Parlophone/Apple – Letters, Reviews and Commentaries

One Customer’s Ten LP Shootout for Abbey Road

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about a Hot Stamper pressing of Abbey Road he purchased a while ago:

Hey Tom,   

I just played a couple of songs from the Abbey Road album ($850) I just purchased and I am blown away by the sound. The texture and clarity of the bass drum in Come Together is much more pronounced than any of the copies of the 10 Abbey Road copies that I have, including the MoFi and [Japanese] Pro Use albums. The album is so much better in all areas.

It was well worth the money and I am grateful to have it as it is my favorite album.

I like forward to hearing all of the songs. Wishing you all the best.

Ed

Ed,

That’s great news. Looking back through some of the emails we’ve exchanged, I see that I told you we would send you the best sounding Beatles records you ever imagined, and by the looks of it, apparently that turned out to be the case.

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Sgt. Pepper on Yellow and Black Parlophone

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

UPDATE 2026

This commentary was written in 2010, prompted by our good fortune in finding a clean, -1/-1 original pressing of Sgt. Pepper, at a local record store, in stereo no less.

Since that time I believe we have played at least one other early pressing. We are unlikely to play another.

The originals have almost nothing in common with the amazing pressings that end up winning our shootouts, none of which have ever been mastered in the 60s to the best of my knowledge, although it is possible that ten or fifteen years ago, before we really got to know the record the way we know it now, there might have been one or two from that decade.

Since then the cutoff is somewhere in the mid-70s. We leave the specific years for you to figure out.

Of course, if you bought a White Hot Stamper copy from us, you know at least one of the stampers for at least one of the sides that wins a shootout, and perhaps both if you happened to have purchased a 3/3 Top Shelf copy. (At the time of this writing there are a total of seven on the site, out of about 500 records. Needless to say, they are very hard to find.)

Certainly nothing from 1967 and nothing on the original label.

And definitely nothing in mono.

We had the opportunity not long ago to audition a very clean original early pressing of the album and were frankly quite taken aback by how just plain AWFUL it was in every respect. No top end above 8k or so, flabby bass, muddy mids — this was as far from Hot Stamper sound as you could get.

To be fair, we have played exactly one copy on our current system. (Played an early copy or two long ago but on much different equipment, so any judgments we might have made are highly suspect.) Perhaps there are good ones. We have no way of knowing whether there are, and we are certainly not motivated to find out given the price that original Sgt. Pepper’s pressings on the Yellow and Black label in audiophile playing condition are fetching these days.

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An RCA Direct Disc with Bad Music & Bad Sound, Like Most Audiophile Albums from the ’70s

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

The records being marketed to audiophiles these days may have second- and third-rate sound, but at least they now have good music. That’s progress, right?

It is progress, because this RCA direct to disc recording is the kind of crap that used to qualify as an “audiophile record” when I was starting out in the mid-70s. These records were displayed on the walls of all the hi-fi stores I used to frequent back in the day.

They cost a lot more than regular records did too. Many were pressed in Japan, and I vaguely recall that the retail prices were in the range of $15 to $18. That’s $77 to $92 in today’s money. Can you imagine paying that for a record with such poor sound and music?

The Beatles Medley is particularly misguided. These guys have no idea what to do with the music of The Beatles.

A record such as this clearly belongs in our audiophile hall of shame, which is a general catchall section for the many bad sounding records that have been marketed to audiophiles over the last fifty years. We’ve played and reviewed more than 300 to date, which of course is but a mere fraction of the many thousands of questionable pressings that have been produced since the 70s. There has always been a mid-fi collector market, and no shortage of enterprising types to take advantage of it.

It turns out that many of the most shameful offenders for sound are more recent releases that have only come our way in the last few years. Here are some of their stories.

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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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MoFi Mastering Variations – Will the Real Sgt. Pepper Please Stand Up?

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

Sgt. Pepper can be a pretty good sounding MoFi when it’s mastered by the right guy.

Say what?

Yes, dear reader, this album was mastered by two different engineers at Mobile Fidelity, and one of them, based on experiments we carried out years ago, did a much better job than the other.

This copy, which is far more rare by the way, has the better mastering — much less top end boost was added. As an aside, I used to like the other version better, but as I’ve gotten older and wiser, I realize that this pressing is superior, being noticeably less phony sounding.

It sounds much more like a good Parlophone and less like the typical Mobile Fidelity album.

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Letter of the Week – “They break so many conventions, and it all works. What planet did John and Paul come from?”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

One of our customers had this to say about some Hot Stamper pressings he purchased recently:

Hi Tom,

I just got The Beatles first album in the mail and put it on and it blew me away. I was thinking I didn’t need the first couple albums but this book I read, John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs by Ian Leslie, published in 2025. made me rethink all that.

