Hello, Hi Newbee, Timrhu. What I think we are dealing with first off is energy, there is only so much energy available in the our LPs grooves. It is to our benifit to have that energy available to us as much as possible at all times. Now the idea is to transform that energy and control it. For all of our LPs equally.
"We" all seem to think that records are dynamically challanged. How can that be if we need to adjust our overall gain within even a single cut, no less different LPs? If I have gain enough to produce 110db from one Lp but others play at 80db at the same gain setting is that not alot of dynamics possible that is only limited by the LP we choose to put on? And by what the producer put on the LP?
When the gain level is set at a certain level the electrical energy is there to convert our mechanical energy into music with macro and micro dynamics. We need to have a certain amt of electrical energy available to us at any moment for every LP. Without distortion and whithout noise.
But it must be controlled. It must be controlled at the speakers, at the amp, at the preamp stage, the interface IE phono, cartridge, tonearm, table. And it must also be controlled in the room with its interactions.
Now we dont ever want to overdrive any of our equipment and want "perfect" equipment. This means there is a point where things fall apart from an electrical standpoint and also from a mechanical standpoint.
My "idea" is to get the most out of my system. Why did I have such a hard time in the past? Like most I would fiddle with the volume control. Up and down looking for that correct point for that LP. I always found it limiting. If I turned it up I may have used all of my dynamics, my room overloaded, my speakers distorted, If I turned it down micro detail dissapeared, and I lost the ability for upward dynamics because my electrical and mechanical power was no longer available.
Now this is the way that I tuned my system. I wanted enough dynamics available to me at all times for every LP since we "know" LPs are dynamically limited. I set my volume contol to a comfortable volume. Listen to LPs, what is "correct" what is "wrong" with this setting? Did I have a mid bass bloat? Perhaps, now this would limit me till I could find the problem, was it the crossoverpoint? Did moving the sub help? Or was it something else? I knew I could not go on till I got this correct because it affects every LP. Now assume this corrected, I said to myself now I can turn it up but now there was perhaps a high freq beaming, move the chair adjust the toe in of speakers, fix first reflection point whatever it takes. Perhaps it was a problem with rumble in the table we know that we dont want to listen to that so why go past my gain setting when now that rumble will be there and exacerbated by doing this? You have to fix this and on and on. Doing this gave me the greatest micro and macro dynamic range, not just upward but also to the noise floor. I will have to refine this thought as while even to me this seems simplistic and obvious, is it? The main thing is listen to all of your LPs at the same level and take time doing this. If you listen at lower levels do not make any adjustments while listening there.
But what I am really trying to do here is to never excede the sytem capabilities and room interaction while still maintaing maximum dynamics within your systems capabilities. The thing is there is no LP out there that should overload your system or room. No LP that is cut too low. If your system is not able to handle the dynamics of any Lp there must be something wrong somewhere. If the bass is correct on this LP but the high freq are not adj/tune the high freq. If the bass sounds bloated or slow correct it or realise that is the way the LP sounds.
If any LP is so far off, do we want to adjust our system for this? No. There is a certain correctness, if you will, and it has little to do with the overall volume. I would put certain records aside to reexamine later and have found that they were neither "too loud or too soft" but due to my system settings they appeared that way. Also we must understand that some records are to be played loud or soft, New Age Steppers (dub music) will play loudly, spoken word will play naturally. Of course some producers/artists got this more correct than others, but dont throw the baby out with the bath water. A LP is what it is, listen to it and find the limitations that are obscuring details or that are inherent in that recording. Noise is another factor pops clicks, inherent noise or rumble in a particular LP, this will not change now from LP to LP and with the volume set correctly should minimise this problem, though big pops will still be present and with the dynamics in my system be scarey. But I for one am most certainly not adjusting my system to a noisy LP.
Now when I did this with my system, I achieved a naturalness and correct overall volume with all LPs. NO one LP has an advantage due to "equalising" with the volume control. You hear each LP for what it really is. That is one of my audiophile goals.
Hey Mechams, should you really be diagnosing people over the internet? Are we not here as a discussion forum? Have I offended you? And please keep your wife out of this, if she has something to say to me let her do the "talking"
Bob
