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.
I bought The Rolling Stones Emotional Rescue. I was considering Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here, too, but it says it has pops and clicks so it defeats the purpose, I think. Had it been without it, I would have bought that one, too.
I am very familiar with Emotional Rescue, I already have two different ones from different countries and neither is from the U.S.A. so it comes in handy that better-records.com had it available. CD is, actually, not that great (whatever it was, the first German release on CD).
Despite arguments about The Rolling Stones recordings quality, I am wondering about comparison with those records that I have, not with some better recordings. I did not buy it to indulge in it, I doubt I will listen to it much after the trial. I bought it out of curiosity.
EDIT: If it is really that great, I will copy it into digital and abandon the CD rip.
When Paganini is ready to be recorded I will happily pay $600 for any reasonably good pressing. Not before that. You guys are...whatever you want to call yourselves. Do you print money, anyway ?
Just bought an Almost White Hot Stamper of Peter, Paul and Mary. It was only $99. I should like the content and mostly voices should be easy to be good being in the mid frequencies. Interesting to mention, Doug Sax’s mastering chain front end was all tube based but his monitoring speakers were all ATC SS powered. This was in The Mastering Lab in Hollywood and in his 5 channel studio in Ojai.
Okay DS, your story checks out. Well the part about buying it anyway. Much to my surprise. Now if you can tell how awesome it is I will be even more surprised. But if not, well then boy do I have a surprise for you all!
My stories always check out Boy, would I have surprising stories for you. You would happily make them your own and then some.
More of a concern is how you were able to check my story about buying it beyond what I wrote here. I will give it benefit of the doubt, with a capital Doubt, that none of my information has been shared by better-records.com. Still, it is very concerning if you could have, in any way, checked the details of my purchase. In fact, it would border with criminal activity.
I will report about the record the way I will hear it. If it is great, you will read it. If it is less so, you will read it. The benefit of my report should be that I have no vested interest in promoting Better Records. I had not heard of it before this thread. I have no love and admiration for it, nor do I have any reason to be against it. Prices are steep, but nobody is holding a gun to anyone's head.
Not even mentioned are
the compromises made in mastering and LP production in the old days.
Bass was routinely rolled off below 100Hz (or summed to mono---or both),
and compression was applied to reduce dynamic range, and that’s just to
name two. The best LP’s ever made are those being made now, by far.
The only part of your post I would argue with is that there are many engineers over the years every bit as competent as Tim .... okay, that and I don't have a bias for tubes (for or against). But your overall conclusion, I can't argue with. Such is the reality of vinyl. Anything mass produced, it was (is) a matter of the best of the worst. Makes me laugh when people proudly pronounce this the pinnacle of audio reproduction.
It’s cute the way you kids think. Like toddlers stacking blocks of wood, imagining it’s the Empire State Building.
Five minutes and even the worst listener will understand just how far off you are. Like, look. I went to see Picasso. I brought home the refrigerator magnet of Starry Night. No matter how much I want to believe, it’s just not the same.
But you go on. Tell yourselves you found oil on canvas. Anyone can see it’s crayon on paper. But you go on. I’m getting a kick out of it. Seriously. Cracks me up.
I have never seen a mint copy of Some Girls. Every copy I have seen has been played ad nauseam. Including mine.
Having said that, how is the actual recording on a good sample? In my mind, and experience with overused records, it always sounds like, well, overused record that needs replacement.
i found it from a reputable seller on Discogs who i do a fair bit of business, it was not cheap....but it certainly has some snap in places beyond the typical Stones grunge...I remember playing it recently and smiling bigtime...the lyrics and wry delivery are my favorite. When i get back to Sunny California, let’s coordinate a loan...decide for yourself.....tempted to lug my Wadia 17 ADC down to rip you a test listen file......
can you imagine our resident story checkout sleuth on the case of helping the My Pillow guy ?...what wasted imaginary potential....
It’s cute the way you kids think. Like toddlers stacking blocks of wood, imagining it’s the Empire State Building.
Five minutes and even the worst listener will understand just how far off you are. Like, look. I went to see Picasso. I brought home the refrigerator magnet of Starry Night. No matter how much I want to believe, it’s just not the same.
