brook-shootout

Robert Brook Compares Different Hot Stamper Pressings of Crosby’s Must Own Debut

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of David Crosby Available Now

Robert Brook has a blog which he calls

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Below is a link to the review he has written for one of our favorite records, If Only I Could Remember My Name.

In this review he compares two Hot Stamper pressings, one a Super Hot, and one the next grade up from a Super, a Nearly White Hot stamper pressing.

When an amazing recording meets a system that can play it right, inevitably sparks fly, and these two copies were apparently giving off a lot of sparks.

IF ONLY I COULD REMEMBER MY NAME & The NW HOT STAMPER

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Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s Debut Is an Audiophile Must Own

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Emerson, Lake and Palmer Available Now

Robert Brook has a blog which he calls

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Below is a link to a review Robert Brook wrote for a pressing of the album I had loaned him so that he could hear just how good ELP’s debut can sound on one of our hottest Hot Stampers. Please to enjoy.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Why You NEED a Hot Stamper of THIS Record!

Robert’s Approach

Robert has methodically and carefully — one might even say scientifically — approached the various problems he’s encountered in this hobby by doing the following:

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Find the Dubs = Less Records = Progress!

Robert Brook runs a blog called The Broken Record, explaining that the aim of his blog is to serve as:

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Here is Robert’s posting from 8/26/2025 containing a great deal of good advice for record collectors and audiophiles of all ages, especially us old ones.

He admits to being wrong about the sound of a record he wrote about on his blog. When have you ever seen an audiophile admit to being wrong about a record? The very idea!

Why was he wrong? Because his stereo got dramatically better, so much better that he could see how mistaken he was about a Japanese pressing he thought for sure was made from the master tape. Now it sounds dubby. It was always dubby; he just hadn’t gotten his system, room, electricity, setup and who knows what else to the point where the true nature of that copy could be revealed.

Robert revisited a record he was sure he knew well, well enough to rave about on his blog, and found out things had changed — apparently quite a lot! — while he wasn’t looking.

A great deal of audio progress had been made, and that audio progress is what allowed Robert to also make some progress on the record collecting front, a win-win if every there was one. Congratulations are in order.

We here at Better Records live with this reality every day. Our mea culpas are occassioned by the shootouts we do for the same records over and over again, which is what allows us to discover even better pressings of albums than the ones we thought were the best. It’s surely the most rewarding part of the job.

FIND the DUBS = LESS RECORDS = PROGRESS!

Please to enjoy the lessons Robert learned.

I wrote about a similar experience I had myself back in the early-2000s.

If presently you are the happy owner of many Japanese pressings, perhaps now would be a good time to pull them out and play them. Very few master tapes went to Japan, and, as a result, most Japanese pressings in our experience sound like they are made from copy tapes, which of course they are.

Some of them have the potential for top quality sound, but most do not.

If your stereo is not revealing enough to show you their shortcomings, the way Robert’s was not revealing enough just five years ago, please take his advice and make the kinds of changes he has made.

The steps you take next will be the most satisfactory of all. Now you can clear the shelves of all your second- and third-tier records, which, of course, will not be limited to Japanese pressings, but should in fact include most of your Heavy Vinyl LPs, if not all of them. Let the culling begin!

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Finding the Demo Disc in Your Collection: A New Champion is Crowned!

Robert Brook runs a blog called The Broken Record, with a subtitle explaining that the aim of his blog is to serve as:

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Finding the DEMO DISC in Your Collection: A New Champion is CROWNED!

We Love the Record Too

Here is how we described a recent shootout winning copy:

The mastering EQ is close to perfection, with correct tonality from top to bottom. It’s surprisingly rich and smooth. Transparency and top-end extension were excellent as well. The timpani has the weight and whomp of the real thing, and they’re way at the back where they should be.

This is a superb Demonstration disc, but it is also an excellent Test disc. The sound of the best copies is rich, full-bodied, incredibly spacious, and exceptionally extended up top. There is a prodigious amount of musical information spread across the soundstage, much of it difficult to reproduce.

Musicians are banging on so many different percussive devices (often at the far back of the stage, or, even better, far back and left or right) that getting each one’s sonic character to clearly come through is a challenge — and when you’ve met it, a thrill. If you’ve done your homework, this is the kind of record that can show you what you’ve accomplished.

