Vinyl dynamic range questions

My experience is that a low-ball universal player from Sony is better than a mid level [Thorens, Rega] turntable. Like a $130.00 DVP NS 775-v, which I own. This wouldn't apply to all CDs, but it applies to a lot of CDs and practically all SACDs. It's really absurd how good Sony's cheap, near-universal players are.

 

Steve forgot that those old 'Shaded Dogs' are magnificent to listen to, on 60 year old vinyl.

 

Very cool.

 

I'm pretty happy with the $300 ProJect 'table,
but it needs a better cart than the Ortofon that come on it.

This piece regularly smokes my $300+ Sony SACD player.

 

Same with the Technics + Audio Technica cart. It beats the similarly priced Onkyo cd player.

 

It IS a blessing. It's not that I'm not concerned about sound quality, far from it. It's just that I don't demand it as a prerequisite for enjoying music. Certainly, I appreciate a good rig, but I've learned to listen to the music rather than the equipment. When you start thinking things like "Oooooh, listen to where he went with the modulation!" instead of "That upper treble sounds a bit tizzy.", you'll have it licked. It took me years.

 

Quality sound was and is a blessing for me ! Without making the switch from judging music from a genre coolness or taste pov to also appreciating the beauty of a certain sound I'd never discovered all that BeBop, RvG stuff nor classical music .
Not even talking about operas and stuff like that. That was stuff I hated all my life and thought it was plain tortureto listen to !

When I play a decent mastered LP or 12" the analogue chain smokes the digital chain. The V-LPS sounds a lot like the V-DAC as I would say. The difference is mainly due to the cart. That is the highest quality link of the chain....

You get what you pay for ...

 

What changed with the cutters?

 

I would guess mono to stereo?

 

Yeah, I'm the same way. I listen to music a lot on my 92 saturn with the stock stereo: two blown out rear speakers using a tape deck adapter on the delco radio unit to plug my ipod in. man that thing has a hardcore limiter built into it

 

The cutters. They went from Scullys to Neumanns. And the "magic" in this case is euphonic coloration that IMO is pretty easy to hear for what what it is on high end systems. Nice and pretty, but clearly added identifiable distortion. I'll take the well mastered Classics myself. The well mastered ones!

 

Thanks Scott. What was changed so that there was less colouration: electronics? mechanics?

 

a small amount of googling turns up this thread on her article...on Audioholics too!

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?p=206159


Poster "Axon" on that thread has an interesting blog about vinyl --

http://audiamorous.blogspot.com/


My own opinion is that it would be nice if the potential dynamic range of CD actually got used more often in non-classical releases.

 

When you change complete generations of lathe like that it's everything. I think the following is an accurate summary:

The Scully is a mechanical lathe with a custom, often westrex, cutter and amplifier. Unmodified, it's got manual feed and apparently you have to pay real attention to groove spacing. Later models were customised with electronic drive to make it easier.

The early cutting heads had bad mechanical resonances.

Neumann is the rolls-royce. Direct drive, electronic everything (solid state) and a servo controlled cutter head, usually made by Ortofon.

These have now also been customised for everything.. tube amps etc. There are several iterations.

Oh, and no-one makes any of these any more. Just to get you all worried.

 

Thanks Mike!