Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Black Sabbath Available Now
The domestic copies we’ve played over the years for all the Black Sabbath titles are clearly better sounding than any import we’ve ever auditioned. It may be counterintuitive, but these are exactly the kinds of things you find out when doing blinded shootouts.
We have little use for intuitions (UK recording, UK pressing) and rules of thumb (original = better sound). We call that way of approaching the search for better sounding pressings mistaken audiophile thinking.
Hard data — the kind you get from actually playing the records — trumps them all.
(We recently posted a lengthy commentary about conventional wisdom, attempting to make the case that, although the most common record collecting approaches are more often right than wrong, there is simply no way to know when any given approach will work for any given title.)
Want to find your own killer copy?
Consider taking our moderately helpful advice for how to find your own shootout winners.