CD vs. SACD vs. DVD-Audio vs Vinyl vs...

In most studios there are Lexicon Reverbs and Yamaha reverbs,( some even had a plate in the ground or a feed to the hallways). When I bought the Yamaha DSPA-1 (recently sold) I recognized some of the DSPs' as the reverb settings from their $10,000 reverb units! Now you can buy a DSP-A1 fot $1200 and get better sound fields than many studios have. In the same way, I hope the expensive SACD format will become the everyday format in the near future. *Carl, I will try to listen to one of the high end turntables at Singer Sound in the next few weeks if it can be arranged. I saw one in their biggest room that cost $20,000.In that same room I listened to the JMLab Utopias $70,000, with two enormous Krell amps, $120,000 each and although it was impressive in some ways it did not move me at all. The two other people listening with me agreed that they were a bit dull! Can you imagine, over $300,000 worth of gear and it sounded boring. We stepped into the next room and put on Ricki Lee Jones' "Horses" album (DDD,..digital all the way) using almost the same system as described in the earlier post,(DCS, Delios, Purcell,Avalons, Conrad Johnson etc. This was expensive gear but it didn't require a mortgage just a big loan and it blew the doors off of that other system. I guess it takes some serious money to get up to the highest end but it is a lot of fun to try to get as close as possible to that benchmark on a budget, by choosing the right combination of equipment. I wish that I was nearby some of you and could participate in a listening session or two.* Vinyl guys, with the higher end systems you have does record wear present significant problems?

The only wear I've dealt with is that done by bad and unclean styli and setup thru the years (of other people), on vintage LP's. Some say they can be brought back to good condition, but that's more hope than reality. Just a thought, but you should seek out Michael Fremer if you want to know about vinyl. He currently is the vinyl guy for Stereophile magazine. I think he lives in NYC. Read every "Analog Corner" and review he's done there over the past 5 years (before you try to meet him), and you'll know plenty. Sorry to hear about your poor health. Hope you feel better soon. BTW, I think YOU should get the prize for the longest backstory of something...heh heh. Kidding only.

Carl, How many times can you play an LP before it shows signs of wear under the best circumstances? I remember them losing some of the higher frequencies after a few plays on a fairly decent rig.

That's a very tough call, and would vary with the vinyl formulation. Maybe 10 or 15 times with a good hard vinyl surface, maybe 3 to 8 times with a soft one. It's almost imperceptable, so maybe the treble range above 15kHz loses about .2 dB with every 10 to 20 plays (past the first 10). IT VARIES MORE THAN THAT GOING FROM OUTER TO INNER GROOVE, USUALLY, from the surface velocity decrease. With the best tracking cartridges, this particular effect might be below audibility. And sometimes, it was compenstated for during that particular LP's manfacturing process. But there are far bigger transgressions than this, like faulty RIAA curve settings for the cutting amplifier. I use Gruv Glide every time I play a side usually, along with this five step process (others will disagree, and they're wrong...heh heh, kidding...sort of): Clean the stylus with the Benz brush; An older bottle of Last #4 on the stylus; then a newer one; then Record Research Lab #9; then Last #5. I try to let it dry for 30 seconds or more between each application. I do this for every record side played. If the cantilever suspension turns grey (dried out) after a year or two, I apply Armor All with the end of a toothpick, directly onto the rubber (carefully!). You have to do it upside down, so take the arm off first, or else take the cartridge off. Works great.

Bmpnyc, great story about the industry. Do you know Russ Burger from JPR, the design group for Sony/CBS. He and I used to work together when I was a rep for a bunch of audio lines some years ago. He too ran a Recording studio, and even did some work for commercials as well. His experience with JPR landed him the job of keeping Woody Allen's NYC apartment quiet and isolated from the annoying sound of the nearby elevators. Russ absolutely hated CD, and the last time I spoke to him, he seemed to have not changed his mind. On to the other topic, your comments about digital imaging being new is true, compared to film. And true too, the CD is 20 years old. However, the CD format was set "in stone" 20 years ago and cannot be altered or there would be compatibility problems. And digital imaging can and does change frequently, as different systems are introduced. The good news is with digital cameras, at least the professional versions, is that it need only fit the existing "film" cameras in the area where normally the "old" film format goes. The primary ones are designed to fit professional cameras like I use, Hasselblad, and view formats like the Sinar 4X5 camera from Switzerland. Back to audio, the comment about listening to a turntable, I hope that it will be with a great cartridge, tonearm, and superior phono stage. If not, you still will not have heard analog at it's best. I have stated in other postings that I would love for digital to be in my system, and I was sincere. Perhaps things have changed drastically since three years ago when I had my big digital "shoot out". I had Theta, Krell, Number Cruncher, Wadia, Sonic Frontiers, Barclay, CRC, Audio Research to name a few. The tests went on for almost seven months, and end the end I was frustrated. I could not find a digital system that delivered the quality of resolution that my high end turntable did. By the way, if you are looking to test a turntable, go no lower than the big VPI or Basis. It would be Preferable to listen to a Walker or Clear Audio.