"Better Records" website and their business practices as they apply to our hobby*

I could probably not disagree more. Country of origin, I find, is usually a safer bet. As far as WLP's - yes there can be a difference from plant to plant, usually minute. The WLP's appear to be earlier in the pressing run, a fact I find brings a sonic improvement.

 

no, that would be too logical. Only TP can identify "Hot Stampers," that's the whole point. His proposition is that there's no rhyme or reason to which copies of which pressings are Hot Stampers; his service is hunting for and finding these mythical beasts.

congratulations!

 

I tend to agree with you about the foreign pressings being made from a copy of a master tape.

I do think that the degradation of sound quality by losing one generation from the master could more than be made up for with the better record pressings in foreign countries. certainly after 1975 when us plants started recycling vinyl.

at the end of the day foreign pressings do cost more money because they are rare not necessarily because they sound better. all things being equal I would go for a Japanese, German or British pressing over its US counterpart most of the time.

 

He's currently selling a UK copy of Steeleye Span "Commoners Crown" for $249. I think it's safe to say that ALL original UK copies of that album sound that good, and you can pretty easily get one for $10.

 

come on now, some of my thinking has to be legit.

 

S

Sure, foreign pressings cost more, US pressings using recycled plastic....that's 'bout all I could pick out of it....

 

He offers a very unique product/service. It's an *idea* that I actually like. I think only a few posters have had "moral" issues with his business model. Where he fails in my eyes and why I would not likely buy much if any product from him is in his execution of that business model.

 

Super duper white hot mint minus minus minus warm tubey A++++ Double Triple Quadruple Plus hot stamper.

 

Do you think capitol records sent the master tapes of Bob Dylan to the uk, germany or Japan for their record pressings?

There was a hard to find rounder records release that I could only find in europe. I paid a fairly hefty sum for it and it sounded very bad in near mint condition.

After some time I found the US pressing and it was outstanding.

I don't disagree that foreign pressing are often better but i don't think it is an absolute.

 

In case ya' didn't get the memo D), not all artists are from the US. Dylan, of course I seek out US pressings, Pink Floyd/Beatles/Black Sabbath, well UK for me. I mentioned earlier country of origin....then there is the fact that some UK artists had their albums mastered in the US, then that is where vinyl quality vs price becomes the main issue for me.

 

It certainly is a very complicated habit. I don't think it is quite as complicated as Better Records might have us believe. "No two records sound the same" Technically, perhaps but practically, no.

 

He fails universally. His service is laughable, his "product" is smoke and mirrors, and he's morally wrong for fooling people with his "hot stamper" nonsense. His business model is a joke and it's staying power proves that there's one born every minute. I think that about covers it.

Ed

 

A bit harsh but I think accurate. There are those out there more than willing to take advantage of fanatical sound enthusiasts. Cryogenically frozen cables with batteries might fall into this category as well.

 

So....you don't agree with him? Hard to tell from your post........................

 

I wonder what controls he has in place for the realm outside of the technical; did he have a good dinner that night, or is he still hungry? Are he and his wife getting along, or is he worried about an argument they had? Was someone mowing their lawn outside of his window? Is he in the mood for Steely Dan tonight, or would he rather listen to Dire Straits or The Beatles?

 

I know it might seem from my post that he and I aren't in total harmony with regard to his practices. If one thought that, they might be on the right track...LOL!

Ed

 

If mastered right, using the right equipment, and pressed on good vinyl - a single generation difference will be noticeable although that by itself is not enough to degrade the sound. Incidentally, lower grade & recycled vinyl had been going on all through industry history, in fact virgin vinyl due to its expense was the rarity. The US market for records was much larger than the UK, thus they were produced in much larger numbers hence the compromise. That being said, most US pressings I've found are perfectly fine.

If one is seeker quieter vinyl then generally, UK Dutch, German, & Japanese pressings of US recordings are fun to seek out, but the trade off can be a loss of presence realism and detail. Six of one, half dozen of another as they say. The customer picks. Besides, in all my decades of listening, the so-called quiet vinyl issue between good UK and good US pressings isn't really that significant. A red herring too; unless the vinyl is really noisy, whatever surface noise there is usually disappears as soon as the music starts playing. I have a number of 45s that start out with a hiss due to the vinyl quality but once the music starts playing, it disappears. The obsession with dead quiet silence between songs is what drove part of the CD market. Frankly -- I don't get it. I listen to the music. I want to music to be as vivid and real as I can get it from that recording. A little extraneous noise means nothing to me.

 

No quarrel with the posts here but I would point out that in addition to the vinyl quality there is the issue of mastering style preference. In Europe from the 1950s to the early 80s at least, the major record companies there were still dominated by the classical music personnel. (Less so in the smaller fringe companies.)

So for the differences you describe over and above tape generational issues, I would rephrase as them mastering pop records more like they would master Euro classical albums. (Conversely in the US, classical albums were mastered more in terms of pop music norms.) The images tend to be a bit more recessed in the apparent soundstage while the midrange is less fiddled with and sounds a bit more natural. Of course with pop music all that is a mixed blessing and works better with acoustic pop. However those who just happen to prefer that style of mastering will overlook the losses you describe for the favored attributes elsewhere.

 

Interesting......

 

I doubt Tom Port is personally grading the records these days.
He likely pays a few kids $10/hr to listen to them and make notes,
at least that's the impression I got from the photos in the Wired article.

http://www.wired.com/2015/03/hot-stampers/

 

Logically if the Euro tape copies being one generation more was the major cause of the pressing difference, the original Euro pressings of US recordings should sound very close to a second generation US pressing. At least in the comparisons I have made there is no great similarity between the two however.

 

Now...you made my head spin!!!!

 

33 and 1/3 I hope.

 

I find it ridiculous about Port using a 1970s Japanese integrated transistor amp rated at a feeble 30 watts per channel, a typical thrift-store find. “I use a low-power, solid state amp because it doesn’t color the music,” he explains. “Tubes make everything sound warm and add distortion. That can sound nice, but I need accuracy.”

I talked to him on the phone once and he laughed about people who were using equipment like Sansui receivers.

Can you say hypocrite?