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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.
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tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,544 posts
 
Well glupson, It is obvious you can’t hear, your stereo is crap, and you are a lowlife in general! Just kidding, just kidding!

Seriously, thanks for doing this comparison and writing up the results for us. I find doing this type of comparison tedious myself.

There does seem to be variation in the way that different audiophiles react to differences in sound. To some, every difference is very significant and every change in sound is better or worse. To others, many changes in sound are just different, not necessarily better or worse, or at least not better or worse enough to get excited about.

We all like those big improvements in sound where one item being compared is clearly better than another, but as changes get smaller or more unclear as to whether what we’re hearing is actually an improvement, many of us decide that the change is not worth the money or effort involved to get that change.

Of course there is no right or wrong in either of these approaches and people should pursue whatever audiophile path brings them enjoyment while leaving them financially solvent.

Thanks again!
glupson
7,842 posts
 
tomcy6,

You are partially correct.

I hear well enough to get through the day, stereo, except for cartridges, was my friend's (we discarded his Ortofon 2M Red), and there is hardly any question about me being a lowlife. As long as there is "life" in that, I guess it is still fine.

The question for a normal audiophile will come down to if the difference is worth the money. Provided the person already has a reasonably good copy of a certain record. That is impossible to decide for others. I just wanted to check if there is a difference between White Hot Stamper and other random copies available. In this case, there was.

Remind me, was it you who has Some Girls? Do you have Emotional Rescue, too?


glupson
7,842 posts
 
tomcy6,

I found it, it was tomic601 with Some Girls.

You guys, or you some girls, are confusing me with your names.
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,544 posts
 
I haven't posted about those two albums in this thread, but I do have Some Girls on CD.


glupson
7,842 posts
 
tomcy6,

I realized, my mistake.

I thought that the person who would buy Some Girls might also have Emotional Rescue laying somewhere around. Emotional Rescue was the actual White Hot Stamper in question here. I know, not your usual "audiophile dream material", which I hope makes it even more relevant for real world situation.
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