Month: May 2025

Roxy Music / Siren

More Roxy Music

  • Roxy’s Art Rock classic from 1975, here with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them from top to bottom
  • These are just a few of the things we had to say about this killer copy in our notes: “huge and rich and open”…”tight bass”…”big, open chorus”…”tubey and 3D”…”great size and energy”…”lots of weight”…”jumping out of the speakers”
  • If you know the quality of Atlantic/Atco vinyl in the mid-70s, you know this is about as quiet as we can ever hope to find to them
  • The sound here is richer, with much less transistory grain, and more of the all important Tubey Magic than practically all other copies we played
  • Some of Bryan Ferry‘s strongest and most consistent songwriting – “Love Is The Drug,” “End of the Line,” “Sentimental Fool” and more
  • 5 stars: “Abandoning the intoxicating blend of art rock and glam-pop that distinguished Stranded and Country Life, Roxy Music concentrates on Bryan Ferry’s suave, charming crooner persona for the elegantly modern Siren.”

Siren is one of our favorite Roxy albums, right up there with the first album and well ahead of the commercially appealing Avalon. After reading a rave review in Rolling Stone of the album back in 1975 I took the plunge, bought a copy at my local Tower Records and instantly fell in love with it.

As is my wont, I then proceeded to work my way through their earlier catalog, which was quite an adventure. It takes scores of plays to understand where the band is coming from on the early albums and what it is they’re trying to do.

Now I listen to each of the first five releases on a regular basis. Even after more than forty years, the band’s music never seems to get old.

That seems to be true of a lot of the records from the era that we offer on our site. Otherwise, how on earth could we possibly charge so much money for them?

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This Beethoven Ninth Started Out with Two Strikes Against It

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Beethoven Available Now

MoFi took the shortcomings of a mediocre-at-best Decca recording from 1972 and made them even worse by means of their ridiculously misguided mastering decisions and wacky cutting system.

They should not have chosen this performance of the Ninth Symphony in the first place, and they certainly should not have added the treble they chose to add, which they did to this title and to every classical recording they remastered without regard to whether or not the recording needed brightening. None that I know of did. Try telling that to the brain trust running MoFi.

(They hired this guy to do their one-step digitally remastered pressings and from the get-go he’s been giving audiophiles the most ridiculously phony sounding records that collectors with way too much money can buy.)

The Decca recording of the Ninth from 1972 is opaque, lacks size and space, and comes off as a bit flat and dry.

Like practically every later Decca pressing we play, it’s passable at best.

Londons and Deccas from this era (1972 in this case) rarely sound very good to us.

Here is what we specifically don’t like about their sound.

If you want to know what’s wrong with the Mobile Fidelity pressing, take the above faults and add some others to them.

Start with an overall brighter EQ, add a 10k boost for extra sparkly strings, the kind that MoFi has always been smitten with, and finish with the tubby bass caused by the half-speed mastering process itself.

Voila! You are now in the presence of the kind of mid-fi trash that may have fooled some audiophiles way back when but now sounds as wrong as the records this ridiculous label is still making today.

Here are some other pressings with bright string tone that are best avoided by audiophiles looking for top quality sound.

1981 Was a Long Time Ago

Old school audio systems are notorious for being dark, dull and lacking in transparency. They might need bright records in order to sound good, but high quality modern systems do not.

If these two MoFi pressings sounds right to you, you are very likely living with one of those old school systems and it is long past time to get rid of it.

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Letter of the Week – “I needed a day to fully pick up my jaw from the floor after hearing Revolver and Dark Side…”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Pink Floyd Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently:

Hey Tom, 

I needed a day to fully pick up my jaw from the floor after hearing Revolver and Dark Side of the Moon.

Now that I‘ve given them both a few listens to fully absorb how revealing these recordings I thought I knew so well really are, I just have so many questions. 

How much better sounding can the respective White Hots really be?????

As far as Dark Side, I’m finding out for myself. Just ordered the white hot stamper. Most likely will be returning one of them, but I hope that after this, I will finally be able to stop looking for “the better sound” on this one….

Regarding Revolver, will the A++ side of my Revolver Super hot sound the same as the A++ side of the WHS? Or is the A++ grade on the WHS relative to its A+++ side, and still better than the SHS? What I am getting at is, will both sides blow me away in comparison to my SHS, or is it better to be patient and hold out for a two-sided A+++? Btw, regardless of your answer, you cannot have this copy back, it is simply fantastic!

