Forums, Comments, etc.

Hot Stamper Sharing Can’t Get Off the Ground, How Come?

Basic Concepts and Record Realities Explained 

The above link takes you to our blog. Normally such a link would take you to our in-stock Hot Stamper pressings on the site for the band in question, but we rarely have any Traffic albums to sell these days, which is the case as of this writing.

Finding just the right Traffic pressings, with audiophile-quality vinyl no less, requires effort and resources that we just haven’t been committing to lately. We hope to do better in 2025.

In 2014 somebody on the Hoffman forum tried to get a Hot Stamper thread going under this heading: cheap Hot Stampers revealed.

The thread:

“If you have a “hot stamper” record – one that smokes and takes no prisoners, I mean a BADASS pressing, show it here with matrix info, label or other identifying features so we can all hunt with a bit of a head-start.

“I know these records are out there, just looking for a place to show off their analog glory.

“Here is a recent find that fits the bill and then some:

“Traffic: Best Of Traffic UK.

“Matrix # ILPS 9112 A-1/B-1”

OK, let’s talk about this Island reissue. We know the record well. If it sounds the way the copies we played over the years have sounded, we would say it can be good, not great, and if it qualified for Hot Stamper status, it might — might — earn a plus and a half at best. (1.5+.)

We don’t even bother to pick them up at any price these days, if that tells you anything.

He got very little support in his endeavor. The thread closed after a while with practically nothing in it.

Could it be that the folks on the Hoffman forum have a poor grasp of the amount of effort, time and money it takes to find Hot Stampers?

And, having committed to neither the effort, the time nor the money, find that they have nothing of any value to contribute to such a list?  

Yes, that could be. That definitely could be. Thank god it doesn’t keep them from criticizing those of us who, working in concert with a staff of ten or so, have devoted ourselves to the task and found them by the thousands.

By the way, we know that Traffic title very well. The Pink Label original is by far the best pressing in our experience. No copy we have ever heard on the label promoted by this poster would qualify as much more than a bargain Hot Stamper in comparison to the Pink Label and Pink Rim label pressings that we sell, although of course, not having heard his copy, we can’t say it’s not fabulous. 

It’s just not very likely to be fabulous. 

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Put Us to the Test! We Can Tell a Good Record from a Bad One, Digital or No Digital

Skeptical Thinking Is Key to Finding Better Sounding Records

And we don’t need to know anything about how it was made in order to judge it!

For those of you who did not follow this story from a few years back, you may want to catch up here.

Although it’s behind a paywall, you can get a free test drive easily enough.

Now that you are up to date on the overall contours of this mess, here is another one of the many thoughts I have had concerning the revelation that Mobile Fidelity has been secretly sourcing at least some of their masters digitally since 2015.

Back in August of 2022, I wrote what you see below to Geoff Edgers, the reporter who exposed this ridiculous mess. (I toned it down quite a bit. The original version was not suitable for publication.)

Earlier that same year he had visited me at my studio, where I played him the awful Dire Straits first album that MoFi remastered, one of the worst half speeds ever made (review coming, but you can get a good idea of my take on it here).

By August of 2022 he was starting to see just how crazy the world of audiophiles actually is, and the more he learned about some of these people, the crazier they seemed. And he was not wrong about that.

My letter (with a few additions):

Jim Davis (of MoFi) is not one to be trusted and would have loved to cover up this whole thing if he could have figured out how to do it. It got away from him, and as far as I’m concerned, good.

And you heard how shitty their Dire Straits record is. Who cares if it’s digital? The sound is bad. Why bother trying to figure out the reasons this crappy label doesn’t know how to make good records? It’s just a fact. Accept it.

Many of MoFi’s now-exposed records were on Fremer and Esposito’s own lists of the best sounding analog albums.

Of course they were. I defy you to find me two “audiophile experts” who are wrong more often than these guys!

From the article:

One of the reasons they want to excoriate MoFi is for lying,” says Howarth. “The other part that bothers them is that they’ve been listening to digital all along and they’re highly invested in believing that any digital step will destroy their experience. And they’re wrong.

These people who claim they have golden ears and can hear the difference between analog and digital, well, it turns out you couldn’t.

The best ears? Are you kidding me? In their dreams. These guys give every indication that they are virtually devoid of critical listening skills. The evidence supporting this reality has been laid out in this very blog in scores of commentaries over the course of more than twenty years.

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Is It Possible to Find Out Who Mastered the Japanese Thrillers?

