hs-letter

Hot Stamper letters.

Letter of the Week – “I find myself just wanting to go back to a hot stamper regardless of the artist or genre.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of Jazz Piano Recordings Available Now

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

Gotta tip my cap to you folks. You have been blowing my mind with some amazing sound. Disc after disc. To the point where I am now having a love-hate relationship with my hot stampers due to the fact they’ve practically rendered the bulk of my 200+ record collection considerably less enjoyable to listen to.

Every time I listen to a ‘modern’ reissue now, even the good ones, I don’t necessarily dislike it—many of them are great—but they’re not the same and I find myself just wanting to go back to a hot stamper regardless of the artist or genre.

All I want is that sound. I can’t get enough of it.

I’ve got some incredible reissues too. From music matters jazz to Impex 1-steps. Lucky enough to even have a couple MMJ on their SRX vinyl as well. And boy is that quiet. Almost digital, it’s creepy. And it is great sound by today’s ‘normal’ standards.

But now that I’ve heard what kind of mind-blowing sound is actually possible, well, these are not that.

Close—and better than MANY of the alternatives—but no cigar.

The Zep II is incredible. Easily the best sounding album I now own and the crown jewel of my collection. And so quiet too. Especially compared to my other 2 RL hot mix copies I got while I was in hot pursuit of the holy grail. I love that you guys conservatively grade everything. More often than not I’ve been impressed by how much more quiet the records are than I expect them to be. As I mentioned previously this was a huge splurge for me and not something I’ll be able to do often, but now having heard it many times over it’s unequivocally worth every penny.

It occurred to me while listening to it the other night that you guys aren’t selling records. You’re selling time machines. I now possess a near infinitely-reusable ticket to go to a Led Zeppelin concert literally any time I feel like it. And I wasn’t even born yet when that was actually possible. Still trying to wrap my head around that. Could easily say the same for my Dark Side hot stamper as well.

Almost equally as exiting was to take a flier on the 45 rpm copy of The Three you all put on offer a couple weeks ago. I had never heard of the album or Joe Sample at all for that matter. I’ve since listened to the track Funky Blues easily 20+ times since I got it, to the point where I’m forcing myself to curtail my listening frequency before I cause groove damage.

This might just be my new favorite song. And it’s easily catapulted to one of my top 10 favorite albums.

The first time I heard Shelly Manne whack that snare a few seconds into the song I nearly dropped my drink. Then he did it again a few measures later and I knew I was in for a real treat. The piano is just haunting. Even the bass is unreal. I’ll stop here because I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you, but thank you for this one, this is something special as well.

I love it so much I have an ask. Any chance you guys have a low grade hot stamper copy of the 33 rpm version kicking around after your last shootout? After spending 400 on the 45 I can’t justify a second copy for hundreds of dollars but I’m dying to hear the rest of the album now. I’d pull the trigger on even your lowest grade most affordable copy if you have one, just to hear the last 2 tracks. And possibly take a little wear and tear off the poor grooves of my 45 at the same time!

Anyway I’ve rambled on enough for one evening (no Zep pun intended) but did want to be sure to express my sincere gratitude for your services. You all have well-earned another loyal customer at this point. Appreciate you indulging me and look forward to many more hot stampers to come!

Best,
Carter

Carter,

Thank you very much for taking the time to write about your experiences with three of the very special records we’ve sent you. Those are amazingly good records, no question about it.

And it seems you have discovered through those three pressings what our Hot Stampers have in such abundance, and what modern records are mostly missing to their all-but-fatal detriment.

We don’t go out of our way to use many technical terms here on the blog, but since there is one that perfectly fits the quality you describe, we will look the other way and just break our longstanding rule and put it out there, simply because it has a special something that we feel perfectly describes the aspect of the sound you are hearing but not quite able to put your finger on.

The phrase you are most likely looking for is je ne sais quoi.

As the dictionary has it, there is without a doubt an appealing quality to our records that cannot be adequately described or expressed.

The appealing quality of our Hot Stamper pressings is born of many factors, most of which we do not understand.

But here’s one: our records are cleaned in such a way that the mysterious quality you speak of is brought out to an exceptional — I might go so far as to say unparalleled — degree. No other cleaning regimen of which we are aware can do what The Prelude System can do for maximum JNSQ Factor (if I may take the liberty of abbreviating the term. Easier to type that way, to be honest).

