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Breakfast in America – An A&M Half-Speed Mastered Disaster

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Supertramp Available Now

Sonic Grade: F

This title is yet another Half-Speed we think belongs in our audiophile hall of shame.

It’s better suited to the stone age stereos of decades past. I should know — my system in 1976 was one-tenth as revealing as the one we use now.

But this pressing is so awful even my old system could not be fooled by this kind of audiophile BS sound. The console you see pictured might be the ideal system to play it. Hard to say, I haven’t heard one of those since the 60s.

It is just ridiculous that someone would consider marketing this kind of sound to audiophiles.

So washed out, brittle, thin and lifeless, it practically defies understanding that anyone with two working ears ever considered calling this piece of crap an “audiophile” record.

But are today’s remastered records marketed to those looking for superior sound any better? Not the ones we’ve played recently. (If you know of any good ones, please drop us a line.)

Is this A&M pressing the worst version of the album ever made? It’s hard to imagine it would have much competition.

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A Few Questions for the Record Reviewing Community Regarding Counting Crows

More Entries from Tom’s Audiophile Notebook

I think I originally posted this in the comments section for Steve Westman’s youtube channel, but, to be honest, I cannot remember as it was way back in 2023 when I wrote it.

Tom Port here. Hello all. I come in peace with a quick question.

Much is made of price points when discussing these modern pressings, and rightfully so.

I admittedly do not know anything about The Counting Crows record being discussed, but I wanted to know more — what was available, from what year, mastered by whom, that sort of thing — so I went to Discogs to see what vinyl versions had been pressed recently.

The original import LP is probably made from a dub, or mastered right off the CD — that used to happen a lot in the 90s. (My beloved Jellyfish Spilt Milk on import vinyl is a dubby joke compared to every other copy I have, including the cassette. Watch for a review of the Omnivore LP coming to the blog soon.)

Then Analogue Productions put out a version in 2012, cut by Ryan Smith, which can be seen here.

There are 16 for sale starting at $127.49. It’s two discs at 45 RPM.

Chris Bellman cut the record in 2017, and his version can be found here.

CB in the deadwax. 2 discs at 33.

There are 43 available from $25.36. Since those were manufactured by Rainbo records, the vinyl may be terrible. Their stuff often is. I gave up buying their pressings in the 90s because they were so often warped and noisy.

Then there is one other which is a bit of a mystery, with no date of release, this one.

No CB in the dead wax. 2016 on the copyright info on the label though.

8 are available for $37.99

Question

Which one sounds the best?

Seems to me that this would be valuable information for your viewers to have. Why spend $100+ for an audiophile pressing when there are so many others around?

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Better Sounding Records Are the Only Surefire Cure for Audiophile Burnout

Robert wrote a piece which I rather liked with the heading:

The Cure for Audiophile Burnout, Upgrade-itis and Other Audiophile Ailments

Phil, one of my newer customers, responded to his post with these comments, which Phil has graciously allowed me to repost here:

Hi, Robert, thanks for the post. I recall reading that post on Audiogon too, and I felt at the time I should respond with what I’ve been learning of late from you and Tom Port: Better Records are what count, (pun intended). I know, I’ve purchased a few Hot Stampers from BR, and damn!!! I’m excited!

Those few Hot Stampers are now guiding the rebuilding of my whole system.

I’ve stopped buying reissues, remasters or original pressings just because “they’re supposed to be good.”

And, I’ve begun listening. And I’m buying more than one copy of the same title to learn how to listen, for differences in the stampings, where I can. Granted, not thorough shootouts by a longshot, I’m not deep-pocketed enough for that, but now I understand what you guys have been working at for so long, trying to get it through our thick skulls out here in the audiophile community why it’s important not to blow money just grabbing a single album for the title/mastering house/engineer, etc, and think it’s done.

If I’m understanding you guys, it’s about the listening.

And getting the stereo in shape to get all the music out of these best albums.

So, I’m starting the path. I’m devouring Tom and your posts to follow as best I can.

And you’re absolutely right, since beginning this journey (and oh how I wish I’d started so much earlier), I’ve been excited about this hobby, more so than anything I’ve ever done for personal growth, health, adventure.

Thanks Robert. Thanks for all your hard work. It will not go wasted.

Robert replied:

Phillip,
This is all great to hear. To know that even one person out there appreciates what I’m advocating for is hugely rewarding. Thank you for your wonderful feedback!

