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Better Records White Hot Stampers: Now the Story Can Be Told!

Just got shipping notification, so now the story can be told!

  Better-Records.com is a small, incredibly valuable yet little known company run out of Thousand Oaks, CA by Tom Port. The business started out many years ago when Tom Port noticed no two records sound quite the same. Evidently Tom is a sound quality fanatic on a scale maybe even higher than mine, and he started getting together with some of his audio buds doing shoot-outs in a friendly competition to see who has the best sounding copy.   

Over time this evolved into Better-Records.com, where the best of the best of these shoot-outs can be bought by regular guys like me who live for the sound, but just don't have the time or the drive to go through all the work of finding these rare gems.

The difference in quality between your average pressing and a White Hot Stamper is truly incredible. If you don't have the system or the ears of course you may never notice. If you do though then nothing else comes even close.   

Tom will say things like only one in twenty copies is Hot Stamper worthy. This doesn't even come close to conveying the magnitude. Last night for example, wife and I were listening to our White Hot Stamper of Tchaikovsky 1812. Then we played another White Hot Tchaikovsky. Then we played the Tchaikovsky tracks from my copy of Clair deLune.  

Without hearing a White Hot you would think Clair de Lune is about as good as it gets. After two sides of Tom's wonders it was flat, dull, mid-fi. Not even in the same ball park. And yet this is quite honestly a very good record. How many of these he has to clean, play, and compare to find the rare few magical sounding copies, I don't even know!  

Copies of Hot Stamper quality being so hard to find means of course they are not always available. This is not like going to the record store. There are not 50 copies of Year of the Cat just sitting around. Most of the time there are no copies at all. When there are, they get snapped up fast. Especially the popular titles. Fleetwood Mac Rumours, Tom Petty Southern Accents, whole bunch of em like this get sold pretty fast even in spite of the astronomically outrageous prices they command. Then again, since people pay - and fast - maybe not so outrageous after all.   

So I spent months looking, hoping for Year of the Cat to show up. When it did, YES! Click on it and.... Sorry, this copy is SOLD! What the...? It was only up a day! If that!  

Well now this puts me in a bit of a spot. Because, see, besides loving music and being obsessed with sound quality, I'm also enthusiastic about sharing this with others. With most things, no problem. Eric makes an endless supply of Tekton Moabs. Talking up Tekton or Townshend or whatever has no effect on my ability to get mine. With Better-records.com however the supply is so limited the last thing I need is more competition. Bit of a bind.   

Even so, can't keep my big mouth shut. Been telling everyone how great these are. One day someone buys one based on my recommendation, Tom finds out, next thing you know I'm a Good Customer. What does that mean? Well is there anything you're looking for? Year of the Cat. That's a hard one. Tell me about it. Might take a while. Take all the time you need. Just get me one. Please. Okay.  

That was months ago. Other day, hey we're doing a shoot-out. No guarantees but should be able to find you one. So for the last few days I was all Are we there yet? Are we there yet? And now finally, like I said, shipped!  

So now I have my Grail, and the story can be told. Got a nice little collection of Hot Stampers, and will be adding more, but this for me is The One. Might not be for you, but that is the beauty of it all. Many of us have that one special record we love. If you do too, and you want to hear it like listening to the master tape, this is the way to go.
128x128millercarbon

Showing 7 responses by benjie

benjie
327 posts
 
Let me share a little secret with you, you probably already own white hot stampers in your collection. Do you truly believe that out of the hundreds of thousands of records that are pressed of a title, that only a handful are of these magical sounding copies. So for the most part record companies stamp out nothing but inferior copies and only a few are of high quality and worth listening to. Yea right !

I bought a hot stamper from Better Records, Supertramps Breakfast in America. I own a test pressing of the album that sounds better and an original pressing that I purchased when the album was released which sounds just as good as the hot stamper.

The reason why Better Records may sound better than the copy you own is because it is cleaned to perfection! Every bit of dirt, gunk, smoke residue or whatever else is found in a record groove has been removed. Their records are CLEAN and that is why they sound better. Records that are damaged or worn do not apply. That is the secret to great sounding records. You know the saying " cleanliness is next to Godliness. 
benjie
327 posts
 
As I stated way back in the beginning of this thread, you already own hot stampers. Clean your records to remove everything that is in the groove of the record. Next and this is the most important step, demagnetize the record. That is the secret. When you do this it opens up all aspects of the record. That is what Better Records does and they use the Walker Talisman to demag. I have owned a Furutech Demag since 2007, one of  the best investment I have made for my vinyl collection. This thing is a game changer. Some years later I purchased a Talisman to compare. The Talisman is nowhere near as powerful as the Demag. While the Talisman did improve the sound, the Demag improved the sound significantly. I also own a tape demagnetizer that I use for my open reel tapes. It does NOT work on vinyl. So don't go out and buy one.

  I have an original copy of Year of the Cat that I purchased back in 1976. It was an ok sounding record. When I cleaned it using an ultrasonic machine and demag it with the Furutech, there was a huge difference in sound quality. Yes it was hard to believe it was the same record. I have found this to be true for many many records in my collection. I am not stating that all my records have become white hot stampers but I will say this, every record that has been ultrasonically cleaned and demag, has sounded much better. A difference that you can hear.
benjie
327 posts
 
I have purchased a Super Hot Stamper, "Breakfast in America". Paid $199 for it. The record was rated A++ for both sides. I played it and compared it to an original copy that I own and did not hear that much of a difference. I do not think it was worth the money, I do not think that there is anything special about the Super Hot Stamper. I also have a MOFI copy that sound great. The best sounding copy I have of this record is a test pressing that I paid $60 on eBay. It is a big step above the Super Hot Stamper.

