beatles-letter

Advice on Which Sgt. Peppers Pressings to Avoid

beatlessgtHot Stamper Pressings of Sgt. Peppers Available Now

UPDATE 2026

This letter came in many years ago, but the lessons to be learned from Chris’s failed approch to finding a good sounding copy of Sgt. Pepper are no doubt timeless.

Many audiophiles who start collecting records make exactly the same mistakes Chris made, and some percentage of those audiophiles, however small, actually learn from them. Sad to say, it seems that many do not.

In our own humble attempt to rectify the situation, we devote a great deal of time to discussing record collecting on this blog, seeing as how so many audiophiles suffer by going about it in all the wrong ways.

Chris, an erstwhile customer from long ago, sent us a letter describing his search for a good sounding Sgt. Pepper.

The first thing that comes to mind when reading his letter is that many record collecting rules were broken in going about the search the way he did.

But then I thought:

What rules?

Whose rules?

Where exactly does one find these rules?

If one wants to avoid breaking them they need to be written down someplace, don’t they? Wikipedia maybe?

Sadly, no, not at Wikipedia, or any place else for that matter — until now. As crazy as it sounds, we are going to try to lay down a few record collecting rules for record loving audiophiles, specifically to aid these individuals in their search for better sounding vinyl pressings. And by “these individuals” we mean you.

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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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Letter of the Week – “The same in what sense?”

beatlessgtHot Stamper Pressings of Sgt. Peppers Available Now

A potential customer asked about some Beatles pressings he saw on our site:

  Hey Tom, 

I have the Beatles collection UK box set from the time frame you mentioned. [Most of our Beatles albums are from the 70s and early 80s.] The albums have the black Parlophone EMI label. Do you think they are the same as the album that is for sale?

Edward

Edward,

The same in what sense? No two records have the same sound, so in that sense, no, they cannot ever be the same. They can have the same labels, even the same stamper numbers, but they will always sound different on very good equipment, and when properly cleaned they will sometimes sound VERY different.

And the better your system, the more different they will sound.

If you absolutely love your Pepper from the box set and have played five or ten other pressings and found that it is the best sounding of them all, then you probably don’t need ours. You’ve already done a shootout and you’ve already found a winner. If that is the case, congratulations are in order.

But if you did not do a shootout, did not clean and play five or ten other copies, then our pressing should be quite a bit better, maybe even night and day better. No one can know until you play our copy against yours.

Your judgment is the final say on the matter, but you need a bunch of cleaned copies in order to make that judgment, and it looks like you do not have more than the one Pepper from the box.

At this point you really don’t know how good your Sgt. Pepper sounds, because you need other copies to play against it in order to know that.

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One Customer’s Ten LP Shootout for Abbey Road

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about a Hot Stamper pressing of Abbey Road he purchased a while ago:

Hey Tom,   

I just played a couple of songs from the Abbey Road album ($850) I just purchased and I am blown away by the sound. The texture and clarity of the bass drum in Come Together is much more pronounced than any of the copies of the 10 Abbey Road copies that I have, including the MoFi and [Japanese] Pro Use albums. The album is so much better in all areas.

It was well worth the money and I am grateful to have it as it is my favorite album.

I like forward to hearing all of the songs. Wishing you all the best.

Ed

Ed,

That’s great news. Looking back through some of the emails we’ve exchanged, I see that I told you we would send you the best sounding Beatles records you ever imagined, and by the looks of it, apparently that is indeed the case.

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Letter of the Week – “They break so many conventions, and it all works. What planet did John and Paul come from?”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

One of our customers had this to say about some Hot Stamper pressings he purchased recently:

Hi Tom,

I just got The Beatles first album in the mail and put it on and it blew me away. I was thinking I didn’t need the first couple albums but this book I read, John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs by Ian Leslie, published in 2025. made me rethink all that.

I did not foresee reading ANOTHER Beatles book. It is getting over the top reviews but I looked at it because my friend from my college days recommended it. It covers many of the same events and anecdotes any real Beatles fan would know but that are given new context by viewing their history – fundamentally – through the prism of the relationship of these two friends.

You realize by the time they released their first album in 1963, they’d been preparing for it since 1958, egging each other on as performers and songwriters.

Paul had written songs actually predating 1958, but they made their union as songwriters soon after they met. They had learned so many great pop songs such that every song on those early albums is either an amazing cover they make their own (e.g. “Twist and Shout” “Boys” etc.) or one of their original compositions that demonstrates the depth of their skills.

They break so many conventions, and it all works. What planet did John and Paul come from?

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Letter of the Week – “The sound is incredible. Neil’s voice is right in the room.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Neil Young Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently, including After the Goldrush and Beatles For Sale: 

Hey Tom, 

Just wanted to write and tell you how much I love that Neil Young After The Gold Rush White Hot Stamper I picked up last week. Really awesome. This ranks up with the best I’ve bought from you guys.

The sound is incredible. Neil’s voice is right in the room. The guitar sounds real and that harmonica is super. I love when he performs, just him and nobody else. I’m really stuck on Neil’s albums. The sound is just soooo good. I’m working on my system to get more out of these records.

Oh yeah, I picked up one of your “Beatles for Sale” albums for $65. [This must be an old letter!] Really nice for the money. Those Beatles albums can really be awesome. Have to get a White Hot Stamper Beatles album someday. (more…)

Letter of the Week – “I feel (and tremble) as if I am sitting in the Abbey Road Studios while they are recording.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

Our good customer Alex had this to say about a White Hot Stamper pressing of Sgt. Peppers he purchased from us a while ago:

Hey Tom,   

I was very excited to have purchased a Triple/Triple Sgt. Pepper. So much so that I went out and bought a new stereo system. My copy arrived in January. There was no way I was going to take a chance and play it on my 30+ year-old vintage set-up. I have a friend who sells wicked awesome gear and I spent about a month from middle January to Middle February listening to quite a few turntables and speakers.

