*Robert Brook’s Guide

Robert Brook’s Guide for the Dedicated Analog Audiophile

Find the Dubs = Less Records = Progress!

Robert Brook runs a blog called The Broken Record, explaining that the aim of his blog is to serve as:

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Here is Robert’s posting from 8/26/2025 containing a great deal of good advice for record collectors and audiophiles of all ages, especially us old ones.

He admits to being wrong about the sound of a record he wrote about on his blog. When have you ever seen an audiophile admit to being wrong about a record? The very idea!

Why was he wrong? Because his stereo got dramatically better, so much better that he could see how mistaken he was about a Japanese pressing he thought for sure was made from the master tape. Now it sounds dubby. It was always dubby; he just hadn’t gotten his system, room, electricity, setup and who knows what else to the point where the true nature of that copy could be revealed.

Robert revisited a record he was sure he knew well, well enough to rave about on his blog, and found out things had changed — apparently quite a lot! — while he wasn’t looking.

A great deal of audio progress had been made, and that audio progress is what allowed Robert to also make some progress on the record collecting front, a win-win if every there was one. Congratulations are in order.

We here at Better Records live with this reality every day. Our mea culpas are occassioned by the shootouts we do for the same records over and over again, which is what allows us to discover even better pressings of albums than the ones we thought were the best. It’s surely the most rewarding part of the job.

FIND the DUBS = LESS RECORDS = PROGRESS!

Please to enjoy the lessons Robert learned.

I wrote about a similar experience I had myself back in the early-2000s.

If presently you are the happy owner of many Japanese pressings, perhaps now would be a good time to pull them out and play them. Very few master tapes went to Japan, and, as a result, most Japanese pressings in our experience sound like they are made from copy tapes, which of course they are.

Some of them have the potential for top quality sound, but most do not.

If your stereo is not revealing enough to show you their shortcomings, the way Robert’s was not revealing enough just five years ago, please take his advice and make the kinds of changes he has made.

The steps you take next will be the most satisfactory of all. Now you can clear the shelves of all your second- and third-tier records, which, of course, will not be limited to Japanese pressings, but should in fact include most of your Heavy Vinyl LPs, if not all of them. Let the culling begin!

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Compounding Distortion in Analog Audio

Robert Brook runs a blog called The Broken Record, with a subtitle explaining that his blog is:

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Compounding DISTORTION in ANALOG AUDIO

Some excerpts:

Your Hot Stampers will sound WAY better when you get your turntable set up right, isolate it properly and get the equipment you need to make the speed of your platter accurate and stable. And that’s because all of these system improvements are highly effective ways of reducing distortion and its effects on your system.

Aside from our records, our analog front end, our amp and our speakers, our electricity and its effects on our equipment represents yet one more source of distortion in our system. I’ve posted more than one article touching on this issue, and I have shared the ways in which I’ve learned to manage the electricity powering my gear.

When I posted my last article on electricity, I was convinced that improving the electricity going to my system by limiting the effects of other electrical devices in my home was absolutely essential for getting my system to sound its best. The reason being that improving my electricity seemed to greatly reduce the level of distortion in my system.

I still feel this way, but my views on why improving electricity helps have evolved. What I’ve come to understand, or at least understand better, is that back when I wrote that article and for a long time after, I had a lot more front-end distortion than I realized. That distortion was compounded in different ways, one of which was by way of the electricity.

Throwing breakers and unplugging appliances was and is an effective way of reducing compound distortion in my system and improving the way my records sound. But since revamping my turntable setup and learning to better control the platter speed, the improvements I hear by ameliorating the negative effects of my electricity are significantly less than they once were. In other words, with less front-end distortion there’s a lot less distortion to be compounded by bad electricity.

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System Neutrality — “Allowing the Music to Speak”

Robert Brook runs a blog called The Broken Record, with a subtitle explaining what the aim of his blog is:

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

We know of none better, outside of our own humble attempt to enlighten that portion of the audiophile community who love hearing music reproduced with the highest fidelity and are willing to go the extra mile to make that happen.

System NEUTRALITY: “ALLOWING the MUSIC to SPEAK”

An excerpt:

I am here to tell you, however, that in the few short hours that I spent with Robert and his system, I gained a tremendous amount of knowledge, both in technical tweaks and in the philosophy of how to listen. Despite owning either identical hardware or that of similar ilk (same speakers, cartridge, similar turntable, treatments, and so on). Robert’s system sounded fundamentally different from mine.”

This is surely the result of the large numbers of small changes — with potentially big effects — Robert made to his system, proof that the 80/20 rule is real.