So when you make statements
Why is it people who never tried and so don’t know insist on acting as if they do? I will let you in on the secret. Tom said it’s okay: Get one, listen to it. Then come back and let us know.

Well I am coming back to let you know, I do know and I did not find the Super Hot Stamper to be any better in sound quality when compared to the other versions I own. It was not a life changing event when listening to the record that some people have gushed about.

I still stand behind my original statement, clean your records and demag them, you will be surprised at the difference in sound quality. Everyone, you do own hot stampers in your record collections, you just don’t know it yet.



benjie
327 posts
 
No, I use this record as a reference talking and listening point when people ask about better records hot stampers. They can hear for themselves whether there is an audible difference between the albums. So far no one has disagreed with my assessment.
benjie
327 posts
 
@maroneofferring

I think that there is a little confusion about what I am stating. I have many hot stampers in my record collection. Some are original pressings and others are remasters. I was curious as to what Better Records classified sound wise as a "hot stamper". That is why I purchased the Super Hot Stamper " Breakfast in America ". I have several versions of this album so I thought it would be a good example to benchmark against. My original pressing sounded just as good, maybe a little better because it has only a few ticks. The Mofi's (early pressing from 1980 ?) and the most recent one 2019 did not sound as good. The true bell of the ball was the test pressing I have, amazing sound, very lifelike presentation.
If you have never heard an A+++, it is an eerie experience.
As though everyone took one step closer to the Mic.
Vocals and guitars especially.
I think you are spot on in your statement above. I am not saying the albums that Better Records sell are not good, I saying that people have hot stampers in their collections and probably don't realize it. They are not the unicorns that Tom Port makes them out to be.

The one disagreement I have with Better Records is that only original pressings are the best examples of an album. In my 50 years of being an audiophile, I have come across many examples of hot stampers made by companies such as Quality Record Pressings (Analog Productions), Mobile Fidelity (old and new releases), Classic Records and Speakers Corner to name a few.

When Tom Port makes the statements that all of these remasters sound horrible and are not worth the plastic they are stamped on is an insult to all of the people who work in these projects. These mastering engineers are some to the best in the industry. They know how to work the console. They are not just slapping something together to send out. They take pride in their profession and put out the best sound reproduction that is possible. They are at the top of their game. And we know why Tom Port says things like that. Someone above stated
Yes, but Tom Port is also a businessman....:-))
Right.If he came out and said that these other record companies make great sounding records, he would be out of business. Why would you spend hundreds of dollars for a used album that sounds good when you can buy a new album for $50 that sounds just as good or maybe even better.

There are many examples of great sounding records. Let me share one with you. I was able to purchase some records from the Michael Hobsen Classic Records Collection. It is a pressing of Tommy by The Who. It is a 45 rpm pressing on Clarity Vinyl, 8 records, single sided pressings. This was a test pressing and is 1 of 1. It was never produced in this format. I will say that this is the BEST sounding rock album that I have ever heard, period. Words can not begin to describe the sound, it is truly amazing. There will not be an original pressing "white hot stamper" that would even come close to sound that is on this album and I do not make that statement lightly. It is kind of ironic that same people that Tom Port discredits in their abilities to remaster albums are the ones that created this masterpiece.
benjie
327 posts
 
Once again millercarbon you attack me like I am some scared little kid in the school yard. You think that you and only you have your finger on the pulse of everything in this forum. Only you possess the knowledge that can lead us to the promised land. Let me be blunt about it, you don't !

Lets start with the term "Hot Stamper". That term has been in the industry for many years, its not trademarked. It has been know that sound quality varies from master stampers to pressing machines to vinyl mixture formulas. Your not blazing any new ground here.

Why then are you telling us? Prove it. Go sell em
  Why would I want to sell my record collection? What would that prove? I spent years building my collection. Many are no longer in print or hard to find. So you lost me on that point.

There is another issue and I can only be blunt about it, both your ears and your system have to be up to it. We are not talking about ticks and pops. A lot of White Hots are actually pretty noisy. As Tom says repeatedly all over the site, the best sounding copy isn't always the quietest. I have lots of quieter pressings. I have none better sounding. When you get to where you can hear it you will know.
Once again you are on the attack. You think I can't hear and that my system is not up to your standards so I am not able to disseminate my findings about records that I listen to. I have excellent hearing and my system is up to it. I am not like some people who constantly brag about their system and are posting pictures and telling people to go look at my great system. People like that sound desperate for approval to me.
I have spent many years building up my system. I consider my room high end. I am north of 250K. So I think I can hold my own on what sounds good.

When your system improves- as hopefully it will over the years- I think the difference between your better than average pressings and your genuine Hot Stampers will grow increasingly clear.
Sir I am way beyond that statement. I know what great sound is. I own it. I don't think you know what great sound is. Someone has to tell you that this album sound great. You think you know it all, go tell Chad Kassem or Michael Hobson or Bernie Grundman that they don't know the first thing about remastering a record. Let us know how you make out.

benjie
327 posts
 
Here we go again, another attack, now I am a thief. I am stealing a term used in the recording industry, to describe the sound of some of my albums, that has been around before Better Records even existed. We are down to this now. That's your argument.

Let me share another great box set with you. Chad Kassem put out the Tom Petty Vol 1 box set, the groups first 9 albums. Not only me but most of the album reviewer in the industry feel that these are the Best versions of the albums ever produced. These pressings are white hot ! But I guess they are all wrong because Tom Port says so, only he has the golden ears to decide what is "tubby" and what is not. Keep drinking the "Kool Aid".

Narrow thinking and view points limits your scope of what is available in terms of great sounding records.
More to discover