Better Records vs MoFi

I bought a copy of The Band's Music from Big Pink from Better Records and it blew away my MFSL version. I have purchased several other titles from them that had no half-speed master version that were likewise much better than I could find otherwise.

It was particularly difficult for me to find Fleetwood Mac's Future Games in either LP or CD format that didn't sound muddy and veiled. I found one on Better Records which was much better than my three LPs and two CD's of the title.

I couldn't afford their prices for everything, but they definitely do what they say they do.

Their latest mailer had half a dozen White Hot Stampers $600-900. They were all SOLD. Within like a hour. So yeah we can't afford many, but someone sure can! 

Study the discogs info on the album you want.

It's all in the deadwax.

It's simply effort, luck and timing to find a good condition 1st/early press.

Some genres/artists are unobtanium now due to demand and age.

Nothing special about Better Records except the effort is done for you and you're gonna pay the price for it.

My local store has had Better Records scouts going thru the bins for years.

The Better Records process (shoot outs) is about a strong as one could use to find outstanding sounding copies of LP’s. One just has to read their blog consistently. They have the most valuable information advantage and historical knowledge of anybody in the world on LP’s that fit their model. 
 

I would argue that their best values are albums like Led Zep 2, Sticky Fingers, Ziggy Stardust, etc…. Generally even with the pressing (stampers) identified to likely win a shoot out you still need a number of clean copies to find the Hot Stamper, Nearly White Hot, and White Hot. 
 

There are plenty of great LP’s that don’t fit their model, Big Star’s LP’s as an example. 

Even though there are good, better, best, I can’t get into which pressing

but, after finding a performance of great musicians at the top of their game:

It’s the engineering, whether the people setting up the recording room, # and type and placement of mics; later decisions about imaging and volume levels,

’they sure knew what they were doing’ comes out of my brain/mouth when it’s great.

I’ve heard terrific musicians, great trios, different venues, awesome live recordings, some wandering imaging, some disappearing instruments, some drums right side then moved to center for solo.

The better your system ’images’ the better/worse is revealed.

When I inherited 4000 lps, I quickly divided them into two categories: sell/keep, blend with mine, pull more to sell.

If I saw Rudy Gelder’s name, KEEP!!!

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Other Opinions: Other great engineers (especially Jazz) ________?