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Michael Jackson Available Now

A letter we received not long ago made the point that the Japanese pressing of Thriller the owner had been listening to for years, even decades, fell well short of the mark set by the sound of the White Hot Stamper pressing he now owned.

To think, I spent all those years playing and re-playing a record that was bright and edgy, none the wiser to matrix numbers and pressing variations.

I agreed, saying that I myself learned the hard way, having wasted some of my own money on them. that Japanese pressings were almost always a crock, writing:

Most Japanese pressings cater to what a mid-fi system would need to sound good and a hi-fi system would find ruinous. They are almost always made from dubbed tapes, which are then brightened up in the mastering phase since that is the sound that appeals to the Japanese market for some reason unknown to me. Old school audio equipment — horn speakers and vintage tube electronics — would be my guess.

A fellow who saw an opening to set me straight and take me down a peg, all without having to learn how to use that pesky shift key on his computer, left the following comment in that post:

the japanese pressings were mastered by BG. the only difference being the quality of the material. nice try though, snakeoil salesman.

I immediately went to battle stations. I doubted whether Bernie Grundman has mastered any pressings for the Japanese market, but I couldn’t say for sure. It’s a question that had never come up. We ourselves had discovered a very good sounding pressing of Tusk that was mastered by Ken Perry and pressed in Japan, so I knew it was possible that the original mastering engineer could have sent metalwork to Japan for the Japanese to produce properly-mastered records for their market.

Fortunately, Discogs makes checking such things fairly easy. I went right up to the listing for Thriller and clicked on all the Japanese original pressings to see if there was any evidence to show that he had mastered them.

Bernie Grundman’s name was credited on the back cover as the mastering engineer, but I didn’t put much stock in that. I assumed that he did not master the album for their market, since that is hugely impractical. I surmised that removing his credit would have badly defaced the jacket, something I doubted the Japanese would have found acceptable. They seem to be very particular about these things.

Sure enough, here is what the stampers look like for the typical Japanese pressing that supposedly would have been mastered by BG:

There are about half a dozen original Japanese pressings for the album on Discogs and all the stamper listings look like the one above.

If you know anything about records, you know that these markings could not have been created by Bernie Grundman’s mastering operation here in the states.

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Big Star’s #1 Record – Is All Analog Better?

Robert Brook runs a blog called The Broken Record, with a subtitle explaining that the aim of his blog is to serve as:

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

We know of none better, outside of our own humble attempt to enlighten that portion of the audiophile community who love records and are looking to understand them better.

Here is one of Robert’s postings from way back in 2021. The reason it is going up today is that the fellow who remastered the record for Craft, Jeff Powell, also remastered the Born Under a Bad Sign we reviewed recently here. Small world, right?

Back in the 90s I played an import pressing that was in print at the time. As I recall it was very bright, but that seems to be the sound the band was going for. I like Power Pop as much as the next guy, but the bright sound put me off and that was that. I never offered the record for sale, figuring that most customers would not be happy with the sound.

Chris Bellman cut the record for Classic Records in 2009, reportedly on an “All Tube” cutting system. Based on the man’s previous work I would not expect it to be to my liking. He cut a serviceable version of Brothers in Arms years ago, which I thought was quite good for anything pressed on Heavy Vinyl. It would probably earn a grade of 1.5+. Eventually I will get around to posting a review on this blog about it. To say Chris Bellman is no Robert Ludwig may be a massive understatement, but is there anyone today who can begin to match the mastering skills of the great RL?

By the way, the cheapest copy on Discogs is $163.04 if you are interested.

Big Star’s #1 Record Reissues: Is ALL ANALOG Better?

 

Most of the reviews on Discogs are of the Five Star “I can’t believe how good this record sounds” variety, something that is both tiresome and somewhat sickening considering that the quality is sure to be as poor as Robert says it is, if not worse.

One guy had the temerity to stick his head up, offering a dissent from the lovefest being thrown for a record he found of dubious quality. Naturally, a bunch of Discogers jumped all over him for his apostasy.

It’s just now dawning on me that this sort of behavior is not limited to the Steve Hoffman forum.

Here he “risks eternity” by speaking his mind. If they could find a way to burn him at the stake for the crime of questioning the quality of a Heavy Vinyl pressing they happen to like, you can be sure they would be organizing the gathering of the kindling at this very moment. They call him an “elitist goof, ” “a wanker,” and question his bona fides as an audiophile, the standard-issue audiophile forum approach to those who waver from the true path.

