Pursuing Perfect Sound with ab_ba

One of our best customers has lots to say about his Hot Stampers, both the ones he likes and the ones he doesn’t. Which is fine by us. To each his own.

We Get Letters – “We could appreciate every tiny decision Heiftez was making. When the orchestra came in, it was thunder.”

More of the music of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

More of the Music of Pink Floyd

Dear Tom,

The next best thing to a big pile of Better Records is a friend with a big pile of Better Records.

Last night my good buddy Bill came over with a selection from his recent spate of hot stamper purchases.

You remember Bill, right? He’s the friend who knew I was into stereos, so he came over for some advice about how to assemble a top of the line modern digital playback system.

I played him my White Hot Stamper of Rumours, he buried his face in his hands, and took a deep plunge into building himself a Port-recommended vinyl playback rig, and he’s now a Better Records aficionado.

First up, we played his White Hot Stamper of the Tchaikovsky violin concerto. It was magnificent. We could appreciate every tiny decision Heiftez was making. When the orchestra came in, it was thunder.

Then, we played my Super Hot Stamper. Same stamper, and mine had quieter vinyl, but man, the sound just wasn’t the same. Mine was more shrill (but slightly), and the orchestra was less meaty (but slightly.) I’ve always loved my copy, still do, but the White Hot Stamper clearly improved on it. We were simply hearing more music.

I know a lot of people say they have great sounding records. For anybody who thinks they may have stumbled across a hot stamper out in the wild, I have one simple test: turn it up. If it’s a true White Hot Stamper, you just want to keep turning up the volume. If you get to the point where you say, “actually, that’s a little too loud. Let me just dial it back a little. Ah, that’s better.” Well then, you don’t have a hot stamper on your hands. White Hot Stampers just invite you to play them loud. There’s no limit, they just cohere without getting shrill or strident. It’s a truly strange effect, and until you hear it for yourself, you won’t believe me.

Next up, we put on Bill’s White Hot Stamper of The Wall. Very loud, of course. It was probably the best my stereo has ever sounded.

 

Thanks for what you and your crew do, Tom.

ab_ba

Dear ab_ba,

You are indeed very fortunate to have had such an experience. Not many of my customers get to listen to the better pressings their friends have, but that seems to be the case with you and your buddy Bill. And you can be sure he paid a pretty penny for those two titles; they don’t come cheap.

Of course, Bill is actually the one who should be in your debt, as I’m sure he knows. You kept him from making the worst mistake of them all: buying a digital-based stereo, a blind alley if ever there was one, and the place where dreams of wonderful music reproduced in the home go to die.

Thanks for writing. Glad you are enjoying your Hot Stampers, and those that belong to your friends too.

Best, TP

Further Reading

If you’re searching for the perfect sound, you came to the right place.

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Heretics and True Believers Clash on the Battlefield in Cyberspace, Part Two

More Letters from Customers and Critics Alike

Part one of this conversation can be found here. [Some bolding and such added.]

Hi, Tom,

Are there other great-sounding stereos out there? I’m sure there are. Just as there are great-sounding records still to be found out in the wild.

But, the stereo I’ve built by rapidly copying what you did painstakingly over decades is giving me better sound from recorded music than I’ve encountered almost anywhere else, including on far more expensive systems. It’s also more honest, direct, and revealing than stereos usually are.

First, I trusted you on records, and you were right. Then, I trusted you on stereos, and you were right again.

As for how people can find great-sounding records. I expressed three pieces of the advice I’ve come to realize are true. All controversial enough, apparently, to get a thread shut down.

First, they can buy records from you.

If they don’t yield sound commensurate with price, just return the darned thing. A couple Better Records a year will probably build somebody a better-sounding vinyl collection than the same amount of money dumped in a shop or on Discogs. Tom, I have never encountered a disappointed *customer* of yours.

Second, don’t ascribe to hard and fast rules.

No, it is not true that all records from a given pressing house or mastering engineer are the definitive versions. There are better-sounding copies sitting in bins at used shops. Not all of them, but some, and they are often cheaper. This is a reality that is hard to find online, because it turns out it is hard to state it online.

Third, if you want to find great-sounding records on your own, plan to buy lots of copies of a particular title.

Avoid original pressings – those are not guaranteed to sound better, and they come at a premium.

[I take issue with this idea, see below.]

