More of the Music of Led Zeppelin
One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently:
Hey Tom,
The domestic copy you sent me of Houses of the Holy trashed my UK pressing.
Side 1 is so engaging. What a difference a good Stamper makes — to be engaged by the music, not just entertained.
Thanks again.
Mark H.
Mark,
You are more than welcome!
We try to be upfront with our customers that the Hot Stamper pressings of Brothers in Arms on our site have many nice qualities, but some of the best qualities of analog recordings from the 50s, 60s and 70s are not among them.
It would be foolish to pretend otherwise. We want our customers to know what to expect when they buy a modern recording, and, having played copies of this album (as well as Love Over Gold) by the score, we are qualified to tell them what even the best pressings do not do as well as we might like. In a recent listing we introduced one of the best sounding pressings from our last shootout this way:
The notes you see below catalog the qualities of our 2025 Shootout Winner.
Side One
Track One (So Far Away)
Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Steely Dan Available Now
Clean and clear and tonally correct, just like a good CD should sound.
If this is what you are after, why not just buy the CD? It’s bound to be a lot cheaper.
Some songs sound better than others, but I can’t for the life of me remember which ones. I auditioned copies of this record more than twenty thirty years ago. Once I got rid of them I never bought another. Why would I?
No doubt there are still audiophiles extolling the virtues of this record on various internet threads.
One thing you can be sure of: these are people who are not serious about making progress in audio.
Some of the pressings these audiophiles like can be found in our stone age audio record section.
If you have top quality, highly-tweaked modern equipment, a good room, and the myriad other things that make exceptionally good vinyl playback possible these days — in a way that was not possible even ten or fifteen years ago — you would have no reason to keep a record of such mediocrity in your collection.
Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Peter Gabriel Available Now
All the copies we had in our shootout were pressed domestically, and none of them were mastered by the legendary Robert Ludwig except for the one whose stampers you see below.
We awarded both sides of RL’s cutting a sub-Hot Stamper grade of 1+, which means the sound is passable at best, even after a good cleaning. (Without a good cleaning it would probably not even earn that single plus.)
We do not sell records with 1+ grades. We figure you can find those on your own. The world is full of them, as are most audiophile record collections.
1+ is actually a fairly good grade for many of the Heavy Vinyl pressings being made today. Some of the ones we’ve reviewed can be found in our Heavy Vinyl mediocrities section.
Any version of the album we sell will be noticeably — and probably dramatically — better sounding.
If you own any of those titles and didn’t pay much for them, you didn’t get ripped off too badly. You got something for your money. Not much, but something, and it would surprise us no end if any of them have been played much. Mediocre records tend to spend most of their lives sitting on record shelves. They’re not good enough sounding to bother with.
If you have any of these specific Heavy Vinyl pressings, something is wrong somewhere and it would be a good idea for you to figure out what before you flush any more money down the drain.
General Advice
On this title, forget the Brits. Every British pressing we played was badly smeared and veiled.
This took us somewhat by surprise because we happen to like the British PG pressings. However, So on British vinyl is awful too, so it’s clear (to us anyway) that the later PG records are bad on British vinyl and the early ones are better.
We are limiting our comments here to albums up through So. Anything after that is more or less terra incognita for us simply because we don’t care for any of the music he was making after 1986.
Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Dire Straits Available Now
The best domestic pressings we played, the ones cut by Robert Ludwig at Masterdisk, were simply not competitive with any of the early British LPs.
The evidence is pretty clear that the master tapes stayed in England and that only the British pressings are made from them. If you’ve played as many records as we have, it’s not hard to recognize dubby sound when you hear it.
As a general rule, this domestic pressing will fall short in some or all of the following areas when played head to head against the imported pressings we offer. Much like the records linked here:
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 (emphasis added):
Hey Tom,
As a newcomer to your business, and to the entire concept of “Hot Stamper” records, I was naturally skeptical. Many of us have invested in a wide variety of vinyl that simple failed to live up to expectations. Initially I was going to order one and only one record from you, and test your bold promises. Instead, I ended up ordering a nice variety to truly put it to the test… investing a couple thousand dollars on faith. In short, I am now your customer for life.
As a point of reference, my system includes a pair of Wilson Audio Alexia powered by 2 monoblock McIntosh tube Amps and a Mc-tube preamp. Most importantly, a Brinkmann mag drive turntable with a Sumiko low output moving coil cartridge. So, not the world’s best system, but enough to discern what is to follow.
I ordered the following:
* Carole King Tapestry, ((White Hot Pressing)
* The Doobie Brothers, What Were Once Vices (White Hot Pressing)
* James Taylor, Sweet Baby James (White Hot Pressing)
* Paul McCartney, McCartney (Super Hot Pressing)
* Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy (Super Hot Pressing)
* Steely Dan, Countdown to Ecstasy (Super Hot Pressing)
* Donald Fagen, The Nightfly (White Hot Pressing)
I warmed up my amps with the tuner for an hour or so and then sat and listened to some of my other records and reacquainted myself with the music from my system. First up was “What Were Once Vices…”. It was immediately apparent that I was getting a range as wide, if not wider than anything I had ever heard from my stereo. Then when I got to the last song on side one, “Road Angel” the guitar and drum interplay in the instrumental jam completely blew me away. Midway through I took the volume from loud to louder, and it exposed nothing but pure, sweet rock and roll. Literally gave me goose bumps.
I then listened to “Countdown to Ecstasy” and in this instance I owe a clean original copy, so I put it to the test. Back to back. I did not have to go past “Bodhisattva” to know it was no contest. If I had to apply a percentage, something like 20% more music comes from the Hot Stamper, and this (like all of my orders) is one of my all time favorite albums.
