Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of This commentary for Dark Side of the Moon was written at the dawn of the Hot Stamper revolution, circa 2006 I believe.
We were asked why we did not give out the stamper information for the pressings we were offering and we felt an explanation was in order.
UPDATE 2024
We’re so fascinated by the unpredictable nature of the stamper information we discover in our Hot Stamper shootouts that we thought it would be a good idea to create a section on the blog just to draw more of our readers’ attention to it. You can find it under the heading of record mysteries. Please to enjoy.
Our Letter from 2006
An erstwhile customer wrote to us a while back asking a question about Dark Side of the Moon: “What is the FULL stamper matrix for this record… all the way around the dead wax?”
I replied that we never give out stamper numbers for the records we sell. The only way to find out the stampers for our records is to buy them.
He then countered with this:
Well, ok. I don’t understand the logic, but it’s your show.
Floyd stampers are probably the most uniquely well documented stampers on [a site that no longer exists] that they’re pretty much common knowledge. If I understand your logic, a first pressing may not be a “Hot Stamper” while a 3rd, 4th or 5th might be. Just a function of the stars aligning when that record is pressed. So what’s the diff?
I would think this would be pretty obvious. If we say pressing X is the best, this is information that you cannot get anywhere else, certainly not on the site you linked to. The day that such a site tells you which stampers sound the best is the day that such a site will have any value to those who are not collecting for the sake of collecting, but are actually searching for the pressings with the best sound to play.
The information on that site has absolutely no value to me, or to any of my Hot Stamper customers, nor should it. [It no longer exists by the way. Why would it?]
If you told me what the stampers were and it was a first pressing and /or issue, it would enhance the marketability of that particular record and I would be more inclined to buy it…not that I would sell it, but just knowing it was a first press would have more value to me.
Why would you want a first pressing if it didn’t sound as good? Or, if a later pressing sounded better, why would that make any difference in your desire to buy it? Isn’t the idea to get good sound?
If you buy records principally to collect original pressings, you will end up with some awful sounding records, that I can tell you without fear of contradiction.
On the other hand, if you want the best sounding pressings, we are the only record sellers on the planet who can consistently find them for you. This is precisely the service we offer, unique in the world as far as we know.
Anyone can sell originals.
Only we can sell the best sound because we are unconcerned with which pressing has it. May the best man win!