We talk about all the things we are listening for when comparing records — various aspects of the bass reproduction, the amount of midrange presence, spaciousness, etc., etc., and we write down what we are hearing in all those areas on our notes, some of which we share with our readers right here on the blog.

If you’ve ever done one of these multi-record shootouts, you know it helps to focus on the details of the recording as you listen and scribble away at your notes. It gives you something to do while the music is impressing the hell out of your eardrums and sending endorphins surging deep into your brain matter.

But what is the final grade going to be? Do you simply add up all the factors and weigh them appropriately to come up with the overall grade you then award the record? What about the JNSQ factor? How much of that goes into the final grade?

It’s really not that complicated. The best sides do everything right. The next best sides do almost everything right, falling short in one area or another, which means they typically earn grades of 2.5+, and on down the line to the Supers and those with lesser grades.

The JNSQ Factor doesn’t really seem to make that much of a difference because all the particulars are there in the sound and they all add up to a fabulous listening experience, the kind you described in your letter.

But all of the above talk about grading misses the point entirely.

The JNSQ factor is the thing that vintage pressings have in spades and modern pressings are mostly missing. They are the mysterious, unnameable heart and soul of vintage vinyl. They are the main reason your new records don’t feel right even when they mostly sound right.

How it came to be that mass-produced records from 50 to 75 years ago often have all the magic of the music encoded in their grooves and new records rarely do is a mystery no one seems to be able to answer. We certainly can’t.

But we know it when we hear it.

And if we hear it, there must be something to it, and if there is something to it, that thing is going to need a name.

Je ne sais quoi works as well as any other, so we’ll go with that one if it’s all the same to you.

(more…)

Letter of the Week – “It really beats the pants off of my George Marino remaster…”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of AC/DC Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about a Hot Stamper pressing of Back in Black he purchased a while back (emphasis added).

It must have been quite a long time ago, mostly because the Aurios he mentions have not been made for more than a decade. Not to worrry: The Seismic Platform we tout here on the blog will make an even more dramatic improvement to your playback and can be purchased directly from Townshend, eliminating the middleman, us.

Hey Tom,  

I’ve been spending time this week listening to the seven records that arrived from you last week, and have been having a fabulous time doing it. So I thought I’d write to say THANKS – you guys really know how to pick ‘em!

Top honors in the batch definitely goes to the AC/DC Back in Black Hot Stamper. Wow, does it ever ROCK! And it’s not even the best one you had – which makes me wonder just how amazing the best copies sound. It really beats the pants off of my George Marino remaster, to say nothing of my old Canadian pressing.

The sheer energy that leaps off the vinyl is incredible.

To me, this record supports again the hypothesis that I first tested when I bought my Joni Mitchell Hot Stamper from you last fall: That I don’t have to wait until I manage to put together a really top notch stereo system before I can enjoy at least some of what Hot Stampers have to offer.

Obviously, as my system gets better I imagine I’ll enjoy them even more; but even with my current budget-ish system, recently much improved with Aurios and an EAR 834p (both recommended by you – thank you!), the Back in Black Hot Stamper shines. There’s truly nothing finer than listening to a record that sounds that good!

Anyway, all in all, it’s a pleasure purchasing from you, so thanks again. I’ll be back for more once my budget allows.

Martin H.

Martin,

Happy to help. We’re convinced that the better your system sounds, the bigger the difference will be between our Hot Stampers and everything else out there in record land.

Sometimes the difference is so great that even a modest system makes it obvious just how much better a Hot Stamper LP is than anything being pressed these days on modern Heavy Vinyl, famous mastering engineer or no famous mastering engineer.

UPDATE 2025

After George Marino cut this pressing of Tea for the Tillerman, I lost all respect for him. He was undoubtedly a good mastering engineer back in his day, but he stayed too long at the party and lost whatever skills he might have possessed, judging from the single disc TFTT he cut as well as the 45 2 disc set.

Regarding the importance of energy in the pressings we audition, this commentary on Zuma may be of some interest.

There is an abundance of audiophile collector hype surrounding the hundreds of Heavy Vinyl pressings currently in print. I read a lot about how wonderful their sound is, but when I actually play them, I rarely find them to be any better than mediocre, and many of them are awful.