Play them all, pick your favorite (one, in my experience, is likely to stand out). Then, hope that your local shop takes returns, or that you are able to unload them on Discogs. Might somebody save themselves some money doing it this way, compared to buying a record from you? Maybe? But then, if they decide to “check their work” by buying a record from you, yours is going to sound better.

When I offered this advice on that forum, I got told I was wrong. Instead, those guys have a formula that works for them. I’d say it’s a formula for ending up with Pretty Good Records. First, you search the forums to find the deadwax for a copy that somebody has commented is THE one to have.

They usually don’t mention what type of equipment they have, or how many other copies of that record they’ve heard, or even what in particular about it sounds good. For me, going after pressings recommended online has never been a reliable way to find a great-sounding record.

And, when I get a Better Record, I check to see if it is a stamper that’s already known to sound good. Almost always, there’s no mention of it anywhere. Second piece of accepted wisdom on the forums: NM always sounds better than VG+. Here’s something I said that seemed to really piss people off: Good-sounding records got played a lot. Somebody really took me to task for suggesting that I had purchased from you a copy of a record I love that would probably grade VG+ based on the appearance of its surfaces, but that was delivering sound so good, I had zero desire to hunt for another copy, even the same deadwax in NM condition. Sure, I’d buy it if I ever came across it, but I would not expect it to sound better than the copy I already had. So, even among a group of seasoned vinyl listeners that understand certain truths they still seem to live by certain principles in collecting records that simply do not work consistently.

I’ve spent a lot of time blaming myself for the money and time I wasted on pretty-good records, played on a pretty-good stereo. I trusted the magazines and the salesmen. I don’t think they were being disingenuous; I just think they didn’t know any better. I trusted the splashy websites, the satisfied customer reviews, the youtube gushes, and the forum posters. This many people can’t all be wrong. They must know what they are talking about. And, I wasn’t hearing any other information.

Now I know why I wasn’t hearing any countervailing views – they get deleted. For somebody who wants to attain better sound, there’s your shop, and more importantly, your blog. I know the vast majority of people who come across either of these will dismiss them outright. Their loss. A few will return, and be better off for it – even, financially.

The most painful accusation I encountered on the forum was that I am doing people a disservice by leading them to spend their money and not get anything in return. It hurt to read that. Of course, I would never want to do that. To anybody who becomes your customer because I said they should give it a try, I’d give them the same advice you gave me early on: Take it slow. Once you discover how good these records can sound, there’s a real urge to start snapping them up. Instead, just take it slow. Enjoy each one. Better Records isn’t going anywhere.

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“Tom, what about the argument that the engineers had to make the records sound good on the equipment of the day?”

More Letters from Customers and Critics Alike

OK, what about it?

Let’s dig in.

One of our good customers had some questions about a commentary we wrote entitled a kinder, gentler approach to record reviewing.

Tom, what about the argument that the engineers had to make the records sound good on the equipment of the day? Now that we have better gear, these guys can make the record sound the way it was originally intended. I think Chad said this about Rudy Van Gelder at some point in the video.

For the benefit of the reader, the video in question can be found on youtube under the title “Michael Fremer, Chad Kassem, Geoff Edgers: A Journey Back to Vinyl.”

Edgers was invited, apparently under pretext as it turns out, to talk about his article, but instead he was pressed into defending me most of the time. Kassem and Fremer — two individuals whose talents, such as they are, could not be more ill-suited to the work they have chosen for themselves — beat up on Edgers for about two hours.

As an aside, Geoff is a good guy and he certainly didn’t deserve this kind of mistreatment. Fremer and Kassem won’t apologize to him — that’s not something they are known to do — so please allow me to apologize to Geoff on their behalf.

I’m sure he has trouble understanding to this day why he was forced into acting as a spokesman for Better Records. Regardless of how he feels about it, we thank him for his service to the cause. (To be clear, he didn’t exactly take my side, which is the right thing for a reporter to do. He wanted to know why our disagreements upset them so much.)

For those of you who like to watch bickering and sniping from a couple of thin-skinned egomaniacs who can’t stand the fact that someone doesn’t think the records they like — or in the case of Chad, produce and sell — are any good, have I got a video for you. If you want to undertand how seriously you should take these two guys, both at the top of their respective mountains, watch the video and make your own judgments.

Our letter writer continues:

Suppose, that the RL cut of Zeppelin 2 had never existed, because Ludwig knew better than to cut it that way, knowing that most stereos couldn’t play it? And then Chad released something that sounded like that. Or, the argument that albums were engineered for listening to on the AM radio.

I think these guys believe they are improving on the mastering, and giving it the sound it should have had all along.

