More of the music of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
More of the Music of Pink Floyd
Dear Tom,
The next best thing to a big pile of Better Records is a friend with a big pile of Better Records.
Last night my good buddy Bill came over with a selection from his recent spate of hot stamper purchases.
You remember Bill, right? He’s the friend who knew I was into stereos, so he came over for some advice about how to assemble a top of the line modern digital playback system.
I played him my White Hot Stamper of Rumours, he buried his face in his hands, and took a deep plunge into building himself a Port-recommended vinyl playback rig, and he’s now a Better Records aficionado.
First up, we played his White Hot Stamper of the Tchaikovsky violin concerto. It was magnificent. We could appreciate every tiny decision Heiftez was making. When the orchestra came in, it was thunder.
Then, we played my Super Hot Stamper. Same stamper, and mine had quieter vinyl, but man, the sound just wasn’t the same. Mine was more shrill (but slightly), and the orchestra was less meaty (but slightly.) I’ve always loved my copy, still do, but the White Hot Stamper clearly improved on it. We were simply hearing more music.
I know a lot of people say they have great sounding records. For anybody who thinks they may have stumbled across a hot stamper out in the wild, I have one simple test: turn it up. If it’s a true White Hot Stamper, you just want to keep turning up the volume. If you get to the point where you say, “actually, that’s a little too loud. Let me just dial it back a little. Ah, that’s better.” Well then, you don’t have a hot stamper on your hands. White Hot Stampers just invite you to play them loud. There’s no limit, they just cohere without getting shrill or strident. It’s a truly strange effect, and until you hear it for yourself, you won’t believe me.
Next up, we put on Bill’s White Hot Stamper of The Wall. Very loud, of course. It was probably the best my stereo has ever sounded.
Thanks for what you and your crew do, Tom.
ab_ba
Dear ab_ba,
You are indeed very fortunate to have had such an experience. Not many of my customers get to listen to the better pressings their friends have, but that seems to be the case with you and your buddy Bill. And you can be sure he paid a pretty penny for those two titles; they don’t come cheap.
Of course, Bill is actually the one who should be in your debt, as I’m sure he knows. You kept him from making the worst mistake of them all: buying a digital-based stereo, a blind alley if ever there was one, and the place where dreams of wonderful music reproduced in the home go to die.
Thanks for writing. Glad you are enjoying your Hot Stampers, and those that belong to your friends too.
Best, TP
Further Reading
- New to the Blog? Start here
- More Hot Stamper testimonial letters
- Record collecting for audiophiles from A to Z
Just a small clarification – Bill ALSO got himself an end-game digital setup. For a while it sat side by side next to his turntable. He found he was never using it, so he sold off some of it and moved the rest into his office, just to have some music playing while he works.
Seems that worked out even better. He had the good digital in his own home and realized how second-rate it was compared to a good LP.
When I see videos and hear posters talk about the superiority of digital, I always know what the problem are; bad turntables, bad phono stages, bad cartridges, bad records and generally bad systems being fed from all of them.
Still, the crazy thing is that I prefer the sound of my correctly mastered CDs to practically all of the badly mastered LPs being made these days.
CDs don’t sound wrong the way these new records do. They have the sound of a second-rate technology, which is what digital playback in the home is.
None — I repeast none — of my CDs are as ridiculously colored and weird sounding as the records we play on Heavy Vinyl.
How these crappy records pass the laugh test is beyond me.
Best, TP
I believe this is because people making vinyl today are going for sonics, not music. There are aspects of vinyl playback that just sound different from digital. These can add up to fantastic-sounding music, as they do on hot stampers. OR, these characteristics of the sound of vinyl can just make for a dazzling sonic display. I think the Heavy Vinyl industry has given up on reproducing music well, and instead, they’ve gone all-in on the “wow, it’s a record” sound. MoFi is a great example of this.
Dear Sir,
I’m not sure why anyone with even a half-way decent system would be wowed by any Heavy Vinyl record coming out these days, by MoFi or anybody else.
We note in our reviews that they tend to be overly rich and overly smooth, which is what some people think analog is supposed to sound like, and which stands in stark contrast to the general sound of digital.
But anyone with an equalizer can create that sound, and buying an equalizer has to be a lot cheaper than buying all these modern remasterings.
If they were more dynamic or more energetic, I could see how some audiophiles might fall for them and excuse or ignore or, most likely, not even notice their other faults.
But they are almost always more compressed and less energetic than the better regular mass-produced pressings.
Audiophiles who buy these records should just admit they like collecting audiophile records and will continue to buy them no matter what they sound like.
The idea that they are superior in any way is just ludicrous.
Thanks for writing,
TP