fleetrumou-shootout

Letter of the Week – “I need to catch my breath here.”

More of the Music of Led Zeppelin

Reviews and Commentaries for Led Zeppelin II

One of our good customers had this to say about the Hot Stamper Zep II he purchased recently, and we exchanged quite a few emails about his findings. 

As promised, we had given him a free copy of the Jimmy Page remaster so that he could compare the two, something we have always encouraged our customers to do, especially in this case.

Tom,

I need to catch my breath here. I rushed home to compare the two Zep 2s you sent. I played Whole Lot of Love on the Jimmie Page cut, then on the WH stamper. I was…stunned. Then I  asked my wife to come in to listen. She’s not a Led Zeppelin fan, so I said “Just listen to a minute of each track”. I played a minute of the Jimmie Page, she nodded, shrugged, and said “It sounds good.” Then I played the WH stamper. About 15 seconds in she exclaimed “What the F*CK?!?!”, and smiled. And wanted to hear the rest of the song.

You guys are geniuses to send the Jimmie Page LP with the WH. My friend insists on comparing it to his Classic Records copy, which we’ll do this weekend. I don’t think it will be a fair contest.

Is it worth $2,499? I know many people would say no. The vast majority. So I’m in the minority on this one.

Bill

Bill,

Such great news! It seems that even people who don’t care for Zep can’t resist the power of a hot copy of Zep II!

I will have more to say, and I wanted to let you know that we still want to hear from those who have compared the two pressings. If you feel like it, tell us what you think the differences are.

And the same with your friend and his Classic repress. That record was so bright it practically peeled the paint in my room. I doubt if it has changed much.

But you can tell me!

As we have said time and time again, the number of people that have ever had the privilege of playing a killer copy of Zep II like the one we sent you is small. It’s like owning your own rocket to Mars.

It would be worth $2500 to me too! Double that.

Thanks for your letter,

Best,

TP

Tom,
Before making my first purchase from Better Records, I scoured the internet to learn about you and your company, devoured your blog (which I continue to do), and read the Washington Post article [1] and watched the accompanying video. In the end, it came down to “Well, he sure is enthusiastic, he makes a lot of sense, and it is a money back guarantee, so what do I have to lose?” Turns out I had nothing to lose and much to gain!

To be honest, after comparing the two pressings on Whole Lotta Love and Heartbreaker on side 2, I stopped comparing them.

I just wanted to listen to the entirety of the hot stamper pressing. And I did, twice. It’s just an incredible immersive experience.

However, when we have our Led Zeppelin “boys night” in a week or so, we’re going to compare all of the tracks, as well as the Classic Records version.

I didn’t describe my wife’s entire reaction. By the end of Whole Lotta Love, she was jumping up and down and singing the lyrics and just having a great time! Quite a reaction from someone whose musical tastes lean more towards Lionel Richie and Johnny Hartman.

Oh, she also preferred the Rumours hot stamper to the 45 rpm. [2] She couldn’t pinpoint why, except to say that with the hot stamper it seemed like they were in the room.

I have enjoyed being the beneficiary of your skill and efforts. And I’ll let you know how the Led Zeppelin shoot-out night goes!
Bill

Bill,

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.

TP

P.S.

As for the idea that our Rumours made your wife feel as though the band was in the room with her, that is the whole point of having a top quality pressing to play.

That is what it should sound like. That is what the group, their producers and engineers were aiming for by recording the album the way they did and letting Ken Perry master it the way he did.

The copies that do everything else right always have the most presence and immediacy. That can’t be an accident, regardless of whether a select group of audiophiles in thrall to a mastering guru see it that way or not.

[1] The shootout video can be found here.

[2] A discussion of the 45 RPM remaster of Rumours can be found here.

Further Reading

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Letter of the Week – “Your discovery is easily the most amazing thing of all the amazing things this audiophile has come across in 30 years of amazing things.”

More of the Music of Fleetwood Mac

Reviews and Commentaries for Rumours

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

Hey Tom,   

Friend over recently, played Fleetwood Mac Rumours, 45RPM. He says that’s gonna be awful hard to beat. “With one arm tied behind my back! Watch this!”

Wow, that was more open….!

Your discovery is easily the most amazing thing of all the amazing things this audiophile has come across in 30 years of amazing things.

Keep at it, no one else can, we are counting on you.

