Is this why my analog rig isn't so hot?

George,

The light tracking weight is great, it seems to get much more out of a cartridge. I try to keep my 103r under 1.8 if I can. My next cartridge will most likely be a Shelter, unless I can find a good deal on an RSP. As far as VTA goes, get it where you like the sound and forget it. Even thought I bought the nifty little VTAF, I rarely "screw" with it now.

Impedence sounds good, should be OK. I hate screwing around with that kinda thing. That's why I bought the Supratek.

As far as classical goes, ask Doug! He is very knowledgable about what pressings sound best. I'd like to hear those Parlaphones! I have a bunch of BI lps that I break out once in a while, just to remember the "old days" when I started buying albums. Some great pressings!

Ah, the things we go through....

Crespo, I'm going to take you to school. Stay tuned...

Sweet!!! Just what I need- more school!

Michael

Crespo, CD’s have *perfect* pitch, ultra low noise floor and excellent dynamic range. Vinyl cannot match digital in those departments. When glare and other artifacts are removed from a digital playback system, the resulting sound is stunning. So stunning that a friend of mine with a CEC TL1 & a couple high performance DACs hasn’t yet set up a new Nottingham Anna Log turntable because he’s truly satisfied with his digital rig ( *seductive* is the term he uses ). One of the 1200 modders has a unit that is beyond the KAB mods and e-mailed me his modded CEC transport/DCS DAC and the TT sound pretty close to each other. People with higher CEC transports and high performance DACs are extremely satisfied. The Black Gate capacitors in my modded belt drive transport finally broke in this week. The improvement has been nothing but breathtaking. Speed, attack, decay, noise floor and soundstage have improved in no small measure. My 20 year old neighbor used the term “the music wraps you” to describe the unexpected change. Perhaps things are different with a 30-50K turntable, but in the real world digital sound can be so good we’re just talking about “different flavors”, as my friend with the Nottingham Anna Log says. I strongly suggest you do your homework. Too bad Danny Boy turned you down. You'd start to see the light...

As for why I listen to records, the answer is because it's a medium. The vast majority of my music is in LP format, something like 900 LPs vs 200 CDs. Such is life. I started working on improving digital because I got tired of seeing exhorbitant prices in eBay of classic Latin LPs that were readily available on CD for $15 or so. My efforts payed off and I learned from the people I've mentioned thtat I'm on the right track (unless I buy a $30-50K TT instead of a house).

Jphii, I listen to all kinds of music except racist and satanic. If I only listened to salsa I would have horn speakers, not my Modwright Swans mini monitors. When I took my 1200 to Kevin for installation of the outboard power supply I took along my favorite salsa record. Kevin has his own DIY horn system with a 7 feet wide bass horn. WOW!!! WOW!!! WOW!!!

The modded 1200 is a neutral sounding deck and will prove more adequate than a lesser belt drive to plow through complex orchestral passages . That’s exactly where stylus drag effects would be most noticeable. A properly designed & built TT should not be able to play one type of music better than another.

With psychic power & primal intensity,

***

Psychicanimal: I think that you don't know many things about CD technology and you speak like the sales people that when the CD born: " perfect sound for ever", like you that people really did not know anything about the CD limits: first than all: frecuency response for this 16 bits technology: 22khz, this restriction in the high frecuency response of the CD is one of the parameters that's why the CD sounds hard at the top and with a less air than the LP, this is why the CD sound is an unnaturally sound, it is not the " natural music sound " like the LP sound. Anyone that hear ( blind ) a CD knows it is hearing a digital sound ( your trainy brain don't do a mistake ), maybe your brain it is already accustom to the CD sound but this is very far from: " perfect sound for ever ". There are other parameters inside the CD technology that prevent that " perfect sound ..", like jitter, filters at the extreme frecuencies, etc....
BTW, you speaks of Black Gate caps in your CD transport, this means that the signal pass inside those caps ( a bad design ), dear friend the best cap is NO CAP.
You speak too of the soundstage improvement in your audio sound reproduction: I want to ask you: when you go to some place to hear/dance salsa ( live ), how can you perceive that " soundstage "? where do you have to seat ( stay ) for perceive it ? in which manner do you hear it?, BTW: how many hours of live music do you hear every week?
The CD medium is a " mass medium " a " business/comercial medium " and today a part of this CD medium it is at its top of its technology by high-end standards at a very high price ( 10K to 40K ), but even at this level can't compete with a similar analog rig.
Now, if you want to talk about 24bits digital technology then that is another issue, here this technology it is , at least, at the same level of the analog and in some circunstances can surpass the analog sound reproduction.
Now, about your KAB: till today ( including KAB ) the only direct drive turntables that stay at the top end of the belt drive technology are: Technics SP10MK3 and Denon DP 100, period.
Regards and always enjoy the music.
Raul.