
More Entries in Our Critical Thinking Series
It’s because of a well documented cognitive error known as Confirmation Bias.
Wikipedia sums it up this way:
“Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or values. People display this bias when they select information that supports their views, ignoring contrary information, or when they interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing attitudes. The effect is strongest for desired outcomes, for emotionally charged issues, and for deeply entrenched beliefs. Confirmation bias cannot be eliminated entirely, but it can be managed, for example, by education and training in critical thinking skills.”
But hold on just a minute: What about us? Aren’t we as susceptible to this particular critical thinking error as anyone else?
Of course we are. But that’s where our famous Hot Stamper Shootouts come in. They are the only way we manage to (almost) always stay on the straight and narrow.
By regularly revisiting the same records over and over again under blind testing conditions, playing the best recently acquired copies against our reference pressings multiple times a year, we make sure our results are as correct as is humanly possible
We’ve discussed this issue in depth on our site. The commentary below gets at most of it:
After doing our first shootout for this album a few years back I can honestly say I had never heard this music sound remotely as good as it did on the best Hot Stamper pressings. More importantly, from an audiophile point of view, I can honestly say that I never imagined it could sound as good as I was hearing it. The sound was just OUT OF THIS WORLD.
It’s why we link the Revolutionary Changes in Audio commentary to so many of our Hot Stamper listings. The revolutionary changes we discuss are precisely what make it possible for any audiophile (this means you) to hear better sound than you ever imagined for all your favorite albums.
All you have to do is do all the stuff we do.
Let’s Face Facts
Hot Stampers simply do not exist for most audiophiles.
Most audiophiles don’t have the system (power, equipment, room, tweaks) to bring them to life. Or the listening skills to recognize a Hot Stamper pressing if they heard one.
The most damning evidence? Most analog-oriented audiophiles are quite happy with the sound of Heavy Vinyl pressings, the kind of BS Vinyl that we regularly trash around here. Those records set a decidedly low standard for sound quality, to our ears anyway, so if the typical audiophile is happy with them, what does that tell you about his audio chain and his critical listening skills?
Rock Your Own Boat
Our Hot Stampers will of course still sound quite a bit better on even a run-of-the-mill audiophile system than any Heavy Vinyl pressing you care to name, but if you’re happy with a $30 reissue, what’s your incentive to spend five or ten or twenty times that amount, based on nothing more than my say-so? Even with a 100% Money Back Guarantee, why rock your own boat?
On the site we take great pains to make it clear that there are many ways that an audiophile — even a novice — can prove to himself that what we say about pressing variations is true, using records he already owns. You don’t have to spend a dime to discover the reality underlying the concept of Hot Stampers.
So-Called Skeptics
But perhaps you may have noticed, as I have, that most audio skeptics do not go out of their way to prove themselves wrong. And a little something psychologists and cognitive scientists call Confirmation Bias practically guarantees that you can’t hear something you don’t want to hear.
Which is all well and good. At Better Records we don’t let that slow us down. Instead we happily go about our business Turning Skeptics Into Believers (one record at a time of course), taking a few moments out to debunk the hell out of practically any audiophile LP we run into, for sport if for no other reason.
(They’re usually so bad it’s actually fun to hear how screwy they sound when played back correctly. Who knows — on a ’70s-era Technics turntable running into a Japanese receiver they might sound great. When we buy old audiophile collections that’s the sort of table we find collecting dust along with the vinyl. Might be just the system you need to get them to sound their “best.”)
What About Loggins and Messina Already?
Before we get too far into the sound of this record, I have to link to another commentary that talks a bit about what we listen for. You see, this LP is the perfect example of a record that is not tonally perfect, yet has other qualities that far outweigh this otherwise serious shortcoming. This record has the LIFE OF THE MUSIC in its grooves like nobody’s business. No other copy could touch it.
Sure, it has a little smile curve problem — the top and bottom are a little hotter than they should be. But a minute into this amazing side one and you will have forgotten all that audiophile stuff and just be groovin’ to the music of Loggins and Messina.
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