I won’t go on and on, suffice to say that the experience repeated itself on all of the above.
Even the Fagen copy was WAY better than the 1982 MoFi copy I paid an arm and a leg for. I have always thought that record had a true analog quality, was surprised the first time I learned it was laid down on a digital track. The Hot Stamper even adds to this great sounding record.
Hot Stamper Pressings of Rock and Pop Albums Available Now
Below is the complete shootout stamper sheet for a rock record whose name we do not plan to reveal at this time.
We could reveal it, since knowing the “right” stamper numbers appears to be of no help at all — the best stampers and the worst stampers are exactly the same stampers! (Nothing new there.)
RL stands for Robert Ludwig and MD stands for Masterdisk. As you can see, Robert Ludwig cut all seven of the pressings that made it to the shootout.
One of them actually won. “Robert Ludwig’s stuff cannot be beat!” might be the post on whatever audiophile forum you frequent. (If it’s Hoffman’s forum, it would more likely read “Robert Ludwig’s stuff cannot be beat except by Steve Hoffman!”)
Another pressings with those same markings came in next to last, with such mediocre-at-best sound that it would not qualify as a Hot Stamper at all. (1.5+ on both sides or better is the minimum grade for any record we sell.)
Robert Ludwig really screwed up the mastering of this title, another forum member might post.
Can they both be wrong? Of course they can. When has any information posted on a forum been reliable or free from error?
If you were to tell me you have the Robert Ludwig-mastered original pressing for this record and it sounds amazing, I would be inclined to agree with you that that is very possible. If, on the other hand, you were to tell me you have the Robert Ludwig-mastered original pressing for this record and it sounds terrible, I would say I happen to know firsthand that that’s possible too.
The most likely sound for any copy you might have is “good, not great,” because only two copies earned grades of 2+ or better on both sides. Two out of seven. (Which is disappointing because it hurts our bottom line when so few copies in a shootout will end up selling for much more than we invested in them in money and labor.)
More Raves for the Phenomenal Sound of White Hot Stamper Pressings
One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he played for friends recently:
Hey Tom,
Story for you — last Saturday evening, a designer of a new world-famous tonearm, the owner of an elite high-end audio salon in California and I met for dinner with a well-known reviewer for one of the big audiophile rags, then went back to one of their houses to listen to records I had been asked to bring.
About 90% of the two dozen records I had selected were White Hot Stamper versions of classic rock staples.
For the next three hours, I spun disc after disc, to their delight.
Particular faves included Elvis Costello’s “My Aim Is True,” Led Zeppelin II, 10CC’s “The Original Soundtrack,” CSNY’s “Deja Vu,” and Chicago’s first LP.
Bill
Bill,
That sounds like a great way to spend an evening, playing killer copies of world class Demo Disc recordings! I would loved to have been there.
Without exception, these are five of our most beloved records, records we have been obsessed with since I first heard them all those years ago.
And of course we will never read a word about pressings with Hot Stampers, from this or any other demonstration, in one of the big audiophile rags. We are bad for their business. Their Heavy Vinyl advertisers would throw a fit. They know what we have to say about their shoddy products.
I guess there might just be something attractive about having the best sounding pressings in the world and being able to keep it amongst the small number of music loving audiophiles who are “in the know.”
But it would be nice if everyone could hear it for themselves.
Thanks for making a good start.
TP
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 many years ago:
Hey Tom,
Thanks for sending the Righteous Brothers to me so quickly. I have a copy I’ve had for years that didn’t give me much satisfaction on side one. I played yours, and it blew mine away. Just stunning. Your side two was somewhat flat and mediocre, but who cares since the great cut is on side one.
Nonetheless, I played my old copy and my side two was nearly as good as your side one. Thanks for everything. The ‘wall of sound’ is alive and well.
By the way, The Zep II that I purchased from you last month may be the best sounding record you’ve ever sold me.
A bargain at $750. [The last top copy sold in 2022 for exactly $2000 more by the way.] Now if I could only find a Dark Side Of The Moon that plays at that level.
Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Led Zeppelin Available Now
One of our good customers had this to say about the Hot Stamper Zep II he purchased recently, and we exchanged quite a few emails about his findings.
As promised, we had given him a free copy of the Jimmy Page remaster so that he could compare the two, something we have always encouraged our customers to do, especially in this case.
Tom,
I need to catch my breath here. I rushed home to compare the two Zep 2s you sent. I played Whole Lot of Love on the Jimmie Page cut, then on the WH stamper. I was…stunned. Then I asked my wife to come in to listen. She’s not a Led Zeppelin fan, so I said “Just listen to a minute of each track”. I played a minute of the Jimmie Page, she nodded, shrugged, and said “It sounds good.” Then I played the WH stamper. About 15 seconds in she exclaimed “What the F*CK?!?!”, and smiled. And wanted to hear the rest of the song.
You guys are geniuses to send the Jimmie Page LP with the WH. My friend insists on comparing it to his Classic Records copy, which we’ll do this weekend. I don’t think it will be a fair contest.
Is it worth $2,499? I know many people would say no. The vast majority. So I’m in the minority on this one.
Bill
Bill,
Such great news! It seems that even people who don’t care for Zep can’t resist the power of a hot copy of Zep II!
I will have more to say, and I wanted to let you know that we still want to hear from those who have compared the two pressings. If you feel like it, tell us what you think the differences are.
And the same with your friend and his Classic repress. That record was so bright it practically peeled the paint in my room. I doubt if it has changed much.
But you can tell me!
As we have said time and time again, the number of people that have ever had the privilege of playing a killer copy of Zep II like the one we sent you is small. It’s like owning your own rocket to Mars.
