Can anyone explain the vinyl renaissance?

[Count Dacula]

It makes me think about platter feedback and dancing people making the record skip. Clearly a superior format....

Here we go....
newOrder had it right in 1983, Fly in to NYC, cut a track at the studio, have Arthur Baker cue it up in the DJ booth at the Fun House, and let it rock....without skipping the beat

Well, I guess they didn't "cut" a track, in the classic sense of a 12 inch dub plate, but the Reel to Reel was an interesting choice, it averts all the other ills of vinyl playback....not just skipping. Burning a track last second for a gig is just amazing sitting here 40 years later. DJs used to ask me to have Dubs made for them, but I never got around to it and certainly it wouldn't be prepared last second. Sofa King cool, but STILL not everyone gets it.

JD NO and 24HRPP draw a timeline striat thru my life.

 

[OldHvyMec]

I think it weird how older folks are so bass-adverse. That is, other than a Bozak, none of these old farts ever heard a sound system with bass. So when they eventually do, they find the bass intrusive and unnerving.

So where is the breaking point for "old Farts" I've been listening to SERIOUS BASS since the mid-70s with Infinity servo BASS columns and quite a few of my friends
have too. Then on to VMPS where the speakers were used at NASA in their simulation of the Saturn 5 and Space Shuttle liftoffs.

I think you're referring to the unrealistic boom mobiles disturbing the peace in neighborhoods that resemble NOTHING in nature, music reproduction, or anything else that is even close to real life.

What amazes me is the neighbor down the street who thinks his 11.10.6 system sounds good when in fact it sounds horrible. The dumb shit has had the police called so
many times he just opens the door and accepts his ticket from the local PD.

He is DEAF, that is the difference. He wouldn't know what fidelity was if it was dressed in pink and had a chastity belt on.

What are you the "Boom Box" era?

I was born in the mid 50s, my wife in the early 50s.

My dad was born in 1928 and he had WD Wings and then on to JBL C45 Rangers. Brother, they had all the BASS you needed. Sub was at least in the 40hz range.

The old country western might fool you, how bass heavy they could be. They didn't have SUBS if that is what you're referring to.
We had an old Studer Reel to Reel with some DEEP bass tracks on tape. I still use a Studer and an Otari B2B with direct head playback. 20hz was/is no problem.

The Disco era was pretty bass-heavy too. At least it sounded good. Motown music, Gram Central Station, James Brown, Carlos.
Definite Boom Boom in the Room Room.

KIDS!

Regards

 

[Count Dacula]

Ok, .1% of households...

 

[egellings]

It’s both a toy to play with - in the sense I love playing with sound and sound reproduction equipment - as well as a way I enjoy listening to music.

Is that really hard to understand?

It’s quite clear that this forum is full of people who like to play with equipment in various ways.

Agree. Why can't one enjoy fiddling with equipment as well as enjoy the music after the eguipment is properly fiddled? Why can't both be enjoyed concurrently?

 

[Count Dacula]

How old am I? I wore my pants down low before it was cool.

Clearly demonstrated here, the GenX thing is a harsh cutoff point.

 

[Sal1950]

Fast forwards to now, thirty years on, All my once well received pickups 'sound' too dull/laid back to me now (turning the 'treble' up to compensate doesn't work so well) and the upper-mid level pickups I aspire to with a bit more 'sparkle,' are going to set me back three hundred or so quid, to play maybe one record a week at current rates.

What type of needles were/are you fav poison, MM, MC ?

Agree. Why can't one enjoy fiddling with equipment as well as enjoy the music after the eguipment is properly fiddled? Why can't both be enjoyed concurrently?

So much music, so little time.
With vinyl the "fiddling" is constant and never ends.
Just to play a "record" requires like 5 minutes of fiddling having to get the record on the table, clean it. clean the needle. set the tonearm in position and lower it. Then jump up to raise the arm, flip to the other side and go thru the whole ritual all over again. I'm getting tired just thinking about it. LOL

 

[Count Dacula]

 

[krabapple]

Out of interest - what is the mechanism by which these ultrasonics are added with your switch? There is no information in a 16/44.1 file/stream/cd for any system to "extrapolate" to add them.

