Fidelity Record Pressing Opens Its Doors to Tracking Angle

a video tour you are sure to enjoy

Fidelity Record Pressing, a partnership between Music Direct's Jim Davis and pressing plant veteran Rick Hashimoto and his son Edward, opened its brand new Oxnard, CA pressing plant to invited guests Friday, May 17th. I'd returned from Munich High End on the 15th after being away since the 7th of May so the idea of getting back on a plane the next day and flying cross country to attend on the 17th was out of the question. So I did something even more insane.

On the afternoon of Thursday, June 27th I flew to Los Angeles and drove up to Thousand Oaks, arriving at my hotel room just in time for dinner with Rick H. and Jim D. The next morning I met them at the pressing plant and got the guided tour I'd wanted back in May but couldn't get. Then I sat down for a few minutes with Jim to get his take on the new factory.

It was early afternoon and I'd finished at Fidelity so I got in the car, drove the nine miles to Record Technology in Camarillo, the plant Rick Hashimoto had run for decades before striking out on his own, where I met plating guru Dorin Saurbier who plates lacquers for many pressing plants including Fidelity Record Pressing.

Dorin gave me the plating facility tour and I also had a look at the pressing plant. That video is coming up shortly. Plating is the "secret sauce" in all of this and you're sure to enjoy the master class Dorin gave me.

After finishing up at RTI I drove back to LAX and caught the 9:30PM flight back to New Jersey, arriving 5:30 A.M. I had spent a bit more than 24 hours in Los Angeles but it was well worth it! Here's the Fidelity Record Pressing factor tour.