Not long ago we dropped the needle on an OJC copy of the album you see pictured and thought the sound was not good enough to for the serious audiophiles we cater to, especially at the prices we charge.
As far as we can tell, based on this single pressing, All Night Long is not an album that would be worth the costs associated with finding, cleaning and playing enough copies for a shootout.
It was dry and bright, which is a sound a great many OJC pressings tend to have, sounding more like CDs than vintage vinyl pressings.
This title would be more or less passable, even to some degree enjoyable, if played on the old school audio systems of the 60s and 70s, but it would not begin to cut it on the high quality modern equipment we use.
We can’t say that there aren’t good sounding pressings of the album though. If we happen to hear a good sounding one down the road, we would certainly consider spending the money to do a real shootout in order to make the better copies available to our customers.
Perhaps you have a pressing of the record you like. If so, please tell us more about it. You can email me at tom@better-records.com
We Do The Work
We’ve auditioned countless pressings in the 39 years we’ve been in business — buying, cleaning and playing them by the thousands.
This is how we find the best sounding vinyl pressings ever made, through trial and error. It may be expensive and time consuming, but there is simply no other method for finding better sounding pressings that actually works. If you know of one, please write me!
We are not the least bit interested in pressings that are “known” to sound the best.
Known by whom? Which audiophiles — hobbyists or professionals, take your pick — can be trusted to know what they are talking about when it comes to the sound of the wealth of pressings available for virtually every title we’ve ever played.
I have never met one, outside of those of us who work for Better Records. I remain skeptical of the existence of such a creature.
We’re looking for the pressings of albums that do sound the best. You know, when you pull them off your record shelves and play them.
If you’re an audiophile with an ear for top quality sound on vintage vinyl, we’d be happy to send you the Hot Stamper pressing guaranteed to beat anything you’ve ever heard, especially if you have any LP made for the audiophile market. Those, with few exceptions, are rarely better than mediocre, and a great many are just awful, especially these.
And if we can’t beat whatever LP you own or have heard, you get your money back. It’s as simple as that.
UPDATE: 2026
Woops, my bad. I have met one, a certain Mr. Robert Brook. He has been conducting his own shootouts for a few years now and has made his findings available on his blog, The Broken Record. This is information you can trust.
Further Reading
- To find better sounding records, neglect your beautiful ideas
- The science of Hot Stampers – incomplete, imperfect, and provisional
- First get good sound – then you can recognize and acquire good records