But you go on. Tell yourselves you found oil on canvas. Anyone can see it’s crayon on paper. But you go on. I’m getting a kick out of it. Seriously. Cracks me up.
Okay DS, your story checks out. Well the part about buying it anyway. Much to my surprise. Now if you can tell how awesome it is I will be even more surprised.
I wonder if you can ban someone for stalking. How disturbingly creepy. Honestly, what went through your head that you felt compelled to expend time and energy to verify if a fellow member bought what he said he bought??
"I think that GK is out there somewhere having a belly laugh ."
At least, geoffkait did not snoop on me.
It may seem innocent, but it is seriously concerning if someone from an audio forum can go checking your purchases. Not to start with, hopefully silly, motifs behind such an activity.
I am just hoping it is yet another one of millercarbon's fabricated stories of importance.
I believe we are at the crescendo of miller informing us to go away because this is nothing but blather and a waste of space on his personal thread. That will give me ample opportunity to inform him he brought it upon himself by stalking you. He can't stand it when he doesn't have ironclad control of the narrative.
Do yourself a favor. Do not go into PR business. You managed to raise attention to Better Records and, probably, created some traffic for that website.
Shortly afterwards, you crushed it all by implying you somehow had access to check if my purchasing history was correct. Unless you hacked into my e-mail account and saw confirmation e-mail, you are pointing towards Better Records as being your source of verification.
Put aside bizarre urge to do something like that on your part, but no customer would want to deal with the business anyone could call and check on purchases, names, e-mails, etc.
I sincerely hope it was just a moment of fantasy in your life and not the actual event.
However, unless you can explain how, I am not even asking why, you checked what and if I had purchased and other details you presented, there will be a big suspicious stain about Better Records. If they had nothing to do with this bizarre development, you may want to clear their name.
There are potential customers reading this and some will take this as a warning. If Better Records did not do anything wrong, it would be unfair to leave the stain next to its name.
Shortly afterwards, you crushed it all by implying you somehow had access to check if my purchasing history was correct. Unless you hacked into my e-mail account and saw confirmation e-mail, you are pointing towards Better Records as being your source of verification.
There are potential customers reading this and some will take this as a warning. If Better Records did not do anything wrong, it would be unfair to leave the stain next to its name.
Another take on this is the Miller is getting a kickback and that is how he knows about a sale. It is not a good look either. I find what Miller posted very creepy. Time to fess up.
Hi Frank! Do you have any idea as to the oldest album in your collection? I know by what you’ve posted, you have quite an eclectic and enviable stash. Just wondering if you can share any rare goodies from the 40’s or 50’s. Hope you are doing well!
I have that one Frank. Not the Hot Stamper, but even a regular copy is as you say pretty spectacular. The one you linked to "with issues" if you read the detail it is not much of an issue, just some light ticks. Otherwise, double-LP, A++, would be a lot more.
The site is chock full of info but to me it seems to be sort of scattered around. Tom sent me a link to a page I will probably be using a lot going forward. It's a list of "Well recorded albums that should be more popular with audiophiles" which is different than a Top 100 (which he also has) in that these are both well recorded and a little less popular, and so a little less expensive. If you can call anything on his site less expensive- it is a very relative term!
I have found there is a lot of stuff like strings, brass, sax, in other words classical, jazz, big band, that I never cared for simply because they were so poorly recorded. My Super Hot Stamper of Sinatra-Basie was a revelation. Never ever in my life dreamed sax and stuff could sound so tonally correct, warm, and real! There's a flute- OMG it actually sounds like a real flute! With all the dynamics and everything!
So when I look at this list and see Sinatra I Remember Tommy, and from Tom's comments this is an even better recording than Sinatra-Basie, well I want that record! Eventually. These things are expensive. Pick and choose. Not for everyone. Etc. Etc.
Do you have any idea as to the oldest album in your collection?
I know by what you’ve posted, you have quite an eclectic and enviable stash.
Just wondering if you can share any rare goodies from the 40’s or 50’s.
Hope you are doing well!
Thanks for the good wishes...
Man, ’O Man ... where do I start?
