More Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, you do.
You just don’t know which ones they are.
If you have a good sized collection of LPs, mastered and pressed from the 50s through the 80s, and in some cases beyond, you surely do.
In fact, it’s hard to imagine that you wouldn’t have at least some.
The problem is, how can you know which records have Hot Stampers and which ones don’t?
Familiarity with the conventional wisdom regarding which labels and stampers are supposed to have better sound is really not much help in this regard, despite what you may have heard, and is often misleading when not outright erroneous.
The only way to recognize a Hot Stamper pressing is through the shootout process.
If you’ve done shootouts for your favorite albums on your own (or with friends), pitting five or ten cleaned copies of the same record against one another, then you definitely have Hot Stampers in your collection, and you know exactly which ones they are — they’re the ones that won the shootout.
One very important fact to keep in mind: Hot Stampers and good sounding records are not the same thing.
And some shootouts are not worthy of the name. Only that rare audiophile who conducts rigorous shootouts of multiple LPs from different eras can know which are the best sounding pressings (keeping in mind that the results from any given shootout, like any scientific finding, are provisional.)
How hot your shootout winners are relative to the records we sell is a much more difficult question to answer, and can really only be answered by pitting our copy against yours, head to head.
Some of our customers have carried out their own shootouts and shared with us the results.
It’s true, we only printed the ones that made us look good, but what did you expect us to do?
Needless to say, we welcome the challenge! And we happily refund your money if you believe your copy bests ours.