(more…)

Letter of the Week – “I never owned a copy that had as much bottom end along with vocals that seem to jump out of my speakers.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Jethro Tull Available Now

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

Hey Tom,   

Just a quick note to express my complete satisfaction with my latest purchase from Better Records.

I just received my copy of the WHS of Jethro Tull’s This Was LP. Needless to say, I have several copies of this album, both domestic and UK versions. One is a Pink Label UK which I purchased from you a while back*.

I was so completely blown away at how much better this LP sounds. Both are great, but this one is simply unbelievable.
I never owned a copy that had as much bottom end along with vocals that seem to jump out of my speakers.

Thank you again for your work finding these superior copies of albums I never thought could sound this good!

Hope to purchase again soon,
Regards
D B

Dennis,

So glad you enjoyed this copy as much as we did, and you even had a Pink Label to play against it, a record not many audiophiles own.

Stand Up and Benefit are the same way, the original pressings are not the way to go, but try telling that to the average audiophile who covets only first pressings.

They can read labels and they know which are the earliest ones, but they rarely have the equipment and the listening skills to know that the right reissues are CLEARLY better, something you heard right from the start I suspect.

UPDATE 2024:

Allow me to apologize for the patently unfair nature of the above characterization.

The truth is much more complicated than my remarks would lead you to believe.

Most audiophiles, even those with high-quality equipment and reasonably good listening skills, simply do not have the resources — time and money — to acquire another half-dozen pressings of This Was in the hopes that one of them might beat the original they struggled to find and had most likely paid good money for.

Our story for this album makes it clear just how hard it is to discover the pressings that are clearly superior to the ones most collectors and audiophiles have been led to believe are the best.

Not one out of a hundred has the resources to do what it takes to find the best pressings for more than a few dozen titles.

There is, however, one group of dedicated music lovers that has been able to achieve success in this regard for literally thousands of titles.

That group, you will not be surprised to learn, is made up of the ten or so individuals who work at Better Records.

Without a dedicated staff and a major league record-buying budget, it would simply be impossible to find out what we have been able to find out since we did the first Hot Stamper shootout two decades ago.

(more…)

Letter of the Week – “Holy Smokes! I could not believe how much better the sonic quality was right off the bat.”

Robert Brook runs a blog called The Broken Record, with a subtitle explaining that the aim of his blog is to serve as:

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

We know of none better, outside of our own humble attempt to enlighten that portion of the audiophile community who love hearing music reproduced with the highest fidelity and are willing to go the extra mile to make that happen.

A customer of ours writes about finally getting his turntable, arm and cartridge set up properly, thanks to Robert’s inspiration.

After reading Robert’s blogs, I got the courage to do it. Never messed with that stuff before.

Never again will I let someone else do the setup. Holy crap!

The cartridge was snug on the headshell so I left that alone. Checked azimuth to the best I could with a mirror and a lighted magnifying glass.

The stylus and reflection appeared to line up vertically. Left it alone.

l reset the balance of the tonearm, zeroed out the counterweight, set VTF to 2 grams on the counterweight and used a digital scale to measure VTF. Set it at 2.00. Recommended by manufacturer.

Set the anti-skating to match VTF. They matched up beautifully.

OK, feeling good about what I am doing.

The outfit that set up my turntable had the VTF set to heavy and the anti-skating set on the wrong setting.

Ready to test my handiwork…. Put a Hot Stamper on the turntable, turned up the volume a bit and sat down in my sweet spot.

Needle dropped onto record. Holy Smokes! I could not believe how much better the sonic quality was right off the bat.

The overall soundfield, bottom to top, midrange area, the 3-D effect of everything was so much more brilliant, alive and absolutely amazing.

Jackpot! The adjustment worked and taught me to learn to do it myself.

Thank you Tom and Robert!

Mike

Mike, that’s great to hear. Now all your records will sound better, and it didn’t cost you a dime to make that happen.

Thanks for writing,

TP

(more…)

Letter of the Week – “…you sell a product that is singular and unique. And completely worth every penny.”

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 never thought, not even for a second, that in my life I’d EVER buy a record for $300. Never Ever!

But here I am. Most records I’d come across in my life were from used/antique stores, and so they were warped, brittle, noisy, or out of tune (a fact I didn’t notice until I graduated from a music college).

