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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
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon OP
12,531 posts
 
No offense, but you're conflating a trademarked and graded product "Hot Stamper" with records you have that sound good. I have been down this road, and all I can say, if you really do have copies that good you would be selling like Tom, because they are worth a pile of money. This is like the DIY cable guys who pretend to have turned $150 worth of parts into a $2500 cable. Why then are you telling us? Prove it. Go sell em.  

I got sucked into that con one time, a guy convinced me he knows what is Hot Stamper quality because he sold some to Tom. So hoping for a deal I bought one of his, what you would call hot stamper. I have lots of records that good. I have maybe one or two that are as good as a Hot, let alone White Hot. Zero White Hot. 

As for reissues, I once sent Tom a MoFi just so he could get some laughs with his staff. A more awful record I never heard in my life. And no, I am not saying they are all that bad. Sheesh!

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.

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.
coys21
62 posts
 
No offense, but you're conflating a trademarked and graded product "Hot Stamper" with records you have that sound good.

No offense, but you have no idea unless you’ve heard (presumably not but correct me if wrong) the poster’s records. 
td_dayton
320 posts
 
guys spending hundreds on common titles is exactly the type of thing your average record digger laughs at audiophiles about, but i absolutely do believe the people who bought em when they say they're amazing, because i myself have a small number of common records with uncommonly good sound compared to friends' copies - just luck of the draw though, i'm not rich like that. the thought of dropping 300 on a single copy of rumours (a dollar bin goodwill record anywhere in america until about 10 years ago) strikes me as totally absurd, but hey, not my money. makes perfect sense in a world of $5000 cables. there's no one right way to enjoy your music
benjie
329 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.

millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon OP
12,531 posts
 
Actually all I'm saying is you're stealing the guys trademark, calling your records hot stampers. They're not. 
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