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Would you buy a turntable?

#151
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7/31/08 at 7:18pm
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Re: Would you buy a turntable?

I purchased one recently for $150 bucks. I like it, but it's not running through phono on my receiver. Does that make a difference? I use the white and red RCA outputs right now.
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#152
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9/23/08 at 11:56am
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Re: Would you buy a turntable?

Last year I picked up one of those USB turntables even though I have my dad's old Yamaha turntable from 1978. I bought it becuase the Yamaha needed repair and it would cost as much to fix that than it would to get a USB turntable. Since all I wanted to do was transfer what I had to CD easily, it was the easiest choice.

So I plugged it in, transferred a few albums and that was the end of it.

Then I had this idea to do something new in the house which was to pick up some old albums and frame them. In doing so I thought about listening to the vinyl I bought on this thing and hear how it sounded. My Denon 5800 has a Phono jack, even though the USB turntable has a "Phono/Line" switch, I stuck with "Phono".

The audio was surprisingly good. I was impressed. Some of the old vinyl I picked up was in very good condition which would make sense since I bought the albums that had covers that were in very good shape.

So then I started buying some of these new reissues, but I haven't done a direct comparison to CD or SACD/DVD-A since I haven't had the time. Also, this turntable suffers from the same problem I've heard for years - that it doesn't reproduce the "S" sound properly. The "S" sound, when sung, smears all over the place, sounding more like a bad hiss. I don't know if I'm going to invest in a better turntable yet, I'm still in the "ZOMG I haven't done this since the 80's, this is fun" stage. If I do, I'll have to research what's a good turntable and cartridge.

Has anyone done direct vinyl-to-digital comparisons, be it CD, SACD, DVD-A, 24/96 (eg: NIN's "The Slip" or "Ghosts")?
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#153
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9/23/08 at 4:54pm
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Re: Would you buy a turntable?

I have done comparisons and my view is this ranking:

1. LP, SACD are the best
2. DVDA 24/192
3. DVDA 24/96
4. CD

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Listening: Sony SCD777ES, Oppo980H, VPI Scoutmaster, Audio Research Electronics, Magnepan 1.6s

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#154
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9/24/08 at 7:09am
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Re: Would you buy a turntable?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike_G
Also, this turntable suffers from the same problem I've heard for years - that it doesn't reproduce the "S" sound properly. The "S" sound, when sung, smears all over the place, sounding more like a bad hiss.
Bad news from someone who's been using LP since it was the dominant format in the 70s. There's no solution for this. There are so many factors involved; if the needle's misaligned or worn it can cause this; worse yet, it can damage records when you play them; exacerbating the situation. If the pressing is bad even if the record is brand new never been played it will cause this. If the record has been damaged by a misaligned needle it will cause this even if played on a perfect uber-expensive system. The problem gets worse on the inside grooves of a record, so that maybe the first song on the side sounds great, but the last song on the side has problems.

These are all reasons that music lovers embraced the Compact Disc Digital Audio System.

Philip Hamm
Moderator Emeritus

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#155
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9/24/08 at 8:14am
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Re: Would you buy a turntable?

"Bad news from someone who's been using LP since it was the dominant format in the 70s. There's no solution for this."

You may just need a better cartridge. Sibiliance is not an issue on a good arm and cart. You may have an alignment or tracking issue.

Viewing: Sony KDSXBR150, Samsung 1400, DirectTV
Listening: Sony SCD777ES, Oppo980H, VPI Scoutmaster, Audio Research Electronics, Magnepan 1.6s

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#156
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9/24/08 at 9:22am
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Re: Would you buy a turntable?

Yes, I own two turntables, and would buy another one if I needed to do so. CDs are fine, but so are LPs for a number of reasons.

I have also found a degree of sibilance on CD recordings, particularly where vocal music is concerned.

And then there is the sibilance heard from Ringo's drums, which can be quite different in degree depending on whether the pressing is U.K. or American.
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#157
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9/24/08 at 12:04pm
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Re: Would you buy a turntable?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike_G
Has anyone done direct vinyl-to-digital comparisons, be it CD, SACD, DVD-A, 24/96 (eg: NIN's "The Slip" or "Ghosts")?

I've done direct comparisons on Dark Side of the Moon and Getz/Gilberto and generally found that SACD sounded the best, followed by LP (if you can ignore some noise) followed by CD. I never did a comparison with any newer CDs.

Lay down your law books now, they're no damned good -- The Eagles

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#158
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9/24/08 at 12:06pm
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Re: Would you buy a turntable?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ockeghem
Yes, I own two turntables, and would buy another one if I needed to do so. CDs are fine, but so are LPs for a number of reasons.

I have also found a degree of sibilance on CD recordings, particularly where vocal music is concerned.

And then there is the sibilance heard from Ringo's drums, which can be quite different in degree depending on whether the pressing is U.K. or American.

This is a good point. Sibilance can be an artifact of the source or the recording.

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#159
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9/24/08 at 1:59pm
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Re: Would you buy a turntable?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee Scoggins

You may just need a better cartridge. Sibiliance is not an issue on a good arm and cart. You may have an alignment or tracking issue.

I was thinking the same thing- a better cartridge perhaps and an alignment tool to make sure it's installed properly.

I have a modest turntable set up (well, expensive to me, but modest to others- LOL!) a Shure MM cartridge (their 2nd best, at the time) and a Technics sl-mk2000 turntable. I used the cartridge alignment tool that came with it and I can't say I've had any problems with sibilance.

But sibilance inherent in original recordings is also a possibility.

"Print-thru" is something else that I discovered early on when upgraded by turtable/cartridge from my plastic shelf-system record player. I didn't know what it was at first, and thought maybe I had done something wrong. I asked a few people on an audio forum, and it was explained to be that it comes from the master tape being on a spool. Parts of the recording transfer to parts of the tape that touch each other, and you can hear it usually right before a song begins- it sounds like a pre-echo of the first few notes of the song.
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#160
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9/25/08 at 6:27am
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Re: Would you buy a turntable?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ockeghem
And then there is the sibilance heard from Ringo's drums, which can be quite different in degree depending on whether the pressing is U.K. or American.
As Lee has pointed out, I think much of that may be inherent to the original recordings.

Philip Hamm
Moderator Emeritus

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#161
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9/25/08 at 10:20am
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Re: Would you buy a turntable?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Philip Hamm
As Lee has pointed out, I think much of that may be inherent to the original recordings.
Agreed.
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#162
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9/27/08 at 8:57pm
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Re: Would you buy a turntable?

Definetely, I have a couple hundred LPs and 45rpms that are not available in any other media and I'm planning to keep them and transfer them to cds.
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#163
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10/16/08 at 2:23pm
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Re: Would you buy a turntable?

Just bought a Music Hall MMF 2.2LE and a relatively inexpensive Vincent Audio - PHO-111- MM/MC - Phonostage. It forced me to upgrade my speaker cables as well. We'll see how it sounds. I like "old" stuff and this fits into that part of my personality - old shaving tools and creams, old looking furniture - etc.
My *No Fluff* Collection
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