Eric Clapton – Unplugged

More of the Music of Eric Clapton

  • STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it brings Clapton’s latter day Masterpiece to life on this vintage Reprise pressing – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • The sonics of this superb import are rich, full-bodied, lively, and warm, with solid bass and breathy, clear vocals
  • There are a number of records that Eric Clapton has made over the years that are Must Own titles, and we would have no problem putting this album on that list
  • Consistency has never been the man’s strong suit, but you will simply not be able to find a bad track on this live album from 1992
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Unplugged is the concert and album that established the MTV program as a classy, tony showcase for artists eager to redefine themselves via reexamination of their catalogs, which is what Clapton cannily did here.”

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The Moody Blues – A Question of Balance

More of the Music of The Moody Blues

  • With INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides, this vintage UK pressing is doing practically everything right
  • Huge and spacious, as well as wonderfully Tubey Magical – to our way of thinking, if this isn’t exactly the way the band wanted to sound in 1970, we can’t imagine what would be
  • This pressing has some of the best Moody Blues sound we’ve ever heard – it’s a truly exceptional recording in their canon
  • Includes the big hit “Question,” one of the all time greats by the band, which sounds fantastic here of course
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these Classic Rock records – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you

Achieving just the right balance of “Moody Blues Sound” and transparency is no mean feat. You have to be using the real master tape for starters.

Then you need top end extension, a very rare quality on these imports, and finally, good bass definition to keep the bottom end from blurring and bleeding into the midrange.

No domestic copy in our experience has ever had these three qualities, and only the best of the British imports (no Dutch, German or Japanese need apply) manages to get all three on the same LP.

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

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Tchaikovsky Available Now

A good customer wrote us the following letter. It’s mostly about the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto and The Wall.  (Emphasis added.)

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.

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Time Out Is a Classic Case of Live and Learn

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Dave Brubeck Available Now

When we did a shootout for this album way back in October of 2007, we took the opportunity to play the Classic Records 200 gram pressing. Maybe we got a bad one, who knows, but that record did not sound remotely as good as the real thing. (6 eye or 360, both can be quite good. Skip the Red Label ’70s reissues.)

The piano sounded thin and hard, which was quite unexpected given the fact that we used to consider the Classic LP one of their few winners and actually recommended it. Another example of we was wrong.

As we said in our shootout: “We dropped the needle on the Classic reissue to see how it stacked up against a serious pressing. Suffice it to say, the real Time Out magic isn’t going to be found on any heavy vinyl reissue!”

If I were in charge of the TAS Super Disc List, I would not have put this record on it.

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Peter Tosh – Bush Doctor

More Reggae, Soul, Blues, and R&B

  • Tosh’s third studio album debuts on the site with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades from start to finish
  • A tough shootout, as no other copy earned a 3+ grade on either side, which simply means that when you find a top copy, it sets such a high standard that everything else ends up getting marked down
  • Bigger and bolder, with more bass, more energy, and more of the “you-are-there-immediacy” of vintage analog that set the best pressings apart from reissues, CDs, and whatever else you care to name
  • “…the title track, ‘I’m the Toughest,’ ‘Stand Firm,’ and a remake of an old Wailers’ track ‘Dem Ha Fe Get a Beatin,’ complete with I-Threes-style backing vocals, are some of Tosh’s best songs.”

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Deep Purple – Burn

More British Blues Rock

  • The Hot Stamper debut of Burn, here with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on sides of this early import pressing – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Turn it up and you will hear sound that is incredibly powerful and natural with amazing presence, energy and weight down low
  • Forget the dubby domestic pressings and whatever crappy Heavy Vinyl record they’re making these days – the UK LPs are the only way to fly on this album
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The phenomenal title track started things off at full throttle, actually challenging the seminal ‘Highway Star’ for the honor of best opener to any Deep Purple album, while showcasing the always impressive drumming of Ian Paice. Up next, the intro to the equally timeless ‘Might Just Take Your Life,’ however simple from a technical perspective, remains one of organist Jon Lord’s signature moments; and the downright nasty ‘Lay Down, Stay Down’ roared behind wildly careening starts and stops and a fantastic Ritchie Blackmore guitar solo which left no doubt as to who was the band’s primal force, regardless of lineup.”