This is my favorite reply, offering little more than an appeal to authority. These guys are pros. How could they possibly make a bad sounding record? That’s not what they do, you idiot!

Why anyone would choose to associate with such intolerant, ill-mannered, small-minded people is beyond me.

The true believers at the Hoffman forum are even worse. There, if you write something upsetting to the delicate sensibilities of its members, they simply delete the post and send it down the memory hole where it can no longer do harm to the faithful.

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It’s Official – The Audiophile World Has Lost Its Mind

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Black Sabbath Available Now

A little more than a year ago, back in June of 2023, we reviewed The Cars first album Rhino released on Heavy Vinyl. Here is our review.

We didn’t see the point in pulling our punches — when a record sounds as bad as that Cars album, somebody should stand up and say so, so we did.

We said it was possibly the worst version of the album ever made, its only competition being the Nautilus pressing from 1980, one of those bottom-of-the-barrel I-hope-we-all-learned-our-lesson Half-Speeds from back in the salad days of the remastered audiophile record craze.

(Yes, I admit I bought plenty of that crap back then, and I can’t even say for sure that I could tell how awful the remastered Nautilus pressing sounded. I believed what I was told — that the original pressings needed the ministrations of some guys with a lathe who thought they knew more than the engineers at Sterling when it came to cutting good sounding records. I must have been completely clueless to believe any of it, and now that I look back on those days, it’s obvious I was.)

But enough about me. Let’s talk about the hack who cut this godawful record. If you will allow me to quote myself from my Cars review:

Kevin Gray has struck again. He’s a modern one-man demolition crew, taking exceptionally well recorded analog albums and turning them into the vinyl equivalent of CDs, and bad CDs at that.

What we heard on side one of the new Black Sabbath remaster can be seen from our notes as reproduced below.

  • Nasal, upper midrange boost
  • No real space
  • Hard and smeary
  • Sizzly rain intro
  • Vocals are very present in a harsh and unpleasant way

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Can Every Audiophile System Do Its Job Well?

More on the Subject of Speaker Advice

That depends on exactly what job you think you’re giving it to do.

If its job is to allow you to enjoy music in the comfort of your home, then the little box speakers you see pictured to the left can do that job just fine, with the caveat that you must be able to enjoy the kind of sound that comes out of little boxes.

If the job you give your stereo to do is to reproduce the full range of music with high fidelity, then the little boxes you see pictured are going to fail miserably. Until the laws of physics are repealed, however that might happen, they will never be able to reproduce music in a lifelike way.

I like big dynamic speakers because they do a better job of reproducing music in a lifelike way compared to every other speaker I have ever heard, horns included, which can be very lifelike indeed, but have other shortcomings that I cannot abide.

This is not just another post bashing small speakers. I say these things to introduce the comment sent to me that you see below.

I received this anonymous letter recently in reply to a commentary I had written entitled Tone Poets and one-legged Tarzans.

In that post, I took a certain person (rl1856) to task for making judgments about pressings using speakers that are not capable of doing the job he wants them to do, which is to make it possible for him to “easily hear differences in LP quality.”

An original RVG 1st or 2nd pressing has a visceral, “edge of the seat” feeling that is missing in the TP [Tone Poets] and BN [Blue Note] Classic reissues. The RVG has a tighter stereo spread, and is voiced so that the listener feels they are very close to the musicians. The TP and Classic remasters have a more distant perspective. The soundstage is wider, but the added apparent distance between musician and listener significantly reduces the impact of the music. OTOH, the reissues have greater extension at frequency extremes, and reproduce more micro detail than original pressings. We know that RVG used a surprising amount of EQ when mastering his LPs back in the day. So we need to ask ourselves, what do we want ? A better version of what we are familiar with, including EQ compromises, or a more accurate representation of what was actually captured on the master tape in RVG’s studio ? The answers may be mutually exclusive.

My system: Linn LP12 ITTOK LVII, SoundSmith Denon 103D, Audio Research SP10MKIII, Luxman MA 88 monoblocks, or Triode TRV 845PSE, or Mac 240, KEF LS50. Resolving enough to easily hear differences in LP quality.

Another poster defended rl1856’s claims for the abilities of his system to judge different pressings, noting that his criticisms of these remastered records — both on Tone Poets and Classic Records — generally align with mine.

I find this ending hilarious: “Never Played One – To be clear, we have never played a Tone Poets record. We’ve played many titles mastered by Kevin Gray, and we know that he is credited with mastering some records for the label. Without exception we find that his remastered records leave a lot to be desired. You can find many of them in our Hall of Shame. Anyone defending his work to me has some heavy lifting to do.”