For the "oldest," you’d have to get into the small 78 rpm collection I have.
My main focus as a teen and young man was jazz. So, for the 40s, we can start with the Big Bands and the Big Band singers. Stan Kenton (also 50s & 60s), early Frank Sinatra, Jo Stafford, Peggy Lee, Chris Connor, LIonal Hampton, Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, Chu Berry, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Ben Webster, Zoot Sims, Stan Getz (Getz could play anything. A true genius) and tons more. Even The Andrew Sisters and Doris Day.
Morphing away from rhythm & blues as a teen, I left Earl Bostic, Big Jay McNeely, and Joe Houston behind. I still have their recordings in the collection, to be played from time to time to remind me of the transition. Kind of like a history lesson, or a step back in a time machine taking me all the way back to Junior High School.
The collection is full of excellent mono jazz, and jazz vocal recordings. For those who shun mono recordings, you are really missing out on some great-sounding records and performances. One of the keys is to find a cartridge that really digs down into the grooves of those mono records to extract what hasn’t been extracted before. I’ve found the Audio Technia OC-9 MK III to be such a cartridge. At $500.00 from LP Tunes, it is a bargain.
Some of my favorite mono jazz records are early Brubeck, Miles, Clifford Brown, Chet Baker, Jerry Mulligan, The Montgomery Brothers, Howard Rumsey’s Light House All-Stars, lots of Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderly, Sonny Stitt... and way too many more to post here. I admit that I lean toward the West Coast jazz sound. It is just more melodic than the East Coast stuff. I’m addicted to the great vibes players too, especially Cal Tjader, who I consider the best in a long line of "bests."
On the stereo recordings ... I’ve avoided early Blue Notes because of their dual-mono presentations. I think that’s one of the reasons the mono Blue Notes command so much money. I came late to classical and really late to classic rock. The classical guitar section is pretty impressive. I absolutely love the great guitarists John Williams and Julian Bream. For flamenco, check out Manitas de Plata - one of the greats, if not the greatest. Lots of other great ones, but those are my favorites.
There are tons more ... I could go on and on.
I wonder who will end up with the collection when I finally check out of here. My kids and grandkids aren’t interested. Heck, there isn’t even a CD player among the bunch. I can’t even burn them a CD of any of my music. What a shame.
Your collection is for yourself. You have enjoyed it for 70 years. You did not start it thinking of some grandkid lugging your records around. Still, as much of an effort and love you have put in, I highly doubt you would put it as the top achievement of your life. Your kids and grandkids would probably come higher on that list. Your record collection is surely impressive, but remember it is only a record collection. Pieces of plastic in paper, not much more than that. Life should not be about what, it should be about who.
Enjoy your grandkids. You know they are nutz with their cellphone addiction, anyway.
Is it safe to assume that some/many of the records in your collection have never been released in digital form? With every passing day, there is less and less physical copies of your records in the world. That may be a nice project as you have a good playback system. Copying true rarities into digital format (files, not CDs, if possible) for grandchildren’s grandchildren.
I am not sure how to go around making sure that it does not get deleted by someone disinterested at some point. Maybe contact one of the streaming services? Maybe some of those records fall into public domain now?
Just ideas, I am not sure how interesting or feasible they are.
Thank you for sharing, Frank. I know this is pure corn, but it is a soundtrack of your life. Snapshots of memories must surely come to mind while listening. Wonderfully extensive list.
Enjoy your grandkids. You know they are nutz with their cellphone addiction, anyway.
Spot on. I have four grandkids. My wife and I stressed education and excellent work ethics. Both of my daughters went through private schools ... at great financial sacrifices. Not easy when you are the sole bread-winner working on a 100% commission basis. They in turn did the same for their four children. The results speak for themselves. One, a speech therapist who works with small children. One, a commercial real estate broker, one, an attorney specializing in acquisitions and mergers - a graduate of the University of Norte Dame with high honors, and was the editor of the ND Law Review. And finally, a surgeon in his third year of residency at the USC hospital in Los Angeles. That’s what I look back on with satisfaction knowing that I’ll be leaving this earthly place better off than how I found it. :-)
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.
