Establishing a common analog listening bias

Hi Axel, do lower the SME V (I know - not that easy...) until your VTA is complaint to the groove-angle - no matter what pressing of the Belafonte set.
Once achieved the soundstage will open up and all a sudden the audience with lots of indiviadual voices in clear separation and many precise echos from the walls and galleries are there.
They are there.
If you do not hear them ....yet .... it is a matter of not matching VTA.
Every sonic statement about a front-end component - cartridge, tonearm or preamp - given WITHOUT precise groove-angle-compliant VTA adjustment is NULL AND VOID.
When Raul mentioned in another thread that he does not care about this, I knew instantly that all his sonic descriptions are a hollow joke and without any content.
If you do not care about compliant VTA - RECORD GROOVE COMPLIANT ! - then all your other efforts to improve your analog system are futile from the start.
Much lesser systems will outperform yours for a fraction of the money.
Fact of life - not my fault.
The sonic result then is always something by chance - not what is precisely engraved.
People may accuse me of being overly insistive on the precision in set-up, but you simply waste your US$, RAND, YEN, EURO and Pesos alike if you do not work precisely and if your VTA is not adjusted to the cutting angle with which the groove of the LP on your platter was cut.
Again - if you do not hear something the other does - it neither means the other is longing for enhancing distortions or has a strange sounding system.
It might very well be that his VTA is just precisely aligned - and yours is not.

Its a tricky game - but this was common knowledge in 1988 among all serious record collectors with audiophile orientation.
Talking about knowledge getting lost....
Cheers,
D.

D.
I hear what you say, and as such there can be no argument.

If however everything (voices, instruments) sounds just right, and the applause does not (it's what I try to relate) then it doesn't sound like a VTA issue to me.

Unless, we are saying that applause is the 'new' guide-line in setting VTA, and not the voice/instrument.
It would mean we have to go from 'voicing' to 'applaucing'?

I do know that lesser resolving systems make applause sound more like water falling. But a good resolution makes it clear it is actually water and not 'white noise' also (if it is water :-) --- which is fine as far as my speakers go.

By the way, the percussion / cymbal work on the "Time Out" is pretty well captured, unfortunately not all of the piano.
Also there is a more recent HDCD of "Time Out" and I could argue that my rather old LP still sounds better, more palpable.
But is this LP still or again available, to your knowledge?
A.

Dear Dertonarm: +++++ " When Raul mentioned in another thread that he does not care about this, I knew instantly that all his sonic descriptions are a hollow joke and without any content. " +++++

that is not exactly because any one ( " even me. " ) knows the importance on the subject but in my " day by day " I enjoy the music in a splendid way ( very near of that " perfection ". ) with out the little " stress " to put every single track right on set-up.
I only make this when I'm testing or making some comparison between audio items. Things has to be more simple to enjoy the music and if you are not capable to enjoy the music near that " perfection " I can understand that.

My very first target is to enjoy the music in the best way using my time to hear and enjoy that music letting to the ocasion that I need to do it put that near " perfection " set-up ( day by day ) to a " perfect " set-up on the tracks that I need it because you know that even in the same record " things " change due to our analog imperfect world.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Dear Raul, absolutely no problem.
If you are used to and fine and fully satisfied driving every day with an old VW Beetle for pure enjoyment that is totally o.k.
No need to give comments on the technical aspects and behaviour in extreme driving situations about a Ferrari or Audi RS8 then - thats all I meant and I am happy to learn that you agree.
Cheers,
D.

Dear Axel,
ambient and individual details in a fairly quite audience are about the utmost low level information engraved in a record. All the other sonic details with higher level can and will long be present. The most tiny details do only come up when the polished area of the stylus is as close to 100% aligned to the groove walls as possible.
Logic - isn't it.
Time Out is readly available currently and gets my vote for one of the finest recorded and most interesting Jazz albums ever.
Cheers,
D.