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Originally Posted by robm321 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I have heard that the high end LP equipment back then was pretty bad compared to the 90s and beyond. I wonder if this has anything to do with it?
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Nah. LP playback hasn't really advanced much at all since the 1980s, other than in a few notable instances like the Laser turntable, which is far from being universally considered a definite improvement over conventional players.
There were always high end decks like the Garrard or Thorens from back in the 1950s which could, if set up well, equal anything made today.
The average entry level record player is definitely better now than ever but this is more due to the fact that all the big companies turning out cynically marketed dross have left the stage to the quality budget brands like Rega.
Some things like very high quality wiring have become more widely available as a byproduct of the computer industry so your average tonearm today is much better wired, or there is no excuse for it not to be. Tonarms are better today on the whole due to the influential '80s designs of Roy Gandy (Rega again) and SME.
Magnets like neodymium used in cartridges have improved so basic MM carts today can have a much flatter response, but there are plenty of vintage classic carts that do also.
The use of modern composite materials and the understanding of the importance of plinth design are more widespread today but companies like Transcriptors and Michell were using advanced materials in the 1960s and '70s and the high end Japanese decks of the '70s also made elaborate use of constrained layer damping with all sorts of innovative composite materials.
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Originally Posted by DrBenway
It's my understanding that the job of the mastering engineer is to optimize the sound of a recording for a particular medium. Unless you contend that CD and vinyl sound identical, it seems reasonable to argue that a recording optimized for vinyl is not going to sound identical when pressed to a CD.
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Well the last time I was present at a cut (at Abbey Road), the mastering engineer optimised the recording for vinyl by running the tape through a desk straight to the cutting head. There is obviously a lot of skill in knowing what kind of eq you can get away with in order to keep the recording as loud as possible without running the grooves together and you can watch the cutters progress to monitor this on a little screen on the Neumann lathes.
This is what makes certain mastering engineers like Nilz at the Exchange in Camden ,or the sadly now deceased, Ron Murphy at NSC in Detroit, very much in demand. To the degree that a record mastered by one of these guys is unmistakable.
I have heard stories of sub masters with the RIAA eq already present being used but this would be unlistenable so I am dubious.
Transfering a master tape to a CD is a far easier proposition as you just have to make sure you don't clip digital zero. Not much of a learning curve there which is why mastering is a dying art I guess.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrBenway
This is not an original idea; it's something I read repeatedly over the years in the audio press. [Insert anticipated disparaging comment about audio writers here.]
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I have too and it makes about as much sense as saying all modern recordings sound poor because they are mastered hot when this is equally something which has been going on since the advent of popular music....
...and as for tapedecks, well your friends Dragon can record at +10db to 25Khz if you push it as it has amazing tape heads, superior to any digital recorder in many respects. The main reason to my mind is in the way it distorts when you oveload the tape. Saturated compressed tape which gently rolls off into the noise floor sounds natural to our ears in a way that band limiting on digital recorders just doesn't....too much information is lost.
This is also the case with vinyl. CD is just missing too many harmonics and the only way to make up for this is using valves to add them back in, which explains to my mind the resurgence of the glowing bottle in so many bits of kit both pro and domestic.