Once I settled on the system I then made an appointment to listen to Pepper. My wife and I went over to hear this White Hot Stamper.
The results? Tears of profound JOY.

And a big you-know-what eating grin on my face for the last week (and probably for the rest of my life). I was 9 years old in 1967 and I had only heard this LP on a cheap record player for years and I still loved it. It has been my most loved music for my entire life.

This copy is absolute, mind-blowing PERFECTION! The Fabs are at their BEST and I feel (and tremble) as if I am sitting in the Abbey Road Studios while they are recording.

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Letter of the Week – “… even my 65 year old father, with no musical background at all, was amazed when I play your Beatles stampers.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

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

Hey Tom, 

I have enjoyed your records since I got a “Sgt. Peppers” hot stamper in 2011, and you guys have never disappointed me!

Every time I play one of the hot stampers for my musician friends, I don’t tell them “it’s a special pressing” but just play the record – they always comment on the sound quality, almost always saying “that’s so clear, so clean, etc…” – even my 65 year old father, with no musical background at all, was amazed when I play your Beatles stampers. He said, “in my time, records sounded scratchy and noisy.” What a revelation the Hot Stamper is.

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Letter of the Week – “Any new audiophile pressing I have sounds flat when comparing it to a pressing you’ve sold”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about a Hot Stamper pressing of Sgt. Peppers he purchased from us a while ago:

Hey Tom,   

Wish I found your blog earlier. I do not have a huge collection but any new audiophile pressing I have sounds flat when comparing it to a pressing you’ve sold – i.e., Sgt Pepper.

Even my wife, who enjoys music but is not into it for the best sound, picked the 80s Pepper pressing I played her over the recent stereo remix and the mono from the box set everyone seems to love. Not close.

Dear Ryan,

It is indeed disheartening when collectors and audiophiles rave about mediocre records such as the two you mention. More proof, as if any were needed, that the audiophile record collecting world has lost its mind.

As for the copy you got from us having been pressed in the 80s, yes, we do sell some of those later pressings as Hot Stampers. The best of them can sometimes earn Super Hot (2+) stamper grades on one or both sides.

We always put a number of them in our shootouts to keep our grading honest by making sure that our best copies are a big step up over anything pressed in that decade. For The Beatles, a good rule of thumb is that the 60s can be rough and the 80s can be rough, but the 70s are where you will find the sweet spot for many of their titles.

For a big shootout we did in 2024, we actually had an early label pressing (stampers: -1/-2) that earned grades of 1.5+/2+ — not bad by any means, but a long ways from the best.

This early pressing would be the one that would set the standard for most audiophiles.

However, without a proper cleaning — good typically for a half-plus improvement or more — practically any of the Hot Stamper pressings we would sell would be better in almost every way, and a whole lot quieter to boot, at a fraction of the price a collector would be likely to pay for a clean first label pressing in stereo.

Glad to hear your wife had no trouble hearing the difference, they usually do.

Thanks for writing,

Best, TP

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Letter of the Week – “You might pay a lot more for an early Beatles pressing on Discogs but you’d still pay less and get a better pressing from your site.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased back in 2024:

Hey Tom,

I’m genuinely thrilled to have someone who figured out what’s going on with vinyl and how to make it sound best and what vinyl to buy. I’ve been posting in different places, like on Reddit, Discogs.com and other groups I belong to over the last year, telling them essentially two things: you figured out that the best pressings can only be found through shoot outs or your service. They’re not going to be the first pressing of a record necessarily or anything simple like that. It’s just not that easy.) And to stay away from recent remasters and half-speed remasters.

And I said that while some stuff on your site may not be in everyone’s budget, certain things are so worthwhile, like mid-career Beatles albums, to take one example. You’d be foolish to go anywhere else. To get a Hot Stamper or Super Hot Stamper of, say, Rubber Soul or Revolver from you is a great deal. You might pay a lot more for an early Beatles pressing on Discogs.com but you’d still pay less at better-records.com AND get a better pressing from your site. And I give other examples where it just makes more sense to buy from you and know you’ll get a guaranteed great record; money back guarantee – no questions.

And the other discovery is that you figured out how to clean the records better than anyone, and how important that is. You’ve heard me say it’s the clarity of a CD with the warmth of vinyl. (I can’t have been the first one to think up that analogy.) And that even brand new records need to be cleaned before you can truly judge them. So unless one buys from your company, or learns to clean the records using your system and learn to do shootouts (which will take a long time, but it’s a good skill if you have the interest), you’re going to be listening to mediocre stuff.

And when you hear the real deal for the first time, it will be so obvious that the previous stuff was crap. (My next purchase will be your cleaning system before I buy another record. I’ve just got to have this book off my plate.)

So I wanted you to know I was spreading the gospel and you’ve already given me a lot that I’m really grateful for. And I appreciate you answering all my early questions and my occasional questions in addition to redefining everything I know about vinyl.

Andrew

Andrew,
Thanks for the kind words, as usual!

It’s true that our Beatles pressings are going to beat practically any early pressing of any title you can find for yourself, for lots of reasons, the main one being that the early Beatles pressings of Revolver and Rubber Soul and most of their other titles are not especially good sounding.

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