Month: February 2026

Letter of the Week – “I heard things on there that I never heard before.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Pink Floyd Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about some a Hot Stamper pressing of Meddle he purchased a while back:

Hi Tom,

Got the Meddle album already.  I sat down as soon as I opened it and listened to both sides with the volume up.

Absolutely blew me away. I heard things on there that I never heard before. Or I just heard them better.

I didn’t have to listen to my other copies. I knew right away this one was IT.

Listening to a record like this just gets me thinking what the other Hot Stampers sound like.

Steve

Steve,

Thanks for writing.

You are completely right. Some pressings are so obviously superior that no comparisons are necessary. Going back to your old copies would be shocking — how could I have put up with such substandard sound quality?

In 2007 we discovered the Hottest Stampers of them all, a reissue pressing if you can believe it — something we have no trouble believing as we much prefer to let the evidence be our guide when it comes to which are the best pressings, not theories, preconceived ideas or conventional wisdom. From that point on there was no going back.

It turns out that there is one and only one set of stampers that consistently wins our shootouts for  Meddle.  This link will take you to other titles with one set of stampers that always come out on top.

The Prelude Record Cleaning System had a lot to do with that breakthrough, and we have been big fans of the system Mr. Walker developed ever since. In addition to getting them clean, we know of nothing that does as much for the sound of records.

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Delibes / Sylvia and Coppelia / Rignold

Hot Stamper Classical and Orchestral Pressings Available Now

UPDATE 2026

This review is from way back in 2008, from the olden days before we were doing regular shootouts for all the albums we sell, so take it for what it’s worth. (If you like the music of Delibes, our favorite recording of Coppelia can be found here.)

In 2008 we had been seriously into collecting the highest quality record pressings for more than thirty years, yet it was obvious that we still had a lot to learn.

In 2004 we started selling vintage vinyl with Hot Stampers, and practically every shootout we did taught us something new and interesting about records.

Much of that information ended up here, on a blog we’ve dedicated to teaching audiophiles how they can find better sounding pressings the way we did.

We wanted to share what we’ve discovered about the highest quality vinyl and, even more importantly, we wamted to prove that experimenting with records under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to learn anything of value about them.

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On the Beach – Here’s the Live in the Studio Sound We Love

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Neil Young Available Now

UPDATE 2026

Years ago we described a Shootout Winning early pressing with the comments you see below. (Please excuse the excessive capitalization.)

We’ve been trying for a while to find a copy of this album with the kind of wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling sound we get from the best copies of Zuma and After The Gold Rush, but it hasn’t been easy.

However, on the best copies, the title track is out of this world.

It’s got that live-in-the-studio sound we recognize and love from Zuma, but in this case it sounds like it was recorded at three in the morning in a room full of pot smoke.

When you play a Hot Stamper copy, the soundfield is huge — big, wide, and deep — and there’s lots of space around all the instruments. You will not believe all the studio ambience, and you may even catch a contact high from it.

Two Knockout Sides

Side one held its own against every copy we threw against it, earning our top grade of A+++. The sound is relaxed, musical, and SUPER transparent — there’s virtually nothing between you and the music. Neil’s voice is PERFECTION with lots of texture, and it is surrounded by lovely ambience.

Play the second track, See The Sky About To Rain, to hear some mellow magic. Neil’s work on the wurlitzer sounds fantastic, and the soft, breathy vocals are bound to give you goosebumps.

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Roberta Flack – Feel Like Makin’ Love

More of the Music of Roberta Flack

  • Incredible sound throughout this vintage Atlantic pressing, with both sides earning Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them
  • We guarantee there is dramatically more space, richness, vocal presence, and performance energy on this copy than others you’ve heard, and that’s especially true if you made the mistake of buying whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing is currently on the market
  • This is a lot of money for a somewhat noisy copy, but the sound is so awesome and quiet pressings of the album so hard to come by that we hope someone will take a chance on it and get the thrill we did from hearing it sound right for once
  • “Capping off a string of early-70s hits with this album’s title track, Roberta Flack would soon take a sabbatical from the spotlight in 1975. And while she would return to the stage and studio, Flack never quite hit the heights of this and the handful of other MOR soul releases from the first half of the decade… Feel Like Making Love will still please the singer’s dedicated fans.”

