The quest for the hot stamper or is it a myth

Okay so here's the deal on the Hot Stamper. Its a made up marketing phrase that Better Records uses to grade their premium grade vinyl. Hot Stamper is the lowest, then Super hot, and White Hot Stamper is their highest, supposedly the next best thing to the master tape. The Fleetwood Mac I'm reviewing is a White Hot Stamper.

One of the core tenets of this whole thing is the belief that no two records are the same. No two sides either, for that matter. As unlikely as this seems it's certainly been demonstrated to me very clearly. Over the last week or so I have compared copies of some dupes and even when everything looked like it should be the same it wasn't. Plus wait till I tell you what I heard on Fleetwood Mac!

But first, the unpacking. The record comes in a bubble-wrap lined box and securely sandwiched between two sheets of cardboard. The LP in its own excellent sleeve is outside the cover, the cover and the sleeve both within a thick mil clear plastic sleeve. Unlike most outer sleeves this is the kind of thing you might actually want to keep and use. 

Inside this was the most time-capsule preserved album cover you ever saw. Seriously. The original owner, whoever it was, had carefully cut along the edge leaving the original shrink wrap in place. Definitely the original shrink wrap. It had the look and the feel. Just one tiny little tear on a corner. Unbelievable. The artwork, everything about it, couldn't have looked any better back in the summer of 75. Wouldn't surprise me if some would consider it worth the money just for the cover.

The LP itself wasn't nearly as impressive to look at. Came out of the sleeve clean as a whistle but showing a patina of spidery hairlines. But I bought it to play not look at.

My system's been tweaked and tuned a lot the last few months, but not the last week or so as I've just been listening and enjoying and getting used to the fruits of all that tweaking and tuning. The Herron has been on since I got it about two months ago, I turned the amp on a good hour before, demagnetized, and then played a side of The Ghost of Tom Joad to make sure the Koetsu was nice and ready.

Should probably mention a list of recommended listening tips including warm-up, demagnetizing, and more came with the LP.

The first track, Monday Morning, never has sounded that great to me and didn't here either. Definitely better than the vintage copy I have, for sure, but nothing to write home about. Warm Ways always sounded a lot better on my copy and does here as well. There's a lot more "there" there, especially in terms of detail and vocal presence. Its just a lot more believable presentation.

I want to take a minute and explain what I mean by that. I hadn't bothered to demagnetize my system in quite a while. Oh, I played the XLO demagnetizing tracks recently. Definitely makes a difference. But I also have the Radio Shack Bulk Tape Eraser, a powerful handheld unit that can be used to demagnetize everything from speaker cables and interconnects to tubes, records, and CDs. When I used that for the first time in like forever the improvement was .... a lot. 

In other words, Side One of the White Hot Stamper was better than my old vintage copy by about the same amount as I can get by demagnetizing everything. A really nice improvement. Definitely noticeable. Not great. A lot.

Side Two, according to Better Records, is supposed to be a little better.

No, don't think so. Not even close. Side Two to my ears is a LOT better. Hugely better. Like two completely different LPs better. Better dynamics, better bass, midrange, better detail. Not all the way across, but not by some small amount you could match with a few tweaks either. Or any tweaks! Side Two is just a whole different animal.

The first track, again, not quite so much. But Landslide, oh my God! I was darn near agape at the sound of that guitar, the vocals, everything. Only thing I have even comes close to this is the MoFi 45 of Brothers in Arms. Even then its apples to oranges, Knopfler not as palpably "there". Probably shouldn't even mention it, except I'm scrambling for something, anything people might be familiar with to use as a reference. When the truth is, honestly, its hard to believe any record could ever sound this good. All I can think is, every over the top glowing review you can find on Better Records, this must be what they're talking about.

The next track, World Turning, is just as good. Rythmic bass drive like I never heard. Right up there with Landslide. The rest of the side, hard to say. Overshadowed comes to mind. Or as Tom Port puts it, Landslide is a masterpiece and "a real high point for side two." For sure.

So there's one White Hot Stamper experience for people to consider. Just below White Hot is Super Hot, and then Hot. Keep that in mind. The copy I had was purchased used based on appearance not sound, yet one side of my White Hot Stamper wasn't really a whole lot better. The other side though, two tracks anyway, darn near priceless. It seems clear there is a lot of variability even after going through their selection process. This combined with the fact some people may by sheer random chance have  managed to score a really good pressing is enough to account for dorkwads experience, as he describes above.
 

Was the deadwax scraped or somehow obliterated on that copy you got from TP?

millercarbon-

what is the catalog number on the jacket?
deadwax info?

I have always liked that album, but mine isn't stamper worthy.

Yeah. Like all you have to do is find a copy from the same pressing run. Like its that easy. That was my hope too. Eagerly writing down every detail, trying to take a picture (etched in glossy black, next to impossible), convinced this was all I needed.

Then I pulled out my very average sounding copy. Every little detail. Exact same. In fact I am dead certain if I handed any one of you both copies you would all pick the crap one. Because they look the same, except one is all scratched up, and you would never guess the one with all the scratches sounds the best and by a margin that varies from large to impossible to believe until you hear it.

Good luck with the wax guys. Total waste of time but good luck. Anyone really determined to waste their time and money chasing the wax theory even after its been debunked by my exact same pressing reality, here's how easy it is to start throwing your money away. Simply go here https://www.discogs.com/Fleetwood-Mac-Fleetwood-Mac/release/12774916
With that you can throw money at even more identical looking but worse sounding pressings! There's probably even more. Discogs has them all nice and organized but you are kind of at the mercy of sellers bothering to look at such details. Still, there's no shortage of people willing to take your $30 or whatever. The link above is just one of many. Don't forget you want the POGO heart thing, which looks incredibly Dan Brown-y, you just know its gonna lead you to audio fortune, maybe even a monstrously global conspiracy. Or KENDUN which is stamped not scribed, got to be Davinci Code for sure. But no, there's a million of em. 

I knew the wax thing was a non-starter from the start. All you have to do is know enough about how these things are made to know its a non-starter. The marks in the wax only tell enough to know who did what with which equipment. If that's all that matters then my old copy would sound as good as this White Hot Stamper. After all they are the same according to the wax! 

But in reality? In reality you have vinyl plugs. Nothing in the wax about the plugs. Which can come from any of who knows how many suppliers, and even if you track that down no guarantee all the pressings from a given stamper were from that supplier. Or that the supplier didn't change something. But let's say you track that down and its all the same. Then the plugs have to be warmed to a temperature range in order to flow properly. What's the ideal temp? Does anyone even know? Not until you in your best Tom Hanks chasing the grail impersonation track it down and decipher it. So you do that. Then it probably had to come off the first few pressings when the faintest squiggles in the stamper were still nice and fresh. Probably. Unless that's when its not so good because there's also the mold release that has to be sprayed on, and who knows maybe it takes a while for the process of stamp/clean/spray/stamp to reach a sort of equilibrium of chemicals that magically results in the perfect pressing. When the vinyl is just right. And the temp. Oh, and the pressing rate. How its handled when it comes off the press. Warehouse temp and humidity.

Good luck with all that. 
 http://danbrown.com/the-da-vinci-code-young-adult-edition/

@millercarbon- I'm well aware of copy to copy variations. I simply asked whether the deadwax on the copy you got from Port was obscured. FWIW, there is no spray on mold release. Glad you are enjoying your copy.