Month: January 2025

On Sweetnighter, Watch Out for Sourness, Slowness and Smear

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Weather Report

What surprised us most about the dozen or so copies that we played years ago for a shootout was how wrong most copies of this album sound. They’re SOUR in the midrange. On this kind of music, a sour midrange is the kiss of death.

Those copies that aren’t sour are frequently just plain dull. On a recording like this, so full of percussion — which, to be honest, it’s a record that LIVES OR DIES on the quality of its percussion — dullness is devastating.

And so is slowness. If you have old school tube equipment — great for vintage RVG recordings but way too slow to keep up with this fast-paced and percussion-heavy music — this record is not going to do what it desperately wants to do: get your feet tappin’.

Smear is also another thing to watch out for — smear kills what’s good about this record. The percussion transients lose their snap and the harmonics get lost. The less smeary sides really bring out the funky magic of the recording.

(more…)

On Young Person’s Guide, Stick with the Unboxed Deccas

Hot Stamper Pressings of Classical and Orchestral Music Available Now

This is our favorite recording of the work. Those of you looking for a Young Person’s Guide can stop looking, this is the one.

For those who have never heard it, check out The Young Person’s Guide on YouTube – it is a tour de force of orchestral excitement, especially from the percussion section.

We’ve learned from shootouts past (and were reminded again during our most recent) that the London pressings can also be quite good, but none of them can hold a candle to the early Deccas.

However, the later Boxed Label Deccas leave a lot to be desired and should be avoided by those looking for top quality sound.

Side one of this copy was dry and hot. Side two thin and very small.

This is an amazing recording, but you’d never know it from playing the reissues.

There are about 150 orchestral recordings we think offer the best performances with the highest quality sound. This record is certainly deserving of a place on that list.

(more…)

Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks – Striking It Rich

  • Here is an original copy of Striking It Rich (only the second to hit the site in years) that was doing just about everything right, earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER from top to bottom – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Side one was sonically very close to our Shootout Winner – you will be shocked at how big and powerful the sound is
  • It’s the rare copy that’s this lively, solid and rich… drop the needle on any track and you’ll see what we mean
  • 4 stars: “Striking It Rich features 14 more sides of hipster acoustic swing from Hicks and his helpmates, including the fan favorites ‘I Scare Myself’ and ‘Canned Music.'”

(more…)

Al Di Meola – Casino

  • With incredible Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades throughout, this copy (only the second to hit the site in years) is practically as good as we have ever heard, right up there with our Shootout Winner
  • Both of these sides are open and transparent, with wonderfully full-bodied guitars, solid bass and huge amounts of jazz fusion energy
  • A fusion classic featuring the stunning technique and superb improvisations that keep us on the hunt for great Di Meola pressings like this one
  • 5 stars: “Following up the superb Elegant Gypsy was no mean feat, but Al di Meola gave it his best shot with the similarly styled Casino…. Featuring a core band of Steve Gadd, Anthony Jackson, and Barry Miles (whom di Meola came up with before the guitarist was invited to join Return to Forever), the playing is sharp and fiery, matching the youthful intensity of the leader.”

(more…)

Unlike the First Three Albums, on Security You Can Forget the Brits

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Peter Gabriel Available Now

The basics notes here were written in 2009, about the time we finished our album by album auditions of his early catalog.

On this title, forget the Brits. Every British pressing we played was badly smeared and veiled.

This took us somewhat by surprise because we happen to like the British PG pressings, but remember, So on British vinyl is awful too, so it’s clear (to us anyway) that the later PG records are bad on British vinyl and the early ones are better.

We are limiting our comments here to albums up through So. Anything after that is more or less terra incognita for us simply because we don’t care for the music he was making after 1986.

Plays Live, from 1983, takes the dark, overly-rich, overly-thick and way-too-smooth sonics of Security and lathers it over the material he had previouly recorded up through then. Some of it works well enough I suppose, but in my experience it usually isn’t long before the monotony of this approach grows tiresome.

What We Listened For

The best copies have sonic qualities that are not the least bit difficult to recognize:

  • Presence, putting PG front and center;
  • Dynamics, both micro and macro;
  • Energy, allowing the rhythmic elements to bring out the life in the music;
  • Transparency, so that we hear all the way to the back of the studio (where some of the many musicians that play in the densest parts no doubt had to stand); and
  • Ambience, the air that surrounds all the players and what instruments they played.

And of course we played the album VERY LOUD, as loud as we could. It’s the only way to get the massive druming to sound right.

The Music

This is one of the most important records in the Peter Gabriel canon, groundbreaking and influential on so many levels. The entire album is a wonderful journey; anyone with a pop-prog bend will enjoy the ride. Just turn the volume up good and loud, turn off your mind, relax and float along with PG and the band. You’re in good hands.

I’ve listened to this one more than other PG albums with the only exception being his second release, the one produced by Robert Fripp. That one is still clearly my favorite of the lot. I play it to this day and have never tired of it since I bought it way back in 1978.

Naturally, I would have originally picked up the domestic pressing, which is clearly made from a dub tape, but in 1978 what did I know about master tapes and imported pressings?

