Help with TT ideas for my first TT
Wow what an experience, were there pops? Yes, did I care not really as it was just part of the experience. Could be a great recording, could be a good cart, could be both but there is some thing special going on for me. The segregation. Of Instruments is just fantastic, I can see the snare and symbol of the drummer, the piano is fantastic, as is the breath of the clarinet. This is what you will find as you go up the analog food chain. Whether it is a better cartridge, table, arm, phono stage, wire, shelf or rack, as they get better the music floats more palpably real on its own in the room. One side effect of this is what you noticed, whatever noise there is, its not only physically lower in volume its psychologically way less noticeable because the music is so damn compelling and real. Which is what I already said, only now you’re actually noticing it. So worth remembering. This effect is true of everything but a little greater with cartridges. That’s because a lot of the time a cartridge isn’t tracing or tracking so much as bouncing around. A lot of what we think is surface noise is actually this bouncing around called jitter. The Soundsmith, Peter Ledermann, has a great video where he discusses this in detail. You are right, there’s huge differences between recordings. Not only that, but between pressings. When your system and ears get good enough you may notice there’s differences from one side to another. Pressing a vinyl LP is very much an inexact science. Often times a very old copy with a lot of surface noise will sound far better than a 200g "audiophile" reissue. There’s even a whole business https://better-records.com/ based entirely on the fact no two copies sound the same. They search out and find only the very best quality copies. They are incredibly expensive. They sound incredibly good. What you have noticed so far is the merest tip of the iceberg. Its part of the magic of vinyl. Listen close, you will see. My system is well into the realm where the music floats, the room disappears, and so maybe that’s why I’m not real OCD about noise and cleaning. But if you are gonna do it, do it right. Get the Walker Enzyme cleaning system. Save a lot of money, skip their overpriced pure water and get the enzyme and cleaner refills. If you get something like a VPI vacuum all the better, just use it only to vacuum off the final rinse. Every record does need to be cleaned, but not often, probably only once. You seem to be a good listener, so here’s a few things you will enjoy- Nobsound springs (see the recent thread on these amazing footers! https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/springs-under-turntable and fO.q tape (search Amazon). |