Dear ab_ba,

Yes, you are correct, this is indeed their position. They think these newly remastered pressings are a big improvement over earlier editions, and on quieter vinyl to boot!

Allow me to quote Michael Fremer, a man who apparently cannot get enough of the new records, even though his shelves are stuffed.

With all of the reissues coming from questionable sources or proudly proclaiming their ‘digital-ness’ ala The Beatles Box, we’re fortunate to have labels like Analogue Productions, Mobile Fidelity, ORG, IMPEX, Rhino and the others cutting lacquers from analog tapes…

So, we are lucky to have these companies that are doing things correctly lavishing vinyl goodies on us all year long. Sometimes we wish they’d stop long enough for us to catch up, but then we come to our senses and say “more please!” even when the shelves are stuffed.

Fremer was discussing a Stevie Ray Vaughan box set that Analogue Productions had recently put out.

One of my customers made the mistake of believing all the rave reviews he read from Fremer and his ilk and ordered the set. He quickly learned that his $400 had bought him some of the worst sounding Heavy Vinyl he’d ever heard in his life.

Did Chad manage to improve upon the sound of the originals, like the ones we sell? According to this customer, he did not.

“So the results are in … after comparing to the White Hot Stamper versions of the same albums I can say… as a musical experience it’s incomprehensible. It just doesn’t rock, doesn’t uplift, and it’s veiled, so you lose the whole meaning of this music, the energy, soul, life.”

If these companies are “doing things correctly,” then perhaps you can explain to me why their records sound so bad.

Let’s get down to brass tacks. Which of these records do you think is an improvement over the best earlier pressings?

And that’s just a small sampling of the rock and pop. There are plenty of awful jazz and classical titles I could mention.

I would expect that even fans of modern mastering would be at pains to defend these mediocre-at-best and mostly-abominable releases on the merits. Outside of Mr. Fremer, who in his right mind thinks these are good records? And if they do, have they had their hearing checked lately?

I could go on about the sound of these pseudo-audiophile pressings — our Heavy Vinyl disasters section currently boasts 181 entries — but why beat a horse that’s been dead for more than two decades?

For those keeping score at home, the winners number 69 and the mediocrities number 62, for a grand total of 312.

Now, listen up all of you out there in audio land: if you personally have critically auditioned more than 300 Heavy Vinyl pressings, please raise your hand. (Not you, Mikey, you get paid to play these records in order to make sure everybody knows just how much better they are than the other copies you have randomly at hand.)

I’m talking about rank and file audiophiles. Who has played more Heavy Vinyl titles head to head with the best originals and vintage reissues than we have?

There can be no one, for the simple reason that the best originals and vintage reissues can only be found using these two methods: in small numbers by luck, and in large numbers by doing shootouts.

300 is a large number, and we seriously doubt there is anyone who has managed to 300 comprehensive shootouts for records in their own collection. The cost, in time and money, would be prohibitive unless you’re getting paid to do it.

We don’t get paid to review these modern pressings. We do it as a public service.

Our job is to find the records that beat the pants off them.

Cui Bono?

If you want to know how good the quality of modern records is, you don’t ask someone who gets paid to make them and you don’t ask someone who gets paid to review them.

You buy some and you play them. That’s how you go about determining if they are any good.

The “null hypothesis” is our friend here. If someone were to ask “Why are new records better than old ones?,” we would simply say that since there is no evidence to support the proposition that they actually are any better, the question does not need to be answered.

To take just one example, not one of them can hold a candle to this Mercury produced in 1958.

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Heretics and Believers Clash on the Battlefield in Cyberspace

Pursuing Perfect Sound with ab_ba

More Letters from Customers and Critics Alike

Seems like ab_ba has something to get off his chest.

Hi Tom,

Suppose somebody wanted to know if your claims about the records you sell are true. How could they find out? They’d have to buy a record from you. There is very little independent commentary or reviews available online, and now I know why.

I started a forum thread, hoping to find some other Better Records enthusiasts, and just sort of have a place where I could share what I’ve discovered, in case anybody else found it of value.

After two weeks and 13 pages, the thread got shut down. This was after skepticism, hostility, and very little sincere curiosity.

They tried to explain to me how wrong I was. They told me I was gullible. They insisted I must work for you. One guy asserted I must *be* you. After all, who, other than you, would ever say the things I was saying?

They seemed particularly irked by two things:

First, the markups you charge.

