Should i give up vinyl?

Do you want to?

 

These are not the words of someone who is giving up on vinyl....

 

I am not one of those. Despite my fantasy moniker, I enjoy both formats equally. Both are different and have vices and virtues. I was not making fun of you. It was perhaps a poor attempt at humor, for which I apologize. I cannot fathom what that ¨scraping¨? noise is that you're hearing after just 10' into the lp ?

I know it's hard to put a sound in words but could you try harder ? I find this phenomenon of utter interest. Pity it ruins the vinyl experience for you in such a bitter way. Have you tried other carts/styli ? I'm a firm spherical styli believer because they are more forgiving on the groove and less prone to produce extraneous noises, granted, at the expense of some loss of detail.

 

Scraping noise may be groove noise. I have a couple of albums with a bit of it, only audible on some tracks on lead in and/or out. No big deal. Still destroys the CD version, so its all good.

 

Well, get his Brentford Trilogy set, or get Julie's Pages album. And then you'll know.

 

No not at all. I just want to sit down and have it sound good all the time i guess....

 

Or Nick's "The Old Magic". Another cracker.

 

Just ordered the Analogue Productions Counting Crows debut....hopefully that should ease my woes...

 

this is not good advice.

 

Well...i think it's a psychoacustic case.
Stress can surely affected the listening pleasure.
When you're calm , relaxed and in peace all sounds good...almost

 

No offense taken. I am fairly immune to getting exorcised about people questioning my beliefs, respectfully or otherwise. I will even stand up for green markers on CD edges. (Just not the "audiophile" paint pen they used to sell for $15 or 20 bucks. I have my own system -- based on what a Stereophile writer once reported.)

Did I say scraping? No, I think I said smudging. A clear windowpane that slowly gets just a little bit of grime on it. Or you could, in audio terms, think of just a small loss of detail and focus, a slight audio fog developing. That's what I was hearing. I'd clean the stylus midway through an LP side, and then the crystalline clarity would return. Using AT microline carts, BTW. I think the first was an AT-170ML which seems much like the current 150ML. Gold plated (?) boron cantilever. Now I have a 440MLa, which I was initially pleased with but after a while less so. I haven't played any records in a few years, and when I did in 2012 or so, it was to needledrop some favorites. I didn't really notice a problem then, but I was listening through much lesser equipment.

 

I bet you would really love adding Lp's to your collection. Just sayin.

 

I have at least a couple of thousand in the garage and 'table/preamp etc. in the closet, where they will all remain (unless or until I move). I have plenty of opportunity to hear better LP playback than I could have, with no desire to pursue it further. Believe it or not there are lots of music lovers who don't really like the sound or the hassle.

 

It might be a good idea to expand on why you consider this bad advice. I agree with you. Putting a great cartridge on a bad table or arm is only going to magnify existing issues. Like putting a bigger motor in a car with a bad transmission isn't going to make it run any better.

 

Cool, from your comment I took it to mean you didn't have any. I agree with the hassle, it does indeed suck. Just guessing based on your avatar, I would say we have very similar interest in music. I find that acoustic music (Jazz and Jazz based bluegrass) really stands out on analog. The first David Grisman quintet record, the recent MoFi pressing of Garcia/Grisman I find very enjoyable on LP.

when it comes to listening to Live music (bootlegs) digital is far and away the better format in my opinion.

 

I get more enjoyment from all the Grisman releases in hi-res digital (and at a good price as well!)

 

You may have serious money there. Why did you keep them ? Take advice of the resirgence and make some dough

 

Or like putting firestone allseason tires on Bugatti Veyron?? lol. Imo it don't mater how nice of an arm and deck you have if you start off by putting a bottle neck at the very beginning of the sound chain. You are severely limiting what the tt and arm can do buy placing a lesser cartridge on it. I always had a theory on this and finally got to hear it in action and it was ear opening experience. (As long as the arm and cart is good match of course)

 

People used AT120E carts on a Sondek and reported good things. Think the arm was still pretty decent...

 

I've probably sold the ones worth anything; ordinary used LP's aren't worth much.

 

I've had exactly the same frustration as you describe. Microline styli are great at revealing incredible detail. And also, unfortunately sometimes, defects. Poor cartridge alignment and groove wear on the record are the first culprits to consider. If your cart is set up properly, what you're hearing is groove damage from previous plays. But if you hear the spark of life come back after cleaning the stylus after playing the record half way through, it's your records - they're dirty, even though they may look clean. Those microline styli demand super clean records - depending on the cart and arm. You could play the same record on a really well set up table with a less expensive cart and hear none of that distortion. My first hand experience - it shocked me - pleasantly.

 

Go spherical and forget about it !!! I'm extremely happy with mine. Then again my records are not demanding at all in the detail department.

 

If that were true down here...............

 

Important point here: no format will sound good ALL of the time. If that's what you want, you need to have a lo-fi system where everything sounds equally bad all of the time.

 

Your choice may be right for you, but my way of thinking is this: If I don't get more detail out of vinyl, why bother with it? I know detail is not the only aspect of music, but it does seem to affect other qualities, like imaging and ambiance. The so-called "warmth" of vinyl doesn't really appeal to me. I want a clearer window pane. So I have never considered going back even to an elliptical stylus, let alone a spherical!