I did not foresee reading ANOTHER Beatles book. It is getting over the top reviews but I looked at it because my friend from my college days recommended it. It covers many of the same events and anecdotes any real Beatles fan would know but that are given new context by viewing their history – fundamentally – through the prism of the relationship of these two friends.

You realize by the time they released their first album in 1963, they’d been preparing for it since 1958, egging each other on as performers and songwriters.

Paul had written songs actually predating 1958, but they made their union as songwriters soon after they met. They had learned so many great pop songs such that every song on those early albums is either an amazing cover they make their own (e.g. “Twist and Shout” “Boys” etc.) or one of their original compositions that demonstrates the depth of their skills.

They break so many conventions, and it all works. What planet did John and Paul come from?

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Letter of the Week – “The sound is incredible. Neil’s voice is right in the room.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Neil Young Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently, including After the Goldrush and Beatles For Sale: 

Hey Tom, 

Just wanted to write and tell you how much I love that Neil Young After The Gold Rush White Hot Stamper I picked up last week. Really awesome. This ranks up with the best I’ve bought from you guys.

The sound is incredible. Neil’s voice is right in the room. The guitar sounds real and that harmonica is super. I love when he performs, just him and nobody else. I’m really stuck on Neil’s albums. The sound is just soooo good. I’m working on my system to get more out of these records.

Oh yeah, I picked up one of your “Beatles for Sale” albums for $65. [This must be an old letter!] Really nice for the money. Those Beatles albums can really be awesome. Have to get a White Hot Stamper Beatles album someday. (more…)

Letter of the Week – “I feel (and tremble) as if I am sitting in the Abbey Road Studios while they are recording.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

Our good customer Alex had this to say about a White Hot Stamper pressing of Sgt. Peppers he purchased from us a while ago:

Hey Tom,   

I was very excited to have purchased a Triple/Triple Sgt. Pepper. So much so that I went out and bought a new stereo system. My copy arrived in January. There was no way I was going to take a chance and play it on my 30+ year-old vintage set-up. I have a friend who sells wicked awesome gear and I spent about a month from middle January to Middle February listening to quite a few turntables and speakers.

Once I settled on the system I then made an appointment to listen to Pepper. My wife and I went over to hear this White Hot Stamper.
The results? Tears of profound JOY.

And a big you-know-what eating grin on my face for the last week (and probably for the rest of my life). I was 9 years old in 1967 and I had only heard this LP on a cheap record player for years and I still loved it. It has been my most loved music for my entire life.

This copy is absolute, mind-blowing PERFECTION! The Fabs are at their BEST and I feel (and tremble) as if I am sitting in the Abbey Road Studios while they are recording.

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Letter of the Week – “… even my 65 year old father, with no musical background at all, was amazed when I play your Beatles stampers.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

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

Hey Tom, 

I have enjoyed your records since I got a “Sgt. Peppers” hot stamper in 2011, and you guys have never disappointed me!

Every time I play one of the hot stampers for my musician friends, I don’t tell them “it’s a special pressing” but just play the record – they always comment on the sound quality, almost always saying “that’s so clear, so clean, etc…” – even my 65 year old father, with no musical background at all, was amazed when I play your Beatles stampers. He said, “in my time, records sounded scratchy and noisy.” What a revelation the Hot Stamper is.

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Listening In Depth to Let It Be

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

This is the first time we’ve discussed individual tracks on Let It Be.

Our recent shootout [now many years ago], in which we discovered a mind-boggling, rule-breaking side one, motivated us to sit down and explain what the best copies should do on each side of the album for the tracks we test with. Better late than never I suppose. 

These also happen to be the ones that we can stand to hear over and over, dozens of times in fact, which becomes an important consideration when doing shootouts, as we must do them for hours on end.

On the better pressings the natural rock n’ roll energy of a song such as Dig A Pony will blow your mind. There’s no studio wizardry, no heavy-handed mastering, no phony EQ — just the sound of the greatest pop/rock band of all time playing and singing their hearts out.

It’s the kind of thrill you really don’t get from the more psychedelic albums like Sgt. Pepper’s or Magical Mystery Tour. You have to go all the way back to Long Tall Sally and Roll Over Beethoven to find the Beatles consistently letting loose the way they do on Let It Be (or at least on the tracks that are more or less live, which make up about half the album).

Side One

Two of Us

Dig a Pony

On the heavy guitar intro for Dig a Pony, the sound should be full-bodied and Tubey Magical, with plenty of bass. If your copy is too lean, just forget it, it will never rock.

What blew our minds about the Shootout Winning side one we played recently was how outrageously big, open and transparent it was. As the song started up the studio space seemed to expand in every direction, creating more height, width and depth than we had ever experienced with this song before.

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