Well, it's not exactly a *fair* example - although I think it's a realistic example. The record in question has problems that the SugarCube doesn't really fix (yet?) and for which the fine folks at Sweet Vinyl haven't claimed to address. I've been going through my collection and throwing things at the SC for the past few days. My initial reaction that it colors the sound has been mellowed somewhat as I've used it. Weirdly, it seems to be more a slight level difference that's more noticeable when playing through my McIntosh and out the Wharfedales; it doesn't manifest itself so much through headphones or when capturing via the Apogee and Audition. The SugarCube seems to do very well with beat-up records that have straightforward ticks 'n pops or scratch damage. I fished a copy of Elton John's "Live In Australia" album out of my discard pile that I'd clumsily dropped a center weight on and ruined a few years ago, and the SugarCube actually made that a viable record again. That's impressive. On the other hand, problems like groove "roar", non-fill, and off-center bumps do not seem to be things that the SugarCube can do a lot about (again: yet?). These problems are every bit as annoying (maybe more so) than ticks 'n pops, but I'm not sure any automated solution will ever be able to fix these things. This is very much a drag; I was going through the Steven Wilson Yes Remixes vinyl box set this weekend, and unfortunately (as is the case distressingly often these days) right out of the shrink wrap some of the records suffer from a lot of annoying groove roar and some bumps, against which the SC is useless. Such is the nature of vinyl (fortunately I've also got the Blu-ray editions of all of the Steven Wilson Yes remixes, which sound brilliant without the noise). Even still, though, I'm waffling over whether I should keep the SugarCube or send it back and use the proceeds to finance a cartridge upgrade instead. It's a cool product and does that one thing really well, but I'm struggling over whether it's worth the $2K for me and my record collection.
I wonder if/think that the software updates SweetVinyl pushes out periodically could eventually deal with some of the anomalies you mention. At least I hope that's what some of my $2k goes for. Some, like the 'roar' you mentioned, or non-fill, are generally the result of poor materials and/or faulty manufacturing processes. Can SweetVinyl produce algorithms that deal with these? I don't know. Maybe, at some point they will. I'd love it if they could turn some of my crappily pressed, fingerprint stained, sloppily packaged URP reissues and make them sound like AAA remasters. If the new slab of wax on the turntable isn't very good to begin with, all the click, tick, pop, and crackle removal in the world won't improve the sound that remains. As my mechanic once said of a beater I asked him to inspect, 'Ya can't polish a turd.'
This is not really a fair example of what the SC-1 can do, it is especially not indicative of what a SC-2 can do . The reason is that the SC-1 samples have gone from Analog to Digital conversion back to analog then another digital conversion. Now the Sc-2 will have no such analog to digital to analog for needledrop purposes, it will be a straight analog to digital conversion.
Pretty quiet about this product. Has anyone who purchased a retail version of this received a software update yet? Are they continually developing and improving it...or is it one and done?
Looks like my SC-1 is version "1.1-73-ga5f5686-20180704-1725p-prod". Based on that I'd guess it was updated on July 4th...but I have no idea what that update consisted of because as far as I know there's no release notes to go with the updates. And there's no dedicated support area on their website, and no user forum - just a perfunctory FAQ. Customer communication hasn't been their strong suit thus far. On the bright side, after some initial doubts and a bit of a learning curve, I've been getting a lot of use out of the SC-1...if it were selling for closer to $1K (instead of the $2K I paid for it) I'd recommend it to anyone.
@dharmabumstead good to hear. But I concur with the communication piece. I sent TWO messages to them with basic questions, and neither were answered. Lost my business right there. I don't want to spend $2K for something, and if I need support, not feel it is available. Might be I just had a unique experience. Don't want to damn them or anything. Just sharing why I did not purchase one, despite the desire to. Also, I do feel $1K is the right value prop for me. Right price is a whole other story. But value prop wise, $1K is where I sit.
Yes, with your permission. It’s got an Ethernet port and built-in WiFi. Aside from auto updates, there’s also a companion app for iOS and Android that you can use as a remote control over the network.