But your Beatles “Revolver” and “Sgt. Pepper” – music I’ve known my ENTIRE LIFE – sound like new as Hot Stampers.

I appreciate the fact these records, although expensive, are sold simply on the basis of quality.

In an increasingly fake, plastic “if this one doesn’t work just return it for another broken one” world, you sell a product that is singular and unique. And completely worth every penny.

I appreciate the fact you evaluate the record’s sound (i.e. mastering) as a musician would – focusing on tonal correctness – prizing the record’s ability to accurately reproduce a recording of how instruments actually sound in real life. On its face, it seems so simple, yet it is of utmost importance. Thanks!

Kyle M.

Kyle,

Thanks for writing. Glad you think our Hot Stamper pressings were worth what you paid for them. They are indeed expensive, but as you now know firsthand, they deliver the sound they promise.

On the best pressings, Sgt. Pepper is nothing less than a Demo Disc for Tubey Magic.

If you’re looking for Hot Stamper pressings of Tubey Magical rock and pop recordings, we usually have a good supply. They are not cheap, but truly great sounding records rarely are.

We’ve also created a Top Ten for the most Tubey Magical rock and pop albums we’ve ever played.  What follows is the complete list, in alphabetical order, limited to one album per artist or group.

We picked Sgt. Pepper for this list even though there are many Tubey Magical titles in their catalog.

Note also that we rarely have more than a couple of these titles in stock at any time. Tubey Magical sound is what analog is all about, so naturally the titles on this list are in very high demand.

(more…)

Letter of the Week – “I think It’s a bargain at $800. It absolutely trashes my Mofi version…”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Crosby, Stills, Nash and (Sometimes) Young

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

Hey Tom,   

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing on the Crosby Still, Nash & Young Deja Vu White Hot stamper A+++ on both sides and absolutely dead quiet. I think It’s a bargain at $800.00. It absolutely trashes my Mofi version into bits and pieces. I don’t even want to mention the Classic records version because it’s painful to listen to. I’m writing up this record today and the Frank Sinatra and Count Basie Live at the Sands tomorrow.

Thanks,

Naz

Naz,

The Heavy Vinyl and Half-Speed Mastered pressings of Deja Vu are, as you say, practically unlistenable once you know what that record should really sound like, and now that you have a Hot Stamper pressing, you definitely know just how good the record can sound.

Demo Disc barely begins to do it justice.

Hey, I was fooled back in the mid-’80s – I used to demonstrate my system with the MoFi Deja Vu! How screwed up is that?

Let’s just say we have made a lot of progress in audio since then. We’ve learned a great deal about record collecting too, practically all of it derived from the thousands of shootouts we’ve conducted over the last twenty years, using tens of thousands of different pressings.

Letter of the Week – “I have never heard this album sound so big with such deep and solid bass!”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Yes Available Now

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

Hey Tom, 

BTW, Close to the edge is amazing. I have never heard this album sound so big with such deep and solid bass! It is really a “tell all” about my setup as you stated in your write up. Jon’s vocal’s can be a bit bright in the title track when turned up loud, so I know where to focus my attention on my setup.

There are are so many things that make playback of the record tricky, your room, electricity, equipment, everything. The better you can play that record, good and loud, the more progress you are making! Thanks again and I am sure I will write again soon.

Rob,

Thanks, looking forward to it.

TP

P.S.

We talk a lot about these kinds of challenging records all over the site. This commentary goes into the subject in more detail.

Here is another typical excerpt you may see on listings of records that present a challenge to the audiophile regardless of how advanced he or she may be:

(more…)

Letter of the Week – “It was so good that I got transported somewhere and back and didn’t even realize it.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Pink Floyd Available Now

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

Hi Tom,

Last night I had a ticket to a very special show.

It was my first ever listen to a 3+ Side 1 of Dark Side of the Moon.

It was so good that I got transported somewhere and back and didn’t even realize it. I had the gain turned all the way up. Perhaps it would have been better for the vocals on the first track to turn the gain down a little, but not for the music.

I have heard a 2.5+ before on my other copy which has a 3+ side 2, but the 3+ completely takes the cake.

What a pleasure it was to listen to. The vinyl was pretty darn quiet too.