Second, the fact that you are so vocal about the sound quality of modern pressings.

Regarding the first, what seems to particularly bother some people is that you used to go into used record shops in the LA area, pay the price they were asking for a record, and then for some of those records, you would come to the conclusion that based on its sound it was worth a lot more than they charged you for it.

Tom, they are still upset that you did this. Anybody could have done it. To this day, anybody could still do it. Nobody else is doing it.

People may resent you for now selling for $1000 a record that went for $2.98 40 years ago, but that’s simply how markets operate. I watched an old jazz record sell for $7000 on ebay last week, without a single comment on how it actually sounds.

Regarding the second source of ire, apparently you changed your mind about how some records sound, and you were willing to be very vocal about how you thought they sounded, even if those records were made by good friends of yours.

I get it that a lot of people who found themselves in your situation would have just kept their mouth shut about it, but this was all 20 years ago, and here we are today, and I’ve got a fantastic-sounding shelf of records and a great stereo to play them on, all because I decided to see if I could trust your advice.

ab_ba

ab_ba,

Thanks for writing.

I’m surprised you haven’t been excommunicated by now.

What you are doing, in the eyes of the members of the forum, is spreading a false gospel. They used to burn people like you at the stake. Now we just delete the threads they start. Saves firewood.

You are an apostate. Nothing you say can change the fact that you don’t believe what other members of the Hoffman forum believe. Trying to convince them that there is a better way is a fool’s errand. All you end up doing is making enemies.

Welcome to my world. Everything we do and say irks the people who don’t buy records from us.

Those who actually buy records from us seem fairly pleased if I do say so myself. They write us lots of nice letters.

To be fair, if someone were to post a comment on my blog along the lines that “everybody knows that digital is far superior to the outdated 75-year-old technology of the vinyl LP,” I would not reply to it. I would just delete it. Some folks can’t be saved. (The truth is they will never save themselves because it takes twenty years and many tens of thousands of dollars to build a good system, and for 99% of all the music lovers in the world, that is journey they are not prepared to take.)

Back to our story.

The fact that you have evidence to support your beliefs doesn’t change anything. You are doing the work of the devil and your writings must be banned lest they cause other acolytes to lose their faith and suffer the damnation that is sure to come their way (the excommunication referenced above that awaits those who spread malicious lies).

Your threads will never stay up. Best to go to other forums. Hoffman’s does not allow heretical beliefs such as yours.

The guys on the forum are Mid-Fi guys. They cannot understand what you are saying because they do not have the systems to play records at the level you play them, nor do they have the money and inclination to build a better system than the one they have.

Why would they build such a system? To show them that the records they’ve collected and told they were the best aren’t the best?

If they betray their idol, where will they fnd new internet friends to hang out with in cyberspace?

The real world is a lonely place for the typical audiophile. There just aren’t that many of us.

The Hoffman forum gives these people a place to hang out and be with others of a like mind.

It’s their sandbox. They seem to enjoy sitting in it. I say let them play to their heart’s content.

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Advice for Testing So-Called “Hot Stampers”

Pursuing Perfect Sound with ab_ba

[UPDATE: You might find the comments at the end of this one interesting.]

Contemplating trying a money-back-guaranteed Hot Stamper pressing?

Our customer ab_ba has some advice on a good way to go about it. He writes:

Pick out a hot stamper on the better-records site.

Choose something you know well, that you already have a few copies of.

Pick a Super Hot Stamper, so it’s not absurdly expensive.

First, see how it compares to your other copies. If it’s not as good, send it back, full refund, no questions asked.

Next, look at the matrix number on the hot stamper, and buy three copies on discogs in NM or VG+ condition with the same matrix. Or, go hunt around your local shop for same.

Then, once you get them, clean them to the best of your ability and then do another shootout. Just do it quick – you’ve got 29 days.

If you prefer one to your hot stamper, send back the hot stamper. No questions asked, and thank Tom for the matrix number.

I’ve done this a couple of times, and every time, I’ve kept the hot stamper. Wasted my time and money is all I did. That, and convinced myself Tom’s records are worth what he charges, in that I can’t get records that sound that good for less money.

ab_ba,

Good advice, let’s hope some folks out there in audiophile land take it. They might just find the world of better sound that’s waiting for them the way you did. And if not, then they get their money back, no harm, no foul.

Further Reading

Letter of the Week – “I wonder if you’ve ever had another customer who doesn’t own a turntable buy a white hot stamper from you?”