Hi,

Thanks for the kind words. Finding a pressing with amazing sound is our top goal in every shootout we do. It is not hard to beat the 45 RPM 2 disc set that Steve Hoffman mastered. This story has many similarities to the one you recount.

Best, TP

Further Reading

Letter of the Week – “I did a proper shootout this morning…”

More of the Music of Fleetwood Mac

Reviews and Commentaries for Rumours

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

Hey Tom, 

I’m on my fourth Hot Stamper now, and I’m having a wonderful experience overall. I wanted to touch base regarding a Super Hot Stamper (Quiet Vinyl) of Rumours. The sound is overall a delight, and although I have yet to do a head-to-head shootout with my 45rpm “audiophile” copy, I can sense I will prefer the copy I bought from you overall.

However, I really crave absolutely silent vinyl for this album, especially for The Chain. When the band comes to a halt, and there’s nothing but silence, it’s perfect. The particular copy I bought is pretty quiet when the music is playing, but the surface noise during quiet/silent passages is a bit of a disappointment for me. This leads me to believe that if a White Hot Stamper of Rumours popped up on your site, I would definitely want to buy it, in the hopes that the vinyl would be even quieter throughout. Do you think a White-Hot copy of Rumours is on the horizon?

I believe your policy is that I’ve got 30 days to return this one for money back, and then 12 months to exchange it, with some reduction. Knowing me, I’m going to want to get a white hot copy next time I see one listed, and I’d really love to do it sooner rather than later. (I say this assuming that one of the things that would separate a super hot from a white hot would be the level of background noise.)

Thank you
Aaron

Aaron,

Some thoughts:

Firstly, the surface noise grades and the sonic grades are not related as a rule. Some records sound great and are noisy, some records sound great and are quiet, and nobody knows which are which until they get cleaned and played.

My advice would be to return the record so that we can eventually get you one you will be happy with. We do the shootout once or twice a year, so we should be able to find you a better sounding copy. A quieter copy is another matter. We could do a shootout for 8-10 copies and find none that were any quieter than the one we sold you.  We know what to listen for now, the quiet parts of The Chain. But that does not mean that out of the copies we play in any given year a copy with Super Hot grades would be quieter than the copy we sent you.

To get you a quieter one is a matter of luck, it might take three or four shootouts to get that lucky.

But if you want to keep the copy we sent you and basically “rent” it until we can find you a quieter one in a year or two, that is one of your options. We are good either way, Rumours sells very quickly, lots of folks waiting for a nice copy to show up on the site.

I wrote this about your 45 copy:

You can find many more Letters and Commentaries for Rumours here.

Let us know what works best for you and we will make it right.

Best, TP

Hi Tom,

Thank you for this thoughtful response, and my apologies for taking some time to reply.

It will not surprise you to hear that I’ll be holding on to my Rumours, at least for now. I did a proper shootout this morning, going back and forth between your Hot Stamper and each of my three heavy vinyl pressings, and then each of my early/original pressings, from various used stores and flea markets over the years. Your copy beats them all (yes it does), and even though heavy vinyl always impresses right away with its quiet surfaces, that’s not where the magic is (as I’m finding out.)

I will keep an eye out for another copy of Rumours posted on your site. I assume you’re too busy to send me an email when one goes up? Short of that, maybe in your tracklist section you can mention the surface noise level during the quiet passages? Surely many potential buyers would appreciate that information, not just me. If a promising copy hits your site, I’ll probably buy it, and then sort out with you whether you’d give me anything for an exchange on my current copy. In the meantime, this copy will be kept in the same condition, and it’ll get played A LOT.

Thanks for the links to your blog. Regarding the claims to improved quality control for modern pressings, one need look no further than the current Kind of Blue UHQR debacle to debunk that myth. I was one of the early purchasers of that pressing. I waited two months for it to arrive, and then I needed to be sent a replacement, which they took another three months to do. I would have been far better off buying a hot stamper of KOB from you instead.
Aaron

Aaron,

We will get you a copy of Rumours if we can find one that is quieter, I will have Fred keep an eye out for one.

As for MoFi Kind of Blue, I would love to send you a copy of the album that shows you just how wacky their pressing is.

This guy hit it right on the head:

Anyway, hope to find you some good records and please stop buying the garbage than these modern labels spew out, you will regret having to sell them all once you recognize just how bad they really are!

Best, TP

Further Reading