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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Showing 6 responses by tomcy6

According to the RIAA, LP sales made up about 4% of music revenues for the first half of 2020. The remaining 96% is digital including CDs, SACDs, downloads and streaming. Mostly streaming.

It is true that LP sold more in dollar amount in the first half of 2020 than CD, but in units sold CD still outsold LP 10.2 million units to 8.8 million units. LP unit sales will probably surpass CD soon though.

Mid-Year-2020-RIAA-Revenue-Statistics.pdf

They haven’t released full year 2020 figures probably due to some aspect of the Covid disaster.
Before we get too far off topic, I just wanted to point out that the US helped make the Red Army mobile with Studebaker "deuce and a half" trucks. Without them much more of the Red Army would have had to walk wherever they went as well.

How the U.S. Studebaker became the Soviet ’victory truck’ (PHOTOS) - Russia Beyond (rbth.com)
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!
It may be that the German pressing is also a Hot Stamper and that the two records glupson ruled out immediately are what everyone else is listening to.

glupson, would you go out and pick up another 20 copies to test that theorem?
I think if it’s being sold as a Hot Stamper A+++ then it should deliver what Better Records is advertising, and it may do that for people who are regular buyers of Hot Stampers. For those who don’t think it does, it can be returned for a refund. If you loaned it to mc, he would probably report that it kept him glued to his seat and that it sounded so good he played it four times over.

I agree with your point that most of the Stones’ recordings are not known for their audiophile quality sound. So again it’s a matter of personal taste.

On another forum, some people dream of a crisp, clear sounding Exile On Main Street while others say that would ruin the record, that the low-fi sound is the artists’ intent.

I think we just need to allow everyone their personal preference and not try to impose ours on others. Stating our preference is fine. We can’t debate much without doing that, but showing a little respect for other opinions doesn’t hurt.
I haven't posted about those two albums in this thread, but I do have Some Girls on CD.