Do you mean do it as in "get an external phono stage" or "get a sugarcube"? I've had a spell a couple of years ago when I had a selection of phono stages through my hands, ranging from £30 to £600. And - I'll be laughed at for this - they all sounded the same to me. Exactly the same.
The former. If you thought they sounded the same, there's something seriously wrong with the system. Very well could've been the amp which you just upgraded anyway. I'd strongly recommend trying it again and with the high-end stuff. The onboard phono preamp is probably much better than a £30 external one.
I have been in email contact with (the very helpful) Dan Eakins of Sweet Vinyl. I asked the question about whether they would be introducing something to tackle the issue of vinyl "roar", which I'd seen him speaking about on a Youtube video (I think). He confirmed it will be available as an option in the "fall" (or "autumn" as I would say!). It would "also include the ability to use non-RIAA curves with digital processing". I have no idea what that means - or why anyone would need it. I'm sure he won't mind me sharing that. He did give an indicative price but I'm not sure I should make that public as it was a private communication.
Thanks for the info but it sounds like a company trying to tackle too much simultaneously. If it were me, I'd ensure the features I promoted to gain the capital from consumers during the crowdfunding stage would be available and working before I opted to add new features or release new products. My 2 cents.
They are available from a few retailers in the UK who would possibly be prepared to ship to Denmark. Surely that should be cheaper than importing from the US?
Thanks for the great suggestions and help everyone. I've been doing some serious thinking over the last few days, and decided to wait until the SC-2 is out of BETA mode (should that ever happen). It looks like a wonderful piece of hardware, but the cost is just too high for a not fully functional machine for me. Meanwhile, I've set up my own homemade real-time click removal system with a cheap second-hand mini PC loaded with ClickRepairRT. Not quite as sophisticated as a SugarCube, but it's about 10% of the cost, and it seems to work pretty well. If the SC-2 comes down in price, and they work out the kinks, I will definitely consider picking one up.
If I asked this at some point, please forgive me... If I wanted an SC-1, what would be the best way to connect it in my rig? Using a Mac C47 preamp and MC275 tube amp. Thanks
I'm pretty sure the guys from Sweet Vinyl recommend putting it between your phono stage and your preamp. That's how I'll be hooking mine up.
Are the SC-1 and SC-2 identical as far as processing and sound? The only difference is the SC-2 has the recording features, correct?
Got it today. It works, occasionally pretty well...but it's not the epiphany I was hoping for. I will report further once the samples I ripped with it are done uploading.
My SC-1 is set on 5 (default setting) and removes every single pop and click apart from on the very, very rare occasion. I think I've noticed maybe 3 pops in the last 30-40 LP's I've played on it. Have you experimented with different sensitivity settings?
I have, extensively. Well, as extensively as possible in the last 24 hours. I will work on it more over the weekend. Some initial observations: - Packaging is barebones. The SC-1 came packed in a single, somewhat beat up outer box - no inner box. For $2K I'd expect a lot more robust packaging! - Connecting it to wi-fi was a dicey proposition that took several tries to get right; the iPhone app kept timing out during the pairing phase. - It takes a full 30 seconds to warm up when you power it on. - Build quality feels pretty solid. It does run a bit warm but I didn't observe it getting too hot tucked away in my audio rack: After some testing, my jury is still out on this. It's a cool device, and way better than previous attempts at doing this sort of thing, but I still have a few problems with it - especially after laying out $2K: - There's no free lunch: it's not completely transparent. I can switch it in and out with the bypass switch and hear a difference; the soundstage seems to get a little bit smaller and the "air" goes out a tiny bit (and yes, I did the calibration with the 7" that came in the box). And an old guy with beat up ears and tinnitus. If I can hear a difference, I can only imagine what that might sound like to a golden-eared audiophile. - It's not a magic bullet. It seems to work great with "well behaved" noise like ticks and pops, but for problems like non-fill and crappy vinyl groove noise it doesn't seem to help much at all. I understand that Sweet Vinyl is planning on releasing periodic software updates (some possibly for $$) that might deal with this at a later date. I was talking to a friend who's also tested this (it wasn't his cup of tea and he returned it), and he had an interesting observation: the people who can afford to spend $2K+ on a SugarCube seem to be the ones least likely to have the kind of crappy, beat up vinyl that would benefit the most from it...and/or have a system revealing enough that the SugarCube's slight sound coloration is a non-starter. Personally, I might not the right demographic for this, but for a slightly different reason: My standard practice is if I get a