Awesome Audiophile Snake Oil

I checked in, it’s a Sherwood S-5000 from 1959

Cool amp!

I've never heard of them, but apparently they are pretty well-regarded and popular renovation projects.

If the capacitors have never been replaced, I would anticipate it's gonna sound better or at least prevent any issues from developing. Old capacitors can go bad and leak, causing damage to other electrical parts.

I had to replace them in my 30 yo Audio Research tube pre-amp because it developed a pretty noticeable buzz.

HOT STAMPERS!

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/extreme_record_collecting_part_ii_theres_only_one_way_to_find_better_record

that shit is such bullshit that i am legitimately angry that it's a thing.

Tom Port has always been full of shit. Long before he shilled this bullshit, his opinions on what was a good sounding record were dubious, and this wasn't with anything particular expensive or anything. (One that comes to mind is how a standard pressing of Nirvana's Nevermind was so bright that it was an ear-bleeder. NOBODY heard what he was hearing, and he refused to answer whether the issue was his playback.)

i think i'm extra salty because "hot stamper" is so much fun to say and he's fucking ruined it for me, the absolute bastard.

Of course what they are pushing is hype and brand but it's not wrong to say some records sound notably better than others, and among other things how many generations down the master tape used is and the condition of the stampers are not insignificant.

I'm not a vinyl snob at all but sometimes a good record will hit me. I just got an Italian reissue of "Heroes" (I'm not a Bowie nut either) that really leapt out. Looked up the engineer at RCA Italia and seems he's lately got a bit of a rep among the Hoffman crew. What can I say, my ears told me what was up before any confimation bias could kick in.

that's just a strong argument to buy CDs instead

Or a Pono!

bands should just release new material as a blu-ray of unmixed tracks and let fans mix and sequence the albums

xxp

I don't see how that follows. It's mainly an acknowledgment that mastering makes a difference and can even be revelatory. That applies to any format, and CDs at least as much as records, albeit in different ways.

hot stampers are supposed to be magical due to some intangible qualities derived from variations in the physical stamping process and some proprietary cleaning method... neither of which are relevant when you're buying a CD. you figure out which CD release has the best mastering, you buy it, and if you rip it securely and the checksums verify on the SecureRip database, you can stop right there and know you've got the best possible recording of an album.

I know that this has been said to death already by many people over the years but I just cannot understand paying thousands of dollars in your multi year search for the best sounding version of Teaser and the Firecat, rather than, spending that money to buy other records.

Yeah, they're talking about finding and flipping these peerless gems, and it's almost always these huge selling cheapie bin perennials. Note in the interview that this started with finding the perfect copy of the Blood, Sweat & Tears S/T!

That's another reason why I stuck with CD's and SACD's. Even brand-new SACD's from Mobile Fidelity typically cost me no more than $30 a pop after taxes and shipping, and I buy maybe five a year, depending on what they release. That's by far the most I would pay for a new album - otherwise, I rarely pay more than $10 for a disc.

guy smokes weed before listening to a record and then enjoys it

You haven't truly bought vinyl until you drop five Benjamin's on a Hot Stamper of No Fun Aloud.

It sounds to me like a square dance band, like "Gregory Fibula and his Red Hot Stampers are playing American Legion hall #287 this Friday at 7PM".

it's pretty classic in terms of audiophilia - taking something that has core of truth - some record pressings sound better than others - and turning it into this demented, expensive and obsessive con job

Here comes the hot stamper

ums otm

any even halfway serious record collector knows that some pressings are good and some are bad, and that there's variation between the various batches off of the stampers based on how early in the process they were stamped, which can SOMETIMES but not always indicate a better sounding press.

as far as CD versions of things that were originally on LP, that gets into remastering territory and I'd say that at least 60% of the CDs that I own from this era are at least a little bit inferior to the proper vinyl versions, making a good-sounding CD is jus gas hard as making a good-sounding LP

imo starting in the 90's, this calculation flipped because vinyl pressings became increasingly crap (ofc some older things like Sun Ra Saturn presses and ESP Discs were always crap as well) and these days I've really gotta get a google/discogs quality check before I shell out for vinyl on most serious purchases. whereas the Bandcamp downloads all sounds awesome.

I mean, I specifically seek out older German and UK pressings of Creedence Clearwater Revival LPs for this very reason

same with those Beatles LPs, cannot beat the 70's UK Parlophone reissues for overall sound imho, 60's purists can suck it

Here comes the hot stamper

thread took shockingly long to get here. thank you, milo.

*just as hard as

guy smokes weed before listening to a record and then enjoys it

I will always think of Hot Doug Stamper, thanks to whoever had that as their display name a few years ago.

some pressings are good and some are bad, and that there's variation between the various batches off of the stampers based on how early in the process they were stamped, which can SOMETIMES but not always indicate a better sounding press.

as far as CD versions of things that were originally on LP, that gets into remastering territory and I'd say that at least 60% of the CDs that I own from this era are at least a little bit inferior to the proper vinyl versions

Manufacturing factors aside, records issued in different regions and at different times are already in "remastering territory" as they are typically (certainly were in the heyday of multinational labels) cut* locally by a different engineer from different tapes than the "original". Which of course is not to say there's a simple 1st pressings are always best correlation (cf my 80s Italian copy of "Heroes"), but there is a likelihood a home country 1st edition will have been cut from low generation master tapes.