I mean… over the years… Japanese, Japanese Pro Use, MFSL, UHQR, UK, UK A2/B2, UK A3/B3, US 30th Anniversary…

And you mean to tell me it all comes down to a variant of a [redacted] with several deadwax configurations. Only the super lucky might have ever figured it out. I didn’t have a chance in hell!

Take good care,
Michel

Michel,

Think of all the money you spent chasing one copy after another of Dark Side of the Moon, only to be disappointed time and time again.

Somehow none of those pressings, the ones that have been idolized by in-the-know audiophiles for more than fifty years — promoted again and again as the only possible solution to your problem, the true answer you seek — could take you to the places our humble mass-produced import reissue took you to.

This is absurd. It flies in the face of everything we know! Do you really expect other enthusiasts to believe your story that all the most highly-regarded audiophile versions couldn’t get the job done?

(more…)

Letter of the Week – “I still find the WHS to Hoffman 45 comparison a particularly insightful one.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Fleetwood Mac Available Now

Our good customer Aaron is somewhat obsessed with the White Hot Stamper Rumours he bought from us a while back. He finds testing it against the Hoffman 45 RPM version of the album his audiophile friends own instructive, about their systems, what they listen for, and lots more.

I’ve added some comments which I hope are helpful as well. We’ll let him take it from here.

Dear Tom,

I still find the WHS to Hoffman 45 comparison a particularly insightful one. I remember the bass being bloated and wonky on the Hoffman, and tight and impactful on the WHS on my system. I found it that way on [my friend’s] system too, but sometimes live rock music has unpleasant, over-emphasized bass. The kids like it that way I guess.

Aaron,

The proper comparison is not live rock music because a studio album is not really trying to recreate the sound of the band in concert.

On the best pressings the sound should be tonally balanced and correct, with no faults of any kind to draw your attention.

A Super Hot could sound that way. The White Hot would be 25% bigger and clearer and more punchy and resolving while still being balanced and tonally neutral.

Having auditioned and tested them by the hundreds, it has been our experience that Heavy Vinyl records never come to life the way the best vintage pressings do.

You need the right system to hear the difference, and the more right the system, the more you will hear how big the difference is.

I didn’t make any particular note of the position of the vocals, but one thing [my friend’s] system does really well is imaging, so I’m inclined to trust his impression from where he was sitting. It might be that what he was experiencing as accurate, breathtaking sound was described as “forward.” Seems like a reasonable term for that experience.

That could be a bad wire, bad electricity, glare from hi-fi-ish electronics, bad room treatments or no room treatments at all, bad speaker positioning — lots of things make vocals more forward in either a good way or a bad way. This story might be helpful in understanding some aspects of midrange presentation we wrestled with when setting up our new studio.

From where I sat, I could agree with [my friend] that the Hoffman put the snare more forward than the WHS does, but whether you like that or find it a distraction is a matter of taste.

Which is why this is not a good test record.

Where is the snare supposed to be? Who can say?

Good test records are the ones where the sound is clearly more wrong or more right as something in the playback changes, whether it’s a new piece of equipment, a tweak, or a different pressing of the same music.

If the snare is forward on a system, you play an orchestral record and point to the fact that the violins are hard and the brass is honky, or the piano sounds clanky or vague, and then you know you need to fix something because none of those instruments are supposed to sound that way.

But a snare on a rock record?

You didn’t mix the album. You don’t know! Worse, you can’t know.

(more…)

Letter of the Week – “Very tubey, we love it.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Steely Dan Available Now

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

Hey Tom,  

Funny enough, I listened to Pretzel Logic yesterday. Very tubey, we love it. I have an AAB-1006 (RE-3) pressing of Aja that sounds fantastic. (If you have any insight on that pressing I’d love to hear it!)

I replied:

Dear Sir,

Thanks for your letter.

There are so many stampers for that record, and the same stamper that sounds great on one copy can sound terrible on another, so we just buy them and play them and let the chips fall where they may.

And, of course, if we did know that RE-3 was a killer Hot Stamper, we wouldn’t tell you anyway!

Best, TP

UPDATE 2025

This is not actually true anymore and has not been true for many years.

We don’t buy everything we can find, not at the prices these records command now.

There are good stampers that we go after, all early pressings of course, and plenty that we know to be at best mediocre and too often worse than mediocre that we avoid.

(more…)