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Letter of the Week – “No one doubted your records after this listening session.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stamper pressings of Abbey Road and ELP’s debut he purchased a while back.

Hey Tom, 

Yesterday, I attended an audio event in Verona, NJ, where I had purchased my stereo.

I spent my time in the “analog” room. This room had the flagship equipment (Vandersteen 7 speakers, Aesthetix Jupiter series amps, pre-amps, phono stage, Clearaudio’s Goldfinger Statement cartridge, etc).

I listened for a while, hearing all the issues with almost every record they played. I then asked the store’s “turntable guru” to play some of the records I brought with me.

They thumbed through my boxes and asked me what the difference was between my two copies of Abbey Road. When I explained the superior side X on either copy, the audience found this concept amusing, based on their laughter. Any doubters would soon become believers.

They played Abbey Road‘s side 2 (3+ side, of course). While “Here Comes The Sun” was playing, Garth had his eyes closed. At the track’s conclusion, he exclaimed “Outstanding!,” and the record played on.

Next, we listened to ELP’s “Lucky Man.” Garth said it was the best he had ever heard.

I do not really know Garth, but I suspect he does not easily offer up such compliments in a room full of people. Others in the room, including the store’s turntable guru, were all very impressed. Several folks approached me, all pointing out parts of the music that blew them away.

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Our History with Led Zeppelin’s Rock Classic from 1990 – 2010

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Led Zeppelin Available Now

UPDATE 2026

In 2010 we wrote the overview below about what we thought we knew about Zep II. We have since amended the text in a few places and added some links. Please to enjoy.

This is undoubtedly one of the best, maybe THE best hard rock recording of all time, but you need a good pressing if you’re going to unleash anything approaching its full potential. We just conducted a shootout and heard MUCH more bad sound than good. You name it — imports, reissues, originals — we’ve played ’em, and most of them were TERRIBLE.

Especially the non-RL originals. That’s some of the worst sound we’ve ever heard.

If you see a “J” stamper, run for your life.

The best copies of Zep II have the kind of rock and roll firepower that’s guaranteed to bring any system to its knees. I can tell you with no sense of shame whatsoever that I do not have a system powerful enough to play this record at the levels I was listening to it at in one of our shootouts a while back. When the big bass comes in, hell yeah it distorts. It would have distorted worse at any concert the band ever played. Did people walk out, or ask the band to turn down the volume? No way. The volume IS the sound.

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Direct to Discs on Crystal Clear – What Was I Thinking?

Hot Stamper Pressings of Direct-to-Disc Recordings

These are just some of the many recordings on Crystal Clear Direct to Disc that we auditioned over the years and found wanting.

Without going into specifics — who would bother to take the time? — we’ll just say these albums suffer from poor musical performances, poor sound, or both, and therefore do not deserve a place in your collection.  

The Big Picture from a Lifelong Audiophile

You may have seen this text in another listing, but it bears repeating. There is nothing new under the sun, and that is especially true when it comes to bad sounding audiophile records. The world is full of them.

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Nobody Like Us Existed in the Record World of the 90s

Hot Stamper Pressings of Contemporary Jazz Albums Available Now

A newer customer wrote to me years ago about the amazing sounding Hot Stamper pressing of Way Out West that we’d sent him. He noted that his AP Heavy Vinyl pressing was “quite decent,” a characterization we found distressing.

Here is his original letter, along with some of what we wrote back. Newer comments and links have also been added.

As for your 1992 Analogue Productions Heavy Vinyl remaster, I honestly don’t know how anyone can listen to a record with sound like that and consider it acceptable, or, in your words, “quite decent.” I went into the long story of the album in this commentary.

Some things have changed since I wrote that screed many years ago. For example, we don’t find the sound of the OJC pressing of the album acceptable these days, a subject I plan to address before too long [and have yet to do].

The bottom line is this:

The Hot Stamper pressing of Way Out West you have now in your possession is the one that allows you to hear what that album is supposed to sound like.

Not the way Chad Kassem likes his records to sound: opaque, bloated, dull, smeary and compressed.

No, your White Hot Stamper has the brilliant sound that Roy DuNann recorded all those years ago, sounding, I believe, the way he wanted it to. This is of course only an opinion, but it is an opinion based on playing dozens of early Contemporary pressings and well as many vintage reissues that actually can beat them. Examples of both can be found here.

But Somebody Needed to Figure It Out, Right?

All that was needed was for some group to come along who could properly clean a batch of vintage pressings, original or otherwise, play them, figure out what the best copies do that the average copy doesn’t, identify that best copy, and send it your way.

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Looking for 5 Star Albums with Hot Stampers? There Are 50+ in Stock Now

beck_truth_1610_1302710570Hot Stamper Pressings of Allmusic Five Star Albums in Stock

From Cannonball Adderley’s sonic Masterpiece Somethin’ Else to X’s Under the Big Black Sun.

Including albums like Truth here. If I were to make a list of the best albums from 1968, this album would definitely be on it.

That said, it’s a one and done album for me, but probably not for many of you reading this. It all depends on how much you like Jeff Beck’s music — including, I suppose, his very successful foray into jazz/rock fusion.

