[madwolfa]

There's definitely some magic in it...

 

[bagwell359]

Did you have to twist the cartridge for best alignment? ... this question show me that you know what you're talking

Indeed, you need to twist the cartridge a little, facing to the inner side of the record.
Also the new MM cartridges are really spectacular, like the Ortofon Black with a shibata stylus or the audio technica 540 with a microline cut.
In MC, i used the venerable denon family ... but considering the convenience of just changing the stylus and the minor quality gap with a good MM, i'm a MM guy.

I like direct drive, in a medium turntable the direct drive approach usually have better timing and speed consistency and the Technics are practically 0 maintenance (2 drops of oil every 2000 hours). The new models like the 1200GR are simply spectacular and the 1200G it's directly hi-end with magnesium arm. Also the new VPI now it's direct drive.

In the CES 2019 Technics announce the cheaper models thinking in DJ use ... but i suspect that many people will buy them to play records in a hi-fi system. The original 1200 was not designed to DJ use, the DJs in that time used the lenco l75 or the garrard 401 (i also used that turntables). Think about a turntable with VTA / azimuth configuration to play with conical stylus at 4 - 5 grams ... that's crazy.

Ok, i stop here because i really like the vinyl world and this begins to be long and bored

Lenco... haven't seen one in years. Yes the microline pretty much were my favs, those shibatas could be hot. But then again haven't heard a 'new' cartridge since 2005. VPI with a direct? I did see that, they must have figured something out because they were belt all the way for years. The one drive nobody wants to see is "rim". Denon 103D, nice bass, there was someone who modded them to good effect back like 10-15 years ago. Yeah, we better stop before the sub 50 year old set calls for our heads.

Carry on with styli!

 

[audio philestine]

The Grateful Dead have an extensive archive of reel-to-reel tapes of their live concerts from the 1970's. There were certain time-frames where they were using a tape brand that over time proved to be a shedder. They have successfully baked, restored, and released to the public a number of popular concerts, demonstrating that properly done the music can be saved for commercial release.

Seems somehow apropos that the process of restoring a Grateful Dead recording involves some judicious baking

I imagine given the cultural value of the tapes, there were a lot of nervous people carefully watching that oven.

 

[bagwell359]

There's definitely some magic in it...

Part of it is analog v digital in areas outside of audio. Analog watches (many) vs Casio (oy!), VAC meter analog vs digital. What's the digital meter do at 117.5? The analog just keeps doing what it does. A home weather station, look at the air pressure guage, or the wind direction indicator - NNW with gusts to NE, much prettier in analog.

Problem with analog besides slow destruction of the media when you use it (slower with a straight line tracker, no inner groove distortion/destruction, probably 1/5th the overall wear per play), and the I'm sorry, but not very good bass performance, and finally the distortion (THD in particular) that gives vinyl its personality/magic. Plus to put together a vinyl set-up I could respect would be over 10k (including used pieces), which I haven't got.

 

[judson_w]

I have the ability to dub the tapes but did digitize things I wanted to keep. I have at last count 40,000 albums so digital works best for me and I can search by artist, year, genre, etc. Not much ritual involved in this, I have gone back and purchased newer HD tracks copies of many of my records as new editions came out. Beatles White Album is a great example.

I have nothing against buying newer HD digital copies of stuff. I have bought digital copies of a few that I have on vinyl just because I did not want to deal with the hassle of transferring the vinyl, cutting it into tracks, adding metadata, etc. Most of the tapes I have are things that my dad recorded off of the radio in the 70s and early 80s so finding digital copies of those are nigh impossible. Things like Guy Clark being interviewed or John Stewart talking about his new (at the time) album "Fire in the Wind", both of which were aired on KFAT Radio.

 

[madwolfa]

Part of it is analog v digital in areas outside of audio. Analog watches (many) vs Casio (oy!), VAC meter analog vs digital. What's the digital meter do at 117.5? The analog just keeps doing what it does. A home weather station, look at the air pressure guage, or the wind direction indicator - NNW with gusts to NE, much prettier in analog.

Problem with analog besides slow destruction of the media when you use it (slower with a straight line tracker, no inner groove distortion/destruction, probably 1/5th the overall wear per play), and the I'm sorry, but not very good bass performance, and finally the distortion (THD in particular) that gives vinyl its personality/magic. Plus to put together a vinyl set-up I could respect would be over 10k (including used pieces), which I haven't got.

Everything you said is absolutely correct. When I want perfection, I fire up my Schiit. When I want an experience - I throw a vinyl.

 

[Miguel Barone]

Lenco... haven't seen one in years. Yes the microline pretty much were my favs, those shibatas could be hot. But then again haven't heard a 'new' cartridge since 2005. VPI with a direct? I did see that, they must have figured something out because they were belt all the way for years. The one drive nobody wants to see is "rim". Denon 103D, nice bass, there was someone who modded them to good effect back like 10-15 years ago. Yeah, we better stop before the sub 50 year old set calls for our heads.

Carry on with styli!

See the words of Harry Weisfeld:

A visit to the VPI factory in New Jersey with company founder Harry Weisfeld reveals a massive collection of turntables. Weisfeld is particularly well versed in direct-drive models, especially the classics. His collection includes, among others, the Denon DP-80 and JVC TT-101, as well as other Technics tables. “I believe direct drive is the way to go when it’s done correctly,” he says. “I’ve always been a huge fan of the concept, but you can’t get a belt or a pulley perfect, no matter how hard you try. A belt-drive turntable consists of multiple mistakes and you’re always dealing with multiple tolerance errors. Direct drive eliminates these issues.”

http://www.tonepublications.com/review/vpi-classic-direct-drive-turntable/

 

[GumbyDammit223]

With all this talk about recording quality, I'd like to upload a track (or part of it for copyright reasons) to have other ears listen to it. To me, it (to use a familiar term) sounds like a$$. I want to say it was mastered so hot it results in distortion, but would love if others could voice their opinions on it. Is there a recommended way to do this that won't cause legal or other issues? Thanks.

