I'm using a $400, @'79 $, turntable and always had it connected to L212s, which they never had any problem getting to the upper end.
But you're right some recordings were better than others.
Now compared to DVD-A or SACD they(LP) sound a bit old school, but I still play them.
I think with great equipment you get as much as you can out of the record. If it's a bad master, like early beatles or led Zep, then your not going to get glorious performance anyway. In fact the cd brings out defects in a bad way and that's not an advantage either.
In any audio setup the quality is defined by the weakest link. Maybe its the amp, the source gear, speakers or the source.
I've never heard sound from a $10k turntable, but I would think that somewhere between my $400 Yamaha turntable and one that cost $10k there is a point of little gain as far as $$ spent/output quality.
But I've never liked the sound from CDs, And I have had some LPs that the sound was garbled. Had other LPs, that had good sound, then one day they just seft destructed. Had to toss them out.
ah yes the law of diminishing returns rears its ugly head.the difference between a $200 component and a $2000 unit is usually pretty big but the gap starts to narrow the higher you go.i wonder how much more performance improves between a $5000 mac 501 and some of those $30,000 monsters out there.the worst the cables that can sell for thousands.when you open up the amp the wire that goes to the output is usually nothing special and then somewhere in the line is a $2.00 fuse.a good moving coil cartridge with a pre pre does not have to cost $10k but $400 is a bit low.i suggest building from the source outward with the best components you can afford. as you can afford better components you add to a good basic framework instead of having to upgrade everything at once
As I said a few posts back, that $400 was in '79 dollars. What's that today, maybe $2k? Besides, this past year I've been spending money on speakers, two sets, 7 total.but $400 is a bit low
I have one of those $10K (well that's retail) vinyl playback systems. While I have no problem with folk saying CD's sound better, I can hear a real difference. My CDP is no slouch either. It sounds great as long as I haven't spun any vinyl within any close time proximity. There is an immediacy and involvement in hearing vinyl I just don't get with digital sources.
Turntable technology has come a LONG way since vinyl ruled and you don't need to spend that kinda of money to get most of the benefit.
KEEP the records. Maybe you get a vinyl rig, maybe you don't. But if you do, you'd hate to think you had all this vinyl available that is now gone.
oh yeah keep the vinyl......cd's are a trade off between availability, longevity,and convenience to vinyls superior warmth and sound quality,tempered by the eventual deterioration of the source itself with the accompanying surface noise
Neil YoungOriginally Posted by MJC
JBL S3100, VPI HM19 MKIV w/SAMA, Moerch UP4 ,Hana ML cart, Blackdog VTP , Audio Note M2 line stage, Perreaux PMF 1850.
Even tho I'm still using my old Yamaha turntable, upgrading from a Yamaha amp to Citation 11 pre-amp and Citation 19 amp has improved the sound to be a fuller soundstage, even surround like, on some lps.
But besides that, the L212s connected are also better than the originals. Mirror imaged, CC, and spikes added to the bases. So the source is the same, everything else, in the chain, is much better.
If "having the music move you" is a worthy goal to any, it doesn't necessarily have to be hifi. When my Mom died, I got the job of sorting what to keep of our parents' things, and wishy-washy'd over a 'short stack' of scratched 78s, mostly Big Band, until auction day, when I caved to my bro's "sell 'em". Big mistake.I now have much of the material on CD, but it does little for me, and I'd trade it all back in a heartbeat for those scratchy old copies of Duke's "Little Brown Jug" or "In the Mood", and the leatherette RCA "lifetime stylus" portable they played on.
(Just something to consider if you have children, before tossing your own "worthless" oldies).
Robh3606: I would try to keep you pops collection. You may find some of those recordings are rare and/or unsual.
As for me, most my collection of vinyl records is fairly recent as they contain only 12" 33 1/3 rpm LPs, 12" disco singles in 33 1/3 & 45 rpm, and 7" 45rpm singles from the mid-1960s to about the the late 1970s. But many of my vinyl records are half-speed mastered LPs; from Mobil Fidelity, CBS, Nautilus etc. Many of these are in the relm of semi to collectible status. I am going to digitize as many of these recordings as possible at the highest sampling rate possible to preserve the orginal nuances. The 12" disco singles in either 33 1/2 or 45 rpm sounds amazing good because the record company don't have to cram all of that info on single side and can use the entire side of vinyl by cutting a wide groove and spreading the space between grooves out, which results in deeper bass etc. I will be using a Mirco Seiki DDX1000 turntable with a Shure V15 type IV cartridge. Many of my vinyl records are treated with Ball Corp Sound Guard/Audio Technika Surface Treatment to prevent wear of the grooves where the stylus contacts the vinyl.
I think the pops, ticks, and clicks are part of the experince in listening to a vinyl record. Creative Labs, the company who makes add-on computer sound boards, has bundled software that can eliminate these surface anomolies in vinyl records.
I too was skeptical that the analog vinyl records are superior to CD, But if you look at 2 pictures side-by-side of the same thing, one from film and another a digital, you realize that the film picture is much clearer and colors are more vibrant, truer, and the colors have more of a "snap" to them. In contrast, the digital images appear muted, faded, and lifeless. In digital images, you can record several million colors; in film probably a few billion colors; but in nature there are trillions of colors. I am sure that it happens in sound also.
We are showing our age. I haven't played my copy of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" by Iron Butterfly since the early 1970s, and lately I recently decided to set up my old audo equipment. I actually played "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" by Iron Butterfly on my old Dual 1209 with a Shure M97ED cartridge a few weeks ago, and my 19 year old daughter comes by and says "hey! I've heard that song," and I go WTF!(I was truly surprised) really? It was on the Simpson's TV show. Go figure, the show's creator Matt Groenig must be from our generation.
The Shure V-15 V is a great cartridge for archiving, Sony and a few other companies use them for archiving vinyl. It's got unbeatable tracking adn a flat neutral sound that is fair and even. I use one ( used it tonight) to archive my vinyl into the computer and I'm happy with it.
Shure quit making them last year because the berrilyum used in the cantilever was too hard to get. The needles are available for only 4 more years and that is it. I would get a spare needle if you plan to keep it all.
duaneage: Thanks for the warning. I didn't know that they are going to stop making the stylus for the V15 type IV.
BTW: I also have a Infinity Black Widow GF arm, should be an ideal combonation.
Funny, I haven't used my sound equipment for 20 years or so, and I lost one of the plastic mounting screws for the V15 type IV, I called Shure Parts, and the lady had only ONE last screw kit for this series of cartridges, WHEW! It wasn't the lightweight plastic ones though, this was all steel. Oh well beggars can't be choosers.
Personally for me, after a leave of 20 years from audio, I can't believe there is still so much interest ancient vinyl equipment it is unreal.
Any thoughts on Stanton cartridges?
I used to use the 681 EEE back in the day, but - that was quite a while ago ...
thought, comments?
2ch: WiiM Pro; Topping E30 II DAC; Oppo, Acurus RL-11, Acurus A200, JBL Dynamics Project - Offline: L212-TwinStack, VonSchweikert VR-4
7: TIVO, Oppo BDP103D, B&K, 2pr UREI 809A, TF600, JBL B460
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote