How Come You Guys Don’t Like Half-Speed Mastered Records?

More on the Subject of Half-Speed Mastering

More Straight Answers to Your Hot Stamper Questions

That’s an easy one. Over the 37 years we’ve been in the audiophile record business, we’ve played Half-Speed mastered LPs by the hundreds. As our ability to reproduce the sound of records improved (better equipment, table setup, tweaks, room treatments, electricity and the like), the gap between the better non-half-speed mastered pressings and even the best of the half-speeds grew and grew.

The half-speeds fell further and further behind, with so few exceptions to the rule that they could easily be counted on the fingers of one hand. There are currently four half-speed mastered titles that we carry as Hot Stampers. To put that in perspective, of the roughly two thousand Hot Stamper titles we offer, those four are the only ones to make the cut.

The most serious fault of the typical Half-Speed mastered LP is not incorrect tonality or poor bass definition, although you will have a hard time finding one that doesn’t suffer from both. It’s dead as a doornail sound, plain and simple. We’ve been playing half-speed mastered records since I bought my first Mobile Fidelity in the late-70s. That works out to forty years of experience with the sonic characteristics of this mastering approach, an approach we have found to have consistent shortcomings.

These shortcomings have somehow eluded the devotees of these records, no doubt the way they eluded me until I had improved my playback to the point where I could hear just how wrong they were.

I made a list of the worst sounding ones that I actually used to like, numbering more than 30, and you can read all about them here.

Their sonic shortcomings no longer elude us, and we have taken the time to lay out their faults, chapter and verse, in the commentaries you see below.

The current record holder for most compressed Mobile Fidelity pressing of all time?

This shockingly bad sounding release, a record I admit to owning and liking back in the 80s. I had a lot of very expensive equipment back then, but it sure wasn’t helping me recognize the sonic problems of this ridiculous pressing and scores of others.

How many audiophiles are where I used to be? Based on what I read on audiophile forums, and the kinds of audiophile pressings I see discussed on youtube videos, it seems that most of them are.

There is an obvious way to steel oneself against the collectible allure of the audiophile pressing, but it is neither easy nor cheap.

It does work though. Boy, does it ever.

We Can Help

If you are still buying these modern remastered pressings, making the same mistakes that I was making before I knew better, take the advice of some of our customers and stop throwing your money away on Heavy Vinyl and Half-Speed mastered LPs.

At the very least let us send you a Hot Stamper pressing — of any album you choose — that can show you what is wrong with your copy of the album.

And if for some reason you disagree with us that our record sounds better than yours, we will happily give you all your money back and wish you the very best.

Further Reading

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