Can anyone explain the vinyl renaissance?

[computer-audiophile]

Where do you draw the line for minimal And why? I’m just curious. I love my full auto.

What can I say. My car also has a manual gearshift.

 

[mhardy6647]

Where do you draw the line for minimal And why? I’m just curious. I love my full auto.

Realizing that this question wasn't directed towards me --I feel inclined to note that I don't even have damped cueing.
I try to go easy on the caffeine when I am in a mood to spin a few disks.

 

[IPunchCholla]

What can I say. My car also has a manual gearshift.

None of my cars even has a traditional transmission! One is a single gear electric, the other has a planetary gear. Not sure if that is more minimal or not.

 

[IPunchCholla]

Realizing that this question wasn't directed towards me --I feel inclined to note that I don't even have damped cueing.
I try to go easy on the caffeine when I am in a mood to spin a few disks.

Go to a foot powered flywheel drive (like some minimalist potters use on there throwing wheels) and I’ll be super impressed!

 

[MattHooper]

I more see it as me saying the companies have the burden of proof, especially when it should be pretty easy for them to provide it. Their claims are often wilder than this one as are those of their customers. But the broad specs sometimes provided are often enough to discount the claims. It's not like there are luminaries behind many of these companies. I'll take Sony's engineering team from the 1980s over anyone today. Back then R&D was backed by the biggest companies in the world. Incredible money and manpower. What compares to that today?

Here's a wonderful example of a lower-tier turntable performing well on this spec. 1980, close enough. I can corroborate as mine performs extremely well too. Even today. There is a modest amount of measurements on this site. I recommend you check them out as they are super informative and fun to read.

Fun with vinyl measurements

33rruert2 The phone app has an error deviation, 33.4 gives stationary strobe lines (33.336 with stylus in groove. Cannot hear any wow in music , but can on test record tone, depends on record centering also of course ok.. ;-) (2sigma?) a recent revision of rpm and wow on android seems to have...

audiosciencereview.com

Thanks.

I think we are close to the same place in remaining skeptical about the claims made for current high end turntables. But instead of making a claim that most new turntables are crap, I would switch to your current position that the companies bear a burden of proof.

 

[computer-audiophile]

Realizing that this question wasn't directed towards me --I feel inclined to note that I don't even have damped cueing.
I try to go easy on the caffeine when I am in a mood to spin a few disks.

This is a very nice example. I would adopt that one immediately.

A minimalist example in my own way:

 

[Doodski]

Where do you draw the line for minimal And why? I’m just curious. I love my full auto.

I had a fully manual beautiful J A Michell and a Technics quartz lock fully auto turntable and I decided to just use the Technics fully auto and skip all the issues with the fully manual and difficult to calibrate J A Michell. The Technics did everything the Michell could do and more. Fully auto is the way to go in my opinion.

 

[USER]

Realizing that this question wasn't directed towards me --I feel inclined to note that I don't even have damped cueing.
I try to go easy on the caffeine when I am in a mood to spin a few disks.

Sony PS-2250 on thevintageknob.org

vintage Sony turntable bestseller with TTS-2500 drive and many custom bases and tonearms

www.thevintageknob.org

"At the heart of all of these versions is the 15kg TTS-2500 LP drive which replaced the 1967 belt-driven TTS-3000 in 1971 : direct-driven servo motor equivalent (but less powerful) to the big league TTS-4000."

So if I am reading correctly, it uses one of Sony's first DD motors. Very cool. 0.04% RMS W&F (then at least). VERY VERY COOL.

 

[MattHooper]

I would never buy anything but an automatic TT (auto-return at the very least). Falling asleep or walking away and forgetting about the record is a good way to wear out an expensive stylus / cart.

An audiophile friend and I were just asking ourselves why our high end/expensive turntables weren't automatic...at the very least auto return. We spent a bunch of money, the damn thing out to play the record for me!

He actually uses one of those little lifter things you can buy that lifts the arm at the end of a record. I might get one myself. Not because I'm prone to forgetting about a record playing, but more to do with my having the occasional record with a bad run-out grove (as in running the cartridge straight into the label!).

 

[mhardy6647]

What can I say. My car also has a manual gearshift.

Funny you should mention that.
I've actually been thinking about posting a similar reflection.



I am pleased to report that everyone in my immediate family knows how to operate one of these. Both of our kids own at least one vehicle with a manual transmission - which pleases me to no end. Much, much less to go wrong with 'em, too.

There's also the matter of the clock in our living room.



Actually, clocks -- there are three of the wind-up, tick-tock* kind in the living room.
The big one's the most photogenic, though.

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day...


______________
* Not to be confused with TikTok.

 

[mhardy6647]

Sony PS-2250 on thevintageknob.org

vintage Sony turntable bestseller with TTS-2500 drive and many custom bases and tonearms

www.thevintageknob.org

"At the heart of all of these versions is the 15kg TTS-2500 LP drive which replaced the 1967 belt-driven TTS-3000 in 1971 : direct-driven servo motor equivalent (but less powerful) to the big league TTS-4000."

