Records are graded on a curve.
In our shootouts we must compare apples to other apples; there is no other practical way to do it. We find the best sounding pressings we can out of the pile of audition copies we have available to us. We're confident that the record we call a Hot Stamper will beat any pressing you have ever heard, or that you currently own, and if it doesn't you get your money back.
We also guarantee that no half-speed mastered record or heavy vinyl LP sounds as good as any of the Hot Stampers we offer. We've played too many of these so-called audiophile pressings to worry about them being competitive with the records on our site.
It is our strongly held conviction that the better your system gets the worse, or at the very least the more artificial those records will sound. This link will take you to hundreds of audiophile record reviews where we examine their many shortcomings.
Further Reading
...along these lines can be found below.
The most important advice on the site can be found under the heading
The Four Pillars of Success.
Here are some commentaries on a subject near and dear to all of us, namely Record Collecting.
Our Thinking About Hot Stampers links may help you gain a better understanding of the issues surrounding these very special pressings.
Record shootouts are the fastest and easiest way to hone your listening skills, a subject we discuss often on the site and directly address in this commentary from way back in 2005.