I know these kinds of questions are quite relative to a number of variables, but any enlightenment you can provide is welcome…. I appreciate what you do, you have gained a very happy customer. (more…)

Kris Kristofferson – The Silver Tongued Devil and I

More Kris Kristofferson

  • Seriously good sound for Kristofferson’s sophomore release, with Double Plus (A++) grades from top to bottom – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • It’s richer, fuller, more musical and more natural that a lot of what we played – Kristofferson’s breathy voice is reproduced with a solidity and immediacy that’s not easy to find
  • Both of these sides are wonderfully full-bodied and warm, exactly the way you want your vintage analog to sound
  • 5 stars: “On its way to becoming a gold record, The Silver Tongued Devil and I reached the pop Top 20, Kristofferson’s career high on that chart, and the country Top Five; thus, Kristofferson made the transition from being a successful songwriter to a successful recording artist.”

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Here Are Just a Few of the Signs You May Be a Crackpot

Skeptical Thinking Is the Foundation of Audio Advancement

Pete Hutchinson of The Electric Recording Company came up with a new idea that he believes can solve all the problems of the record world.

He wants people to understand that records don’t need to be mastered.

In order to make the best sounding pressings, you just buy the right old tube equipment, get it working, get hold of the master tapes, and then patiently and carefully transfer them as flatly as possible, with the least amount of meddling.

You see, in his world the meddling is the problem.

And, like all crackpots, he has a simple but wrong solution for a complicated problem.

If you think cooked food is the cause of human ailments, and raw food is the solution to the health problems of the modern world, you are a crackpot.

If you think the world is flat and not more or less spherical, you are a crackpot.

If you think you have an aura of energy surrounding you which no one can see but which is part of your true being, a sign of your true, spiritual self, you are a crackpot.

If you think that three-wheeled cars are the solution to transportation problems in the modern world, and you’ve built one in your garage, and now all you need are investors to get the word out, you are a crackpot.

And Your Point Is?

Pete Hutchinson is someone who fits nicely into this group, because he is also a crackpot. He is an audiophile crackpot.

His “solution“ to the problems of the sound of records may be novel in the sense that no one has ever tried it at scale, but there’s a reason no one would be foolish enough to transfer master tapes to vinyl without the benefit of equalization, level adjustment, compression and a host of the other interventions mastering engineers make use of.

Records some of those things — maybe not all of them, but certainly some of them — in order to sound their best.

The fact that he is unable to hear how bad his “unmastered” records sound — and we can lump him in with all his customers who appear to be equally hard of hearing — is both comical and pathetic in equal measure.

We heard how bad his pressings sound, and we wrote about their many faults here.

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Lou Rawls – Carryin’ On!

More Soul, Blues, and Rhythm and Blues

  • Boasting two STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sides or close to them, this superb copy (only the second to hit the site in over four years) could not be beat
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this killer copy in our notes: “big and tubey”…”vox jumping out of the speakers”…”lots of space”…”breathy and open”…”rich and weighty”
  • Carryin’ On peaked at #2 on the Billboard chart for February 1967 and holds up just fine today, although this album has more of the Old School Capitol sound than some of the others we offer
  • Here’s Lou… singin’ it out just the way it ought to be. Lou – easy and natural. Sidemen – loose and groovy. Songs – blue and full of the feeling that’s there because it’s Lou. A great Lou… emerged, hailed, recognized as one of the greatest singers of our time! – back sleeve notes

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The Beatles – Abbey Road

More of the Music of The Beatles

  • This vintage UK copy of The Beatles’ last and arguably greatest album boasts two seriously good sides – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Quiet vinyl is rarely in the cards for Abbey Road, but here it is, and on a great sounding copy too
  • The stereo to play The Beatles magnum opus didn’t exist when the record was made, but it does now
  • If you’ve heard the disastrous new Half-Speed mastered remix LP, or the remastered Heavy Vinyl from a few years back, then you surely know that nothing comes close to a real, vintage, analog Abbey Road
  • This pressing might just give you a new appreciation for one of the Greatest Rock Albums of All Time
  • 5 stars, a permanent member of the Top 100, and a true rock and pop Demo Disc
  • If you’re a fan of big drums in a big room, with jump out of the speakers sound, this is the album for you.

Abbey Road Magic

Those of you who follow the site (or do your own shootouts) know that it’s much tougher to find great copies of Abbey Road than it is for MMT or Please Please Me. Most of the copies we’ve played just aren’t good enough to put on the site. For whatever reasons — probably because this recording is so complicated and required so many tracks — Abbey Road is one of the tougher nuts to crack in the Beatles’ catalog.

We’re wild about this album, and here’s a copy that will show you exactly why. Both sides are big, rich, sweet and present with lots of energy, wonderfully breathy vocals, and huge dynamic guitars. You don’t hear too many copies with a massive bottom end like this bad boy. A copy with this kind of transparency really allows you to hear INTO the soundfield and appreciate every last detail — quite a privilege for the lucky person who takes this one home.

