To Fxsuperglide
Thanks for your helpful posting and for your email. I'll give it a try. |
Yep! I totally understand EXACTLY what you're saying! Occasionally I will put on a record without checking for off-center and upon listening, I can clearly notice the problem. This is due to the center hole not being exactly centered (if you want to hear a perfect example of wow, use a junk turntable and junk 45, remove the 45 center, and purposely off-center the record, then place the stylus on the record and listen - this may be an extreme example, but it'll give you an idea). So what do I do about this problem?
(Short of trying to find a rare used Nakamichi turntable, which centers the off-centered record) What one can do is simply find where the groove "run out" is at it's extreme, then inconspicuously mark the label at that point, then carefully file that edge of the center hole until it rests against the spindle and allows the record to be centered. This takes trial and error but it's totally well worth the effort for the listening experience, no matter what. In my view, the record, no matter how valuable price-wise, is totally worthless if one can't actually listen to it just because of an off-centered hole.
Perhaps this is only one of several reasons (and I often say) CDs were immediately embraced by the "mainstream press and public" (if only they had real analog systems to listen to, then the industry would've been forced to refine the CD invention further before releasing it to the public market - unfortunately the industry brainwashed us that the 16bit 44.1k format was it! ....even then I asked myself, if CD was so "perfect" as they said, then why'd we need 8 times oversampling, etc etc? - but I guess I'm getting into another subject matter altogether so I'll end it here).
My thoughts.
......Paul |
Hey, happens to me all the time...I put on a record, and go "Wow!" :-0 |
Hodie,
Thanks for the post because I too hear it sometimes.
I attribute it to the spindle hole not being perfectly center on some recordings and the platter having a slight wobble (up & down by a 1/32") every rotation thus affecting the tracking force.
Take a close look at the headshell & see if it remains perfectly level for each rotation.
Just a hunch.
Steve |
Ohhwy61,
I have "the" perfect pitch: the ol' wobble ball. By the way, is that Hwy.61 through the Delta? Anyhow, I'm mighty envious of everybody who isn't tormented by wow. Thanks for the feedback. |
Hodie:
You might look into devices that further stabilize the motor. Albert Porter uses one for instance. |
While it could be a problem with your turntable, it's more likely that you are simply hyper-sensitive to this type of distortion. Digital doesn't have wow, but that doesn't mean you'll be able to tolerate it's various types of distortion either. Hopefully, that's not the case. Do you have perfect pitch? |
I don't believe it's my record player. I have struggled with the problem from my first Philips 212, to a Thorens 165, and on to a Merrill/Triplanar IV. I can't believe that all my records are warped, nor that all the center holes are off-center. Must just be me. |
I've owned a lot of turntables over the years and can't say I've had much of a problem with wow at all. Either you're hyper-sensitive to this type of anomaly, or as others have suggested, there is something wrong with your turntable and/or records. |
You must have a defective turntable. |
It's a very rare record that I notice any wow recorded into it. If it is happening to you alot, I would suspect the turntable is having a problem. |
PS: For what it's worth, it was once suggested to me that mainly those of poor health are the ones who are most sensitive to this issue.
I don't usually care for catch-all statements, but without going into detail did find the premise interesting. |
Many people are not bothered by WOW (or the "hunting" of various DD designs).
I generally find it to be more of a mild irritant than something actually heard as variations in pitch/tempo (we are talking decent decks here), which may explain why many are not affected by it.
I have not had this problem with any of my Thorens belt drives, but recall experiencing it with earlier Rega Belt drives (read they remedied the problem with later models) and most of the 70's/80's DD designs. It seemed that the DD's with complex speed control systems ended up being the worst offenders.
In this regard there is/was a killer vintage belt drive Sony deck that I would love to listen to again (if not own). It was highly praised for it S/N ratio, but I enjoyed it for its "kink free" sound. I'm not certain if it was a pro model, or not, as the only people I knew who owned them worked @ or owned radio stations and it was used primarily for transferring LP's to tape.
Unfortunately I can no longer remember the model number (knew it a few years ago:-).
Does anyone know about this deck (don't think that it came with an arm)? |
Yeh, nothing like a sustained note with vibrato (when its supposed to remain a steady tone). I don't notice this as much on opera records. If it were just the turntable it would be one thing, but is usually gets in the grooves during cutting. The good news is high quality records rarely exhibit those problems nor do high quality turntables. When I run accross a record that does this - it goes to charity (Goodwill haunters beware!) |
????????????????????????please elaborate...what are you talking about? kurt |
