Slaughter A Few Sacred Audiophile Cows

Have you ever been purplexed, amazed, amused by what some audiophiles fret over/spend their money on? Then slaughter some sacred audio cows here!

Note that this is not a compare/diss formats thread, it's about products and practices relating to your preferred format that in your opinion do not help the sound, or even make it worse.

 

Vinyl
a) Using a cartridge alignment protractor on a turntable with an S-shaped tonearm.
A complete waste of time, and makes the sound WORSE. Far more important to ensure that the screws are tightly fitted 'up' on the headshell so that the pins at the back don't come loose.
b) Spending an obscene amount of money on a BELT DRIVE turntable that (probably) doesn't even run 'on speed'
c) Exorbitantly priced, silly 'replacement' platter mats that do nothing, except screw up your VTA
d) Holding on to a belief that a Grado cartridge will track your records decently
e) 'Overweight' pressings - OK, maybe not 180g, but 200,220(!)g these are more likely to WARP
f) Trying to 'improve' a Technics SL-1200 by replacing it's tonearm. It's superb as it is, thanks, and the removable headshell makes it very flexible at switching cartridges (where you will hear the real improvement). Taking away that that tubular arm makes the Technics look stupid, too.

 

Moo.

 

MOOOOOOhh!

 

That didn't take long.

 

Pop corn - CHECK
Movie on for the missus in the lounge-CHECK
Phone on silent-CHECK.

Continue thread..
munch,munch....

 

CD
a) Absurdly priced interconnects
b) High priced interconnects for DIGITAL connections.

 

You got an 'F' in geometry I take it.

 

No kidding. The conviction with which some can state the most ridiculous and absurd is astonishing at times.

 

Moderators,Moderators..........Steve Hoffman APB alert , stop this before it becomes a PROBLEM and someone says something really really stoopid and ends up where their cartridge alignment protractor was not meant to be!

 

Isolation tables/racks. All that is really required is that the surface is flat, firm and even. Paving slabs or cut MDF will likely do the same job at about 1/10th of the price.

 

I went back to using cartridges for playing records rather than protractors.

 

Expensive fancy-schmancy ground stylus.' A good old steel pin works just as well.

 

Protracted use of your cartridge will lead to blindness raunchnroll.

 

I am talking from experience here. There is no usable improvement from using an alignment protractor on an S-SHAPED tonearm. I am not disputing the need for one on a Rega or Linn arm etc.
For my Akai DD I have tried many methods, Heybrook was the best, but simply tightening up the screws right to the top of the headshell ensuring they are even, and using small spirit levels beat it hands down. I use several cartridges including AT13ea and ATS12 Shibata and the sound is not grainy at all, it's clean, consistent and focused, and there is no IGD either. The whole process of set-up including VTA this way was about 5 minutes. I see this as a great credit to the designers of the turntable, who obviously made their product to be simple and fuss-free to set up.

 

You don't believe that, do you now?

 

You could'nt
be more wrong.A good rack/turntable stand is very important.Ask those from your home country who have used Mana stands/shelves under their turntables.They'll set you straight.

 

No wonder your Grados can't track "decently."

 

Green marker makes your CDs sound better.

 

Whether the tone arm is S-shaped, straight, or wiggles like a lasagna noodle makes no difference. The reason it is S-shaped is so that it can be mounted closer to the platter. The turntable would be huge if the arm were straight because the pivot would be so far away. There are only two points in the arc of the tone arm where it is precisely parallel to the groove. It looks like an upside-down smile with a horizontal line through the middle. The whole point of cartridge alighment is to minimize the angle error above and below that line. Not terribly important for conical styli, but VERY important for stylus shapes like Shibata, Fine Line, etc.

 

Very true. Any pivoted tonearm represents, at best, a series of compromises, with the possible exception of the Garrard Zero-100 tonearm, which has it's own very significant compromises. I've used cartridges with Shibata and Micro-Line styli since the '70s and proper set up is very important, especially when you're dealing with the old CD-4 Quadradiscs.

 

Linear tracking tonearms are also a series of compromises.

 

Regardless of tonearm shape, the cantilever & stylus must still be properly aligned. Some head shells are designed to minimize alignment labor. All fine and dandy. I still check it. By protractor and ears.

 

I agree, and those compromises are very different from pivoted arms. In a sense, all turntables, regardless of price, are at best, a series of compromises; you'll never perfectly play back a record (though some do get pretty close, or so I've been told.)

 

All true no doubt, but the best sound came from the Homer method. Go figure. All these years I do as I am told, and put up with some IGD and one day I try it this way (simply to test the stylus btw) and it's so much better. Clean crescendos at the end of Yes LP sides? Check. Crisp and clear sound on 7" singles? Check. Sail through tracking on 80s albums? Check.