Hi
I apologize in advance for my long-winded post, but I am passionate about vinyl.
I have been collecting and playing vinyl for 40 years. I am also an entry-level audiophile with greater aspirations than my current budget, but I have had some very good sounding systems.
To put my vinyl experience in context I will offer this: I have run an online vinyl site buying and selling quality vinyl records for 22 years. I always carefully clean and play-grade my vinyl before selling. I also make note of things that are important to collectors and audiophiles like the deadwax, or matrix, information and jacket notes. Better Records is a frequent customer of mine, although I do not know if any of my records end up as “White Hot Stampers”. I can say the following with confidence. First, although I have not bought any records from BR, from what I have read, most customers are very satisfied. Tom does a good job of comparing copies and looking for copies with the best sonics- and they do exist, but they are not all that elusive. I don’t think it’s that difficult to find copies with outstanding sonics.
But my caveat is that if you are hunting for quality sonics, the matrix is only the start. I support this by saying that I play and list, maybe, 50-100 records a week. I also love hunting for records. While the information in the matrix is important, it is not always the best indicator of good sonics. Of course, the condition is key. But there are potential condition problems that cannot be seen by just inspecting and visually grading a record alone, I believe that the error with ebay is that most sellers will not take the time to play a record while they are listing it. The lack of a sonic evaluation and the subjectivity of grading standards is what has led to a lot of bad juju with eBay.
Play-grading thousands of records has sensitized me to groove wear. In spite of what some sellers claim, you cannot see groove wear, unless you have at least a 1000x scope. Yes, you can see things like “Cue Burn”. But groove wear can be caused by several factors and it cannot be found unless you play a record with a good system, have good listening skills and play your records with a stylus that gets down to where groove wear exists or does not. I have had many records that looked great but sounded horrible because the groove topography was just worn out.
Another factor that contributes to good sonics is the pressing order. I am not talking about pressing release or first pressing as many sellers describe it. I am talking about whether the record was pressed when the stamper was fresh, or near the end of its useful life. There is no way to know this, and only playing a record, and having some listening experience with multiple copies of the same, can you have some base of comparison. That said, I put a lot of importance on “promo” copies. Not the gold-stamped one’s from the 80’s and 90’s, but the real white label, radio station, promo copies. These are usually sonic treasures because they were almost assuredly pressed early when the stampers are fresh.
With the above in mind, I will offer that first pressings and ED1 (original releases), in spite of what most sellers want you to believe, and causal collectors believe to be true, they are not always the best sounding pressings. Neither are thicker records (160 grams and above). Some of the ultra-skinny RCA Dynaflex records do sound great. Some records with later stamper designations, and (re) cut releases also sound better than earlier audio masters and stampings.
With the above in mind, there are some rules of thumb I work with when hunting for records with better sonics:
I look for the recording engineer, mastering engineer and/or audio mastering studio in the deadwax. You can find lots of discussion in the Steve Hoffman Music Forums on this. Certainly, jazz fans will recognize gems that have Rudy Van Gelder (“RVG”) in the deadwax. Records that have Robert “Bob” Ludwig “R.L.” scribed in the deadwax are good indicators of sonic quality. Rock records mastered by George Peckham (“Pecko”), George Piros (“GP”) and Allen Zentz are also good indicators. Records with the Mastering Studio such as; “STERLING” and “MASTERDISK” scribed in the deadwax are also good indicators. Pressing plants also show up in the deadwax. If you know how to decode that information. There is a belief that certain plants made better copies. I cannot prove, or disprove this….yet.
I have also found that records indicating a direct metal mastering (“DMM”), direct to disc (D2D), half-speed, and some 45 rpm EP releases to have superior sonics compared to regular pressings.
Running noise is a big problem for me, especially the older RCA records. I have listened to hundreds of otherwise clean (NM), but noisy, early stereo, and early Living Stereo copies. I have also opened and listened to many RCA sealed records from the late 1950’s through the mid 1960’s. I am convinced, after opening and playing these sealed records, that the plasticizer that RCA used in their vinyl compound did not age well and became brittle over time contributing to a heightened noise floor. I compare these early RCA pressings to the same age DGG, and some later DG classical record pressings and the DGG/DG records usually play black quiet.I am very hesitant to buy the high-priced, early, Living Stereo copies.
Finally, obsession counts. Most audiophiles know this. Carefully clean your records (another rabbit hole). Keep your cartridge and tonearm tweaked. Keep your stylus immaculately clean (after every record) to get the best sound that survives in the grooves.
