You two guys are....GREAT!! I fill my pipe up with a good tobacco...get a "fresh" cup of coffee...and sit back and listen to you guys discussing audio. A "perfect" way to start a day. Mr. Pete------------> aging hippie
Thank you for a very entertaining and informative stream, took me a few attempts to watch it all but I didn’t want to miss any. Thank you both for taking the time to make these fascinating videos and thanks for leaving them up for later viewing.
The difference in stampers logically and probably does exist, but it's going to be very nuanced between most of the copies. There isn't going to be a muddy bad sounding record then an out of this world sounding record from the same batch. It's all going to be very very nuanced with very subtle differences
Mark H. Absolutely! 👍 Just because a technical matter IS factual, doesn't mean it's significant enough to affect + or - with the primary purpose of the objective. There are truly 95% other affect-able set-up steps, minimal best practices, tweaks, upgrades, etc. to FIRST MANAGE. Audio signal chain components like speakers, TTs & carts, electronics, room acoustics, vinyl cleaning steps.
It goes without saying, and yet it must be said, these chats between you two are some of the most enjoyable bits of vinyl content available on RU-vid. Keep on trucking. 😎
Great video, thank you gentlemen. BTW Patrick, De Agostini is the publishing house that reissues vinyl in Europe, mostly in Italy Spain (not some guy who assembles collections😀)
What is your opinion of some of the compatible quad records that were sold in the 70s they actually said quadraphonic playable on stereo I believe there was some impulse titles
Scott Hull, a recording engineer who owns Masterdisk, one of the world's premier mastering facilities, compares producing a vinyl record to making wine. "Each pressing of the grape, and each pressing of the disc, is unique," Hull says. "Hundreds of subtle things contribute to each pressing being different. Everything matters, from plating the lacquers to various molding issues to the quality of the vinyl pellets." It's tempting to dismiss hot stampers as pseudoscience, like cryogenically treated speaker cables, power amp fuses zapped with Tesla coils, and every other confidence scheme devised to separate affluent middle-aged audiophiles from the contents of their wallets. Talk to enough studio engineers and record plant technicians, though, and it becomes apparent that the aural disparity between records that Tom Port prattles on about really does exist. Industry experts agree that copies of the same album can, and often do, sound different; sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. Not just from copy to copy, and from side A to side B, but from track to track, and, yes, even within the same track. In fact, vinyl records made on the same stamper, during the same production run also can vary in sound quality. Other copies, bearing different record labels, pressed in different countries, using different equipment and personnel, will impart their own sonic flavor, which only muddles the issue further. "There's actually little reason why any two discs should sound the same," says Masterdisk's Scott Hull. "A grading system based on the different significant factors makes sense: surface noise, relative distortion during playback, and things like skips and major pops." Before this becomes a hot stamper endorsement, Hull lowers the boom: "Saying one disc is wrong and another is right is very controversial. Only the producer, the mastering, and cutting engineers really know what that record was supposed to sound like." Still, like everything else having to do with manufacturing vinyl records, there are no rules or absolutes. A desirable matrix isn't foolproof. It's only a good omen. A random hot mix of Led Zeppelin II may sound fantastic, but some of the 200,000 "RL/SS" copies that were pressed sound better than others. This is what keeps Better Records in business and earns Tom Port a comfortable six-figure income. A Led Zeppelin II white hot stamper is $1,000. If there is one question that needs to be asked at this point, it is this: Who actually buys these things? ( reed full article : Why Audiophiles Are Paying $1,000 for This Man's Vinyl at wired com ) !
Michael, I do actually have some Merzbow. None of his solo records on vinyl (although I have Pulse Demon on CD), but I have a lot of his collaboration albums with artists like Boris, Full of Hell, and Xiu Xiu. I tend to like noise when paired with a band but not as much on its own.