Those records were in heavy rotation at my house and my friends’, at least for a couple of years. Beck-Ola spent some time on my turntable back then too but eventually fell by the wayside. Just not good enough to bother playing.

In short, I can take him or leave him, and I left him a long time ago. But that first album is as big and bold a musical statement as he would ever make. That makes it a Must Own in my book. (The complete list of such records can be found here.)

Below are some excerpts from our review of the album.

One of the most surprising things we learned in our first big shootout from 2014 was how well recorded the album is. It’s yet another triumph from one of our favorite engineers, Ken Scott.

In many ways it sounds like the first Zep album, and that’s a good thing. The sound is a perfect fit for the music. (more…)

On Blood, Sweat and Tears’ Second Album, It’s All About the Brass

Blood, Sweat and Tears’ Second Album Is a Top Test Disc

UPDATE 2026

The commentary you see below was written around 2010.

In it we describe a mind-blowing pair of copies that were each awarded a grade of Four Pluses. There was one Four Plus side one on one copy, and a different copy had a Four Plus side two.

We no longer give Four Pluses out as a matter of policy, but that doesn’t mean we don’t come across records that deserve them from time to time.

This was one of those records, a true outlier. Out of fifty records, this was one of the two copies that took the sound (and music!) of one of the sides to places we had never heard it go before. We call these kinds of records breakthrough pressings. When you get paid to critically audition records for decades, all day, every day, you are bound to run into some from time to time. These are their stories.

Our Commentary from 2010 (Minor changes have been made.)

Our last big shootout was back in early 2008.

What we learned this time around for this album can be summed up in a few short words: it’s all about the brass.

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Vivaldi / Concertos for Harpsichord, Guitar, Harp and Violin (SR-90401)

Hot Stamper Pressings of Mercury Recordings Available Now

UPDATE 2026

Many years ago we wrote the following review. We’ve ordered a few copies of the album recently and hope to do a shootout for it soon, assuming it still sounds as good as we used to think it did, but who can say?

Near Demo quality and a true Mercury sleeper.*

These concertos have excellent sound and the music is very enjoyable.

Sleepers

*A “sleeper” is an exceptional record that is not well known to audiophiles and collectors.

By conducting thousands of auditions and shootouts, we’ve discovered hundreds of amazing titles like SR-90401, which has been one of the greatest sources of joy for those of us here at Better Records.

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Letter of the Week – “The best one from you guys that I’ve bought is easily Wish You Were Here.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Pink Floyd Available Now

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

Hey Tom, 

I’ve bought several LPs from you guys and have been exceptionally impressed. The eponymous Dire Straits plus Breakfast in America arrived yesterday, and are excellent.

The best one from you guys that I’ve bought is easily Wish You Were Here. That is an album meant to be played at full volume from start to finish, loving every minute. 

Keep up the good work! 

Anyway, thanks from a very satisfied customer.

Dear Sir,

Thanks, glad to see you liked all three as much as we did.

We love pointing out that the Shootout Winning copies of Wish You Were Here are not originals, and not pressed in the U.K., contrary to the conventional wisdom espoused by audiophiles and record collectors the world over, and with great confidence no less.

We used to think those were the best too, but years ago we took a chance and bought some other pressings we had heard might be good. Sure enough they beat the best Brits we had ever played. That doesn’t happen very often, almost never in fact, but it definitely happened in this case.

Who knew? Not us, and even we only learned of the best pressings about ten years ago.

And nobody who writes about records to this day is aware of these very special pressings as far as we know.

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Turntable Setup Guide Part 2: Dialing In Tracking Force By Ear

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 hearing music reproduced with the highest fidelity and are willing to go the extra mile to make that happen.

Below you will find a link to an article about turntable setup. I would have loved to write something along these lines myself, but never found the time to do it. Robert Brook took the job upon himself and has explained many aspects of it well, so if you would like to learn more about turntable setup, I encourage you to visit his blog and read more about it.

I do have some ideas of my own which I hope to be able to write about soon, but for now, check out what Robert has to say.

Turntable Setup Part 2: What To Do For EXCELLENT SOUND

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What to Listen For on Ancient Dances and Airs for Lute

Hot Stamper Pressings of Mercury Recordings Available Now

UPDATE 2024

In 2024 I would no longer agree with what I wrote below about Mercury being inferior to London and RCA. Many Mercury pressings are amazing, now that we can reproduce them with greater fidelity.

Here are some of the best we’ve heard, and we hope to be able to highlight the sonic strengths of many more in the future.

The complete list of amazing sounding orchestral pressings for which we have posted our shootout notes can be found here.

When we listed this Mercury back in 2010 or so we still had a lot to learn, and we don’t mind admitting it.

Both sides of this TAS List early Colorback RFR copy of Ancient Airs and Dances have Hot Stamper sound, so much richer and sweeter and less strident than the typical copy you might find.

I must admit the Mercury approach to sound has not worn as well as I might have hoped. When it comes to the Big Three from the Golden Age, these days we prefer London, followed by RCA, then Mercury.

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