March 5, 2015March 5, 2015 by Michael

Hot Stampers, Music Lovers again, Krell Factory Tour – Audiophiledom March, 5, 2015

There is a recent article on Wired about why audiophiles pay up to $1000 for ‘hot stampers’ vinyl.

Decent article. Essentially, the value proposition is that they weed through a ton of used vinyl to find those special pressing in special condition for you. So you are really paying to save time and effort and frustration [if it takes you 100 purchases of $10 LPs to get one really awesome LP, well that is 1000 dollars and a ton of time]. Of course, if you have some time and enjoy flipping through LPs and the thrill of the hunt, well then, this may not be for you.

These guys could really use a much better system to evaluate LPs with… though that is a really revealing tweeter.

The comments reveal the usual Belief-based versus Fact-based world views, rife on the internet and in the media these days

Besides the value proposition explained above, besides the ‘market’ saying that hot stampers and audiophile gear in general is worth a great deal to a great number of people, these people BELIEVE that CDs must sound better than LPs, the audiophile’s do not understand a lot more of what they are hearing than they do, that cables make no difference, etc. The thing about BELIEVERS is there is no supporting factual base for their positions, and that it makes them feel very uncomfortable to hear factual data in opposition to their beliefs. Their real thrill comes from vitriolic willfully ignorant compatriots who support their beliefs.

So, Mr. Fremer, I think your efforts are wasted on the people commenting on that article.

If I was to comment, I might go for the sarcastic mocking approach, like “Yeah, audiophiles will spend megabucks on just about anything!!! It is so EZ to sell these guys stuff that we are starting a business to do just that. You guys are just the ones who should invest – you are the ones who have figured all this out and know how big this will be, this is like shooting ducks on a pond, right? $1000 dollar CDs!!! We’ll make billions. We’re starting a Kickstarter campaign tomorrow…”

Yep. Something nice for the Believers – just winging it here…

Music Lovers (SF) gets ripped off again, twice in the last 30 days, along with several other high-end audio establishments in the area.

If you think our marketplaces are keeping an eye out for this stuff, you would be wrong:

“We have the serial numbers. If Audiogon ever advertises our stolen goods again, as they did with a Nagra preamp, and then fails to cooperate with us so we can tell the Police Department, I’m going to sue them.”

So it is up to us to keep alert. I haven’t seen a list of stolen gear which would be helpful…