On the best copies the strings have wonderful texture and sheen. If your system isn’t up to it (or you have a copy with a problem in this area), the strings might sound a little shrill and possibly grainy as well, but I’m here to tell you that the sound on the best copies is just fine with respect to string tone and timbre. You will need to look elsewhere for the problem.

Tops for Table Tweaking

The recording has tremendous transients and dynamics as well; be prepared to have trouble tracking it. In that respect it’s a prime candidate for table, cartridge and system tweaking. (I once adjusted my anti-skate while playing this very album, at the time dialing it in to a “T”.

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Robert Brook Hears the Magic of Spain on Vinyl

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Chabrier Available Now

Robert Brook has a blog which he calls

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Below is a link to the review he has written for one of our favorite records, Chabrier Orchestral Music with Ansermet (CS 6438).

He also had the famous TAS List recording of Espana to play, CS 6006 with Argenta, in order to compare the two.

We know of no other performances of Espana to compete with these in terms of sonics. I think you will find Robert’s review of interest, a good overview of what each of the recordings has to offer the advanced audiophile.

Chabrier’s España: Brought to LIFE with SUPER HOT Sound!

Further Reading

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Robert Brook Revisits a White Hot Stamper Pressing of The Eagles

Robert Brook runs a blog called The Broken Record, with a subtitle explaining that the aim of his blog is to serve as:

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Here is a posting Robert wrote many years ago and has recently updated.

EAGLES: WHITE HOT and SOARING HIGHER!

A quote I rather liked:

You can throw a Hot Stamper onto your rig and hear that it sounds better than your crappy “audiophile” 180g reissue, but when you compare it to your high res digital file, you’re not quite sure which one you like better.

The digital vs. analog debate, perhaps the most enduring in all of audio, persists because only a handful of audiophiles have truly realized the full potential of analog in their systems.

You may be reading this thinking “hey whad’ya mean! My analog system sounds great!.” And it very well may sound great, but I thought and still think that my copy of Eagles sounds great, and let me tell you, the White Hot Stamper is a WHOLE new platter of wax!

The tubey jangle of the guitars, the room filling weight of the drums and bass, the airy, spacious, luscious vocal harmonies, and every last sumptuous element of the mix, unmoored, liberated from obscuration so completely that the music, freed from every conceivable resolution constraint, SOARS to life in the listening room.

That’s what this White Hot Stamper of Eagles sounds like, and that’s what analog is ALL ABOUT!

This record, The Dude be damned, is one of my all time favorites. It’s a delicious recording on even a decent copy. My current copy, which bested several others, was competitive on side 1, but laid to waste by the White Hot on side 2. And that was the side I thought mine had nailed!

Eagles lives and dies by the vocal harmonies, and when the backing vocals are as clear and present and alive as the lead vocal is on most other records then you know you’re hearing a very special copy.

Here is our description of a recent copy that is up on the site at this time.

Super Hot and $699 — affordable maybe for some, certainly not cheap, but as Robert makes clear in his review, one of the most amazing sounding recordings in the history of popular music on the right pressing, and the right pressings are the only ones we offer.

The notes for our Shootout Winning copy from 2024 can be seen at the very end of this post. Side two was a “strong 3+, ” which we would have called 4+, Beyond White Hot, way back when, but we stopped doing that many years ago.

Side two was HTF — Hard To Fault. This may have been the side two that Robert is raving about in his review.

My current copy, which bested several others, was competitive on side 1, but laid to waste by the White Hot on side 2. And that was the side I thought mine had nailed!

Eagles lives and dies by the vocal harmonies, and when the backing vocals are as clear and present and alive as the lead vocal is on most other records then you know you’re hearing a very special copy.

Can’t argue with any of that! That’s what we heard too.

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Pet Sounds: Analogue Productions Takes on the Hot Stamper

Robert Brook has a blog which he calls

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Below is a link to a comparison Robert Brook carried out between two pressings of Pet Sounds – the Analogue Productions pressing and one of our Hot Stampers.

We’ve written quite a bit about the album, and you can find plenty of our reviews and commentaries for Pet Sounds on this very blog.

PET SOUNDS: Analogue Productions Takes on the Hot Stamper

I have never heard the AP pressing, and have no plans at this time to get one, mostly because not a single one that I have heard on my system was better than mediocre. If your experience has been different, we have some questions for you.

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Adjusting the Bias – Piper at the Gates of Dawn

Robert Brook runs a blog called The Broken Record, with a subtitle explaining that the aim of his blog is to serve as:

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Here is a posting Robert wrote many years ago and has recently updated.

