customer-shootout

Letters from customers who did their own shootouts using one of our Hot Stamper pressings.

Letter of the Week – “I quickly sold all those [audiophile] copies and began building a real world-class collection of Hot Stamper level records.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Hall and Oates Available Now

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

Hey Tom, 

I want to thank you once again.

Quite a few years ago now I contacted you and talked about this concept called “Hot Stampers.” It ended up both saving me a lot of misdirection and foolishly trying to rebuild my vinyl collection with new vinyl re-releases often called “audiophile” and “Half-Speed” issues.

After a few confirmations of what you said, I quickly sold all those copies and began building a real world class collection of vinyl “original” Hot Stamper level records. A good number came from your business and I also made a hobby of trying to do what you do in finding “Hot Stampers.”

Fortunately Philadelphia has a reasonable number of used record stores but unfortunately, as you well know, this is a rigorous and costly endeavor, but it can be rewarding at times and at other times requires that I rely on you.

So today I’m snowed in here and I fired up the rig and decided to do some small scale shootouts and find the true great copies from my already culled collection.

Put on several Hall and Oates and focused on “She’s Gone.” One was just clearly dynamic, clear and present.

Then I put on several Dire Straits “Love Over Gold” and ended up with 3 killer copies (such a good LP).

I then put on about 5 copies of Phil Collins “Face Value” with “If Leaving Me is Hard.” What a great love song, and narrowed it to 2.

Yes my rig is really awesome for close-up intimate listening at any level. It is something I have worked on for decades to become resolving, dynamic, harmonic, dimensional transparent, and involving. I can listen loud and close without distortion. When I suddenly find that “Hot Stamper” Phil Collins is in the room where I hear his voice articulate and rich with background singers just as good and the band perfectly balanced to his vocal.

And it is then I think of your contribution to all of this and want to tell you. So that is what I am doing. I know what three stars means. I can’t afford many of them as I would assume some wealthy customers can but I really appreciate them and their unfortunate rarity and I appreciate all the work you have done to make this possible.

Ed

Ed,

We love it when our customers take the time and make the effort to do their own shootouts.

And swearing off the modern Heavy Vinyl pressing is surely one of the clearest signs of progress any audiophile can see for himself.

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Letter of the Week – “The proof is in the record grooves…”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Moody Blues Available Now

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

Hey Tom, 

The Moody Blues – A Question Of Balance…

I had five copies before getting this copy from Better Records. It is clearly BETTER. [You] have exacted a science of this. The proof is in the record grooves…

I can’t try to figure out how or why, nor do I want to! It’s always about the sound for me.

Fabulous service!

Andy

Andy,

Thanks for the kind words, as always.

It always amazes us how much better the best import pressings sound relative to the average ones we play in our shootouts.  The real Moody Blues sound didn’t make it to disc very often, but when it did, look out!

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Letter of the Week – “…an album I know very well, and thought I already had some good pressings of it.”

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 recently received my first LP from your company, and you will see from the attached photo that Sergeant Peppers is an album I know very well, and thought I already had some good pressings of it.

Your copy in Super Hot Stamper takes so many layers away and opens you up to the actual recording as it was intended by The Beatles, George Emerick and George Martin.

I can’t even imagine what it would sound like in White Hot, just can’t really afford them… (yet)

Kind regards,
Antoine

Antoine,

That’s great news, glad you were pleased with the sound of our Super Hot Stamper Pepper. The best pressings do indeed remove many layers and show you the sound of the real tape.

Thanks for your support and for doing your own shootout, because, as we all know, hearing is all it takes.

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Letter of the Week – “…an occult experience, as the sound emanating was totally inexplicable.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of Elvis Costello’s Albums Available Now

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

Hey Tom,   

My nearly white hot stamper of “Armed Forces” has literally and honestly left me in tears. I didn’t know my system could sound so… elevated? Perfect? Whole?

Listening to “Two Little Hitlers” was an occult experience, as the sound emanating was totally inexplicable.

Understand, I own over 10 versions of this album. I have collected original UK pressings and I have one that I was pretty sure you couldn’t match. I’m a damned expert of “Armed Forces”. Pathetic, but true.

I was going to return this slab. I had made up my mind before I heard it that it’s going back. The old me, before I went though your transformative experience of Crowley-esq audio magik, said smugly that:

“This was just an experiment. I’m not going to spend that kind of money on a LP, especially when I own so many good versions.”

No. You’re not getting my copy of “Armed Forces” back. 

And I guess you’ll be hearing a lot more from me and my credit card.

Adam G

Thanks, Adam, occult experiences are exactly what we were going after.

