Right.
I noticed the YouTube thing quite by accident. Listening to a suggested video of a record being played first thing I noticed the sound was quite a bit different than the usual YouTube sound. Of course as we all know, its impossible for anyone to remember complex blah blah, sorry where was I? Oh yeah, so first I went and found a couple videos with the same music and yeah, sure enough, the vinyl sound comes through distinct from the CD sound even on a laptop. Huh.
So there's a channel Let There Be Sound and its all just records playing, only he lists the cartridge, phono stage, etc. Takes a while but listen to enough you get a sense for what character is in common even though the records are all different.
Now I know this is gonna be a hard sell what with most guys out there convinced you have to play the same old same old over and over again everything exactly the same.... sorry, not at all true. Oh it might be a good approach in the beginning when you can hardly hear at all, or when you're stuck in the rut of "no such thing as auditory memory" or whatever. But its a trap and a crutch. Get away from that as fast as you can!
This channel was fascinating especially because at the time I was already pretty keen on Koetsu and Herron, but unable to audition either one. Well this guy had the same Koetsu and the same Herron on different arms and tables, and then sometimes a different cartridge with the Herron and... well you get the picture. It was just like what you would do at home, only on-line. Only a matter of time and listening and I was able to get a pretty good handle on the sonic character of these components.
Then when I did get them home of course they sound nothing like they did on my laptop. And yet they did sound a lot like I expected them to, based on what I heard on the laptop.
In fact this is a really good exercise for anyone serious about becoming a good listener and building a really satisfying music system. Because the two go hand in hand. Never in my life have I met a guy with a great system who was also not a great listener. I doubt it ever happens.
Money has very little to do with it. The better listener you are the better and faster you'll progress with your system.
This is pretty much what Michael Fremer is doing, recording cartridges. And he is, I think we would all agree, a pretty good listener.