You condemn rl1856 for expressing an opinion regarding something YOU ADMIT YOU NEVER HEARD because you believe his equipment is not resolving enough ? The irony is that his opinion largely mirrors yours regarding the sonic virtues of original RVG recordings ! How is it that he, listening through his “inferior” system can hear the virtues you ascribe to RVG pressings, and also hear when those virtues are not present?

My reply, after a week of thinking about the points this gentleman makes, can be seen below.

Hi,
Thanks for writing.

Little box speakers do produce sound of some quality. It would be foolish for me to say that one can’t actually hear something through them. The question is how much?

I believe the answer is not much, and that nobody reviewing records, or comparing one pressing to another, should be fooling himself into thinking he can do either one with a speaker of such little fidelity to the sound of live music.

Good stereos playing good records can sound like live music. With the volume up high and a shootout winning pressing on the table, in our studio the best of RVG’s recordings sound very much like live music

Does anyone think that, brought into this gentleman’s listening room wearing a blindfold and seated in the listening chair, he could be fooled into thinking he was hearing live music instead something coming out of some boxes?

Nothing I’ve played that Kevin Gray mastered, when played on the system we use — the one we developed specifically to evaluate the sound quality of records — was ever noticeably better than mediocre.

We’ve played his records by the score. They all suffer from the same suite of shortcomings to one degree or another, the specifics of which we have described in detail in post after post throughout this blog. (Here is a good example of some of his recent work.)

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Letter of the Week – “Am I really paying for nothing when I buy a Hot Stamper? “

More of the Music of Carole King

One of our good customers had this to say about his recent experience on the Steve Hoffman forum.

We’ve added some headings and such like. Scroll down to read the many comments that have been left, most of which I have replied to at length.

Hi Tom,

When Fred emailed me to say that a copy of Tapestry was about to hit the site, I did not hesitate in buying it. I’m not writing today with one of my usual raves of your records. Suffice it to say, it’s always a joy to be hear an album I thought I knew by heart in a whole new way. Rather I’m writing because I still can’t fully square my enthusiasm for your records with the reaction I got when I talked about it on the Steve Hoffman Forum a couple months ago.

Hoffman’s Parting Words

As I purchased my 32nd (!) record from you without a moment’s hesitation, Steve Hoffman’s parting words to me sprang back into my mind. Could he possibly be right? Am I really paying for nothing when I buy a hot stamper? By posting my appreciation of Better Records on his forum, was I merely inducing other people to throw their money away too? Have I been fooling myself? Are there other ways to get records that sound as good as yours?

I never had a chance to respond to his view there because the whole thread was taken down a few minutes after he posted that, so if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you to share my views with the readers of your blog, since people can’t find my views on the Steve Hoffman forum.

So here goes.

We’re all aware that there’s misinformation on the internet. We’ve learned by now how to spot the sins of commission – the obvious manipulations and falsehoods. What’s more pernicious are the sins of omission – accurate information that’s been removed because it does not fit a narrative.

Somebody interested in finding great sounding records would be blameless if they ended up with a pile of mediocrities, because they followed the advice and opinions readily available on the internet. It’s a frustration that there are so few voices like yours and Robert Brook’s offering a different view.

The biggest problem with a stack of mediocre records that you mistakenly believe are excellent is that if you ever notice they don’t sound very good, the only fix you can think of is to buy more expensive equipment.

And that’s where the real money gets wasted.

[Hear hear!]

A Roadmap for Finding “Pretty Good Records”?

There are tons of posts on the Steve Hoffman Forum, and tons of people are presumably following the advice there, but what’s on there is really nothing more than a roadmap to finding Pretty Good Records.

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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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Heretics and Believers Clash on the Battlefield in Cyberspace

Seems like our friend 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 the powers that be just delete the threads the troublemakers 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 take the time to write us lots of nice letters for one thing.

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 feel the need to reply to it. I would simply 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 a journey they are not prepared to take.)

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Some Questions Just Don’t Have Good Answers

Yes, that is indeed a real puzzler all right!

Further Reading

To learn more about records that sound dramatically better than any Half-Speed mastered title ever made (with one exception, John Klemmer’s Touch), please go here.

People sometimes ask us how come we don’t like Half-Speed mastered records?

Below you will find our breakdown of the best and worst Half-Speed mastered records we have auditioned over the years.

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