I was still a big Mobile Fidelity fan at that time, which is a simple way of saying that it’s clear that I had a very long way to go in this hobby and a great deal left to learn!

Nothing Peter Gabriel released after So did much for me so I resigned myself to the first five albums. Five excellent albums from one artist is plenty in my book.

If you like the albums after So, to each his own and more power to you. It’s my opinion that their appeal is limited, such that doing a shootout for them is not likely to be in the cards.

(more…)

Pat Metheny – American Garage

More Pat Metheny

More Jazz Fusion

  • You’ll find superb Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it throughout this original ECM pressing – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • This side two is open and transparent throughout, with wonderfully full-bodied guitars, solid bass and huge amounts of swingin’ jazz energy, and side one is not far behind in all those areas
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The arrangements are more structured, the playing often more intense and searching, with a more pronounced rock influence. [T]his is…high-quality jazz-rock for its time.”

(more…)

Letter of the Week – “Way too many egos that don’t want to be bruised or admit to something that’s not theirs.”

More Hot Stamper Testimonial Letters

Hey Tom,

Several weeks ago I read your blog article about a person named Ray that sent you an interesting letter a while back. I had to laugh and shake my head after reading the content. To accuse anyone of being jealous of another is quite childish!

If anything here, Ray seems to be the one who is jealous and probably has never heard a genuine Hot Stamper on a quality sound system. It’s my understanding you have 40 years of research and experience doing what you do.

The record companies are giants and we, the consumer, have been, unfortunately, at their mercy. Myself included. Until now.

Ray and all others like him need to know that those of us out there in the world that listen to music (vinyl) passionately need to know the truth about the deception, propaganda, lies and crappy sounding records that the record companies are selling to an uninformed public.

There is a local business in this area that caters to the wealthier side of town in audio. I had a conversation with the owner a while back and these people are 100% convinced and brainwashed that all the remastered Heavy Vinyl pressings are the best thing ever…

Obviously they haven’t heard a hot stamper on one of those pricey systems. They are so convinced that they will not keep an open mind for a different view.

One thing I have noticed in the audiophile community, way too many egos that don’t want to be bruised or admit to something that’s not theirs. May the force be with all of us who listen to hot stampers.
Thx
Mike P.

Mike,

Thanks so much for your letter.

How anybody is fooled by the awful sound of the currently available Heavy Vinyl releases is hard to fathom, but I bought into that crap in the 90s, so who am I to talk? I was as lost as anyone. It took a lot of time and effort to figure out how wrong I was.

Yes, I had to work to figure all this stuff out, but it’s just not in the cards for most audiophiles and never will be.

None of that stops us from enjoying great vintage vinyl, so I don’t let it bother me.

Here is hoping the new year brings health and happiness to you and yours and lots of great music.

TP

Mike replied:

Thanks for your feedback. I do truly appreciate it, especially because you have done the homework and the result is hot stampers. Yeah baby!

I have a friend who has been into vinyl since high school as I have. Back in the mid-70s. We reunited our friendship about 5 years ago and he has been an inspiration for the sound system I have today. We enjoy listening sessions at each other’s place, especially now that my system has reached a high level of sound quality.

However, there is a big difference in philosophy and quality of sound in our systems. He insists on listening to vintage domestic copies (not hot stampers) and remastered heavy vinyl. Also, he is using EQ (compressed and lifeless) and a DAC in his tape loop for the turntable circuit.

It is truly painful for me to listen to his system. I used to think it was awesome!

Because he is so set in his ways and not open to suggestion, his sound will never change. I have talked to him about hot stampers and even brought a couple copies over to play. He has closed his mind to a better thing and will not consider spending $ on them.

Back to my comment about how many audiophiles out there have this ego thing that will keep them from ever experiencing what I have on my system with hot stampers!
Mike

Mike, anyone in audio who is set in his ways and refuses to open his ears is doomed to a life of mediocre quality playback.

I heard it everywhere I went until I finally just gave up going to places just to hear more mediocre sound.

I’m glad I went where I did and found what I found — the EAR 324P, the Legacy speakers — but, to be honest, most of what I ended up with I found as a matter of good friends and good fortune.

I just happened to have very good luck. And two open ears. Not everybody does.

I consider myself very fortunate. Thanks again for writing,

TP

(more…)

The Timekeepers Is Probably Bad on Heavy Vinyl, But Who Can Be Bothered to Find Out?

More of the Music of Count Basie

Analogue Productions remastered this longtime favorite of ours, The Timekeepers, on 45 RPM vinyl. Considering their dismal track record — an unbroken string of failures, scoring not a single winner that I am aware of — I’m guessing the Hot Stamper we offered here would have blown the doors off their version, as well as any other Basie album they have done or ever will do on vinyl.

