Record Shootouts Are Tricky – Here Are Some of the Lessons We’ve Learned
For our last Hot Stamper pressing of Shepherd Moons, we noted:
This may not be our favorite music in the world, but it’s hard to argue with sound as good as this.
We went on to add:
The sound here is airy, open, spacious, and transparent, as well as tonally correct, clear and present.
Those are the qualities of our shootout winning pressings that we found to be the most compelling.
But is that everything we were listening for? Of course not.
So precisely what are the criteria by which a record like Shepard Moons should be judged?
Pretty much the ones we discuss in most of our Hot Stamper listings:
- energy,
- vocal presence,
- frequency extension (on both ends),
- transparency,
- harmonic textures (freedom from smear is key),
- rhythmic drive,
- tonal correctness,
- fullness,
- size,
- space, and
- Tubey Magic.
When we can get all, or almost all, of the qualities above to come together on any given side, we provisionally award it a grade of “contender.”
Once we’ve been through all our copies on one side, we then play the best of the best against each other and arrive at a winner for that side.
Repeat the process for the other side and the shootout is officially over. All that’s left is to see how the sides matched up.
It may not be rocket science, but it is a science of a kind, one with strict protocols that we’ve developed over the course of many years to insure that the results we arrive at are as accurate as we can make them.
The result of all our work speaks for itself. We guarantee you have never heard this music — really, any music — sound better than it does on one of our Hot Stamper pressings, or your money back.
Further Reading