More of the Music of Fleetwood Mac

More of the Music of Led Zeppelin

Aaron has been trying to help his audiophile friends learn the differences between good records and Heavy Vinyl records. This first story concerns Chuck, who sold Aaron the VPI table you see pictured. Aaron writes:

Chuck’s a real record guy. I played him some hot stampers, alongside the same record in heavy vinyl format.

First up was Rumours – white hot up against the Hoffman 45 mastering. He wanted to hear “you make loving fun,” so we did.

The drums on the Hoffman are more prominent, and they grab you right away. Way out of balance to my taste.

He said, “Hoffman’s done a great job with the drums. But it comes at the expense of Christine’s voice. That’s okay, I never loved her as a singer anyway.”

Next I busted out my holy grail, and played him my Zep 2 WHS. Followed up by the Jimmy Page remastering. The latter is indeed a decent record, Tom, as you say. But the clarity on the drums is superior on the Ludwig. [Clarity is not the word I would have chosen, but that’s another story for another day.]

As Chuck put it, “I never thought of this as a vocal record.” Plant’s voice just has so much more emotion on the hot stamper than on the Page version. He said, “the Page version takes out some of the humanity.” I totally agreed with that. Chuck was amazed that you were able to find and sell me a RL copy with such clean vinyl. I took the record off the table and showed it to him – he was amazed to see how scuffed it looked. It’d grade VG at best visually, but man does it play clean.

So, record after record, Chuck could hear what the hot stampers were doing. And, no doubt, the VPI table is making the hot stampers sound better, and in comparison, the heavy vinyl sounds even duller.

That said, this turntable is so much more revealing than my Clearaudio was, that there is always something delightful to listen to on my heavy vinyl records. They don’t sound worse, they sound better than they used to. It’s just that the gap between them and the hot stampers is only continuing to grow wider.

So, my man Chuck, who sold me his VPI turntable, saw the light. But then he shielded his eyes from it. Even though Chuck’s got a stack of 25 benjamins in his hand right now, I don’t think any of that is headed your way, Tom.

Aaron followed up this letter with one about another friend, Bill, who is now, with Aaron’s help, building his first great stereo. Aaron brought along a killer copy of Clap Hands in order to judge the speakers they would be auditioning in various audio salons. When Ella finally sounded right, that was it.

Bill closed the deal on the spot, and we retired to his home to sip some Japanese whiskey and listen to some music. As we chatted, he asked me more about the copy of Rumours I had played for him at my house last week.

It had made him bury his face in his hands and declare, “money can’t buy that sound.”

When he reminded me of how moved he was by what he heard in my listening room, and feeling loosened up by the whiskey, I confessed to him that, in fact, money CAN buy that sound. Just, a whole lot of money. Sure enough, a WHS of Rumours was available on your site, and he bought it without hesitation.

No turntable, buying hot stampers.

I wonder if you’ve ever had another customer who doesn’t own a turntable buy a white hot stamper from you? It’s actually a really good move. I’m now firmly of the opinion that anybody shopping for a stereo should bring along a hot stamper. Pick a favorite album, and buy a hot stamper to bring with you as you listen to equipment. Even if you don’t own a turntable, a hot stamper is going to reveal the character of the equipment you demo, in a way that no streaming or demo CD can do. The price of a hot stamper is small in the context of helping you to avoid making a bad stereo purchase.

Aaron

Aaron,

I’m firmly of that opinion too: buy more Hot Stampers!

In order to judge equipment, you must have a record that is right, and one of our killer copies of Rumours is going to be right in ways that few other records are. We even advise you on what to listen for on practically every track on the album here.

I hope that when Bill finally gets a turntable that our Rumours sounds good on it. Judging equipment or turntable setup solely with female vocals — even vocals as good as Ella’s — is not something we recommend, a subject we discussed in some detail here.

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Letter of the Week – “The Triplanar is bringing out more of the life and energy in the music than any other change I’ve made.”

Check Out Our New Audio Advice Section

When our customers ask for audio advice, we never hesitate to give it to them. (We also give out plenty of advice that nobody asked for.)

We want to help our customers pursue the kind of equipment that we know through decades of experience is probably superior to most of what is available in audiophile salons, regardless of price.

(In 1976, at the tender age of 22, I heard something at an audio salon that rocked my world: tube equipment. Everything changed that year.)

Robert Brook has taken our advice and ended up with much of the same equipment we currently use. He seems very happy with the analog sound he is getting these days, especially from his Triplanar tonearm.