So if I am reading correctly, it uses one of Sony's first DD motors. Very cool. 0.04% RMS W&F (then at least). VERY VERY COOL.

There are those who, to this day, laud the performance of those early Sony DDs.
They are held in very high regard in -- certain circles.
I am quite happy with the one that's here.

 

[MattHooper]

If I were going totally for blingy, this is my kind of blingy. The Tentogra Oscar turntable:

I love a big beautiful slab of wood and combination of beautiful materials.

Another version:

The European designer is big in to architecture and paid tribute to one of his favourite architects, Oscar Niemeyer, with the turntable taking visual cues
from this old Niemeyer design: Brazilian National Congress, the work of Oscar Niemeyer

 

[antcollinet]

If I were going totally for blingy, this is my kind of blingy. The Tentogra Oscar turntable:

I love a big beautiful slab of wood and combination of beautiful materials.

Another version:

The European designer is big in to architecture and paid tribute to one of his favourite architects, Oscar Niemeyer, with the turntable taking visual cues
from this old Niemeyer design: Brazilian National Congress, the work of Oscar Niemeyer

Apart from a tilt of the hat to the building - what is the function of the domed black thingy on the left? I assume it has one - else I'll be annoyed.

 

[GXAlan]

I would not buy because I am a purist, respectively minimalist.

What if it were fully mechanical like a mechanical watch or automaton?

Do you enjoy music alone or do you enjoy the opportunity to let others touch your turntable?

 

[USER]

If I were going totally for blingy, this is my kind of blingy. The Tentogra Oscar turntable:

I love a big beautiful slab of wood and combination of beautiful materials.

Another version:

The European designer is big in to architecture and paid tribute to one of his favourite architects, Oscar Niemeyer, with the turntable taking visual cues
from this old Niemeyer design: Brazilian National Congress, the work of Oscar Niemeyer

One of my old advisors once told us of being invited to Brasilia by Oscar Neimeyer and how kind and generous he was to them. In private he regretted a lot of his work. Academia and the world of architecture hasn't been kind to his major project and I think he realized why. But no doubt his individual buildings were often marvels.

 

[MattHooper]

Apart from a tilt of the hat to the building - what is the function of the domed black thingy on the left? I assume it has one - else I'll be annoyed.

I don't see any explanation for it in this review:

Tentogra Oscar Turntable

Tentogra Oscar Turntable review

positive-feedback.com

So I think you'd be annoyed.

One of my old advisors (a psychoanalytic theorist, with a architect partner--and, no, I am not a psychoanalyst and I'll probably delete this as in some circles I am giving it away) once told us of being invited to Brasilia by Oscar Neimeyer and how kind and generous he was to them. In private he regretted a lot of his work. Academia and the world of architecture hasn't been kind to his major project and I think he realized why. But no doubt his individual buildings were often marvels.

Heh.

The architects I know are the most caustic and opinionated people I know. (Which I don't mind, fun to hear strong opinions).

 

[USER]

Heh.

The architects I know are the most caustic and opinionated people I know. (Which I don't mind, fun to hear strong opinions).

A Stephen Malkmus line I always liked is,

"architecture students are like virgins with an itch they cannot scratch,

never build a building till you’re 50, what kind of life is that?"

 

[antcollinet]

.....

So I think you'd be annoyed......

Yes - I'm afraid details like that which have no function just remind me of the cheap and fake ass "tweeters" on old Amstrad speakers from the 80s.

 

[Bob from Florida]

I am generously defining crap as anything that performs worse than a middle class product from the late 1970s, which generally includes both the low and high end. This I think would be fair with any other audio product. I don't understand your starting position, which can be read as stating that we should expect high end turntables with no specs or any history of acknowledging proper measurement protocols to be SOTA and we must prove it otherwise as if these companies have any standing with people that really know this stuff. Starting from the marketer's position is odd to me.

Here's a $2800 Clearaudio Concept. Certainly does the job in the way, say a 70dB SINAD DAC would, but this would not be considered high end in 1979. Certainly you could do much better for $666 then or more with pre-pandemic money equivalent.

View attachment 303407

Good luck finding out the effective mass of the tonearm. Before I sold this I contacted them and they don't even know. That's a sign that it isn't a serious turntable. Now, I would not ever judge someone if they bought it and loved it even for the looks. I could care less, but to me there is also beauty in great engineering. Luckily there are people that measure their turntables, including fancy ones, and share the info with others.

I have a Clearaudio Performance DC with the Satisfy Carbon arm. I am also quite familiar with the Concept - having setup several for a dealer friend. The Satisfy Carbon often is paired with the Concept - mass is 7 grams. One unique thing about all the Clearaudio tables is the arm board is mounted on a concentric or a swing arm. This allows you to adjust the spindle to arm pivot distance without having to drill a new arm board. Their products are expensive but they do work relatively well and critical parts are of good quality.

 

[Muddywaters]

what is the function of the domed black thingy on the left? I assume it has one - else I'll be annoyed.

Obviously a cup holder. Keeps a mug warm and chills when called for

Interesting design