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Answers to Some of Your Hot Stamper Questions

More Straight Answers to Your Hot Stamper Questions

We discuss a number of subjects with our letter writer below, including what we think of The Beatles’ records in mono, our grading system, how we clean our records and various and sundry other aspects of the business we run. These are the kinds of questions we get regularly and are more than happy to answer.

Hey Tom, 

First off, I got to say, congratulations on a great concept. Also, congrats on having the balls to charge what these albums are worth.

Thanks. You hit the nail right on the head — we charge what the pressings are worth. They are often incredible sounding records of some of the greatest music ever recorded. We should know; we played them, something that no other record dealers on the face of the earth can say. To those of us who do the listening, as well as our Better Records customers, they are priceless.

Like any business, we charge what the market will bear, and it seems people are willing to pay a lot for these records, although less for some than they used to — some of our records now sell for half or even less than what we were getting two or three or five years ago.

That said, the top copies have held their prices pretty well over the years and have often gone up substantially. It’s the second tier and third tier titles and the Super Hots that have tended to fall in price. That’s where the real “bargains” are these days.

Like all of our Hot Stamper pressings, even the cheapest of them (starting at $25!) are guaranteed to be better sounding than any pressing you own or have ever heard, or your money back.

OK – I spent a fortune on my system. Including acoustic design, the best of everything – speakers, turntable, preamp, amps – you get it. The whole set up probably cost me over $600k.

Wow. I don’t have $600k in my system, but I do have about $600k worth of labor in it (!) You can read all about our stereo here.

I am a crazy fanatic – audio perfection is something that really moves me.

Me too. I wrote about it in a commentary that describes how I fell in love with a record that gave me the reason I needed to get deep into audio.

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So Many Columbia Classical LPs Are Bad Sounding – Why Is That?

Hot Stamper Pressings of Vintage Columbia Albums Available Now

UPDATE 2026

This commentary was written in 2005 or thereabouts. Still holds up though.

Columbia classical recordings have a tendency to be shrill, upper-midrangy, glary and hard sounding.

The upper mids are usually nasally and pinched; the strings and brass will screech and blare at you in the worst possible way.

If Columbia’s goal was to drive the classical music lover with high-fidelity equipment screaming from the room, more often than not they succeeded brilliantly. Occasionally they failed.

Some of those pressings we call Hot Stampers, but not many.

Columbia Rock and Jazz

When I play Columbia recordings from the 50s and 60s of Brubeck, Ellington, Miles and other jazz giants, what strikes me is how natural, warm and sweet the sound is. I was playing an old mono Ellington record recently and when the clarinet solo came in, it almost took my breath away. The sound of the instrument was that real. This from a mid-’50s run-of-the-mill Columbia pressing. Those guys (the engineers and the musicians) knew what they were doing.

Sometimes when I read about the extraordinary lengths modern engineers go to in order to use the highest quality audiophile equipment: custom microphones, tape recorders, wire, and the like, it makes me wonder how so many of the best sounding recordings in the world managed to be made without any of that stuff.

RCA didn’t need it for their Living Stereos.

Decca didn’t need it.

Contemporary Records managed to record the best sounding jazz records without it.

How did all those great sounding records get made with such bad equipment?

I guess we’ll never know.

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Jerry Seinfeld – “No one’s really that great.”

Shane Parrish quotes comedian Jerry Seinfeld on being great:

“No one’s really that great. You know who’s great? The people that just put tremendous amount of hours into it. It’s a game of tonnage.”

Please forgive me in advance for quoting at length from a commentary I wrote long ago concerning a favorite album of mine and how it serves to illustrate The Pareto Effect.

