Better Records vs MoFi

Don't often post on here but interesting thread about BR.  I don't think I'd ever pay more than $100 for a record,  even if I could afford it.  But I learned that my first pressing of Aja may be worth $500?  Crazy.....  It's the AB 1006 issue that I bought right off the delivery truck at the wholesale record and tape whse I worked at in '77.  It's still pristine and has been cleaned every play.  Jacket has some wear but that's cool....  The BR prices seem to justify the 'law of diminishing returns' phrase.  Guess if you're running a $50k system, you might notice a difference.  But then you don't have 50 other copies to compare to like BR does.  Just my thoughts....

What Better Records does can be done for far less $. Find clean, not abused early pressings of your favorite titles and have them Ultrasonically cleaned or buy a ultrasonic machine and do it yourself. On 95% of said titles this will result in better sound on many systems than MOFI pressings. If you are lazy, go ahead and pay for the Better Records service, your choice.

@chrisoshea 

If Better Records was merely looking for the quietest pressings they could find and cleaning them, I could partially agree with you. Over the last several years, I purchased four copies of Jethro Tull's Stand Up and finally found one quiet enough to suit me. But BR goes through the extra step of listening carefully to all of the quiet ones in the hopes of finding exceptional sound quality.

The process of starting with a tape and ending with the final LP product is fraught with numerous potential mechanical problems along the way from cutting the original acetate, making the stamper, properly heating the stampers before pressing and on and on. Sometimes one side of an LP has much better sound quality than the other so BR will pair it up with another copy on which the other side is the better sounding one.

Over the years, I bought three LP copies (two of them were sealed) and one CD copy of Fleetwood Mac's Future Games and they all sounded murky and veiled. I had resigned myself to the fact that it was just recorded that way and there was nothing to be done about it. When I saw a copy on Better Records, I figured I would take a chance and purchased it. It is a white-label promo copy that actually has an extra level of high frequency detail that is missing from my other copies. I still think the original recording is compromised, but this LP copy stood out from the rest. It sounds better.

How many copies are you prepared to buy and how much time are you willing to spend carefully comparing the sound quality? I was happy to pay the $129.99 for Better Records to do it.

I have sold about 18,000 records in the last 3 decades (I'm a listener, not collector per se).  Tom Port's hot stamper LPs generally (95% of the time) are superior to MOFI reproductions.  This is unfortunate because they do press quiet LPs.  I've acquired probably 40 MOFIs and kept 2 (most from collections at $1 to $5 each).  The Maazel Respighi LP is a great example of a totally failed remastering.  YUCK!  It was a numbered copy that I sold for $295 with a no. 40? (low) when others were advertised on Ebay for $400-500+.  I sold Tom another MOFI for $300 sealed (rock) which he resold for $500-600.  He told me it wasn't really exciting music so no loss there.  

I'm not indicating that all MOFI LPs are worse sounding than a well pressed original hot stamper LP, but it is too often the case.  Often, CD copies sound better than original pressings (especially if they aren't hot stampers).   Tom agreed on such LPs as Down to Earth by Ramsey Lewis (I have 3 original and early LPs differently pressed yet the CD is superior).  

If one can afford to, buy the Better Records LP.  

Child level statistics and some knowlege about the record mastering / pressing process ( mother …stamper…press, cycle time, day, temp…etc will tell you the deadwax is a good place to start…. Many variables are NOT discernible via deadwax….. start w deadwax and listen……

And Port and company can’t hear them all…. nor can we mere mortals…