What equipment upgrades or tweaks will improve the sound of drums?

udog:

Having just purchased a few quality vinyl recordings of Elton John after watching Rocketman ignore his band, I’m looking for ways to improve the sound of Nigel Olsson’s drumming.

Most of the above is all good. Especially oregonpapa with the Synergistic Research Blue Quantum Fuses, etc. SR PHT, ECT and HFT are some more that will give you a lot for the money.

But seriously, and this is coming from a guy who has been listening to Elton and Nigel from the beginning, the biggest difference will be if you can get your hands on a really good copy. Which I am sorry to say none of the reissues, MoFi or otherwise, are very good. What the industry hypes as audiophile is really the same old stuff only sometimes on quieter vinyl. And not always that, even. And believe me, having multiple copies, including even multiple copies of MoFi, reissues, and original pressings purchased both new and used, I know.

The situation is so bad that I had just decided Elton was like Springsteen: great music, no good recordings.

That was until I tried Better Records. My White Hot Stamper of Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player is a game-changer. Honky Chateau is genuine demo quality! Not cheap, but worth every penny https://www.better-records.com/search_adv.aspx?sp=elton+john&option=s_name&min_price=1&m...

All the punch and drive of Nigel’s unique kick drum you are ever gonna get is on there. Super articulate bass. Elton palpably, eerily present. His piano, everything, rendered leagues better than any of my other pressings. Seemed insanely spendy at first. But they sound so good the way I look at it now is I finally have records worthy of the system.

Another trick is get yourself a couple of fine 15 inch woofers playing up to 400 Hz. Small speakers and subs nice but they won’t do this. By the way Bruce’s E Street Shuffle is at least to me of reference quality and his artistically peak.

millercarbon >>>

• "Seemed insanely spendy at first. But they sound so good the way I look at it now is I finally have records worthy of the system."

Spot on with the good copies. Tom Port of Better Records gets super-premium prices for his "Hot Stampers." I’ve heard plenty of them before they get to Tom. I have a good friend (Robert) who sells to Tom and he’ll bring them over to my place to play them here first. And sometimes, I end up with Tom’s rejects. Lucky me.

https://www.better-records.com/

Each pressing is so important in getting the best sound, even to the point that I know of collectors (me included) who will have two copies of the same recording because side one, for example, sounds better on one record, and side two will sound better on the other record. And in addition, there are so many recordings that sound better or worse from cut to cut. Same thing for CDs. Yes, we are down-right obsessed.

I wish you were close by. I’d love to dig deep into the vault and pull out some gems for you to hear.

Frank

For me The High Fidelity MC O.5s brought better base. Easy to use and not that expensive in the scheme of things