When I was in college my good friend Ian and I started getting into higher end audio gear. Ian is a guy who when he gets into something he tends to go big. And even though we were poor college kids with jobs slinging coffe or busing tables Ian insisted we were done with japanese receivers and budget bookshelf speakers. When either of us could cobble together enough money we’d invest in a new pre-amp, better interconnects or a speaker upgrade. It quickly became the sort of interest that doesn’t pair well with an addictive personality.
My first real turntable was a used J.A. Michele Transcriptor. Despite it’s engineering flaws it was an extremely cool turntable. The records would sit on polished brass cylinders with conical ends that sat on a stainless steel platter that floated above a piano finish black lacquer surface. The tonearm had this anti-skate mechanism that consisted of a tiny weight hanging from a string over a pulley. The whole thing looked simultaneously futuristic and antiquated and whenever a new person entered the room they would immediately gravitate to the Transcriptor and want to know about it. It was a lot of fun own.
When Ian got his VPI HW-19 Jr. though, I soon realized it was time to move on from my Transcriptor. The VPI brought so much more bass out of the music that it was hard to go on living with the limitations of the J.A. Michele. I sold it to a friend and bought a VPI Jr. for myself and I owned that turntable, happily, for more than 25 years.
For those 25 years I didn’t do much with my system, but it was always fun when I needed a new cartridge. I’d get a thrill every time I brought the turntable home from the shop after installation and I would listen to the difference the new cartridge made to the music. Even if it wasn’t a huge upgrade, just the change from the old cartridge to the new would reveal something new in the music and I’d get excited again about listening to records all over again.
Listening to recorded music, critically, is all about differences both large and small. It’s a blast to make a huge upgrade to a system and hear stunning differences in the music, but it’s also really fun to make small upgrades and enjoy sometimes bigger than expected improvements in sound quality. What I’ve quite recently come to recognize is how huge a difference the records themselves can make.
Historically, whenever I’ve played a record that didn’t sound good or just didn’t sound right to me I would always assume the problem was my system. I can’t help but wonder if bad sounding records weren’t the impetus for more than one new cartridge for the turntable or re-tube for my amplifier. It’s liberating to see so clearly now how great sounding records make my system sound great and bad sounding records make it sound bad. It’s really as simple as that.
And yet, it’s really not that simple. In fact, it’s surprisingly hard to find good sounding records and a cinch to find bad sounding ones. An example that leaps to mind is a copy of Steely Dan’s Aja that I acquired last year. If you’ve ever heard this record you know why this album has a reputation for being a great recording. The sound is eye popping. The drums, bass and percussion just jump out at you from the speakers. The guitar, horns and vocals are startlingly well recorded. But as I listened to my first copy of this classic I felt a bit puzzled. Somehow the listening experienced didn’t add up to the sum of it’s parts.
When I hear what is clearly a great recording of great music I want it to move me. This record didn’t. So I started researching versions of the album to see which ones other collectors were enthusiastic about. I read one well written post on SH Forums by a forum member that strongly recommended the Cisco reissue and I set out to find a copy.
Now there are a lot of copies of Aja in the marketplace. And it’s no wonder as this record landed in stores on the heals of it’s own television ad compaign.
Copies of Aja, even NM ones, are generally not that expensive. But copies of the Cisco reissue of Aja are ridiculous! I did find a copy on EBay with very little in the way of a detailed description for $60, about half what other sellers were asking, and I made an inquiry to see if I could find out more about its condition. While I was at it I took a look at the seller’s other items which included some household cleaning products and several pairs of used sneakers. I was dubious. When he responded to my question about the condition of the record with “it’s all good dude” I decided it wasn’t worth the risk.
Finally this past December I was doing some research on the Better Records website and found a scathing review of the Cisco reissue (which is not unusual as nearly all of their reviews are scathing) and I was relieved I hadn’t spent a $100+ on a Cisco. Better Records has a great yearly sale leading up to the Christmas holiday and regularly has their discerningly vetted copies of many classic rock albums, including Aja, on sale. I bought a “Hot Stamper” for $60 figuring this was what I was prepared to spend for a copy of the Cisco.
The Better Records copy is, in fact, a better sounding record. At least it sounds a lot better than the copy I had. Why is it better? It plays with a clarity that helps organize the various musical elements in a way that allows the music to really shine. Most importantly it’s a record that, when I listen to it, makes me want to keep listening. In my mind that’s the truest test of what makes for a better sounding record.
I’ve bought many records for far less than $60 that I really enjoy so I’m not saying that better sounding records are necessarily more expensive records. In fact I find it more rewarding when I discover cheap but great sounding copy of a record in a shop or out of my current collection than I do when using the short cut Better Records provides.
But I’ve spent a lot of time, energy and money on my system and when I know it has the potential to reproduce a certain piece of music beautifully then I’m not going to settle for a version of that music that leaves me cold. In these instances a hot stamper can be the just right antidote.