Adjusting the bias: PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN

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Big Star’s #1 Record – Is All Analog Better?

Robert Brook runs a blog called The Broken Record, with a subtitle explaining that the aim of his blog is to serve as:

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

We know of none better, outside of our own humble attempt to enlighten that portion of the audiophile community who love records and are looking to understand them better.

Here is one of Robert’s postings from way back in 2021. The reason it is going up today is that the fellow who remastered the record for Craft, Jeff Powell, also remastered the Born Under a Bad Sign we reviewed recently here. Small world, right?

Back in the 90s I played an import pressing that was in print at the time. As I recall it was very bright, but that seems to be the sound the band was going for. I like Power Pop as much as the next guy, but the bright sound put me off and that was that. I never offered the record for sale, figuring that most customers would not be happy with the sound.

Chris Bellman cut the record for Classic Records in 2009, reportedly on an “All Tube” cutting system. Based on the man’s previous work I would not expect it to be to my liking. He cut a serviceable version of Brothers in Arms years ago, which I thought was quite good for anything pressed on Heavy Vinyl. It would probably earn a grade of 1.5+. Eventually I will get around to posting a review on this blog about it. To say Chris Bellman is no Robert Ludwig may be a massive understatement, but is there anyone today who can begin to match the mastering skills of the great RL?

By the way, the cheapest copy on Discogs is $163.04 if you are interested.

Big Star’s #1 Record Reissues: Is ALL ANALOG Better?

 

Most of the reviews on Discogs are of the Five Star “I can’t believe how good this record sounds” variety, something that is both tiresome and somewhat sickening considering that the quality is sure to be as poor as Robert says it is, if not worse.

One guy had the temerity to stick his head up, offering a dissent from the lovefest being thrown for a record he found of dubious quality. Naturally, a bunch of Discogers jumped all over him for his apostasy.

It’s just now dawning on me that this sort of behavior is not limited to the Steve Hoffman forum.

Here he “risks eternity” by speaking his mind. If they could find a way to burn him at the stake for the crime of questioning the quality of a Heavy Vinyl pressing they happen to like, you can be sure they would be organizing the gathering of the kindling at this very moment. They call him an “elitist goof, ” “a wanker,” and question his bona fides as an audiophile, the standard-issue audiophile forum approach to those who waver from the true path.

This is my favorite reply, offering little more than an appeal to authority. These guys are pros. How could they possibly make a bad sounding record? That’s not what they do, you idiot!

Why anyone would choose to associate with such intolerant, ill-mannered, small-minded people is beyond me.

The true believers at the Hoffman forum are even worse. There, if you write something upsetting to the delicate sensibilities of its members, they simply delete the post and send it down the memory hole where it can no longer do harm to the faithful.

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There’s Something Not Quite Right about MoFi’s Blue

Robert Brook has a blog which he calls

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Below is a link to a review Robert Brook wrote recently for the MoFi One-Step pressing of one of our favorite albums of all time, Joni Mitchell’s Blue, originally released in 1971.

BLUE: What’s the RIGHT SOUND For Joni Mitchell’s CLASSIC?

Blue Sounds Funny Now

Based on everything I am reading these days from Robert Brook, he has a good stereo, two working ears, and knows plenty about records and what they are supposed to sound like.

This was not always the case as he himself would tell you. His stereo used to be much better at hiding the faults of a record like the MoFi One-Step of Blue than the stereo he has now. He got rid of most of his audiophile electronics, got a better phono stage, cartridge and arm, improved the quality of his electricity, found some sophisticated vibration controlling platforms for his vintage gear and did lots of other things to make his playback more accurate and — we cannot stress this too strongly — more fun, more exciting and more involving.

When your stereo is doing a better job of reproducing what’s in the grooves of your records, the first thing you notice when playing a Mobile Fidelity or other Heavy Vinyl pressing is that the sound is funny and wrong. (Please excuse the technical jargon; those of you who have been audiophiles as long as we have will understand what I mean, the rest of you can just play along. All of this will make sense eventually.)

When you use colored-sounding audiophile equipment — but I repeat myself — then your colored-sounding audiophile records don’t sound nearly as colored as they would under other conditions.

For example, other conditions obtain if you have — again, sorry about the jargon — revealing, accurate, tonally correct, natural-sounding equipment, free from the colorations — euphonic and otherwise — that allow one piece of audiophile equipment to sound so different from another.

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