beatlsgtpe

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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Sgt. Pepper on Yellow and Black Parlophone

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

UPDATE 2026

This commentary was written in 2010, prompted by our good fortune in finding a clean, -1/-1 original pressing of Sgt. Pepper, at a local record store, in stereo no less.

Since that time I believe we have played at least one other early pressing. We are unlikely to play another.

The originals have almost nothing in common with the amazing pressings that end up winning our shootouts, none of which have ever been mastered in the 60s to the best of my knowledge, although it is possible that ten or fifteen years ago, before we really got to know the record the way we know it now, there might have been one or two from that decade.

Since then the cutoff is somewhere in the mid-70s. We leave the specific years for you to figure out.

Of course, if you bought a White Hot Stamper copy from us, you know at least one of the stampers for at least one of the sides that wins a shootout, and perhaps both if you happened to have purchased a 3/3 Top Shelf copy. (At the time of this writing there are a total of seven on the site, out of about 500 records. Needless to say, they are very hard to find.)

Certainly nothing from 1967 and nothing on the original label.

And definitely nothing in mono.

We had the opportunity not long ago to audition a very clean original early pressing of the album and were frankly quite taken aback by how just plain AWFUL it was in every respect. No top end above 8k or so, flabby bass, muddy mids — this was as far from Hot Stamper sound as you could get.

To be fair, we have played exactly one copy on our current system. (Played an early copy or two long ago but on much different equipment, so any judgments we might have made are highly suspect.) Perhaps there are good ones. We have no way of knowing whether there are, and we are certainly not motivated to find out given the price that original Sgt. Pepper’s pressings on the Yellow and Black label in audiophile playing condition are fetching these days.

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MoFi Mastering Variations – Will the Real Sgt. Pepper Please Stand Up?

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

Sgt. Pepper can be a pretty good sounding MoFi when it’s mastered by the right guy.

Say what?

Yes, dear reader, this album was mastered by two different engineers at Mobile Fidelity, and one of them, based on experiments we carried out years ago, did a much better job than the other.

This copy, which is far more rare by the way, has the better mastering — much less top end boost was added. As an aside, I used to like the other version better, but as I’ve gotten older and wiser, I realize that this pressing is superior, being noticeably less phony sounding.

It sounds much more like a good Parlophone and less like the typical Mobile Fidelity album.

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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 – “All four records exceeded my expectations and in my opinion are the best copies I’ve ever heard.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now

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

Just wanted to say Thank You.

All four records exceeded my expectations and in my opinion are the best copies I’ve ever heard.

I will continue to follow your site and be a future customer as well.
Whit

Dear Whit,

We should be thanking you! That was a chunk of change you spent with us, but it seems you are quite happy with your purchases, so that’s a win-win, right?

Four truly great albums, all personal favorites and Desert Island Discs, albums that I have listened to from beginning to end hundreds of times over the last 40+ years and still play to this day.

Now you can hear and enjoy them the way I have, and you can do so for as long as you live. Hope you are young enough to spend the next forty years of your life playing this wonderful music.

You now own the pressings that show just how well-recorded these albums were. If you want to hear the magic of analog, your best bet is to go back to 1966, 1967, 1969 or 1973. That’s when they knew what they what they were doing.

Three of the titles below are reissues, and none of the four pressings you bought were mastered after the decade of the 70s.

Why the 70s was the peak decade for mastering quality is a question no one can answer, not to my satisfaction anyway, but after playing tens of thousands of records, I long ago learned to accept it as a fact, one that is supported by mountains of evidence.

Thanks for writing,

Best, TP

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Letter of the Week – “…you sell a product that is singular and unique. And completely worth every penny.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of Sgt. Peppers Available Now

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

Hey Tom,   

I never thought, not even for a second, that in my life I’d EVER buy a record for $300. Never Ever!

But here I am. Most records I’d come across in my life were from used/antique stores, and so they were warped, brittle, noisy, or out of tune (a fact I didn’t notice until I graduated from a music college).