If you click on the 80/20 link above you will find links to hundreds of test records at the bottom of the commentary, along with this paragraph:

These are the records that challenged me and helped me to achieve more progress in audio. If you want to improve your stereo, these are some of the best records we know of to help you take your system to the next level.

To that end, I recently compiled a list of seventy or so records that had been helpful in getting my system to sound better, mostly by working on the many problems I heard when attempting to hear them at their best over the course of the last forty-plus years.

These two were by far the most helpful, but, as I say, there were scores of them, records that I played hundreds and hundreds of times while I went about tweaking and testing. (That’s how I ended up with the lovely lattice all over my soundroom that you can see in the pictures below.)

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Letter of the Week – “Holy Smokes! I could not believe how much better the sonic quality was right off the bat.”

Robert Brook runs a blog called The Broken Record, with a subtitle explaining that the aim of his blog is to serve as:

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

We know of none better, outside of our own humble attempt to enlighten that portion of the audiophile community who love hearing music reproduced with the highest fidelity and are willing to go the extra mile to make that happen.

A customer of ours writes about finally getting his turntable, arm and cartridge set up properly, thanks to Robert’s inspiration.

After reading Robert’s blogs, I got the courage to do it. Never messed with that stuff before.

Never again will I let someone else do the setup. Holy crap!

The cartridge was snug on the headshell so I left that alone. Checked azimuth to the best I could with a mirror and a lighted magnifying glass.

The stylus and reflection appeared to line up vertically. Left it alone.

l reset the balance of the tonearm, zeroed out the counterweight, set VTF to 2 grams on the counterweight and used a digital scale to measure VTF. Set it at 2.00. Recommended by manufacturer.

Set the anti-skating to match VTF. They matched up beautifully.

OK, feeling good about what I am doing.

The outfit that set up my turntable had the VTF set to heavy and the anti-skating set on the wrong setting.

Ready to test my handiwork…. Put a Hot Stamper on the turntable, turned up the volume a bit and sat down in my sweet spot.

Needle dropped onto record. Holy Smokes! I could not believe how much better the sonic quality was right off the bat.

The overall soundfield, bottom to top, midrange area, the 3-D effect of everything was so much more brilliant, alive and absolutely amazing.

Jackpot! The adjustment worked and taught me to learn to do it myself.

Thank you Tom and Robert!

Mike

Mike, that’s great to hear. Now all your records will sound better, and it didn’t cost you a dime to make that happen.

Thanks for writing,

TP

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For Your Pleasure Is That and a Lot More

Robert Brook runs a blog called The Broken Record, with a subtitle explaining that the aim of his blog is to serve as:

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

FOR YOUR PLEASURE is THAT and MORE

In 1975, after reading a rave review for Siren, their fifth album in Rolling Stone, I took the plunge, bought a copy at my local Tower Records and instantly fell in love with it. I was 21 at the time and that album completely knocked me out. I had never heard anything like it. I knew nothing about the band or their style of music, now known as Art Rock, but it quickly became my favorite genre, and still is.

Naturally I 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 accomplish. I spent years trying to get into For Your Pleasure (the lesser of the two albums with Eno in the band), but eventually I wrapped my head around it and learned to enjoy what it has to offer.

The first three albums are by far the band’s best sounding.

Now I listen to each of the first five releases on a regular basis, as well as Avalon, Viva! Roxy Music, a few later albums and many of the Ferry solo releases. It’s probably true that I play Roxy Music and Roxy Music-adjacent albums more than those of any other band. That might have something to do with the fact that even after more than fifty years, this band’s music never seems to get old.

Robert is correct when he points out that Roxy’s early work does not seem to find much favor with the record buying public these days, not even with audiophiles who, one would think, would be attracted to the phenomenal recording quality of the early albums.

As a lifelong fan I have put Better Records’ substantial resources to work in order to find, clean and play as many Roxy Music albums as we can find willing buyers for. There turn out to be fewer buyers than I would have liked, to be sure, but enough to keep their albums on the site and potentially create some new fans, which should be a lot easier now that we know which are the best sounding pressings for all their albums.

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Finding the Demo Disc in Your Collection: A New Champion is Crowned!

Robert Brook runs a blog called The Broken Record, with a subtitle explaining that the aim of his blog is to serve as:

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Finding the DEMO DISC in Your Collection: A New Champion is CROWNED!

We Love the Record Too

Here is how we described a recent shootout winning copy:

The mastering EQ is close to perfection, with correct tonality from top to bottom. It’s surprisingly rich and smooth. Transparency and top-end extension were excellent as well. The timpani has the weight and whomp of the real thing, and they’re way at the back where they should be.