A good customer emailed us back in 2012 with the quote below, authenticating our rather negative disposition at the time concerning the AP releases from the ’90s:

Recently I unearthed a pile of “The Tracking Angle” magazines, MF’s short-lived venture in publishing, that I’d kept all these years (this may damn me in your eyes, but at the time he was one of the more animated [animated but consistently wrong, not a good tradeoff] writers on audio). I dutifully reread the very first issue (Jan. 1995) for the first time in many years, even a review of “Tea for the Tillerman,”… I was flabbergasted to come across this:

So what does Mr. “Better Records” think? In a newsletter where he says a digital remastered OJC vinyl title sounds better than Acoustic Sounds’ all analogue version and says the whole lot of them “suck” and “simply cannot sound good on a good stereo,” he calls this Cat Stevens reissue “Fabulous. Very dynamic with plenty of presence in the midrange, unlike the ‘audiophile’ records of today.”

We proudly stand behind every word. If the comparable OJC title sounds better than the remastered one Acoustic Sounds is peddling, then it sounds better, digital remastering or no digital remastering.

We don’t pay any attention to who makes the records, how they make them or why they make them.

We just play them and let the chips fall will they may. Mr. Fremer thinks that making records the “right” way should result in better sounding records, but we have found precious little evidence to back up that theory, and volumes of evidence which utterly refute it.

Yes, those Analogue Productions records sucked, they continue to suck, and they will always suck. The “audiophile” records of that day did lack presence, and the passage of time is not going to change that fact.

Play practically any Reference, Chesky or Classic title from 1995 to the present day and listen for the veiled midrange, the opacity, the smeary transients, and the generally constricted, compressed, lifeless quality of its sound, a sound that has been boring us to tears for decades as well as fundamentally undermining the very rationale for the expense and hassle of analog itself in the modern digital age, a much more serious charge.

Ask yourself, where are those records now?

Piled on the ash heap of analog history, that’s where (apologies to Leon Trotsky). Nobody writes about them anymore, and it’s not because they were so good, no matter what any audiophile-type reviewer thought or may think about them.

As long as Analogue Productions is around, at least no one can say that Mobile Fidelity makes the worst sounding audiophile records in the world. They are certainly some of the worst, but not so hopeless that they have never made a single good sounding record, which is the title that Chad Kassem holds.

To the best of our knowledge. Obviously we have only played a small fraction of the records released on his godawful label. In our defense let me say that a small fraction was all we could take.

(more…)

Listening in Depth to The Eagles’ Debut

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Eagles Available Now

We consider this album a Masterpiece.

It’s a recording that belongs in any serious rock music collection.

Let’s talk about the specifics of some of the tracks.

Side One

Take It Easy

On most copies the vocals in the chorus will be a little bit strained. When you hear the vocals sound completely free from harmonic distortion or “edge” of any kind, you have yourself an exceptionally well-mastered, well-pressed copy.

Witchy Woman 

Witchy Woman is one of the key test tracks we use for side one. Take It Easy, the opening song, often sounds amazingly good — it’s got that driving beat and those acoustic guitars and it just seems to be one of those songs that usually sounds right on the original pressings.

Witchy Woman starts out with huge, powerful drums: they should just knock you out. Next comes an acoustic guitar with a lot of echo: the more echo the better, because that means the pressing has lots of resolution. The echo is on the tape, and the more of the tape that ends up on the record the better. Then comes the vocal. It should not be too bright, spitty or grainy. The vocals also have tons of ambience surrounding them on the best copies.

This is a HUGE Demo Quality track. If this song doesn’t knock your socks off something is not working right.

Chug All Night 
Most of Us Are Sad 
Nightingale

Side Two

Train Leaves Here This Morning 

This is my favorite track on the album. In fact I like it so much I think it’s the best Eagles song ever recorded. (Dillard and Clark recorded it on their album as well.) The acoustic guitars and vocal harmonies on this track are simply as good as it gets. If somebody can play me a CD that sounds like this I will eat it.

Take the Devil 
Early Bird 

This is another tough track to master properly. The mix is very complicated, and there’s a banjo that figures prominently in it. Getting that banjo to sound musical is the trick. The bass is very rich on the best copies. On those copies that are a bit on the lean side, the banjo can take on an edgy and aggressive quality.

The best copies get the banjo JUST RIGHT and place it perfectly in the mix. On The Border, their third album and my personal favorite, makes wonderful use of the banjo. When the band changed their sound to take them in the direction of more straight ahead rock (One of These Nights) they lost me. The public felt differently, sending the album to Number One in the charts, which set the stage for the monster success of Hotel California.

Peaceful Easy Feeling 
Tryin’

(more…)

Tom Waits – The Heart of Saturday Night

More Tom Waits

  • Excellent Double Plus (A++) sound brings Waits’s sophomore LP to life on this vintage Asylum pressing
  • Forget that critical listening stuff and just notice that these Hot Stamper copies are simply more relaxed, musical and involving than anything you’ve heard – guaranteed or your money back
  • This music ain’t for everyone, but when you find good sounding Tom Waits pressings like this one the sonics can be out of this world
  • Bones Howe brilliantly recorded this music — a copy that sounds as good as this one will surely let you appreciate his work in the clearest possible way: by hearing it
  • “Musically, the album contains the same mixture of folk, blues, and jazz as its predecessor, with producer Bones Howe occasionally bringing in an orchestra to underscore the loping melodies… ‘(Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night’ and ‘Semi Suite’ are the equal of anything on Closing”

(more…)