The album in question has been a key test disc for me. It’s one that helped me dramatically improve the quality of our playback over the last 40-plus years.

The albums on the list linked to above do exactly what good test discs should do.

They can show you what your system is doing wrong, or poorly, and once you’ve fixed it, or made it better, they show you that it actually is better, maybe even right, or at least more right than it was before.

We audiophiles need records like these. They make us better listeners, and they force us to become good at building our audio systems. Because the amount of experimenting you do with your setup, components, room, electricity and the like is the only thing that can take you to the highest levels of audio.

The reality audiophiles must face in their journey to higher quality sound is that buying good equipment, regardless of price or quality, will not get you there.

You can only teach yourself — painstakingly, over the course of many, many years — how to tweak and tune your equipment, regardless of its cost or purported quality, in order to reach the highest levels of audio fidelity.

And learning how to tweak and tune your equipment has other, fundamentally more important benefits in addition to its original purpose.

It helps you become a better listener, so that you notice aspects of the sound you were not aware of on your records.

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Dark Side of the Moon – “A Wasted Purchase”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Pink Floyd Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about a White Hot Stamper pressing of Dark Side of the Moon he purchased a recently: Bill writes:

No, not my White Hot Stamper purchase.

But, rather, my purchase of an original UK edition, the so-called Holy Grail of pressings.

When I purchased the White Hot Stamper of Dark Side of the Moon a couple of weeks ago (for what seemed like an outrageous amount of money), I thought I’d compare it to the version I had, the 50th Anniversary, and send it back for a refund if it didn’t blow me away. It was the same strategy I had used several years ago when I bought a White Hot Stamper of Led Zeppelin II.

And the same thing happened to me this time that happened last time—the White Hot Stamper blew me away! It was so transparent. I heard things in the mix I had never heard before. The bass was tight, and the soundstage and “air” were HUGE. It was as big of a night/day comparison as the Led Zeppelin II comparison was.

Now, the bad news, for me.

Every source I checked said the original UK pressing is far and away the best pressing of Dark Side of the Moon.

So I bit the bullet and bought a pressing on eBay. It was, as advertised, in mint condition, with almost no surface noise.

And it was AWFUL compared to the White Hot Stamper. The soundstage was tiny in comparison, the bass was bloated, and overall it sounded muffled and lifeless. And, unfortunately, that UK pressing didn’t come with a money back guarantee. So I have a nice collectible on my hands that I will never listen to.

As Tom has pointed out many times, there are variations within pressings, so it might be that I just got a dud of a first pressing. One thing I have learned, though, is that even your outrageously priced White Hot Stampers, and maybe even especially your outrageously priced White Hot Stampers, are, in fact, a good bargain. Audio nirvana.

Bill

Bill,

Thanks for your letter, and sorry to hear you threw all that money away on a white elephant you will never find any use for. Unlike our records, at least it has some collector value. Discogs and ebay are your two best options for helping it find a new home.

The one good use I can think of for it would be to use it as a comparison pressing next time somebody comes over to your house and wants to hear the album. You could do a little shootout for them, just to see how far their jaw drops when the needle hits the groove on your Hot Stamper pressing.

I’m not going to say “I told you so,” but what I will do is refer you to the scores of commentaries on this blog telling you not to believe a word you read written by any of the self-described experts in the world of record collecting. Their advice just cost you a big chunk of dough. Now will you believe me?

Putting your faith in their record knowledge often turns out to be a one-way ticket to an expensive, non-refundable lesson. It has been for me anyway. I got hold of an early UK Dark Side and was disappointed too, though probably not as disappointed as you were, as mine was merely mediocre, maybe somewhere in the 1.5+ range.

We’ve all been there.

And if we hadn’t been there, we probably wouldn’t have learned much of anything about records, because experience is by far the best teacher. When it comes to audio and records, it’s practically the only teacher, something we have tried to change, with limited success, through this blog.

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