Further Reading

Letter of the Week – “So I know in my head what the AP 45 sounds like. It’s basically all I know…. except that I know I don’t ‘feel Jim’s rage’ on any of the AP 45 LPs.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Doors Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about a Hot Stamper pressing he purchased recently:

Hi Tom,

What an incredible experience. I’ve never had anything close to an original of this one. Having heard some songs way too much on the radio didn’t help. I wound up with the AP 45, which compared to whatever I had, was better.

So I know in my head what the AP 45 sounds like. It’s basically all I know…. except that I know I don’t ‘feel Jim’s rage’ on any of the AP 45 LPs.

When I saw you guys had a copy, and it was a top notch one to boot, I was like, dude, you’ve gotta pull the trigger now without delay. What a terrific decision that was!

Raw, powerful, energetic, lively, warm, punchy, dynamic, begging for top volume, tonal qualities of Jim’s vocals absolutely perfect, effortless, you could turn it up to a thousand and it wouldn’t hurt your ears.

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Letter of the Week – “…there is no comparison to the experience of this record vs any other of the ~15 pressings I have.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Pink Floyd Available Now

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

Hey Tom, 

I was finally able to give the White Hot Stamper a listen.

I was blown away.

This record sounds so amazing. The sound is expansive….big, wide, and deep. With higher highs and extended lows that are still clear and pure.

It’s such a huge difference, there is no comparison to the experience of this record vs any other of the ~15 pressings I have, including one super hot stamper.

Awesome.

Thanks,
Alex

Alex,

Glad you liked it as much as we did!

White Hot means it won the shootout and had the best sound of any copy we played.

It sounds like that’s what you heard too.

We love it when our customers take the time and make the effort to do their own shootouts, especially when we win, which is what happens about 99% of the time.

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Letter of the Week – “I dropped the needle on side one and started singing by the end of the first verse.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Neil Young Available Now

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

Hey Tom,  

Two fantastic finds; well done once again. The After the Gold Rush you sent is incredibly revealing. The pressing removed the veil. This LP typically sounds dull and I don’t mean the songs.

I dropped the needle on side one and started singing by the end of the first verse. I had planned to have a critical listen first as I always do, so I have a reference in which to make comparisons. If an album is great I start to sing the second time thru. That should tell you what I think of this pressing.

When I played my copy it lasted one verse and one chorus before it was removed from the platter. Exceptional pressing!!! 

Re: Rubber Soul. I have 3 copies of this LP, all Parlophone and all earlier pressings than the one I purchased from you. One doesn’t really count because it is from the very first pressings that had problems.

However, the other 2 are very good pressings. One is very transparent but extremely bass shy. The other is very much the opposite. It has lots of whomp but is grainy.

The pressing from Better Records is beautifully transparent, especially in the voice, and is nowhere near as bass shy.

I believe that being closest to the source usually reveals more accuracy.

That goes for most every discipline of study. This pressing, though not being the actual closest, was the winner. Go figure!

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Led Zeppelin / II – A New Player Joins the Fun

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Led Zeppelin Available Now

Aaron writes to us often about records. Here is his latest offering. (I’ve made some comments of my own. They are the ones that are not italicized.)

Hi Tom,

Today I did something I’ve wanted to do for years – I played The Two Game.

The Two Game is based on The Blue Game, the one we created for Joni’s Blue Album way back in 2007. That game was apparently harder to play than we thought since nobody seemed to want to play it.

The Rhino pressing’s shortcomings were clear to us at the time, all the way back in 2007, and we noted that it was even superior to the best Bernie Grundman-mastered vintage pressings in one respect. But it seems that no one besides us could figure out what was going on with the sound of the record, even after we gave our customers a free copy so they could play it at home head to head against our Hot Stamper pressing.

With my stereo finally dialed-in and my family all out of the house, I dived in to the Page remaster of Zep 2, side by side with my White Hot Stamper. To help the comparison, I backdropped it with a bunch of other copies I’ve accumulated over the years.

Tom, I figure I’ll need several tries to get to the bottom of this, but it’s going to be an awesome ear-training experience for me, and if I have to listen to any record on repeat, this is a good one. So let me share my thoughts from this first comparison, and maybe you can point out some directions to go in next time I’m up for trying it again.

I chose The Lemon Song, because it is awesome, and because I view it as one of the tracks that’s most balanced overall, with all the instruments contributing about equally, and relatively devoid of studio tricks. Like a kid left to eat all he wants of his favorite candy, I had to eventually stop just from fatigue and satiation.

I recommended The Lemon Song to a customer who wanted to play the game, writing:

Pay special attention in your shootout to The Lemon Song. I am going to discuss some things I learned about it recently. See how all your versions do on the song and what you think each version is doing right and wrong. Enjoy and have fun.

