bostoselft

Letter of the Week – “I put on Boston’s first album and it was like having warm honey poured into my ears.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Boston Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about a Hot Stamper pressing he purchased recently of Boston’s Self-Titled debut.

Dear Sirs.

I just wanted to reach out as a customer and someone that has been reading your website for many years now. I wasn’t in the position to afford any of your albums in the past but things have changed for me financially and I finally had the opportunity to order some of your albums.

I cannot convey the sonic difference is absolutely remarkable in hot press albums compared to the standard issue pressing.

The soundstage is simply spectacular.

The clarity is unreal, and there’s a beautiful sweetness and warmth to every single note that’s very pleasing to hear.

I put on Boston’s first album and it was like having warm honey poured into my ears.

What a wonderful experience. Thank you Better Records for the work that you do.

I can only imagine the hundreds of hours I would have to spend rummaging through crates of vinyl to find anything that sounded anywhere near as good as your pressings do.

You have a fan for life.

Sincerely yours,

Rob H

Rob,

We could not be happier about your newfound enjoyment of vinyl. You hit the nail right on the head with everything you say.

And rummaging through the bins only works if you have lots of time on your hands and good cleaning systems, and who wants to clean records all day when you can just listen to them sound as awesine as ours sound?

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Boston Hot Stamper Testimonial – Shooting Out the Big Three

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Boston Available Now

This letter probably came in around 2010 or so, early days in the world of Hot Stampers, which explains the price for the top copy being $250.

This week’s letter comes from our good customer Roger, who did a little shootout of his own among three very different sounding pressings: two Half-Speeds, one by MoFi and one by CBS, probably the two most popular pressings among audiophiles, and our very own Hot Stamper LP.

Here are his findings. Keep in mind that Roger bought a copy priced at $125, half the price of the best copy in our shootout.

Hi Tom,

I got your Boston hot stamper today and enjoyed comparing it to MFSL and CBS half-speed versions in a shootout. I had long since given up on listening to this record since it became part of a communist ploy to brainwash us by playing Boston repeatedly on the radio until we would give up any information they desired. “Deep Purple Lite” was what my college buddies and I used to derisively call it. Now I only wish we had this type of music still around. So I had fun reliving my college days and listening to this LP.

For a pop recording, it is a pretty good recording soundwise, and all 3 pressings were indeed good, if not interesting. I tried the CBS half-speed first, and it was tonally lean with good speed and detail, and bass was extended and quick. However, its Achilles heel was that it had too much energy on top and excessive brightness, something that couldn’t hide from my speakers’ ion tweeters.

Roger, you seem to be using the phrase “tonally lean” unpejoratively (if I can make up such a word), whereas for us here at Better Records, that is the kiss of death for Half-Speeds, and in fact Audiophile Records of All Kinds. Lack of weight down below, lack of Whomp Factor, is the main reason half-speed mastered records are so consistently and ridiculously bad. If not bad, certainly wrong. You can be very sure that Boston would not want, nor would they put up with, that kind of anemic sound for a minute.

The CBS is cut clean from a good tape, so it easily beats the bad domestic pressings, of which there are many. But it can’t rock. What good is a Boston record that doesn’t rock? It’s a contradiction in terms; the band, as well as their debut album, have no other reason to exist.

So the MFSL was somewhat of a relief in that regard, being more sweet and rolled-off on top. However, it sounded bland, blah, slow and murky by comparison. It was still OK sonically with a fuller midband, but didn’t have the midrange energy or dynamics of the CBS and it just seemed slow and plodding, no other way to put it. Bass on the MFSL copy was weightier but more midbass than the quick and extended bass on the CBS.

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Letter of the Week – “…you have absolutely no idea how much fun and how spiritual this hobby can be!”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Boston Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about a Hot Stamper pressing he purchased a while back. My notes are interspersed with his.

Hey Tom,

Had a chance to do a shootout over this past weekend. My focus was Boston’s S/T album. I have 4 copies to play with:

1.) Vintage domestic pressing.
2.) Remastered heavy pressing.
3.) Mofi gatefold pressing.
4.) Better Records WH stamper 2.5+/3+ pressing.

Started with a vintage domestic pressing. This copy was doing nothing right and very painful to listen to. No energy! No low end or high end transparency and the midrange was smeared really bad. The vox sounded flat, 2 dimensional and distant. F- grading!

There are a lot of bad sounding vintage pressings of the album, as you no doubt know firsthand. We sell only the vintage pressings that have been mastered and pressed properly, which is what makes them Hot Stamper pressings.

