Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Supertramp Available Now
UPDATED 2026
We have not had very good luck with domestic pressings of this album for quite a few years now. The German pressings are also not very good, earning at most 1.5+ and more often than not less than that. Hey, we had to be sure.
The Canadian audiophile pressings are comparable, 1.5+ or close to it, not good enough to bother with when the right UK pressings are so much better.
This listing is from 2012. Since that time we have been able to find and play a great many British pressings of the album, and they tend to win our shootouts.
But the domestic pressings can also do very well, just not well enough to win shootouts these days, a clear case of live and learn.
Our Understanding from 2012
TWO AMAZING SIDES, including an A+++ SIDE ONE! It’s not the A&M Half Speed, and it’s not a British pressing either. It’s domestic folks, your standard plain-as-day A&M pressing, and we’re as shocked as you are. Hearing this copy (as well as an amazing Brit; they can be every bit as good, in their own way of course) was a THRILL, a thrill that’s a step up in “thrillingness” over our previous favorite pressing, the A&M Half Speed.
The best of the best domestics and Brits are bigger, livelier, punchier, more clear and just more REAL than the audiophile pressing something we knew had to be the case if ever a properly mastered non-Half Speed could be found. And now it has. Let the rejoicing begin!
This is only the second White Hot Stamper copy of Crisis to come to the site, and it’s not the A&M Half Speed. It’s an AMAZING sounding British copy. The only other copy that we have ever heard sound this good was the domestic copy we put up a few weeks back.
The best of the best domestics and Brits are bigger, livelier, punchier, more clear and just more REAL than the audiophile pressing — something we knew had to be the case if ever a properly mastered non-Half Speed could be found.
Our previous commentary for our domestic pressings noted:
We’d love to get you some great sounding quiet British copies, but we can’t find any. They either sound bad (most of them) or they’re noisy (the rest). It is our belief that the best Hot Stamper pressings of this Half-Speed give you the kind of sound on Crisis? What Crisis? you can’t find any other way, not without investing hundreds of dollars and scores of hours of your time in the effort. Wouldn’t you just rather listen to the record?
Why did we think Jack Hunt‘s mastering approach for the A&M Half Speed was the right one?