I think the Page remaster actually corrects a problem with this track that exists on all the original versions of the album mastered by Robert Ludwig. For anyone else who wants to play the game, please consider this a clue.

Another piece of advice would be that The Lemon Song is not a good track for overall testing.

There are much better tracks for that purpose, tracks that will make it much easier to recognize what is so fundamentally different about the two pressings.

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Letter of the Week – “The sound was simply amazing! I was listening to the master tapes!”

More of the Music of The Doobie Brothers

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

Hey Tom, 

The Doobie Brothers album “Livin’ on the Fault Line” has been my favorite album from one of my favorite bands of all time. It is full of great songs, phenomenal musicianship, and Michael McDonald at his best.

As a retiree who has very modest means today I have “shot out” more than a dozen copies of this lp and have a very good copy and backup. So last week Tom put up a double sided Triple Plus White Hot Stamper of “Livin’ on the Fault Line”. Could it be THAT much better than my best copy considering that my copy was the best of over a dozen and when played really sounds great? AND the Better Records copy would be almost 100 times the cost of my used record store “finds”.

But I couldn’t resist so I pushed the button and the Better Records White Hot copy arrived yesterday. I couldn’t wait to play it. It was in minty condition. I heated up the rig and sat down and laid my Jan Allearts “needle” (economy model $3000 cartridge with its Fritz Geiger stylus, ruby cantilever and hand wound gold coils that extract just about everything a record groove contains) on the band of the song “Little Darlin”.

Suddenly Michael McDonald was in the room in front of me. The sound was simply amazing! TOTALLY transparent. Dynamics were fantastic…..harmonics were great without losing the high end or low end to the midrange. I was listening to the master tapes!

Now this record was not one of the Doobies biggies. It’s a sleeper… a lot were made but you can find them easily and the used prices in bins are dirt cheap. Your average copy sounds pretty good and a good one sounds great BUT this White Hot Stamper just put ALL of them to shame!

This makes it a RARE find and Tom has alluded to how he hasn’t found many that sound this good. And that brings me to the thing that is most disturbing about collecting vinyl (forget CDs)… WHY could the record companies do such a really poor job shipping a majority of poor to good records when they also shipped a minority of fantastic Hot Stamper LP’s. I could say it’s the 80/20 rule where 20% of anything is great and 80% of everything is much less to awful. Like you want your car mechanic or your brain surgeon to be in the 20%! Then with vinyl you have to find the small percentage of the 20% that survived stems, twigs, coke, and horrible record players that destroyed most of all the records ever produced including the 20%.

But hey… there’s Tom Port and Better Records to do the hard work of finding a tiny percentage of a tiny percentage.

Are they expensive? Sure.

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Letter of the Week – Comparing the Speakers Corner, MoFi, and a Super Hot Stamper

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Moody Blues Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased a while ago. [Bolding and italics added.]

Hey Tom, 

Just thought I’d drop you a line on the two albums I just received yesterday. I had some free time on my hands today so I was able to do some comparisons.

I have an original Days of Future Passed, which sounds about as dull as they come.

I have that reissue I bought from you years ago [no doubt the Speakers Corner Heavy Vinyl pressing] and the MoFi.

The reissue was pleasing to the ear but lacked that lifeforce which makes listening to records so involving.

The MoFi was always my favorite, but with this Super Hot Stamper I was hearing the whole recording studio.

There was a lot more depth and realism which I didn’t hear in the other records.

The Level 42 World Machine was always a fun record to listen to. The CD was just bright and bass heavy, so I bought an import lp off you years ago. It sounded pretty good until you turned it up, then it became so shrill I had to turn it back down.

The Super Hot Stamper sounds great and I can turn it up as loud as I want.

The sound stage is deep and believable which for an 80’s record is a rarity.

That Simply Red Picture Book Super Hot Stamper I purchased last year was a gem also.

Shane

Shane,

Thanks so much for your letter.

If you have an original domestic pressing, you definitely have a dull record. It’s made from a dub tape and sounds smeary and dark. This is, of course, the one we all owned back in the day unless you were one of those crazy people who ordered imported pressings from your local record store and waited weeks if not months for them to show up from across the sea.

The Speakers Corner pressing I used to sell was a good record, not a great one. (It was made from the remixed tapes since the masters had long ago been damaged or lost.)

Like many of their reissues, it was tonally correct, something most Heavy Vinyl pressings could not claim to be.

The MoFi I used to like somewhat. No idea what I would think of it now. Phony up top I’m guessing.  I can’t think of a single Stan Ricker-mastered MoFi title that doesn’t have a boosted top end, so the chances of Days of Future Passed being the exception are remote.

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