Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Elton John Available Now
Our thoughts circa 2007, about the time we found our first real breakthrough pressing.
This has to be one of the best sounding rock records of all time. The highs are silky sweet, the vocals are full-bodied and breathy, and the tonal balance is perfection from top to bottom.
If you have any doubts that Elton John was a pop music genius, just play this record. It’s all the proof you will need. Drop the needle on any track — you just can’t go wrong.
There’s no need to go on and on about the sonic qualities of this copy. Everything you’d ever want from this record is here in abundance. Folks, this copy is the epitome of what we call Master Tape Sound — on both sides.
Two mastering approaches
The original British copies of this record, with the leatherette cover, have two distinctly different mastering approaches.
The earliest pressings tend to be very lively, but a bit hi-fi-ish and aggressive in places. I used to think these were the best.
The later British originals tend to sound dull and muddy.
There was a time when we liked a certain British stamper that we thought split the difference between the mastering approaches mentioned above.
The copies we played this time around with that stamper were practically unacceptable this time around.
Our best domestic pressings actually bettered many of the Brit copies with our old favorite stamper.
Recent improvements in our stereo and evaluation process have allowed us to discover the stampers with that we think have the right sound.
When it comes to stampers, labels, mastering credits, country of origin and the like, we make a point of revealing little of such information on the site, for a number of reasons we discussed in a commentary we wrote many years ago, at the dawn of the Hot Stamper revolution. (Ahem.)
However, in 2024 we decided to reverse our previous policy. We now make available to our readers a great deal of that information, under these four headings:
Please to enjoy.
Some information has been left out, the specific stamper numbers for our Shootout Winners for example, and in the cases where we give out the stampers for the top copies, we do not identify the title of the record with those stampers. As you can imagine, our sizable investments in research and development over the course of decades make up a big part of the costs we must pass on to our customers.
We are more than happy to give out some tips — plenty of them in fact.
However, if you really want to find the best sounding pressing of any given title, you have to do the work we did, and that means buying, cleaning, playing and evaluating a big batch of pressings of the same album.
It’s expensive, it’s a huge amount of work, but our experience tells us there is simply no other way to do it.
Further Reading
As the owner now of 30+ hot stampers of course I agree with the view that they aren’t collectibles or investment pieces. Thank goodness hot stampers are not typically considered the coolest ones to collect, otherwise we’d really be in dire straits with this hobby.
I have come to think of my hot stampers as an art collection – all unique pieces. I can’t help what the general public thinks it is worth, and frankly, they are not qualified to make the assessment.
The only reason I can imagine selling one is if I was replacing it with an even better copy. If anything, that should increase its value as it has now been certified by two independent parties. In reality, I would probably gift it to someone I was confident would appreciate the gesture.
Austin,
Thanks for your letter, and of course we are thrilled to hear how you feel about your very special Hot Stamper pressings.
You are indeed correct that the general public has never appreciated how good they had it back in the day, but how could they? The means to reproduce the records did not exist!
My best to you and here is hoping you get many more decades of enjoyment from the pressings you own.
TP