Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now
No artists’ records have been more important to my evolution as an audiophile than those of The Beatles.
This commentary was written about 15 years ago. Unlike some of the things I used to say about records and audio, practically every word of this commentary still holds true in my opinion.
The sound of the best pressings of The Beatles — when cleaned with the Prelude Enzyme System on the Odyssey machine — are truly a revelation.
So much of what holds their records back is not bad mastering or poor pressing quality or problems with the recording itself.
It’s getting the damn vinyl clean.
(It’s also helpful to have high quality playback equipment that doesn’t add to the inherent limitations of the recordings.)
Know why you never hear Beatles vinyl playing in stereo stores or audio shows?*
Because they’re TOO DAMN HARD to reproduce. You need seriously tweaked, top-quality, correct-sounding equipment — and just the right pressings, natch — to get The Beatles’ music to sound right, and that’s just not the kind of stuff they have at stereo stores and audio shows. (Don’t get me started.)
However, you may have noticed that we sell tons of Beatles Hot Stamper pressings. We have the stereo that can play them, we have the technology to clean them, and we know just how good the best pressings can sound. The result? Listings for Beatles Hot Stampers on the site all the time.
Five of their titles — the most of any band — are on our Rock and Pop Top 100 List. That ought to tell you something. (Let It Be and Revolver would easily make the list as well, but seven albums from one band seemed like overkill, so we’re holding firm at five for now.)
A True Pass/Fail Test for Equipment