Adding:

And to answer your question, listening is, of course, essential for growth in this hobby. How can it be otherwise? If we don’t train our ear to hear what is and what is not on these records, there’s no way forward.
Robert

Could not have said it better myself. It is indeed hard to find the way forward when you’re stuck in a Heavy Vinyl or Compact Disc rut. Which direction would forward be anyway?

Fortunately, returning to first principles is the best way to get started when digging yourself out of whatever hole you’ve dug yourself into. I freely admit to being lost in the 90s — this after having been heavily into audio for twenty years — and was fortunate to find my way forward only because I had no other choice. (And being irrationally obsessed with my favorite music helped a lot.)

Phil has started his journey, and because he is dealing with two guys who not only talk the talk but have walked the walk (as our blogs attest), his success is almost assured. If all goes according to plan, he will never suffer the burnout that afflicts the hoardes of credulous audiophiles whose approach to the hobby was doomed from the start, by their lack of skepticism more than anything else. (They should have read Richard Feynman on the subject of the ignorance of experts, ourselves included.)

Phil, thanks again for the kind words and we look forward to finding you even more Better Records to play!

Best, TP

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Letter of the Week – “Way too many egos that don’t want to be bruised or admit to something that’s not theirs.”

More Hot Stamper Testimonial Letters

Hey Tom,

Several weeks ago I read your blog article about a person named Ray that sent you an interesting letter a while back. I had to laugh and shake my head after reading the content. To accuse anyone of being jealous of another is quite childish!

If anything here, Ray seems to be the one who is jealous and probably has never heard a genuine Hot Stamper on a quality sound system. It’s my understanding you have 40 years of research and experience doing what you do.

The record companies are giants and we, the consumer, have been, unfortunately, at their mercy. Myself included. Until now.

Ray and all others like him need to know that those of us out there in the world that listen to music (vinyl) passionately need to know the truth about the deception, propaganda, lies and crappy sounding records that the record companies are selling to an uninformed public.

There is a local business in this area that caters to the wealthier side of town in audio. I had a conversation with the owner a while back and these people are 100% convinced and brainwashed that all the remastered Heavy Vinyl pressings are the best thing ever…

Obviously they haven’t heard a hot stamper on one of those pricey systems. They are so convinced that they will not keep an open mind for a different view.

One thing I have noticed in the audiophile community, way too many egos that don’t want to be bruised or admit to something that’s not theirs. May the force be with all of us who listen to hot stampers.
Thx
Mike P.

Mike,

Thanks so much for your letter.

How anybody is fooled by the awful sound of the currently available Heavy Vinyl releases is hard to fathom, but I bought into that crap in the 90s, so who am I to talk? I was as lost as anyone. It took a lot of time and effort to figure out how wrong I was.

Yes, I had to work to figure all this stuff out, but it’s just not in the cards for most audiophiles and never will be.

None of that stops us from enjoying great vintage vinyl, so I don’t let it bother me.

Here is hoping the new year brings health and happiness to you and yours and lots of great music.

TP

Mike replied:

Thanks for your feedback. I do truly appreciate it, especially because you have done the homework and the result is hot stampers. Yeah baby!

I have a friend who has been into vinyl since high school as I have. Back in the mid-70s. We reunited our friendship about 5 years ago and he has been an inspiration for the sound system I have today. We enjoy listening sessions at each other’s place, especially now that my system has reached a high level of sound quality.

However, there is a big difference in philosophy and quality of sound in our systems. He insists on listening to vintage domestic copies (not hot stampers) and remastered heavy vinyl. Also, he is using EQ (compressed and lifeless) and a DAC in his tape loop for the turntable circuit.

It is truly painful for me to listen to his system. I used to think it was awesome!

Because he is so set in his ways and not open to suggestion, his sound will never change. I have talked to him about hot stampers and even brought a couple copies over to play. He has closed his mind to a better thing and will not consider spending $ on them.

Back to my comment about how many audiophiles out there have this ego thing that will keep them from ever experiencing what I have on my system with hot stampers!
Mike

Mike, anyone in audio who is set in his ways and refuses to open his ears is doomed to a life of mediocre quality playback.

I heard it everywhere I went until I finally just gave up going to places just to hear more mediocre sound.

I’m glad I went where I did and found what I found — the EAR 324P, the Legacy speakers — but, to be honest, most of what I ended up with I found as a matter of good friends and good fortune.

I just happened to have very good luck. And two open ears. Not everybody does.

