Stereo Separation - Turntable

Casey -- great idea. Thanks.

MnMark -- interesting. Not quite sure how that sound is considered stereo. If my integrated amp had a mono switch, I might actually considering using that on records like this. As for Somethin' Else. Next to "The Cannonball Adderly Quintet in San Fransisco," this is one of my "desert island" albums. Spontaneous Combustion is simply one of the most outstanding tunes ever recorded, IMO, by Cannonball.

That is just typical early Blue Note stereo recording as the engineer Rudy Van Gelder early on did not have a pair of speakers so he hard panned each channel so he could hear it on his mono Altec 604. I think the later recordings are less extreme but many jazz listener just gotten used to that hard left and hard right and it sort of became a trademark of recording of this era. Simply play a mono recording on your turntable and play the same mono CD and you notice there's no difference. If the stereo CD of the same recording is different in terms of soundstaging, then it has been remixed. You just happened to find an extreme case here. There's nothing wrong with you system and this extreme hard pan thing has nothing to do with the intrinsic nature of turntable system. Just enjoy the music.

A test record can be very helpful for base lining things,but I find that the more you understand and "hear" what is going on with the rig that you will make adjustments for the better. This is particularly true with VTA. I also adjust my VTF frequently depending on what I hear with a given disc.This is a subtle change,but one that can make a big difference in the nuances.
As for the VTA;listen to simple acoustic music first and make sure it is not too muddy(arm too low),or too high (arm too high).Then listen to some acoustic jazz that has a decent bass with the same thing in mind.
When you feel that you are in the ballpark,use a vernier caliper and record the height of the arm. That way you can return to the base line point that you have labored over.
If you buy the 180-200g albums you will want to raise it.If you listen to old RCA Dynagroove and Dynaflex records you will want to lower it. These movements are very minor.Of course the high end arms that have VTA "on the fly" where you can adjust it while it is playing makes it a very easy job.And if anyone is skeptical about my methods;go listen to one of the new VPIs with the JMW arm that can be adjusted while playing.You can just turn the know and the sound changes like a tone control.

This kind of fiddling is so much fun and part of the charm.

but you have to be careful.

e

For what it's worth, I have the Mobile Fidelity 'Original Master Recording' CD version of 'Somthin' Else' (AAD) and it is the best-sounding CD I own (as presented by my Meridian 508). It is definitely the hard-pan version, but I love this album! I have an LP 12 but I'm not even thinking of 'going there' i.e. getting a vinyl copy to compare, even though I'll take vinyl over CD most days of the week.

yes, this is typical of many jazz albums. I subscribe to the Music Matters repro's of Blue Notes and there are many that present this way. I can see why it would bother those who look always for how well their system stack up to those audiophile parameters of imaging, soundstage, etc. Personally, I buy these for the music only. I'd bet most would sound best completely in mono. But then all the audiophiles wouldn't know how to act when they hear it. :-)