This is the final statement from The Beatles. To take away the power of their magnum opus by playing it through inadequate equipment makes a mockery of the monumental effort that went into it. Remember, the original title for the album was Everest. That should tell you something about the size and scope of the music and sound that the Beatles had in mind.

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Letter of the Week – “I find myself buying a lot less vinyl at my favorite record shops since getting into Hot Stampers. Quality, not quantity.”

Welcome to the World of Hot Stampers

One of our good customers had this to say about his experience with our service at Better Records:

Hey Tom, 

I was surfing the internet recently and googled Better Records. I was astounded to see some seriously negative dogging of you and your business, especially by one gentleman. He obviously did not believe in Hot Stampers and was dead-set on making sure that everybody else in the world felt the same way also. That’s too bad. Here is how I look at it:

You and your staff are in this to make a living. That’s OK, it’s what makes America work. Profit is quite all right, as long as you provide a valued product and/or service for what you charge.

It costs money to spend the time going out, searching for and buying a large number of copies of an LP so you can have a shootout. Not to mention, employees like to get paid, too. Let’s not forget the equipment and supplies.

I value both your product and service. Proof is that I have purchased 28 Hot Stampers from you in the last year and a half, and I am thrilled to have them. Why? Because they really do sound better. I know, because I compare them to the copies I already had before buying yours. It’s not magic, it’s the result of spending the time and money to get copies, compare and then market the ones that have that amazing sound.

I find myself buying a lot less vinyl at my favorite record shops since getting into Hot Stampers. Quality, not quantity.

Anyway, for those out there that wonder if this product is for real, do what I did — try one, there is a money back guarantee. Trust me, you can hear the difference. I have a special section in my cabinet for the Hot Stampers. They are the most revered, most often played and best sounding. Congrats on a cool product and service.

Bryan S.

Bryan,

Thank so much for the kind words.

We are with you 100%, what good is a shelf full of mediocre pressings?

Be selective, pay top dollar for the titles that really mean something to you, like the White Hot stamper pressing of Let It Be you bought. Allow me to quote you:

Instantly, I was like a dog hearing a new sound for the first time. My head was cocked a little and I was trying to fathom exactly what I was hearing. I was hearing presence, breathing, clarity in voices before they started playing and I literally sat there with what I am sure was a dazed looked on my face, with open mouth and all. I could not believe it. Everything jumped out of my B&W’s. The sound was something that no CD could duplicate, no matter how clean the CD sounded. I have an all tube, all analog system and I sat there in amazement. I played The Long and Winding Road next and the instruments literally had me teared up from how it much jumped out at me.

I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know when I say that you could have a room full of Heavy Vinyl pressings and not one of them would sound as good as that copy of Let It Be. A room full!

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Glenn Frey – No Fun Aloud

More Eagles

  • This vintage Asylum pressing (the first copy to hit the site in over three years) boasts INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound from start to finish
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “rich and relaxed”…”good weight”…”present and full and open vox”…”weighty and 3D”…”gets huge”…”powerful drums”
  • Big and lively, with rich, breathy vocals, this pressing will show you just how good No Fun Aloud can sound
  • Frey’s phenomenal talent as an artist is matched only by his songwriting genius on this album, which includes hits “The One You Love,” “I Found Somebody” and more
  • “… it’s Frey’s perfectly guided vocals and impeccable talent for crafting laid-back love songs that make the album noteworthy.”

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Thoughts on Classical Music and My Hot Stamper Collection

Hot Stamper Pressings of Classical Masterpieces Available Now

UPDATE 2025

Since moving to Georgia in 2023, my Hot Stamper listening sessions have come to a stop. I still have clear memories of hearing some of the great albums we sell, and many of those recollections inform the commentary found on this blog.

Dear Tom,

So what I can’t get out of my mind, you have been doing this all these years, your own personal collection must be the creme de la creme. Cannot even imagine. But sure would love to hear!

Dear Chuck,

I’ve had an extensive record collection for all of my life, right up until about fifteen years ago. Starting at the tender young age of 10, I bought the 45 of She Loves You on Swan records, which I still own. Can’t play it, it’s broken, but I keep it anyway. When I was a kid, I used to take my two dollar weekly allowance and buy two 45s with it. Did that for years. Still have them, close to two hundred in old carrying cases. I look forward to playing them in my retirement.

I had hundreds of amazing sounding LPs in my collection, the best of the best from more than 20 years of doing shootouts. About fifteen years ago I asked myself what were all these great sounding records sitting on a shelf for? I never played them because I got to hear all my favorite records every day, and after playing records all day, the last thing I wanted to do at night or on a weekend was pull a record off the shelf and play it.

So I put all my personal records into shootouts, and sometimes they did well and sometimes they did not. (Those of you who go back and play your old records from years past will surely find some real surprises, both good and bad.)

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