I consider myself very fortunate. Thanks again for writing,

TP

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Letter of the Week – “I am still amazed by the negativity I read sometimes about your records and prices…”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Stevie Wonder Available Now

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

Hey Tom,   

I also offer my humble apologies for ordering one LP at a time, it started with that (insanely good by the way) 4-star pressing of my wife’s favorite Stevie Wonder record, then, I have been waiting for a solid B-52 pressing for years now, so I had to grab it and just today, I noticed the Bee Gees… just glad nobody snatched it before me, seriously, this is the HARDEST Bee Gees record to get in any condition at all !!

I am still amazed by the negativity I read sometimes about your records and prices… we talked about it before but, for god’s sake, nobody is forced to buy anything. Plus, you have very fair prices for hot stampers that are great pressings of the best records, if the luxury items are not your cup of tea.

Still keeping my eyes open for a 4-star (or maybe 5 stars 😉 Hunky Dory one day. Would not mind a similar grade for a copy of Southern Accent too !!

Cheers,
David

My reply to David, in part:

The lack of curiosity on the part of the audiophile community is really something, but who am I to complain? I held many of the same mistaken ideas about Heavy Vinyl up until about 2000, so let’s be fair and give the audiophile community another twenty years and hope they catch on the way we and our customers have.

(There were so many records I used to like that don’t sound especially good to me now that I felt I needed to come clean about them, so I created a special link to them on the blog. Click here to read more.)

Pardon my cynicism, but we doubt that much of the audiophile community is likely to catch on.

We had to work very hard for more than twenty years to get to where we are now.

Most audiophiles don’t seem very interested in doing that kind of work.

It takes time, effort and discipline to create, tweak and tune a system to be both revealing and accurate.

When it gets to be resolving and accurate enough, such a system can reveal how lacking the modern remastered LP really is.

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Heretics and Believers Clash on the Battlefield in Cyberspace

Seems like our friend ab_ba has something to get off his chest.

Hi Tom,

Suppose somebody wanted to know if your claims about the records you sell are true. How could they find out? They’d have to buy a record from you. There is very little independent commentary or reviews available online, and now I know why.

I started a forum thread, hoping to find some other Better Records enthusiasts, and just sort of have a place where I could share what I’ve discovered, in case anybody else found it of value.

After two weeks and 13 pages, the thread got shut down. This was after skepticism, hostility, and very little sincere curiosity.

They tried to explain to me how wrong I was. They told me I was gullible. They insisted I must work for you. One guy asserted I must *be* you. After all, who, other than you, would ever say the things I was saying?

They seemed particularly irked by two things:

First, the markups you charge.

Second, the fact that you are so vocal about the sound quality of modern pressings.

Regarding the first, what seems to particularly bother some people is that you used to go into used record shops in the LA area, pay the price they were asking for a record, and then for some of those records, you would come to the conclusion that based on its sound it was worth a lot more than they charged you for it.

Tom, they are still upset that you did this. Anybody could have done it. To this day, anybody could still do it. Nobody else is doing it.

People may resent you for now selling for $1000 a record that went for $2.98 40 years ago, but that’s simply how markets operate. I watched an old jazz record sell for $7000 on ebay last week, without a single comment on how it actually sounds.

Regarding the second source of ire, apparently you changed your mind about how some records sound, and you were willing to be very vocal about how you thought they sounded, even if those records were made by good friends of yours.

I get it that a lot of people who found themselves in your situation would have just kept their mouth shut about it, but this was all 20 years ago, and here we are today, and I’ve got a fantastic-sounding shelf of records and a great stereo to play them on, all because I decided to see if I could trust your advice.

ab_ba

ab_ba,

Thanks for writing.

I’m surprised you haven’t been excommunicated by now.

What you are doing, in the eyes of the members of the forum, is spreading a false gospel. They used to burn people like you at the stake. Now the powers that be just delete the threads the troublemakers start. Saves firewood.

You are an apostate. Nothing you say can change the fact that you don’t believe what other members of the Hoffman forum believe. Trying to convince them that there is a better way is a fool’s errand. All you end up doing is making enemies.

Welcome to my world. Everything we do and say irks the people who don’t buy records from us.

Those who actually buy records from us seem fairly pleased, if I do say so myself. They take the time to write us lots of nice letters for one thing.

To be fair, if someone were to post a comment on my blog along the lines that “everybody knows that digital is far superior to the outdated 75-year-old technology of the vinyl LP,” I would not feel the need to reply to it. I would simply delete it. Some folks can’t be saved. (The truth is they will never save themselves because it takes twenty years and many tens of thousands of dollars to build a good system, and for 99% of all the music lovers in the world, that is a journey they are not prepared to take.)

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