I'm surprised they haven't got back to you, that's highly uncharacteristic, I'd try again! Lately my SC-2 has been updating a lot, not sure what's happening, but I'm fine with progress. As I close in on one year of ownership I'm still so glad I bought it, I consider it an indispensable part of my system.
According to an email I got from SweetVinyl this past week they're doing a lot of updates for the SC-2 as they finish up the beta. And also working on a user forum, sometime after the SC-2 beta is done.
@DigMyGroove thanks. I got the answers I needed, but good to know they are in fact responsive. I'm hoping they do well, and find a way to make the SC-1 available for less $$ in the future. Then I'd be inclined to hop aboard.
I can't afford one for myself but this is the best thing that's ever happened to needledrops. Music I don't even like that much is exciting to listen to it's so perfect. Maybe the price point will get to where I'm at some point in the future.
OK folks, here at last is a recorded sample of the SugarCube SC-2 in action along with a recording of the un-repaired audio. Each sample of the Door's "The End" is just over 3 minutes long, I've provided unedited FLAC files direct off the thumb drive to which the SC-2 recorded them. I set the click repair level to 6, one higher than the default 5 since this is a particularly noisy pressing. The G+/VG pressing is from 1967: The Doors - The Doors The record was played on a circa 1979 Kenwood D-5070 turntable with an Audio Technica AT33EV MC cartridge out to a Vincent Pho-8 phono stage and on to the SugarCube SC-2. First is a sample starting with un-repaired audio for 30 seconds, then switching to repaired audio for 30 seconds. This continues throughout the sample, 30 seconds off, 30 seconds on: Dropbox - 1_The Doors_The End_30 Seconds Off-On Audio Repair Sample.flac Here's the complete original audio sample: Dropbox - 2_The Doors_The End_Original Audio Sample.flac And the complete repaired audio sample: Dropbox - 3_The Doors_The End_Repaired Audio Sample.flac Here are additional samples from an early UK DJM pressing of Elton John's 11-17-70 live album, around 2:40 of the first track, "Take Me to the Pilot". The record looks clean and shiny but sure doesn't sound that way. 30 Seconds of Original Audio, 30 Seconds of Repaired Audio Throughout the Sample: Dropbox - 1_EJ_Pliot Live_30 Seconds Off-On Repaired Audio.flac Original Audio Only: Dropbox - 2_EJ_Pilot Live_Original Audio.flac Repaired Audio Only: Dropbox - 3_EJ_Pilot Live_Repaired Audio.flac
It really is a pity that there is no software available currently that works as good and is as easy to use as the SugarCube. The automatic mode in ClickRepair and/or izotope obviously is not as good.
I just downloaded the Elton John 30 Seconds On 30 Seconds Off FLAC sample from my Dropbox and played it with JRiver off my desktop using the "PLAY MEDIA FILE" function, so I'm not sure what the issue is on your end. It did take a few seconds for the download button to appear in Dropbox to allow for the file to be downloaded, but it worked!
Error 500 on all files. You can download them because the files are still there and you're the owner of the account.
Anton, I'm curious about yourstatement 'obviously not as good' - how did you come to that conclusion? I don't have SC but I do have CR and so far it seems to me to be as good as the recordings of the SC I've been listening to on here.
It's the same damn thing, they stole CR's program and repackaged it into a box with in/outs, marked it up 2000% and bingo, a brand new thing!!! I think the cost is so high because few folks will bother buying this type of hardware. The needle droppers have CR, and that works fine.
Ah, the beauty of spewing any amount of crap without one iota of evidence to back it up. Stole, huh? Interesting. Blind tests done by @vinyldoneright pitting the SC-2 to a sophisticated declicking application such as iZotope resulted in the crowd overwhelmingly picking the SC-2. And obviously CR isn't as sophisticated as iZotope. So of course, it's not the same thing and nobody stole anything. But thanks for jumping to conclusion. If you think it's that simple to come up with a STB design that can do this, let's see what you can come up with.