But your Beatles “Revolver” and “Sgt. Pepper” – music I’ve known my ENTIRE LIFE – sound like new as Hot Stampers.

I appreciate the fact these records, although expensive, are sold simply on the basis of quality.

In an increasingly fake, plastic “if this one doesn’t work just return it for another broken one” world, you sell a product that is singular and unique. And completely worth every penny.

I appreciate the fact you evaluate the record’s sound (i.e. mastering) as a musician would – focusing on tonal correctness – prizing the record’s ability to accurately reproduce a recording of how instruments actually sound in real life. On its face, it seems so simple, yet it is of utmost importance. Thanks!

Kyle M.

Kyle,

Thanks for writing. Glad you think our Hot Stamper pressings were worth what you paid for them. They are indeed expensive, but as you now know firsthand, they deliver the sound they promise.

On the best pressings, Sgt. Pepper is nothing less than a Demo Disc for Tubey Magic.

If you’re looking for Hot Stamper pressings of Tubey Magical rock and pop recordings, we usually have a good supply. They are not cheap, but truly great sounding records rarely are.

We’ve also created a Top Ten for the most Tubey Magical rock and pop albums we’ve ever played.  What follows is the complete list, in alphabetical order, limited to one album per artist or group.

We picked Sgt. Pepper for this list even though there are many Tubey Magical titles in their catalog.

Note also that we rarely have more than a couple of these titles in stock at any time. Tubey Magical sound is what analog is all about, so naturally the titles on this list are in very high demand.

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Sgt. Pepper’s and Mistaken Audiophile Thinking (Hint: the UHQR Is Wrong)

Hot Stamper Pressings of Sgt. Peppers Available Now

This commentary was probably written between 2005 when we did our first shootout for the album and 2008, by which time it would have been a regular feature on the site. 

We charge hundreds of dollars for a Hot Stamper Sgt. Pepper, which is a lot to pay for a record. But consider this: the UHQR typically sells for a great deal more than the price we charge and doesn’t sound remotely as good. 

Of course the people that buy UHQRs would never find themselves in a position to recognize how much better one of our Hot Stampers sounds in a head to head shootout with their precious and oh-so-collectible UHQR.

They assume that they’ve already purchased the Ultimate Pressing and see no reason to try another.

I was guilty of the same mistaken audiophile thinking myself in 1982. I remember buying the UHQR of Sgt. Pepper and thinking how amazing it sounded and how lucky I was to have the world’s best version of Sgt. Pepper.

If I were to play that record now it most likely would be positively painful. All I would hear would be the famous MoFi 10K Boost on the top end (the one that MoFi lovers never seem to notice), and the flabby Half-Speed mastered bass (ditto).

Having heard really good copies of Sgt. Pepper, like the wonderful Hot Stampers we put on the site from time to time, now the MoFi UHQR sounds so phony to me that I wouldn’t be able to sit through it with a gun to my head.

UPDATE 2025

If you are still buying these remastered pressings, making the same mistakes that I was making before I knew better, take the advice of some of our customers and stop throwing your money away on Heavy Vinyl and Half-Speed mastered LPs.

At the very least let us send you a Hot Stamper pressing — of any album you choose — that can show you what is lacking on your copy of the album.

And if for some reason you disagree with us that our record sounds better than yours, we will happily give you all your money back and wish you the very best.

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 to our Half-Speed mastering main page .

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More Customers Write Us About Our Amazing Pressings of Sgt. Pepper

beatlessgtHot Stamper Pressings of Sgt. Peppers Available Now

Below you will find some of the letters customers have sent us after hering one of our Hot Stamper reissue pressings of Sgt. Pepper. (More letters for the album can be found here.)

The Beatles are the only group to have their own page on the blog. No surprise there. We’ve written more about their music and sold more of their albums than we have for any other band.

Letter of the Week – “…you sell a product that is singular and unique. And completely worth every penny.”

Letter of the Week – “To this day, he refers to the wondrous sound he heard that night every time we get together.”


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