 

[audio philestine]

With all this talk about recording quality, I'd like to upload a track (or part of it for copyright reasons) to have other ears listen to it. To me, it (to use a familiar term) sounds like a$$. I want to say it was mastered so hot it results in distortion, but would love if others could voice their opinions on it. Is there a recommended way to do this that won't cause legal or other issues? Thanks.

I've seen people post a dynamic range "score" from the DR14 t-meter tool http://dr14tmeter.sourceforge.net/index.php/DR14_T.meter .

You can also load the track in audacity and grab an image of the amplitude vs time plot. Normal acoustic music will show a lot of variation between the peaks and the valleys, while modern over-compressed music will look like a solid wall.

Some tools will also show the peak value. If the levels were too hot the peak will be right at 0dBFS. I'd share how I do this, but I assume you don't want my Linux way...

As far as posting the music... I can't recommend any way to do this that violates copyright.

 

[judson_w]

A link concerning loudness of masters and such: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

 

[Miguel Barone]

I think you're talking about the "loudness war" ... the dynamic of the recording is compressed to allow an upper volume in the mix, and that makes sense to listen music in a car or in an inexpensive portable digital player (the normal way for the new generations).

In a good hi-fi system this recording will sound terrible.

This happens on digital recordings from 90s and ahead, they take the digital master and make a compressed mix to do the recording on CD or digital file. The new vinyl that's recorded from a digital master usually don't, because vinly must be mixed specially (RIAA equalization and other stuff, it's phiscally limited to upper the volume on vinyl) and obviously the vinyl will not be listened on a portable device.

I read many topics on internet talking about the LP version sounding better than the compressed CD, even with digital masters.

 

[White Noise]

Funny you guys should talk about mastering, I do mastering for an electronic/idm netlabel. All I can suggest is that you upload a lossless file for others to download, because (speaking as an amateur M.E.) I have yet to hear a streaming service, even a lossless one, even when I make concessions in my master to prevent changes by the streaming service, that spits back out what I put in. And I've checked on all the major ones for electronic and indie music (soundcloud, hearthis, bandcamp, beatport, etc, and hearthis does lossless). It could be there's a more hifi one out there, maybe tidal, but nobody I work with is going onto that platform right now. And I'm of the opinion that a few meters really won't tell you how a master sounds. I purposely use a particular kind of distortion because it can take away some treble energy without actually turning the loudness down too much, making the music much more pleasant at higher volumes. So a thd meter, if there were such a thing, would say that my masters aren't as good as just normalizing the audio, when in fact I need to make some changes to account for the fact that someone *might* want to play EDM a bit louder than 80 db.

 

[bagwell359]

See the words of Harry Weisfeld:

A visit to the VPI factory in New Jersey with company founder Harry Weisfeld reveals a massive collection of turntables. Weisfeld is particularly well versed in direct-drive models, especially the classics. His collection includes, among others, the Denon DP-80 and JVC TT-101, as well as other Technics tables. “I believe direct drive is the way to go when it’s done correctly,” he says. “I’ve always been a huge fan of the concept, but you can’t get a belt or a pulley perfect, no matter how hard you try. A belt-drive turntable consists of multiple mistakes and you’re always dealing with multiple tolerance errors. Direct drive eliminates these issues.”

http://www.tonepublications.com/review/vpi-classic-direct-drive-turntable/

NOW THEY TELL ME! Well, my hands are starting to get a little shaky with the years, so digital is safer than analog for me... If anyone was around me 4 years ago when I snapped a Koetsu that had ~20 hours on it you'll know that when Kirk yelled 'Khannnn!' in ST II, it weren't nothing compared to my uncompressed scream.

 

[Miguel Barone]

If anyone was around me 4 years ago when I snapped a Koetsu that had ~20 hours on it you'll know that when Kirk yelled 'Khannnn!' in ST II, it weren't nothing compared to my uncompressed scream

... i can imagine that for a while

 

[bagwell359]

Funny you guys should talk about mastering, I do mastering for an electronic/idm netlabel. All I can suggest is that you upload a lossless file for others to download, because (speaking as an amateur M.E.) I have yet to hear a streaming service, even a lossless one, even when I make concessions in my master to prevent changes by the streaming service, that spits back out what I put in. And I've checked on all the major ones for electronic and indie music (soundcloud, hearthis, bandcamp, beatport, etc, and hearthis does lossless). It could be there's a more hifi one out there, maybe tidal, but nobody I work with is going onto that platform right now. And I'm of the opinion that a few meters really won't tell you how a master sounds. I purposely use a particular kind of distortion because it can take away some treble energy without actually turning the loudness down too much, making the music much more pleasant at higher volumes. So a thd meter, if there were such a thing, would say that my masters aren't as good as just normalizing the audio, when in fact I need to make some changes to account for the fact that someone *might* want to play EDM a bit louder than 80 db.

I tell a story about an Engineer (not audio) that had this gadget that could inject THD into the music; anal digital -> semi romantic -> suave romantic -> syrupy romantic -> syrup and back again. Hearing that cut across a lot of assumptions - mine and everyone else's. I mean who needs $5k power cords, and $1500/ft speaker cable when you can dab in a little suave liquidity?