Remastered heavy pressing was next. The sonic quality was very similar to the vintage domestic pressing and again, very painful to listen to. I will give this copy one thing, it had just a smidge more life to the soundfield than the vintage domestic copy and that’s not saying much. F grading!

Not sure which Heavy Vinyl pressing you played, but the fact that is had bad sound comes as no surprise.

Mofi gatefold pressing next. Again, NO energy coming from the grooves. Although the overall sonic quality was a bit better than the first 2 copies, there still is no low or high end extension. No 3D to the vox or midrange area. No space or separation between instruments. This pressing sounded flat, lifeless, dull and boring and time to take off the turntable. My ears can not take these crappy sounding pressing for very long. D grading!

Agreed. In our review, we described their remastered pressing this way:

The MoFi Anadisc of Boston’s first album has the same problems that seem to have plagued the whole of the Anadisq 200 series. The sound was: thick, opaque, blurry, and murky.

A real slogfest. Audiophile trash of the worst kind. If this isn’t the worst version of the album ever made, I cannot imagine what would be.

Better Records WH stamper 2.5+/3+ pressing next.

This copy blew my mind and socks off as I listened to the whole album.

Talk about Energy!

Until one listens to the sonic quality of this hot stamper on a high quality system, you have absolutely no idea how much fun and how spiritual this hobby can be! This copy is doing just about everything right. A+ grading!

Thx
Mike p.

Mike,

I know exactly what you mean, good records are the only records worth listening to, because they are the most engaging, the most fun and provoke the most powerful emotional — even spiritual — responses. I could not agree with you more.

There is one other important thing to remember. The only way you can be sure that the recording in question is not exactly the way you described the first three pressings of it is to have a pressing that shows you just how good it can really be.

How else would you know?

The fact that audiophiles find the sound of so many Heavy Vinyl reissues acceptable has to be chalked up to the fact that they have nothing better to compare them to.

They may even tell you that their newly remastered pressing is dramatically superior to the vintage domestic vinyl pressings they’ve played.

Of course, all that tells us is that, like you, they had a bad domestic original. We sympathize with their situation. We’ve played plenty of those too.

But once you hear just how good the album can sound — as you now have — those other pressings actually become an insult to Tom Scholz and the work he did (with help from Warren Dewey) on his one and only good album, Boston’s first.

Thanks for having enough faith in us to spend the big bucks it took to acquire our White Hot Stamper.

It’s clear you had the experience playing it that we did — what a record! — and that is money well spent.

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Letter of the Week – “I could tell the difference right away. It’s amazing what you guys do.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Dire Straits Available Now

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

Hey Tom,   

Just some feedback. I know its been a long time. Anyways, all the albums were great.

The Dire Straits I thought was the best. Fleetwood Mac was next.

Boston is hard for me to listen to nowadays. I used to really be a big Boston fan, played it all the time in the car cassette deck. In fact I first heard album #1 in a friends car deck. Now, I’m not so much a big fan, but The hot stamper was great.

When I first contacted you about your hot stampers you mentioned that I might not be able to notice a big difference with my setup. But I could tell the difference right away. I frequent your site at least once a week looking for something of interest and within my price range. It’s amazing what you guys do.

Anyways, I’ll keep looking and thanks for the awesome hot stampers.

Dear Sir,

Thanks for the kind words. It’s great to hear you are enjoying your Hot Stamper pressings of these wonderful albums. What could be better?

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Can You Believe I Actually Used to Like this CBS Half-Speed?

More of the Music of Boston

Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Boston

Sonic Grade: D

Lack of weight down low — or as we like to call it, lack of whomp factor [1] — is the main reason Half-Speed mastered records so often come up short when played against their real-time-mastered competition. The highs can be good, the mids can be good, but the bottom end is almost always lacking, which is exactly the problem here.

You can be sure that Boston would not have wanted, nor would they have ever been willing to accept, the kind of anemic sound that the CBS Half-Speed delivers.

The CBS is cut clean from a good tape, so it easily beats the bad domestic pressings, of which there are many.

But it doesn’t rock.

What good is a Boston record that doesn’t rock? It’s a contradiction in terms; they’re a rock band.

The band, as well as their amazingly well recorded debut album, have no other reason to exist.

Transparency is a nice quality, but when it comes at the expense of the energy and power of the music, especially down low, then it comes at too high a price, especially for those of us who have full-range systems and like to play them loud.