This is a superb Demonstration disc, but it is also an excellent Test disc. The sound of the best copies is rich, full-bodied, incredibly spacious, and exceptionally extended up top. There is a prodigious amount of musical information spread across the soundstage, much of it difficult to reproduce.

Musicians are banging on so many different percussive devices (often at the far back of the stage, or, even better, far back and left or right) that getting each one’s sonic character to clearly come through is a challenge — and when you’ve met it, a thrill. If you’ve done your homework, this is the kind of record that can show you what you’ve accomplished.

On the best copies the strings have wonderful texture and sheen. If your system isn’t up to it (or you have a copy with a problem in this area), the strings might sound a little shrill and possibly grainy as well, but I’m here to tell you that the sound on the best copies is just fine with respect to string tone and timbre. You will need to look elsewhere for the problem.

Tops for Table Tweaking

The recording has tremendous transients and dynamics as well; be prepared to have trouble tracking it. In that respect it’s a prime candidate for table, cartridge and system tweaking. (I once adjusted my anti-skate while playing this very album, at the time dialing it in to a “T”.

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Robert Brook Hears the Magic of Spain on Vinyl

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Chabrier Available Now

Robert Brook has a blog which he calls

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Below is a link to the review he has written for one of our favorite records, Chabrier Orchestral Music with Ansermet (CS 6438).

He also had the famous TAS List recording of Espana to play, CS 6006 with Argenta, in order to compare the two.

We know of no other performances of Espana to compete with these in terms of sonics. I think you will find Robert’s review of interest, a good overview of what each of the recordings has to offer the advanced audiophile.

Chabrier’s España: Brought to LIFE with SUPER HOT Sound!

Further Reading

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What’s on Your Turntable and Why?

Robert Brook runs a blog called The Broken Record, with a subtitle explaining that his blog is:

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Here is Robert’s latest posting.

WHAT’s On Your TURNTABLE? and WHY?

You say your stereo is having trouble playing challenging recordings like The Firebird with Dorati?

You can’t get the strings in the loudest passages to sound the way you think they should? Too screechy are they? Or too smeary? Or too thin? Or too hard? Or even congested and almost distorted in the climaxes?

It’s amazing how many different ways there are for strings on an orchestral recording to sound wrong. If getting The Firebird’s strings to sound right is a goal you wish to achieve, you, my friend, have your work cut out for you.

Because nothing in audio is harder than reproducing the massed strings on the biggest, boldest orchestral recordings.

We have some good test discs for that specific purpose, but it will take a real commitment from you to bring about the success you seek.

Audio Is Hard

This is a drum we have been banging on for as long as I can remember, to the constant irritation of every less-than-serious audiophile who comes in contact with us — which all well and good. We haven’t catered to that crowd since we gave up on Heavy Vinyl in 2007.

We’re trying to reach a much smaller subgroup of more serious enthusiasts with our approach to audio and records. See here, here and here, and there are great many more discussions to be found on our audio advice page.

If you want to achieve any real success in audio, you need to do a lot of work and spend a fair amount of money. Not a fortune, maybe not even six figures, but trying to do audio on the cheap is a fool’s errand. It can’t be done.

Why is it any of our business how your system sounds? If it’s good enough for you, why isn’t it good enough for us?

A true Hi-Fidelity rig is in fact what makes our business possible.

Without top quality sound, our records can’t possibly be worth the admittedly high prices we charge for them.

We want to help you take audio to the next level for two reasons: one, because that’s where our records really come to life, and two, that’s where the shortcomings of the modern Heavy Vinyl reissue are too glaringly obvious to ignore.

I found a way to get there. Like me, Robert Brook found a way.

We believe that the more time you spend following the advice on our two blogs explaining how we got to where we are now, the clearer the path forward will be. We hope you can learn from our experience. It will cost you nothing and might just save you a great deal of money.

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Robert Brook Revisits a White Hot Stamper Pressing of The Eagles

Robert Brook runs a blog called The Broken Record, with a subtitle explaining that the aim of his blog is to serve as:

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Here is a posting Robert wrote many years ago and has recently updated.

EAGLES: WHITE HOT and SOARING HIGHER!

A quote I rather liked:

You can throw a Hot Stamper onto your rig and hear that it sounds better than your crappy “audiophile” 180g reissue, but when you compare it to your high res digital file, you’re not quite sure which one you like better.

The digital vs. analog debate, perhaps the most enduring in all of audio, persists because only a handful of audiophiles have truly realized the full potential of analog in their systems.

You may be reading this thinking “hey whad’ya mean! My analog system sounds great!.” And it very well may sound great, but I thought and still think that my copy of Eagles sounds great, and let me tell you, the White Hot Stamper is a WHOLE new platter of wax!

