Is this vinyl transfer any good?

If the frequencies beyond 16.000 hertz are on there. What's the relationship between turnable and frequencies?

 

This is a needle-drop of an older Decca-recording. The analog noise is clear, but anyway the number of bits is around 15. Recording made with Linn Axis/Moerch UP4/Shure V15Vx/Jico SAS boron stylus with special loading. The measured spec on the cartridge is quite astounding with close to -40 dB crosstalk.

Dropbox - mozart1.wav

 

Hell yes.

 

The cartridge is what's going to extract the music. The turntable's job is to make as little noise as possible and spin at the correct speed.

When I see a hard cutoff at 16khz I'm not just worried about the frequencies there that some people may or may not hear. I'm also worried that the person that made the needledrop applied a blanket filter or noise reduction technique that's going to muck up the frequencies below.

Again, not hard to do better.

 

I don't know about you guys but my 24/96 needle drops most get chopped at 48K. I can't hear anything above 14k. I have heard people say all that adds to the airyness. Me I want it with the needle drops whether I can hear it or not.

 

It is quite easy to hear differences when you change loading of an MM cartridge that affects response between 10-20 kHz (peaking/resonance).So for most cartridges you will hear a difference since it is common with differences in the 10-20 kHz region. However, above 16 kHz the audibility drops quite fast, so a response difference of -1 dB or -3 dB at 17-18 kHz, all other things equal, is very difficult to hear IMO. Other things that are audible is distortion and crosstalk effects.

 

I wouldn't get hung up on the frequency response. Most recordings don't even get that high.

If processing was done to the file, it is absolutely essential to do the transfer at 24-bit, and then dither the final product to 16-bit, which is what may have been done. Today's dither is so good that you can't tell if it was applied just by looking at a spectrograph.

In any case, glad that you like the results. That's all that matters.

 

I think the inference is that an individual of 55, and being a DJ, would have their hearing ruined.

 

TarnishedEars was thinking it might be a DJ turntable with a cartridge intended for DJing then the OP replied to him saying no, the guy is not a DJ, he is 55 and from a different generation. To me, that sounds like he doesn’t think that someone who is 55 would be a DJ.

 

LOL that wasn't what I mean. Language barrier, I think.

 

Strange he would think that, then.

 

It seems to you. And to me, it doesn’t seem at all for years.

With several high quality USA-made, Japanese-made and Danish-made cartridges, delivering up to 20000 Hz, used on my TT, and on good quality records, I never had to face hiss, distortion and "unwanted noise".

 

I'd say its a middle of the road TT at best, but that the cartridge is well below average, especially these days.

 

Good to know!

I'm up for re-doing the work in the future to come, but I must say that the actual 16.000 hertz tranfers I got are great-sounding anyway.

 

Sure would like someone to post a passage of music (HD YouTube example) that reproduces a real and natural sound from an actual instrument where one can hear 16kHz and above. A cymbal crash or metal triangle ring would most likely have these harmonics above this auditory spectrum threshold. Not sure because I wasn't really concerned as long as these instruments sounded real and correct from what I remember as a musician in an orchestra.

I've isolated triangle rings in Audacity and at best their peak above -48db in normal overall -21db RMS spectrum analysis is just under 16kHz with a sharp downward roll off. Now this peak and angle of roll off depends on whether the triangle is a foot or so from a mic vs in the background of an orchestra stage.

 

This is mathematics. I agree.

 

And about preventing your ears from bleeding from hearing such high frequencies when cranked to 11.

 

I've never heard anyone say anything but negatives about CEDAR.

 

It's been developed a great deal in the last couple of decades and as with many things it's about the skill of the person using it, it's a powerful tool and the results with the latest implementation and skilled use can be superb, having said that not every person who specialises in vinyl clean ups uses it, I'd agree that it's early implementation was often used like a hammer rather than a scalpel and left a lot to be desired.

 

OK here is a link to a needle drop sample I just finished. My point is that there is a world of difference between professional and audiophile clearly its apples and oranges. My point is the rig used and recording at higher resolution is more about how it sounds below 16k not the fact that it may go way over and many consider it overkill. Maybe I'm delusional and just prefer the sound I get from my rig but you can listen for yourself.

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/post-your-needledrops-part-8.401997/page-27#post-19863220

 

CEDAR is a digital noise reduction tool. That's all. You hear complaints about from audiophiles because of the engineers who overused it, went crazy with it. Many audiophiles have no clue how to use noise reduction, or how the various systems work, so they just decide that if one result sounds bad, it's all bad. It's that extreme all or nothing mentality.

 

I found your drop on the mellow side.

 

You are the pro at drops but it is a mellow song so that's a good thing.

 

Hello guys,

I got a new vinyl rip/digital transfer of the very same album. I don't know if, this time, it goes beyond the 16.000 hertz frequencies "edge". Could you check it for me, please? Contact me via private message. Thank you so much, really.

 

You can easily check it and see for yourself using a little free program called Spek. Just load in one WAV file and it will display the frequency spectrum of the file. (This was used for the image in msg #6 in this thread.)
Free download here:
Spek – Free Acoustic Spectrum Analyzer / Spectrogram Viewer