revelation

Hot Stamper pressings can come as quite a shock to their new owners.

Hearing a record with sound they had no idea was possible drives some of them to help others understand what that very special experience was like.

It happens to us regularly — it’s the nature of our business to find amazing pressings — and we love hearing that our customers are having their minds blown the way ours were when we played that same copy in one of our shootouts. These, then, are their stories.

Letter of the Week – “What the #$%@ did you guys do to make the record sound so good?”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Frank Zappa Available Now

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

Hey Tom,  

I received your “Hot Stamper” rated version of Frank Zappa’s Waka Jawaka Hot Rats yesterday and was able to listen to it last night. I’m not sure if you know what the initials WTF stand for. So with apologies, I will spell it out. What the #$%@ did you guys do to make the record sound so good? Did you really just listen to record after record until you came across this one? Are there tricks? Did you spray some magic fairy dust on it? Is it gonna wear off?  

I’ve been listening to my personal copy intently for the last few days and I really doubted if your copy could sound very much better than mine. Because my copy sounds damn good. But the copy you sent me rated “Hot Stamper” was off the charts. it wasn’t just in the clarity of the detail of the instruments and the soundstage. It’s so wonderful to listen to. What a treat! Is it worth 10X more than a decent copy of it commonly available? Yes. Absolutely. At least to me. In the same way that my Clear Audio turntable is worth the 10X times more than it cost me for the Rega Planar 2 I bought used 20 years ago. The listening experience is transformed into something much more realistic than ever before. I’m sure this record will be one of my very favorites to listen to for the next 20 years! (more…)

Letter of the Week – “Never before have I ever experienced the pleasure I received from the recent Sade album.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Sade Available Now

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

Hey Tom, 

Wow! Wow! Wow! I’ve been playing records all my life. A few years on the road kept me from home as well as my duty to country… but ever since my Dad introduced me to vinyl in the early 1960s I’ve been loyal and proud of it.

Tom, your record albums are just beyond fantastic. Never before have I ever experienced the pleasure I received from the recent Sade album. I’ve got most of her work and have always loved Sade’s sexy, dominating vocals. Listening to the percussion — not to forget the saxophone –is just awesome!

Tom I certainly thank you and your team for making this marvelous medium available to us hard-core music lovers and audiophiles.

Frederick