Turntable Pre-Echo Sound....?

You can only hear pre-echo during a silent groove, but it actually goes on throughout the LP, and constitutes a form of distortion.

And of course that distortion is inaudible, contrary to the far lower distortion introduced by, say, a digital facsimile of the same recording, which everybody can hear!

Bob P.

04-16-07: Heyitsmedusty
Wow, I can't believe I actually nailed what the sound is called in my post title. It's literally a pre-echo!

I have never heard of this phenomenon. Do more expensive cartridges make this better, or does their better tracking make it worse?

In my experience, line contact type tips usually make this artifact more audible than a conical tip - probably due to taller contact footprint on the groove wall.

This may be one reason that the Denon 103 (which uses a conical tip) actually produces less measurable distortion than some high priced cartridges with line contact tips. I also wonder if this has some bearing on the 'musical', coherent sound that is a feature of the 103.

You can read more on 'groove echo' here.

Eldafort says, "You can only hear pre-echo during a silent groove, but it actually goes on throughout the LP, and constitutes a form of distortion".

Hello, are you sure about this? I have a number of LPs with pre echo. I have never thought about this possibilty.
I must say though that I have never heard any detriment to the sound except for the pre echo. I guess my question would be; are you sure that it continues throught the record or is it lmited to certain areas on the LP? I will listen with this in mind the next time I listen to an LP with pre echo. Certain aberrations on LPs auch as rumble, distortion, groove or vinyl noise can be transient, is pre echo?
Bob

The post-echo and pre-echo occur mostly with loud passages succeeding or preceding quiet ones. When adjacent grooves are about equally modulated, the echo is masked. When levels are moderate, the effect does not occur. Also, good mastering reduces the effect. The idea is to space the grooves wider during loud passages. You can examine a classical LP and see this.