We talk about the shortcomings of transparent audiophile records here:

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Boston – Self-Titled

More of the Music of Boston

  • With big, bold, hard-rockin’ Double Plus (A++) sound, this pressing will show you just how good Boston’s debut album can sound
  • The multi-tracked, multi-layered guitars are as big as life on this copy and guaranteed to rock your world — on big speakers at loud levels this is a Demo Disc with few peers
  • 4 1/2 stars and a Top 100 title: “Nearly every song on Boston’s debut album can still be heard on classic rock radio today due to the strong vocals of Brad Delp and unique guitar sound of Tom Scholz. Boston is essential for any fan of classic rock, and the album marks the re-emergence of the genre in the 1970s.”
  • This is clearly Boston’s best sounding album. Roughly 100 other listings for the best sounding album by an artist or group can be found here.
  • In our opinion, this is the only Boston record you’ll ever need. Click on this link to see more titles we like to call one and done

Boston’s first (and only good) album is a long-time member of our Top 100, and on a great pressing like this it’s easy to see why. It’s an incredible recording when you can hear it right, and this is about as right as it gets!

It’s obvious why the first Boston album became a Multi-Platinum Record. Practically every one of its songs still gets heavy radio play on every rock station in town. Consummately well-crafted music like this is almost impossible to find nowadays. I guess that’s why they call it Classic Rock.

More Guitar

The multi-tracked layers of guitars really come to life on the better copies. The not-so-great pressings tend to be congested and compressed, thickening the sound and diffusing the layers of multi-tracked harmonies. Tom Scholz’s uniquely overdriven, distorted leads have near-perfect timbre. On the top copies, you can really hear how much power that sound adds to the music.

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Boston’s First Album on MoFi Anadisq

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Boston Available Now

Sonic Grade: F

The MoFi Anadisc of Boston’s first album has the same problems that seem to have plagued the whole of the Anadisq 200 series. The sound was:

  • thick,
  • opaque,
  • blurry, and
  • murky.

A real slogfest. Audiophile trash of the worst kind. If this isn’t the worst version of the album ever made, I cannot imagine what would be.

Many of the worst releases from MoFi in this era were mastered by Ken Lee. If you happen to come across a record in a store with his name in the credits, or his initials in the deadwax, you are best advised to drop it back in the bin and keep moving. Anything else is just asking for trouble.

Do people still pay good money for this kind of awful sound?

Yes they do!

Go to ebay and see the high prices these kinds of records are fetching. This is in equal parts both shocking and disgusting. 

Here is what is available for the MoFi pressing on Discogs today (2/2/2022). If you have $400 you can order one there.

Marketplace 3 For Sale from $399.99

And people complain about our prices? At least we send you a great sounding record for all the money we charge.

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What the Best Copies of Boston Really Get Right

Hot Stamper Pressings of Albums with Huge Choruses Available Now

The multi-tracked layers of guitars really come to life on the better copies. The not-so-great pressings tend to be congested and compressed, thickening the sound and diffusing the layers of multi-tracked harmonies. Tom Scholz’s uniquely overdriven, distorted leads have near-perfect timbre. On the top copies you can really hear how much power that sound adds to the music.

As is the case for the better pressings of Aqualung,just to take one example, when the guitar sounds this good, it really makes you sit up and take notice of the guy’s playing. When the sound works the music works, our seven word definition of a Hot Stamper.

Our killer copies have sweetness and tubey warmth we didn’t expect to hear. Better yet, the best copies have jump-out-of-the-speakers presence without being aggressive, no mean feat.

The good ones make you want to turn up the volume; the louder they get the better they sound. Try that with the average copy. When playing mass-market pop-rock music like this, more level usually means only one thing: bloody eardrums.

The typical Boston EQ is radio-friendly, not audiophile-friendly. But some were cut right, with the kind of richness, sweetness and smoothness that we fondly refer to here at Better Records as the sound of analog.

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Letter of the Week – “…slow, murky and all the other things that your commentary says…”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Boston Available Now

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

Hey Tom, 

Just wanted to say thanks for finding a record like this. I looked in my collection and thought, wow I have an anadisc (Serial #5), let’s see how they compare?

The MOFI is so bad! It sounds like there are three layers of Saran wrap on it… slow, murky and all the other things that your commentary says… the food analogy would be crappy soggy french fries… bloated… lifeless…

There is no comparison to the sound on side two…. the organ is rolling and alive and sounds like the Hammonds I have heard through Leslie cabinets… on the MOFI it was like the organ was behind glass doors… flat… no life…. I could go on and on.

The other songs were so much better on the Hot Stamper… makes me want to go frisbee my MOFI or maybe just sell it on ebay.

Ed F.