Turntable Pre-Echo Sound....?

Wow, I can't believe I actually nailed what the sound is called in my post title. It's literally a pre-echo!

I have never heard of this phenomenon. Do more expensive cartridges make this better, or does their better tracking make it worse?

I saw a cartoon in Stereo Review years ago wherein a customer asked his dealer about hearing the first few notes softly before hearing them at full volume. The dealer replied,

"yes, that's a common phenomenon... YES, THAT'S A COMMMON PHENOMENON..."

Cheers,

Duke

04-16-07: Heyitsmedusty

"Wow, I can't believe I actually nailed what the sound is called in my post title. It's literally a pre-echo!

I have never heard of this phenomenon. Do more expensive cartridges make this better, or does their better tracking make it worse?"

Yes, it's "pre-echo". It comes from two sources:

1) Tape print-through. In thin tape, the strong magnetism from a loud passage can affect the adjacent layers of the tape. This is called "print-through". Good studios avoid this by keeping tapes from winding too tight and frequently rewinding them, so they don't sit in the same position for too long. Also, using thicker base helps, because the tape surfaces are farther apart.

2) Adjacent groove modulation. If grooves are too close together, they can be affected by adjacent ones.

There is no remedy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_Records

"In 1961, Mercury enhanced the three-microphone stereo technique by using 35mm magnetic film instead of half-inch tape for recording. The greater thickness and width of 35mm magnetic film prevented tape layer print-through and pre-echo and gained in addition extended frequency range and transient response. The Mercury 'Living Presence' stereo records were mastered directly from the 3-track tapes or films, with a 3-2 mix occurring in the mastering room."

You can only hear pre-echo during a silent groove, but it actually goes on throughout the LP, and constitutes a form of distortion.

And of course that distortion is inaudible, contrary to the far lower distortion introduced by, say, a digital facsimile of the same recording, which everybody can hear!

Bob P.