The tubey jangle of the guitars, the room filling weight of the drums and bass, the airy, spacious, luscious vocal harmonies, and every last sumptuous element of the mix, unmoored, liberated from obscuration so completely that the music, freed from every conceivable resolution constraint, SOARS to life in the listening room.

That’s what this White Hot Stamper of Eagles sounds like, and that’s what analog is ALL ABOUT!

This record, The Dude be damned, is one of my all time favorites. It’s a delicious recording on even a decent copy. My current copy, which bested several others, was competitive on side 1, but laid to waste by the White Hot on side 2. And that was the side I thought mine had nailed!

Eagles lives and dies by the vocal harmonies, and when the backing vocals are as clear and present and alive as the lead vocal is on most other records then you know you’re hearing a very special copy.

Here is our description of a recent copy that is up on the site at this time.

Super Hot and $699 — affordable maybe for some, certainly not cheap, but as Robert makes clear in his review, one of the most amazing sounding recordings in the history of popular music on the right pressing, and the right pressings are the only ones we offer.

The notes for our Shootout Winning copy from 2024 can be seen at the very end of this post. Side two was a “strong 3+, ” which we would have called 4+, Beyond White Hot, way back when, but we stopped doing that many years ago.

Side two was HTF — Hard To Fault. This may have been the side two that Robert is raving about in his review.

My current copy, which bested several others, was competitive on side 1, but laid to waste by the White Hot on side 2. And that was the side I thought mine had nailed!

Eagles lives and dies by the vocal harmonies, and when the backing vocals are as clear and present and alive as the lead vocal is on most other records then you know you’re hearing a very special copy.

Can’t argue with any of that! That’s what we heard too.

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What Does Neutral in Audio Really Mean?

Robert Brook runs a blog called The Broken Record, with a subtitle explaining that his blog is:

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Here is Robert’s latest posting.

What Does NEUTRAL in Audio REALLY MEAN?

I wrote about this very subject in one of Robert’s postings from 2024, this one. Here is most of what I had to say at the time:

Dramatic limitations and massive amounts of colorations are endemic to home audio systems.

The only way to get rid of them is by doing the unimaginably difficult work it takes to learn how to identify them and then figure out practical ways to root them out.

This, in my experience, is a process that will rarely be accomplished, even by the truly dedicated. It unfolds slowly, over the course of decades, and only for a very small percentage of audiophiles. Most will simply give up at some point and choose to enjoy whatever sound quality they have managed to achieve up to that time. To attempt to go further feels like banging your head against a wall.

Regrettably, to push on in this devilishly difficult hobby we have chosen for ourselves is for the few, not the many.

(Of course it didn’t hurt that we got paid to do it. An undiagnosed but all-too-real obsessive personality disorder also played a part, as did certain records that I fell in love with a long time ago.)

Pass/Not-Yet

In our opinion, some of those who gave up the fight did so prematurely.

They thought they’d come a long way, and perhaps they had, but there was still plenty of potentially life-changing improvement possible.

Can you blame them? Devoting the seemingly endless amounts of time and money necessary to climb the greased ladder leading to better sound is not a choice most audiophiles are in a position to make.

Wives, children, jobs, mortgages, and a great deal more — especially the lack of a dedicated listening room — all conspire to limit the efforts of even the most committed audiophile.

Not to pile on, but there is an easy way to spot these folks, the ones who could only take it so far:

    1. By the records they own (many of which are on Heavy Vinyl),
    2. Or want to buy (ditto),
    3. Or have nice things to say about (ditto again, read the posts found on every audiophile forum).

We’ve made a partial list of the records that best identify this group, and it can be found here.

It should be noted that bad records, the kind being made by audiophile labels of every stripe these days, are no good for any of this work. The goal is to figure out how to make top quality vintage pressings sound right. (More on that subject here.)

Most new pressings will only sound enjoyable if the system playing them is good at hiding their flaws. We hope it goes without saying that no right-thinking audiophile should want anything to do with such a system, or such records.

And with his latest post, Robert Brook proves once again that he is an audiophile who knows what the goal of playing music in the home should be — to make it sound as natural and lifelike as possible — and, even more importantly, he recognized that it would take years of work to make that sound a reality, and knowing all that, committed himself to the task.

And why has he done all this work?

Because he is the one who gets all the benefits.

He gets to hear the greatest music ever recorded in a more powerfully immersive way than 99% of the audiophiles who share neither his approach nor his ambition. (You can add work ethic for the trifecta.)

If you want easy answers and quick fixes, Robert (and I) will tell you there are no such things in the world of audio. Until you’ve done the work, this way of thinking may seem counterintuitive and confusing, especially if you’ve spent much time on audiophile forums.

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