crappy pressing of something I will stick it in a donate/discard/trade pile (one man's trash...) and keep looking until I find a decent copy, and I'm not averse to spending a little money to get there (example: the umpteen pressings of Elton John's Blue Moves populating a small section of my Kallax wall). And then once I get that good pressing, I will do a 24/192 needle drop, seal up the physical copy and put it on the shelf, and then go through the entire recording in Adobe Audition's spectral view, doing a deep listen with a set of cans and manually removing all of the ticks and pops by hand. And the result is what I end up listening to, 98% of the time. It was that last step of cleaning up the recording manually that I was hoping this could eliminate - if not completely, then mostly. But it's certainly not there for me. So I still don't know if I'm going to keep it or send it back. I'm going through my stacks and pulling out some of my "worst" records to throw at this thing over the weekend to help me make a decision. Anyway, listen for yourself: below are links to some unedited 32/192 needle drops of a section of one of the worst records in my collection - the "Up In The Air" movie soundtrack, pressed on clear vinyl. Great soundtrack; horrible pressing (I've tried 3 copies and they're all nasty). The following samples are from the beginning of side 2, which feature a couple of quiet, atmospheric bits of the soundtrack, played back with the SugarCube in a couple of different settings: SugarCube in "bypass": https://s3.amazonaws.com/dharmabumstead/sc1-test-audio/SCTest1-Bypass.wav SugarCube engaged, but with click repair turned off: https://s3.amazonaws.com/dharmabumstead/sc1-test-audio/SCTest1-EngagedNoClickRepair.wav Click repair engaged on level 5 ("default"): https://s3.amazonaws.com/dharmabumstead/sc1-test-audio/SCTest1-EngagedLevel5.wav Click repair engaged on level 7 ("high"): https://s3.amazonaws.com/dharmabumstead/sc1-test-audio/SCTest1-EngagedLevel7.wav Click repair engaged on level 10 ("max"): https://s3.amazonaws.com/dharmabumstead/sc1-test-audio/SCTest1-EngagedLevel10.wav Clicks only on level 5: https://s3.amazonaws.com/dharmabumstead/sc1-test-audio/SCTest1-ClicksOnlyLevel5.wav Clicks only on level 7: https://s3.amazonaws.com/dharmabumstead/sc1-test-audio/SCTest1-ClicksOnlyLevel7.wav Clicks only on level 10: https://s3.amazonaws.com/dharmabumstead/sc1-test-audio/SCTest1-ClicksOnlyLevel10.wav
Nobody that have heard removal of music yet? I know one that found this, showing audible degradation of the music. It was clearly evident when listening to the filtered signal, where pops were music beats.
I’d be interested in hearing samples from your system with a record suffering from clicks and pops, the record you’ve used has surface noise and possibly non-fill issues, neither of which is what the Sugarcube software is designed to target. Now despite that I’ve found my Sc-2 does a great job with most surface noise and puts a blanket over non-fill. I certainly do hear the SQ difference between the unit working and bypassed, but to a much greater extent than I’ve found in my own experience with the SC-2. Yet even when it’s noticible in my system the difference is slight, and it’s only on certain records, with most I just don’t hear the difference at all. Later I’ll run your bypassed recording into my SC-2, I’m curious whether it will match your filtering results or not. I think the sampkes I posted of The Doors “The End” and Elton John “11-17-70” show what the Sugarcube is capable of. Perhaps I’ll throw a VG- RL LZII at it and record some samples as well.
Hi Dharma, Thanks for a thorough and detailed review! RE: sound quality - I too noticed a bit of reduced volume and 'air' when my SC1 is in 'Click Remove' mode. E.g., this weekend I've been listening to the new Yes Steven Wilson remixes box. Now, for my money, these records are nicely done and sound great in the SC1's 'Bypass' mode. But just for $#!t$ and giggles, I've been experimenting like you did with various Click Remove levels, but with this difference: I went from Level 5 down to Level 2 and then Level 1, while raising my amp's volume about 10% higher than normal. What my ears heard was about a 50-75% replacement of the volume and 'air' that was missing at Level 5 and normal listening volume. Not as clean and clear as when the SC1's in 'Bypass' mode, but pretty darn good. My conclusion is that the SC1 is an extremely effective tool for noisy snap/crackle/pop records, but as you said, there's no free lunch here. If you're listening to a clean, well-pressed record, the SC1 in 'Bypass' mode is fine, and there's not much need for 'Click Removal' mode. But if it's a beat-up/poorly pressed/dusty record, IMHO the trade-off is well worth it to enjoy music that was previously marred by distracting noise. Usually, Level 5 suffices, though YMMV. I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed hearing some of my used-bin finds go from VG sound quality up to VG+or even NM. Thanks again for weighing in. Let us know how your experience with the SC1 plays out.
I think the ONLY way to judge a device such as this is to audition it. Since MD allows that, one day I may do so. Even with audio clips (which I appreciate!!) there is no way to know how it will sound in MY rig, and judging it any other way seems pointless. Just my 2 pennies.