And now Aaron B. has made a great leap forward into better sound. He wrote to tell me all about the differences he is hearing now that he has a system that is designed to reveal what’s actually on his records. His previous system was better at hiding the imperfections and shortcomings of many of the albums he was playing, but he’s decided he doesn’t want to go down that road anymore, and we couldn’t be happier for him. His letter:

I’m feeling another huge dose of gratitude for you, Tom.

I installed the Tri-Planar arm on Friday, and I could tell right away that things are sounding just wonderfully better.

My whole setup is getting really close to your full recommendation. Dynavector 17dx mounted in a Tri-Planar tonearm, mounted on a VPI Aries 1 table, going into an EAR 324, out to a [redacted] amp, driving Legacy speakers.

I managed to buy everything except the cartridge used and in good shape. The total cost for my current system is a hair above $10K, and it is sounding nearly as good as I’ve ever heard vinyl sound, or any recorded music for that matter.

The Triplanar tonearm is a game-changer. This is the most dramatic improvement since I first replaced my B&W bookshelf speakers with the Legacys. I’m frankly stunned by what a difference it makes.

The difference the tonearm makes is evident in nearly every aspect of the sound.

First, the problems I was having previously have cleared up. This includes vocal sibilance, occasional graininess to the sound, and what I mistook for groove wear, even on some hot stampers that otherwise sounded great.

Some that I returned to you, I now wish I could have back.

Beyond fixing the last of my playback problems, the Triplanar is bringing out more of the life and energy in the music than any other change I’ve made since you started advising me.

The attack on instruments is arresting. I’ve come to believe that the aspect of live music that’s hardest for any recording to capture is the attack. That’s where the energy of live music is to be found.

I am hearing more details and overtones to the music that I ordinarily needed to turn up the volume to hear. Also, there’s greater depth to the soundstage, even in my small room.

I’ve said this to you before, but it bears repeating. I love the records you sell. I’ve got 15 hot stampers now, and they are the crown jewels of my collection. But, it’s the education you’ve given me that’s truly transformed my music listening experience.

Today, for that, you have my deep gratitude.

Aaron

Aaron,

Thanks for taking the time to write and say all those nice things about our records and the equipment we have recommended you play them with. As you can clearly see now, it takes the right stereo to really bring our records to life. Glad to hear yours is working so well.

I have long held that the best way to do audio is to find a system in someone’s home that sounds amazing and just buy all the same stuff that person has and set it up the same way he did. If a stereo is sounding good, much of it has to be working right. Start there, then make your own improvements based on a proven model of success.

I did this to the extent it was possible back in the 80s, copying my friend George Louis’s system, comprising four 140 watts per channel transistor amps (four times the power I have now), an electronic crossover, two sets of adjustable electrostatic tweeter arrays (RTR for one and Janzen for the other), a large number of woofers in the main cabinet and a couple of dual 10″ subs thrown in for good measure.

It was certainly impressive on some material, but, truth be told, probably not nearly as impressive as I thought it was at the time.

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Letter of the Week – “What I experienced was how emotionally heavy and complex this music is.”

More of the Music of Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

More Hot Stamper Pressings Featuring the Violin

Our good customer Aaron wrote to tell of us his experience playing some copies of Heifetz’s recording of the Sibelius Violin Concerto. He already had a plain Hot Stamper pressing, probably a Red Seal reissue.

He started off his first email to me by saying this:

The striking difference between the white hot and the hot stamper is in how much the emotional character of the music comes through. Even though the instruments sound more immediate and organic on the white hot, the overall tone is darker and more anguished. The difference isn’t so much in the technical details, like the size of the soundstage, but rather, in the realism of the instruments, and the aggregate effect of that on the emotional impact of the music.

I replied:

Reading between the lines a bit, the Shaded Dog seems to be tonally a bit darker, but I hope that it should sound more tonally correct, as most of the time the later pressings are thinner and less real sounding. I think that’s what you are saying, but I wanted to make sure.

Tom,

In terms of the tone, what I can tell you is that the cello was absolutely chilling and sounded lifelike to me. The violin is rich without being shrill.

What I experienced was how emotionally heavy and complex this music is. Sure, there’s moments of dizzying ecstacy in it, but so much is aching and sad. I don’t want anybody to think I’m saying the white hot is muffled. It’s wonderfully transparent and realistic, and that shows off the melancholy in the music, creating a darker mood / color palette, even though I didn’t experience a darker tone.

Nicely put.

