that these other companies make.
We see it as fundamental to our job — something we owe to our customers — that we compare their Heavy Vinyl remastered pressings to our vintage Hot Stampers.
When we do that, insults are hard to avoid.
Their records are mostly a disgrace, but they don’t seem to notice how bad they sound. Nor do the audiophile types who review them.
This used to confound us. It still confounds us, but over the years we have decided it is better to accept reality and just live with it.
We are of the opinion that the people making records today should be held to account for their substandard work. Who better to do that than us?
We can provide the physical records that, when played properly, prove just how second-rate theirs actually are.
Bernie Grundman cut many of the best sounding pop and rock records ever made. I wanted to pay tribute to his fine work, so I wrote this commentary and tagged many of his best records within it: Thriller is proof that Bernie Grundman was cutting great records in 1982
But the bad records he made are very bad indeed. Most of what he mastered for Classic Records is awful, a more recently he has been doing equally spotty work. Here is a link to a select group of his worst remasterings.
Since no one seems to want to write about just how bad these records are, we felt it was our duty, as experts in the world of records, to point out their specific shortcomings. We do this for the benefit of audiophiles who might actually want good sound and not just quiet vinyl.
We want to help all of these audiophiles find higher quality records to play. We tell everyone who doesn’t want to pay our prices how to go about doing what we do for themselves.
In the meantime, like Consumer Reports, we help people to see what a scam and a fraud the modern heavy vinyl pressing is, in the hope that they will stop throwing their money away, and that those in the industry will improve their product or find something else to make a buck from.
The world is full of bad sounding records, we don’t need any more, and audiophiles should stop buying them. But who else is going to tell them that? Audiophile reviewers seem to be as easily taken in as everyone else.
As for being petty, I discussed the charge in this commentary. Allow me to quote a few lines:
I never say that the people making these modern records, as well as those reviewing them, are malicious or evil. I say they make (or review) bad sounding records and are simply misguided and incompetent.
You Call That Success?
You accuse me of being jealous of their success. What success? They are selling junk to those who haven’t learned how to spot it. Why would anyone be jealous of those who prey on novices and the ill-informed?
If you want to defend these people, name a record they’ve produced worth defending. If there is no such record, then why defend them?
The rich and powerful who produce these second- and third-rate vinyl offerings are taking advantage of the mostly ego-driven credulity of the typical audiophile record collector.
Why should they be protected from criticism? Shouldn’t you be taking the side of those that are being ripped off?
I am.
As long as they see no reason to stop making bad sounding records, we see no reason to stop criticizing them, and, to the great benefit of everyone, offering an alternative approach that is guaranteed to produce better results.
Thanks for your letter,
Best,
TP
Further Reading
Below you will find our reviews and commentaries for the hundreds of Heavy Vinyl pressings we’ve played over the years.
We confess that even as recently as the early 2000s we were still impressed with the better Heavy Vinyl pressings. If we’d never made the progress we’ve worked so hard to make over the course of the last twenty or more years, perhaps we would find more merit in the Heavy Vinyl reissues so many audiophiles are impressed by these days.
We’ll never know of course; that’s a bell that can be unrung. We did the work, we can’t undo it, and the system that resulted from it is merciless in revealing the truth — that these newer pressings are second-rate at best and much more often than not third-rate and even worse.
Some audiophile records sound so bad, I was pissed off enough to create a special list for them.
Setting higher standards — no, being able to set higher standards — in our minds is a clear mark of progress. Judging by the hundreds of letters we’ve received, especially the ones comparing our records to their Heavy Vinyl and Half-Speed mastered counterparts, we know that our customers see — and hear — things the same way.