cliveb wrote: > Been away in Australia for a few weeks so late to this thread. Thought > I'd offer my take on it. > > Vinyl LP technology is outdated, seriously flawed and quite frankly a > bit of a dog's dinner. > > And yet - it can sound bloody marvelous. Go figure. My personal opinion > is that it's because human hearing is sufficiently poor that even LP can > be adequate. (I know Arny wouldn't agree). > > Bottom line : mastering quality is more important than the delivery > medium. If the best master is only available on LP, then the LP will > give the most enjoyable listening experience. > > As for the debate over cartridge types, I generally found that low > output MC types gave more "boogie factor" than MM or high output MCs. > Quite possibly less accurate than a decent Shure model, but in the > context of vinyl, accuracy isn't really the point. > > And finally, if you're serious about vinyl, do yourself a favour and get > a vacuum cleaning machine such as a Nitty Gritty, VPI or Moth. Or a > Keith Monks if you're very rich.
Hi Clive! I trust that you had a great time in Australia & am delighted to hear that you are back in Watford unscathed: they DO have some seriously unfriendly + potentially deadly wildlife out there if you get too far from the beach. In either direction! ;) I'm in full agreement with most of your post, which is why I have quoted it in full. I have no idea why Arny is -so- belligerent on this forum, especially to newbies. It is actually an unsolved mystery of the universe, because I have observed him go out of his way to be helpful to newcomers on other forums. I myself had a fairly extended run-in with him when I started posting on here until I bluntly accused him of being rude & (hopefully!) demonstrated that I am NOT a complete idiot either when it comes to hi-fi or other areas of human ignorance (we don't really know anything, as per Socrates... ). Since then I have actually had some interesting discussions with him & have learned a lot of what we think we know! I suppose one must accept that it takes all sorts (sorry, Arny!) & attempt to accentuate the positive. I particularly agree with your comments about mastering & would add that the skill of the recording engineer is also paramount, especially when it comes to classical music: Walter Legge assembled his Philharmonia Orchestra in the 1950s specifically to record their output. But his skill at capturing the balance of an orchestra, especially in the concerto style, is practically unsurpassable. A particular favourite of mine is the 1954 (mono) recording of Mozart's 4 Horn Concertos, with the late great Dennis Brain on French Horn & Herbert Von Karajan conducting in a particularly NON-Teutonic fashion. Of course, you can now get it in a fairly pointless 24bit 96kHz box, but I derived great pleasure from it on a good EMI vinyl pressing in the 1980s. Which brings me to my other point... You reckon that low output MC cartridges *generally* sound better than high output ones: would you carry that generalisation so far as to include my original 1980s Koetsu Rosewood Signature, or would you need to hear it first to make up your mind? Of course, it's -not- perfect (neither am I, wouldn't that be awful? :D ), but it IS very musical! It might be cheaper to replace your discs than to BUY a professional cleaning machine! Does no-one offer a professional record cleaning service with a fixed price per disc anymore? Dave :cool: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Golden Earring's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=66646 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=108834 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
