Eddie Offord – Producer-Engineer – Reviews and Commentaries

Letter of the Week – “All I can say is that it was a “Holy Shit!” moment for EVERYONE in the room.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Led Zeppelin Available Now

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

Hey Tom, 

Thanks again!

Got the White Hot ELP s/t Friday afternoon as I was leaving for a weekend at the Capital Audio Fest in Bethesda Maryland but had no time to listen to it at home so brought it and the Led Zep 2 White Hot I bought from you a year or so back with me to the show with the intention of playing it on some of the crazy systems being demo’ed at the show.

The majority of participants demo their systems with Mofi and other heavy vinyl reissues. Rarely will you hear old vinyl.

Saturday night in the “main room” where VAC and Von Schweikert were partnering and demo-ing their million dollar system, there was a presentation by Greg Weaver (a friend of mine) and the theme was great sounding prog rock.

After a few records – all reissues, Greg turns to the 30 or so of us and asked what we wanted to hear next. The guy behind me shouts out “Zep 2 Robert Ludwig hot mix!” and of course he didn’t have it but that was my opening and I took it – “I have it upstairs and happy to bring it down!”

Greg of course said “sure!” so I ran up to my room and grabbed the Zep 2 AND the ELP I just got from you but never played.

The Zep 2 was a revelation to many – some people moved closer to take it all in, it was everything you would have expected and beyond, an unforgettable highlight for all! One guy had me pose with him holding the record after it was done, lol!

Greg was excited to see the ELP too and put it on next. He gave a little history about the band and its members and then dropped the needle.

All I can say is that it was a “Holy Shit!” moment for EVERYONE in the room. Maybe, no…without a doubt, the best record I and many there had ever heard in our lives, coming thru a million dollar system and utterly blowing our minds. What an INSANE sounding record!

No one in that room will ever forget it.

My complements to the chefs at Better Records for making this incredible experience possible.

Mike

Mike,

Wow, what a letter! Thanks for the demo. I can imagine it is quite a shock for these folks to hear a real record after so many Heavy Vinyl imposters. Hearing is believing, right?

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For Rock and Pop, 1970 Might Just Be the Best Year of Them All

Hot Stamper Pressings from 1970 Available Now (All Genres of Music)

1970 turned out to be a great year in music. I wouldn’t want to be without any of the 17 albums listed below.

Cat Stevens Tea for the Tillerman,

Bridge Over Troubled Water,

Moondance,

Alone Together,

Tumbleweed Connection and the Self-Titled Album,

Sweet Baby James,

After the Goldrush,

Paul McCartney / McCartney,

Stephen Stills / Self-Titled,

Van Morrison / His Band And Street Choir,

Deja Vu,

Workingman’s Dead,

Tarkio,

Stillness,

Let It Be,

Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus

and there are surely many other Must Owns from 1970 we could name if we simply took the time to list them.

When it comes to Rock and Pop, the best of the best from 1970, numbering less than 30 titles, can be found here.

Here is a more complete list of our favorite albums from 1970.

The list of titles from 1970 that we’ve reviewed to date can be found here.

Note that on any given day we do not have a single Hot Stamper pressing on the site of more than a few of the albums you see listed.

All of them are getting very hard to find, with the right stampers, in audiophile playing condition.

The book Fire and Rain tells the story of four of these albums well, and comes highly recommended.

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