* (the original meaning of mastering being to cut the lacquer master)

thread took shockingly long to get here. thank you, milo.

― andrew m., Friday, August 27, 2021

Shady scams and other silly business ideas to take advantage of earnest new vinyl collectors

Hot scampers.

*spends 500 dollars on an Elvis Presley record or whatever lame shit*

*plays record a single time*

oops the friction of my stylus against the vinyl during a single spin has ruined the record's fidelity, it's burnt to shit now, too bad i couldn't rip it to a digital format because digital is Bad.

*buys another $500 copy* i guess this is my life now

that's one of the dumbest things of the whole vinyl thing, this idea that every time you play a record the needle is doing so much damage and you have to protect these fragile things, esp if you have a good record player and cartridge it's nothing to worry about, i have jazz records from the 40s and 50s that still sound great, tons of scratched records i cleaned up and still have a pretty minimal amount of surface noise

like just play them, people that hold these things for some theoretical future sale value is just depressing to me

nooo u can't play them they will be ruined noooooooooooo

vinyl is a store of investment value like bitcoin, NEVER play your records

That "collector" mentality seems to plague ever hobby. Like you shouldn't enjoy what you buy, ideally it should remain vacuum-sealed and untouched by human hand - putting it to the very use it was designed for will only devalue it.

Cleaning vinyl's fine, but honestly that's another reason I stuck with optical discs. Just pop it in and play. No maintenance and nothing to worry about as long as you handle it by the edges, though I suppose that can look kind of funny to some.

at least you don't send records off to a professional grading service and have them slab them in plastic like comic books and trading card.

s

the record store i go to will throw them on the VPI machine for a buck a pop, so if it's something worth it i'll do that occasionally

pretty much all the new vinyl i've ever bought is basically like new though, it's remarkably easy to take care of records! they are actually a remarkably durable medium. there are 78s from forever ago that are still playable, i don't think my CDs will last that long

XP i keep my vinyl in a vacuum chamber at absolute zero, thank you very much

XPS sort of surprised vinyl grading services haven't become a thing yet.

I think you mostly see consignment/auction services, like Carolina Soul

jokes aside i agree with UMS that vinyl is a more durable medium

i like all the media anyway, each of them is special in their own unique ways

like just play them, people that hold these things for some theoretical future sale value is just depressing to me

i stopped buying records at estate sales for just that reason - it started to be really depressing to be in the homes of dead people had what were clearly painstakingly cared-for & all-consuming collections, carefully polybagged & untouched copies of 30 different import pressings of some Elvis EP, and people rooting through it all (myself included) who just did not give a fuuuck. spend your whole life accumulating the perfect shelf of crispy-clean sealed Synchronicity pressings and before your bodys cold some guy who doesnt know a hot stamper from a shakti stone is buying em for 4 bucks each

that carolina soul guy gets amazing results with his auctions. i once saw that other guy shopping in a local record store. what's his name, you know, the guy who says "GOOD LUCK FINDING ANOTHER SEALED COPY OF THIS RECORD!" when he left the store the proprietor said "yep, that's the guy everyone wants to be."

the VPI machine

pretty much all the new vinyl i've ever bought is basically like new though, it's remarkably easy to take care of records! they are actually a remarkably durable medium. there are 78s from forever ago that are still playable, i don't think my CDs will last that long

I know it! Most CD's I have of vintage music pre-dating analogue tape is mastered from surviving 78's. Unfortunately those original 78's are pretty expensive so buying them isn't practical. I don't mind, it's kind of nice having all of Louis Armstrong's Hot 5's & 7's in a nice cubish set of four CD's rather than shelves and shelves of 78's. I don't know how people can stand changing or flipping a record after every 3-minute song unless they grew up with that.

i stopped buying records at estate sales for just that reason

A slight tangent, but I've noticed in recent years that most "still sealed" out-of-print items I've found on eBay came from estate sales. I'm sure some of them were collectors, which makes your point especially sad because whoever inherited them was basically trying to clear them out, but most of them were apparently from former label execs or owners. I'm not sure if it was just unsold product or (in the case of major label releases) they just got a copy on something they worked on.

oh i have no interest in collecting 78s...i made a vow to stop buying 45s for that reason as well, i never listen to them

just saying that there's a lot more reason to believe that digital media is more "fragile" in a lot of senses (especially streaming and digital formats like mp3s etc in the sense of companies going under, formats changing, etc) in the future than records (or magnetic tape)'

but CDs are cool. however since i subscribed to Qobuz and got a setup with an outboard DAC and Chromecast audio, it just feels like putting a CD in is an unnecessary step when i could stream hi-rez, records at least do sound pretty different than digital

yeah I collect everything format-wise except 8-tracks and reels basically. pluses and minuses all around as noted. went to a cool estate sale recently that was like 5,000 45s, all meticulously cataloged on dot matrix printed sheets in front of every bin.

it's kind of nice having all of Louis Armstrong's Hot 5's & 7's in a nice cubish set of four CD's

there was a great "digital remaster" series of these as LPs in maybe the 80s, that's how I have that stuff. so good.