doors-letter

Letter of the Week – “I’m so blown away with this Hot Stamper that I think it’s a bargain at $500.”

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,

I must confess, that like most audiophiles, I was not a believer in Hot Stampers. I thought my DCC Compact Classic and my 180 gram Box Set was the best. Boy was I dead wrong!

I have been buying Hot Stampers from you on a regular basis for the past two months. They truly allow me to hear what was intended in the recording studio and, man, is it breathtaking.

I received the Doors – LA Woman a couple of days ago and never in my wildest dreams did I ever think a record could be this realistic.

I couldn’t believe the amount of information I was hearing coming out of the groove of this LP — the biggest, most realistic staging and largest acoustic space I have ever heard in my life.

The highs were sweet and extended, the midrange was as natural as a midrange could ever be, and the bass was tight and rich with incredible weight down to the lowest region. Transparency and resolution on this LP are simply out of this world. I’m so blown away with this Hot Stamper that I think it’s a bargain at $500.00.

I truly believe you really have to experience a Hot Stamper, especially one like this, to see why I’m losing my mind. I’m slowly but surely replacing all of my favorite records with your Hot Stamper versions.

Thank you for this masterpiece! (more…)

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 – “Holy smokes, the 3/3 copy transforms the musical experience.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Doors Available Now

A letter from a good customer tells of his experience playing a top copy of the album.

Hi Guys,

Just when I thought you guys could not surprise me, you did it again. Morrison Hotel was not in my collection when I was growing up although I was familiar with some of the tracks on the album. I picked up a SHS 2/1.5 copy; it was good and I added it to my collection. I saw the WHS 3/3 copy come up on the site and thought I would give it a try because of my past experience (Jackson Browne, Beatles – White Album, Crowded House).

Holy smokes, my intuition was correct: the 3/3 copy transforms the musical experience. I don’t know how or why this happens; how a SHS side 2 that sounds good goes exponentially up with a WHS 3 copy; it just does. When one gets a WHS 3/3 in single album as opposed to a 2 pack; it is a musical treat beyond compare. Thanks as usual.

Mike

Mike, I have had that experience quite often, hundreds of times in fact. The 3+ takes the music to a place no other copy can take it, and it takes you with it. This is why we do shootouts, and why you must do them too, if owning the highest quality pressings is important to you.

Shootouts are the only way to answer the most important question in all of audio: “compared to what?”

Without shootouts, how can you begin to know the specific characteristics of the sound of the pressings you own?

We write a lot about that subject, and here is a bit of an overview that we think our readers will find helpful.

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Letter of the Week – “This copy of Morrison Hotel is SO HUGE and CLEAN and DYNAMIC…”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Doors Available Now

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

Hey Tom,   

You’ve blown my mind yet again. This copy of Morrison Hotel is SO HUGE and CLEAN and DYNAMIC… I’m just glad I didn’t blow up my hi-fi; there should’ve been a warning label!

Best,

Ben

Ben,

You are right about that. This album is powerful like few others we have the pleasure to play regularly.

This is Demo Disc quality sound by any measure, especially on big speakers at loud levels.

You’ve got to hand it to Bruce Botnick — he knows how to get real rock-’em, sock-’em bottom end onto a piece of magnetic tape.

And sometimes that bottom end whomp* actually makes it onto the record, as is the case here, making for one helluva demo disc for bass (if you have speakers big enough to play it, of course.)

Waiting for the Sun

The track to play to hear massive amounts of bass and energy is one we should all know well: Waiting for the Sun.

If you’re looking for Demo Quality song on this album, that’s the one. Prodigious amounts of Tubey Magic as well.

*For whomp factor, the formula goes like this: deep bass + mid bass + speed + dynamics + energy = whomp.

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Letter of the Week – “I truly was in awe of how sweet the sound was…”

More of the Music of The Doors

Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of The Doors

Our new customer Michel wrote to tell us how much he likes his Doors Hot Stamper pressing.

Hello.

I wanted to share my story with you. At some point in some youtube video I heard about you. I didn’t exactly know what to think about it all. Then over time I heard more, etc. My interest peaked, I eventually went to your website and read and browsed.

I bought a NWH Waiting For the Sun. It turns out to be an original [redacted]. I have at home an original [redacted] pressing.

Just in case it matters, I use a thorens td145 with grado red, linn kairn preamp, hafler xl280,a nd polk model 10’s. So I started with side one.

My copy sounded great…that nice tubey sound…nice presence…that nice ‘OG’ special something. OK, well that was good.

Your copy however was nothing short of magical. I felt like I was at the circus. I truly was in awe of how darn sweet the sound was… each part of the sound was in its perfect place and distinguishable within this wonderful warmth with clarity and no shrillness.

I did my testing at max volume as to expose everything. The crescendo at the end of track one is one to give you goosebumps. I must congratulate you for such a truly wonderful offering. This is truly one magical sounding piece of vinyl.

Many Thanks!
Michel

Michel,

Thanks for your letter.

I think we can all agree that your system is not exactly state-of-the-art. The good news there is that it does not take a megabuck stereo to put you in awe of the albums of The Doors.

All you need is a good pressing. We are not surprised that you were very impressed with our Hot Stamper. The LP you had is from a pressing plant that we are not big fans of.

All the top pressings come from one plant and one plant only. They will always have the Gold Label, but the stamper numbers can vary. Nearly White Hot means you got a copy that was only beaten by one other, and that means it must have been very good indeed.

As for this:

[E]ach part of the sound was in its perfect place and distinguishable within this wonderful warmth with clarity and no shrillness.

That’s what Bruce Botnick brings to the table. The man engineered some of the best sounding rock records ever made.

Waiting for the Sun is an album we think we know well, one that checks off a number of important boxes for us here at Better Records:

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Letter of the Week – “Thanks to everyone for all the great sounding vintage LPs”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Doors Available Now

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

Hi Tom,

Thanks everyone for all the great sounding vintage LP’s. The WHITE HOT DOORS STRANGE DAYS I recently purchased is off the chart! Keep up the great work.

Dennis

Dennis,

Thanks for your letter. White Hot and off the chart are pretty much the same thing to us. As Good As It Gets is another way of saying it.

Best, TP

Further Reading

Letter of the Week – “Never heard the Doors sound like this before”

Letters and Commentaries for The Soft Parade

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

Hey Tom,   

Tom, I have not listened to the other two yet, but I had to shoot you a quick email about the Doors Soft Parade. It is totally killer.

It’s for records like this that we pour money into high performance audio systems. Bravo! Never heard the Doors sound like this before.

It’s hard to describe that pressing. It has everything you could want in a vinyl LP. Huge wide and deep soundstage, Jim’s voice and each instrument in its own 3D place in the soundstage, phenomenal tonal balance over the entire range of the music, great texture of voice and instruments, real here-with-you presence and the decay of notes is for real. Yeah, you’re right, this one has the magic.

Ed M.

Ed, thanks very much for your letter. I think you did a great job describing the pressing we sent you.

Best, TP

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