Episode
Ep546: One-Step Audiophile Vinyl w Tom Grover Biery
- Published
- Apr 21, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 4715
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Summary
From funding the first Record Store Day to producing limited one-step pressings of Pet Sounds , Prince , and Dr. Dre , Tom "Grover" Biery is one of the most influential figures in modern vinyl culture - Hear all about his next adventures with the vinyl artform. Topics Include: Tom "Grover" Biery spent 20 years at Warner Bros. Records He pushed vinyl internally around 2004 when nobody believed in it His boss Tom Wally gave him the green light to proceed First pressings were Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman catalog titles Warner's vinyl billing exploded from $300K to $5M in 18 months Failure's Fantastic Planet was among the earliest titles he championed Neil Young gave an impassioned in-office speech about the importance of sound That speech directly inspired the "Because Sound Matters" brand name BSM is Warner's audiophile imprint; DSS covers Interscope and Capitol Tom now operates as a consultant to both major label groups His own label, Slow Down Sounds, has been running nearly a decade One-step pressings go lacquer to stamper, skipping generational quality loss Each stamper yields only 500–750 pressings, requiring multiple lacquer cuts Neotech's D2 vinyl compound produces exceptionally quiet, revealing pressings Mastering costs alone run nine times higher on one-step projects Sources are vetted exhaustively — flat masters, tape, or high-res files Artists and managers approve every test pressing throughout the process A newly discovered 1972 Pet Sounds master changed everything for the reissue Chris Bellman confirmed the tape matched a 1972 white label perfectly Only 6,000 copies of the Pet Sounds DSS one-step will ever exist Tom has been transparent about sourcing since 2005, long before the MoFi controversy Quality now ranks second or third in why fans buy vinyl Beck's…