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Badfinger – Straight Up Is Back!

More Classic Rock

  • With outstanding Double Plus (A++) grades from top to bottom, this early Apple pressing is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other Straight Up you’ve heard
  • The sound here just jumps out of the speakers, which is exactly what the better copies of the album are supposed to (but rarely) do
  • If you like your Rock and Pop with minimal audio processing and the most natural, raw and real sound, the hottest of the Hot Stamper pressings we offer will sound exactly the way you want them to
  • If you’re a fan of the band – or Power Pop in general – this is the Straight Up you’ve been waiting for
  • Straight Up is one of the hardest albums to find with audiophile-quality playing surfaces (as these sides can attest to), which is the main reason our last shootout was more than ten years ago (!)
  • Problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs, but once you hear just how superb sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting ticks and pops and just be swept away by the music
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…Here, there’s absolutely no filler and everybody is in top form. Pete Ham’s ‘Baby Blue’ is textbook power-pop — irresistibly catchy fuzz riffs and sighing melodies — and with its Harrison-esque slide guitars, ‘Day After Day’ is so gorgeous it practically aches. ‘Perfection’ is an unheralded gem, while ‘Name of the Game’ and ‘Take It All’ are note-perfect pop ballads.”
  • If I had to compile a list of my Favorite Rock and Pop Albums from 1971, this album would definitely be on it

This is Power Pop, plain and simple. The basics are what count: punchy drums, grungy guitars, present vocals, clear but full bass lines — just the meat and potatoes of rock, no fancy sauces.

For this music to work, all the elements need to be in balance, with correct timbre for the relatively few instruments that make up the arrangements.

Opacity, smear or grit instantly destroy the whole point of having a straightforward production, which is to be able to have all the parts laid out cleanly and clearly.

The idea is to get the production out of the way and just let the music speak for itself.

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These Are the Stampers to Avoid on With The Beatles

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

In our experience, the stereo pressings with -2/-2 stampers are terrible sounding. We do not have any on hand, but we doubt that -1/-1 — the original, the first, the one approved by George Martin himself! — is any better.

With -2 stampers this is a hall of shame pressing, as well as another early LP reviewed and found wanting.

That Old Canard

The early pressings are consistently grittier, edgier and more crude than the later pressings we’ve played. So much for the idea that the “original is better.” When it comes to With The Beatles it just ain’t so, and it doesn’t take a state of the art system or a pair of golden ears to hear it.

The audiophile and record collecting community seems to have failed to reckon with the faults of the early Beatles pressings, but we here at Better Records are doing our best to correct their misperceptions, one Hot Stamper pressing at a time.

It may be a lot of work, but we don’t mind — we love The Beatles! We want to find the best sounding copies of ALL their records, and there is simply no other way to do it than to play them by the dozens, as you can see from the picture below.

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Where on The TAS Super Disc List Is This Amazing Recording?

Hot Stamper Pressings of Recordings by Decca Available Now

This commentary is from about 2008 or thereabouts. At the time we wrote:

The fact that entries such as Reiner’s Pines of Rome make the cut, and an amazing recording such as this doesn’t, should tell you everything you need to know concerning the value of such an incomplete list.

UPDATE 2024

Woops, we sure got that wrong. We happen to love the Reiner Pines of Rome now.

Be that as it may, this pressing of Ansermets’ recording of Iberia has truly Demo Disc quality sound.

Records simply do not get any more spacious, open, transparent, rich and sweet.

No need to update any of that. It’s all still true. What a recording!

