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
inna6, >>>

Right you are. I was listening to an early stereo LP of Vic Damon on an original Columbia six-eye tonight. The man was right in front of me.

Frank
bdp24-
It is arguable that every audiophile-quality LP is a White Hot Stamper .....

Not even mentioned....

Is that you never bought or heard one, and so are as a matter of fact blathering pure ad copy and amply embellished imaginings. Am I right? Tell me I'm not right. Or if I am wrong then which ones did you buy? The answer is none, right? Right?

I am gonna say none. I am gonna say so certain it is none not gonna wait. Will take my lumps if proven wrong. Which I won't be.

Do you honestly think you said one thing we don't already know? For damn sure I have heard it all before. That is the whole point of the thread. To let people know and make them aware the ad copy is just that: ad copy! 

The stories are nice- but they are just that: stories! Not saying the stories are lies. Not saying they didn't take every care, do their best to get it right. Bought a lot of those records myself. I'm sure they did do everything they say they did. That is not the question.

Here's the rub: we are not talking about who did what. We are talking about how it sounds! For all your wordy words of regurgitated ad copy the sad fact is you have no way of knowing until you listen! If you have not listened then you just don't know. Too late now to edit your post. So what you should do, copy it, remove it, and paste into a new post this time with: "Of course I have never heard one and so have no idea what I am talking about BUT.." and then continue on with your uninformed opinion piece.

Could you do that for me please?

Thank you.
Pristine "White Hot" copies are rare birds. I've heard from a reliable source that Tom goes through as many as forty to fifty copies sometimes in order to find one that is suitable to be sold on his site.

 I personally have over 5000 vinyl records. How many super White Hot Stamper copies do I have? A few ... that's it. Oh, I have many great-sounding records, but only a few that I could call A+++ stampers as Tom Port sells.  

Frank
"...so are as a matter of fact blathering pure ad copy and amply embellished imaginings."

Isn’t that what the premise of this thread, its original post, is all about?

"That is the whole point of the thread."

I have a feeling that those discussing, rather than religiously promoting, circumstances around Better Records records are trying...

"To let people know and make them aware the ad copy is just that: ad copy!"

 "Of course I have never heard one and so have no idea what I am talking about BUT.." and then continue on with your uninformed opinion piece.


Wrong thread. That must have been meant for the OP of Tekton Moab thread.



Excellent post glupson. Spot on.
Tom looks at 40 records to find a White Hot stamper.  According to the source of all knowledge, Wikipedia, The Year of the Cat went platinum in the U. S. in 1977 ie one million sold.  This suggests there are at least 25000 white hot stampers lurking around the U.S alone.  I’m sure I have one. My copy sounds fantastic.