After Aaron had spent another week with the work, he had arrived at a much deeper understanding of the music and the sound:

I’ve now spent a lot of time with the Heifetz Sibelius WHS, the regular hot stamper, and a couple other copies I was able to find at my local shops over the years for $5-$12 each.

You know that before I commit to keeping a white hot stamper, I like to make full use of your 30-day money-back guarantee. By the time I’m splurging for a WHS, it’s usually an album I’ve already got several copies of. Sometimes, one spin is all it takes for me to be able to tell the WHS is delivering the goods. Rumours and Thriller were like this.

Other times, I’ve got to really listen, and carefully do my own shootout to be sure I want to keep it.

This time’s no different. I’m keeping the white hot of the Sibelius, and I’ll be returning the regular hot stamper. It was a more tricky shootout than some others. I can cut to the chase like this – for $5 you can hear Heifetz’s wonderful recording of the Sibelius Violin Concerto. For $495 more, you can hear a violin sound like a violin.

It’s crazy what my stereo can do now with violin and vocals, two particularly egregious weak spots before I got the Tri-Planar. I’m going a little nuts here. Some records I had cast off as having groove wear actually sound perfectly lovely. I guess female vocals was particularly challenging for my old tonearm to track. I took your blog’s advice and purchased some Beethoven string quarets (Julliard and Quartetto Italiano) that are just magnificent. I’ve no doubt proper hot stampers would beat them, but you gotta start somewhere.

Thanks Tom.

Aaron,

Experiencing the illusion of a “realistic” violin floating dead center between your speakers is indeed something that only the highest quality equipment can pull off, and we are glad your Triplanar arm is helping to deliver that magical sound to you.

I struggled with Shaded Dog pressings of Heifetz’s recordings for years back in the 90s. I couldn’t clean them right until the Walker fluids and better machines came along, and I couldn’t play them right until my turntable, arm, cartridge, setup, vibration control and who knows what else had gone through a great many changes.

Now it is obvious to me just how good these recordings can be. I had this to say about a favorite violin concerto not long ago:

This is truly The Perfect Turntable setup disc. When your VTA, azimuth, tracking weight and anti-skate are correct, this is the record that will make it clear to you that your efforts have paid off.

What to listen for you ask? With the proper adjustment the harmonics of the strings will sound extended and correct, neither hyped up nor dull; the wood body of the instrument will be more audibly “woody”; the fingering at the neck will be noticeable but will not call attention to itself in an unnatural way. In other words, as you adjust your setup, the violin will sound more and more right.

And you can’t really know how right it can sound until you go through hours of experimentation with all the forces that affect the way the needle rides the groove. Without precise VTA adjustment there is almost no way this record will do everything it’s capable of doing. There will be hardness, smear, sourness, thinness — something will be off somewhere. With total control over your arm and cartridge setup, these problems will all but vanish. (Depending on the quality of the equipment of course.)

We harp on all aspects of reproduction for a reason. When you have done the work, records like this are nothing less than GLORIOUS.

More recently I wrote about the completely unnatural violin tone found on the Heavy Vinyl reissues of Scheherazade. Both suffered greatly from their mastering engineers’ predilection for overly-smooth, overly-rich sound, a sound that apparently not many audiophiles found as bothersome as I did.

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Letter of the Week – “Listenability is a great way to cut through the noise and put your record-buying money where it matters.”

Thoughts on Hot Stampers Versus Collector Pressings

Record Collecting for Audiophiles – A Guide to the Fundamentals

We received this letter a while back:

Although I have a very collectable collection that I hope and expect will hold its value over the years to come, it is with joy, relief, and a sense of relaxation that I shift my record-buying focus now to listenability rather than collectability. As we cope with the ever-growing onslaught of new pressings and inflation in the prices we’re seeing on discogs, listenability is a great way to cut through the noise and put your record-buying money where it matters.

It is really hard to buy for listenability anywhere other than on Better Records. Maybe if you have a friend who wants to sell you some of his records, you could do it. But, if you’re buying on Discogs or ebay, you’re not buying for how things sound. Occasionally, you can hear listening descriptions as part of the seller’s grading, but those are not comparisons to other pressings of the same title. And, as much as I like to support my local record stores, when it comes to listening first as a basis for buying, you can basically forget about it.

I’ve been formulating these thoughts for a while, but not sure why I’d want to post them. I mean, who wants to drive more customers to this guy when I still want to buy his merchandise, and some titles already sell out within seconds of listing, before I can even make up my mind? But, here you have it. Merry Christmas, I guess. Add my voice to the choir – you can buy better records hot stampers with confidence.