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Wild Things Run Fast – A Personal Favorite

Hot Stamper Pressing of the Music of Joni Mitchell Available Now

One of our favorite Joni Mitchell albums.

A Desert Island disc for me and one of the few good reasons to listen to new music in the 80s. 

My personal Must Own Joni Mitchell list includes:

  1. 1968 Song to a Seagull
  2. 1971 Blue
  3. 1974 Court and Spark
  4. 1982 Wild Things Run Fast

WTRF is a TAS list Super Disc with many good qualities, but you’d never know it from the typically lean, bass-shy pressing you might find on your turntable.

Also, since this record can be a little cold sounding — it’s a modern recording after all, and 1982 is sadly nothing like 1972  — filling it out and warming it up is just what the doctor ordered.

John Golden (JG) mastered the originals. The best of them prove that he did a great job at least some of the time. (To find “the best of them,” aka Hot Stampers, read on.)

You can count on the fact that our Hot Stamper pressings will be unusually rich and full-bodied, with lovely warmth and presence.

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Elton John – Too Low For Zero

More Elton John

  • You’ll find KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on both sides of this early British import LP – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • There’s real Tubey Magic on this album, along with breathy vocals and plenty of rock and roll energy
  • “I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues” – the best song Elton’s done in the last 35 years – is the best reason to own the album
  • One of engineer Bill Price‘s best efforts behind the boards in the ’80s, and Chris Thomas’s production is State of the Art as usual
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Happily, this is a reunion that works like gangbusters, capturing everybody at a near-peak of their form.”
  • If you’re an Elton John fan, and what audiophile wouldn’t be?, this title from 1983 is surely a Must Own

Much of the production – the smooth, sweet harmony vocals, the rich, grungy guitars, the solid, warm piano – reminds me of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, one of the classics from back in the day when Gus Dudgeon was running the show.

Caribou (1974) and Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975) have a similarly glossy, perfectionist approach to production as well. It was 1975’s Rock of the Westies that went off in another direction.

The next six albums, from Blue Moves to Jump Up, at least to these ears, don’t sound good enough or have the kind of consistently high-quality material that was the hallmark of the six albums recorded from 1970 to 1973. Four of those are in our Top 100 Rock and Pop album list, and all four are Must Owns in my book. Pop music just doesn’t get any better.

So if Too Low For Zero reminds us in any way of those albums, especially in the songwriting department now that Bernie Taupin has rejoined team Elton after a too-long hiatus, that is all to the good.

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Cream – Wheels Of Fire

More of the Music of Cream

  • Cream rocks on these vintage UK import pressings with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on sides one and two, and solid Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it on sides three and four
  • The power and energy of these live sides is off the charts — punchy, open, and spacious with bass and WHOMP you have never experienced for this music, guaranteed (particularly on side three)
  • Everything you’d want sonically from a live Cream recording is present on this copy – big-time presence, an abundance of life, tonal correctness, and loads of Tubey Magic (also particularly on side three)
  • Those of you looking for a White Hot copy with Triple Plus (A+++) sound on both the studio disc and the live disc will be disappointed to learn (as we were) that no such copy came out of our most recent shootout, making this one of the best copies we can offer this time around
  • 4 stars: “…[Eric] Clapton is at a peak here, whether he’s tearing off solos on a 17-minute ‘Spoonful’ or goosing ‘White Room’ toward the heights of madness. But it’s the architect of ‘White Room,’ bassist Jack Bruce, who, along with his collaborator Peter Brown, reaches a peak as a songwriter…. [I]n many ways Wheels of Fire is indeed filled with Cream’s very best work.
  • If you’re a fan of Clapton and the band, this RSO UK import from 1968 belongs in your collection.

It’s exceptionally difficult to find even decent sounding copies of this album. We’ve played SCORES of original domestic copies, original imports, and all kinds of reissues over the years, and it’s very rare to find a copy that sounds this good on all four sides. (more…)