Actually, and of course, matter of factually, you and I and all of we do most indefinitely know that the best DTSOM listening experience occurs via the Multichannel SACD. What, what, what!? Who dares say such things, LOL! Rock on 🤘
Waiting for Godot. 🤔 Methodically structured action. Somewhere in the vinyl landscape. A search for the unknow. Long searches for the unknow can be worthwhile. The goal is the best result. If the origin or provenance is really genuine. If only it were that easy. To find out. ❤️Heike Entertaining vinyl exchange with Michael and Patrick. 🤓
Actually, and of course, matter of factually, you and I and all of we do most indefinitely know that the best DTSOM listening experience occurs via the Multichannel SACD. What, what, what!? Who dares say such things, LOL! Rock on 🤘
I have bought many of Tom Port's offerings. Mostly, they do sound really excellent. So, how does one explain that? First off, I think people get thrown off by the term "stamper." I think Mr. Port is simply arguing that in any given pressing, where a few thousand vinyl biscuits are pressed into LPs, some will be better than others. Some pancakes from the same batch are just better. I don't think he's talking about one stamper v. another, but one LP v. another. "Hot Stamper" is a catchy phrase, not a literal reference to stamper differences. And I haven't seen anyone, ever, convincingly argue that every single one of these mechanically-created LPs sounds the same. I imagine every one of them actually sounds ever so slightly different, even before going out into the world and being played for a few decades. Which brings me to the second important issue: these are all pre-owned. Some were handled carefully and used with properly mounted cartridges, and some were used with crappy 1960s 'tables, with dirty styli, and poorly mounted cartridges, physically damaging the SQ of the LP. So someone with good ears would need to evaluate every OG ever of a given title, and pick the best one. Obviously impossible. Port's entire premise is that (i) you need to buy and clean a bunch of OGs to find the good ones, and return the bad ones; (ii) he does that for you; and (iii) some people consider his prices fair because they effectively outsource this time-consuming process to him and his team. Now, if you agree with this reasonable premise, you then have to somehow trust Tom Port to grade them appropriately and fairly. I decided to try a few, buy some OGs from Discogs, and see how his Hot Stampers compare to VG+ (or better) OGs that I buy and clean on my own. And when I do that, only two things have ever happened: (1) I agree with Port and decide to keep his LP, or (2) I decide that he has simply selected a title that, on early pressings, almost always sounds pretty killer. Abandoned Luncheonette is a good example of the latter. I have a bunch of those, and they all sound "tubey" and punchy and engaging. Same view of 10cc's Deceptive Bends. I can't say his is any "better." But, the flip side of that is a Gaucho I bought from him. And I probably have 20 OGs of that LP. Port's is totally, audibly, undoubtedly better. (Caveat: I stick to White Hot Stampers; I can't comment on his lower grades and how they compare to what you can buy and clean yourself. Go big or don't go at all, I suppose.). I fall back on my belief that LPs are idiosyncratic and hard to pin down. The reality is that 20 OGs of the same title will yield some great ones, several medium ones, and some poor ones. If I ever find some golden-eared personal assistant to go find titles I want, clean them, play them on reliable and neutral (ish) gear, pick the best one, and return or resell the others, I would do so. For now, that assistant's name is Tom Port. I do not agree with his comments on Analogue Production and Tone Poet releases. I often question his other rhetoric. But pricing is simply a supply / demand dynamic. Obviously, lots of demand exists for this kind of thing, and supply is limited. He can charge what the market allows (and he does). But, as someone who listens a lot, has a few systems, owns thousands of LPs (including a large collection of the top reissues this channel adores), tinkers with carts and 'tables way too much, etc etc ... I would not call his enterprise BS, or misleading, or amoral, or any of the other adjectives I see slung at him. If you want "misleading," we all know a better recent example. Port explains (and always has) exactly what he does on his website. You don't have to buy a D'Agostino amp, and you don't have to buy a Hot Stamper. But they are both pretty cool. If they are overpriced, demand will go down and prices will follow. The market takes care of that. These guys (Michael/Patrick) seem to have a balanced perspective, but geez some of the anger I've seen on this topic strikes me as totally misplaced.
Mike you know those Zappa dudes PLEASE have them issue franks last album civilization phase 3. It’s a modern landmark to many of us. In my opinion they have rewritten the Zappa story by screwing this record over. This album is so complex on many levels but when you break through..what FZ did on this record is revolutionary I know it was a digital synclaviar record but it’s been 1993. Almost 30:years.come on…beyond ridiculous
There is no standard for play grades just like the remastering with digital in the production it’s all crap it’s like your chasing stuff that’s not relevant lol everybody seems to be making RU-vid videos debating everything about records when you could be listening to you vast album collection but hey just my optionion
You are wrong about the original Townes van Zandt lps on poppy. I own every one of them and they are all dead quiet and dynamic! You should keep searching as my originals smoked the reissues I heard when compared
Michael... so much talk about Hot Stampers for years. Now you're the A/B man... why don't you just buy one from Tom Port and do a shootout with one of your own OGs. Less talk, more acton please.