Dear Ab_ba,

Thanks for writing about your experiences playing our Hot Stamper pressings against others in your collection.

We constantly encourage our customers to do their own shootouts. It is the only way to know exactly what the strengths and weaknesses of any pressing you may own might be.

Naturally, we enthusiastically welcome the challenge when someone wants to play our records head to head with whatever other pressings they may own.

Shootouts are the only way to answer the most important question in all of audio: “Compared to what?”

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Doing Shootouts for Other Genres of Music

More Letters from Fans and Detractors Alike

Record Collecting for Audiophiles from A to Z

Jack contacted us recently about doing shootouts for records we rarely do shootouts for:

Hello Tom,

I am thinking about opening an online record store based on the same hot stamper methodology as Better Records, only I focus on genres that you do not cover, such as rap, metal, punk, hardcore, post-punk, noise and other niche genres.

Thus I am trying to get a sense of what it would take to make this project work. Did you have a reputation in the audiophile community prior to starting Better Records that drove people to your store?

The other question I am wondering is about equipment. Do you think that one has to have extremely high-end equipment (e.g., $5000 tone arms and the like) to properly tell whether a record is a hot stamper?

Finally, do you think that your methodology could work on LPs released post-1990, when there are far fewer variants of an album available? Any insight you could offer would be much appreciated.

Regards, Jack

Jack,

You need to follow our approach to the letter. The basics of it can be found here:

For a deeper dive:

This would be a good budget to start with:

  1. Cleaning system: $10k.
  2. Stereo: $40k.
  3. Dedicated sound room: (not cheap)
  4. Staff to help with the work: 3-5.
  5. Years to figure all this stuff out: 10, at least. (This assumes you are twice as smart as me. It took me more than 20.)

Chances it will work: not very good. Better to find something else to do with your next ten years. I regret to inform you that this idea strikes me as a non-starter.

Best, TP

I sent Jack’s letter to one of my customers who has done some of his own shootouts, and here is what he had to say about it:

Tom,

Thanks for sharing it. You make it look easy, I guess!

Without a 30-day money-back no-questions-asked policy, nobody would buy anything from him. And, with a policy like that in place, he’d go broke in a month. Also, the raw materials he’s talking about just don’t support finding hot stampers. They are all overpriced. I have a couple hip hop albums that sound ok to me but sell for a small fortune on discogs. I’m not sure what people think they are buying, but it’s not sound quality. To find a copy that sounds really great, he’d have to charge more than you do.

That said, I’d gladly pay hot stamper prices for a copy of Maggot Brain or Joy Division’s Closer if they really sound like hot stampers.

I especially like his asking you if you had a reputation before you started Better Records. He probably means, “did everybody like you, like you could have been a youtube influencer?” You should tell him he has to have a reputation for disrupting peoples’ complacency, bringing the evidence, and not backing down.

Or you could simply point out to him there’s really no good vinyl anymore since the sourcing all became digital – which is exactly the time frame in which he thinks he’s going to find hot stampers.

Tom, I hope Fred’s got another 10-20 years still in him for this, because nobody else will ever be able to do what your company can do, and I don’t want to have to go back to finding good sounding records on my own. It’s just too expensive doing it that way.

Aaron

Aaron,

My “reputation” is something that I didn’t take the time to discuss with Jack. Everyone knows, or should be able to find out easily enough, that I am probably the most hated man in all of audio. A writer for a well-known newspaper who interviewed me confirmed as much on a number of occasions, with some of those he spoke with saying things not remotely fit to print in a family-friendly blog.

I accept my place on the “periphery” of the audiophile world.

The bulk of that world is clearly not for those of us who are very serious about audio or records, and there’s no reason it should be.

Two More Strikes

The records this gentleman wants to do shootouts for are indeed pricey and rarely do they sound very good.

Some of the main reasons our business has been successful is that many of the records we do shootouts for were made in the millions, and many of them are exceptionally well recorded, and in analog.

The albums we audition have the potential to sound great on pressings that, twenty years ago, were plentiful and cheap. The better titles are neither plentful nor cheap these days, but it seems our customers will pay the prices we must charge in order to carry on the business.

If our customers ever stop paying our prices, the overhead built into our operation would cause it to collapse pretty quickly. Let us hope that doesn’t happen before we can find Hot Stamper pressings of all your favorite albums!

Best, Tom

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