Please see discussion of high frequency 'restoring' apps here (and NB that they are discussing frequencies within the audible range, where it could actually make a difference)

https://www.reddit.com/r/audioengineering/comments/lmjw8u/is_it_possible_to_restore_high_frequencies_in_a

 

[krabapple]

Most *conventional* cutters tended to resonate at around 15kHz I remember and got very hot and bothered if pushed over this frequency. I agree that MP3s I have roll off at 14kHz or so (so typical cassette response without the hiss) but this doesn't matter to me now sadly...

But that's not necessary; it's a choice. You can make MP3s that keep higher frequency content, all the way up to 20.5 kHz

 

[krabapple]

I try to be an objective person, as much a scientist as Robert Pollard I guess. Hell I have an engineering degree ffs, and took the CD class as an elective, but still I understand the brain can play tricks. I would love to make it a DBT but don't have the means. I would love for digital to whup dat ass on vinyl and ditch the inconvenience, but it simply doesn't. It's a close race aurally even if it isn't on paper. I'm married to my turntable at this point, it is end game and I expect it to last me the rest of my life, to offset the substantial cost. It's either/or, where both is an option and I must have both analogue and digital sources, I just got to.

May I respectfully suggest that vinyl probably won't ever sound truly 'the same' as your digital sources and that sub-consciously, your speakers have maybe been balanced to your tastes around the (unknown) vinyl source you use, so 'digital' maybe sounds a bit charmless or relentless (I'm not judging, baiting or anything else here I swear!).

If drewdawg999 digitizes his LP properly, the resulting file will be 'the same' as that instance of LP playback, in whatever range he chooses (i.e., determined by the sample rate).

Thus he needn't be 'married to' his turntable.

 

[Petrushka]

What type of needles were/are you fav poison, MM, MC ?


So much music, so little time.
With vinyl the "fiddling" is constant and never ends.
Just to play a "record" requires like 5 minutes of fiddling having to get the record on the table, clean it. clean the needle. set the tonearm in position and lower it. Then jump up to raise the arm, flip to the other side and go thru the whole ritual all over again. I'm getting tired just thinking about it. LOL

Not bad if you are converting it to FLAC. Play once, listen forever.

 

[Sal1950]

View attachment 386681

View attachment 386682

These folks been hitting the opiate pipe too much. LOL
My keyboard has 88 keys ???

 

[krabapple]

If you survey American households c.1970s what percentage do you think had subwoofers...? I'll leave the question open to everyone. If the number is 1% I'd be surprised.

Subwoofers were barely even available in the home audio consumer market in the 1970s. And most consumers had no exposure to deep and loud bass until they saw a movie like Earthquake (1974) or went to discos a few years later.

How old are you, anyway?

 

[Petrushka]

This is completely unscientific, but here goes: I recently acquired som speakers that approach full range with detail, and now, a bunch of old, first generation CDs sound weirdly unbalanced. The bass is puffed up and just sounds wrong. Placement of vocals and instruments wanders. This is rock and pop music. Old classical, jazz and folk doesn’t sound wrong in this way.

Most of my CDs are 25 years old or older. Were they just badly remastered?

 

[Sal1950]

Not bad if you are converting it to FLAC. Play once, listen forever.

Yea you can eliminate the hassle, I did that back near 20 years ago when I ripped like 300 lps to my drives.
Since then with the advent of things like high quality digital remasters in not only 2ch high res, and various multich
releases, high res streaming, etc; I can't remember the last time I played one of those files.

Most of my CDs are 25 years old or older. Were they just badly remastered?

Something is seriously wrong.
The normal claims are that pre-loudness war CD's are the best for rock.
I have probably most everything you do and I don't experience these issues?

 

[krabapple]

This is completely unscientific, but here goes: I recently acquired som speakers that approach full range with detail, and now, a bunch of old, first generation CDs sound weirdly unbalanced. The bass is puffed up and just sounds wrong. Placement of vocals and instruments wanders. This is rock and pop music. Old classical, jazz and folk doesn’t sound wrong in this way.

That is typically a speaker or room acoustics issue.

Also, how sure are you that they 'approach full range'? What make/model?

Most of my CDs are 25 years old or older. Were they just badly remastered?

I can't imagine how remastering would cause 'wandering'. Which sounds like a nulls/peaks effect.

Bloated bass could be too much dynamic range compression in the mastering. Loudness wars digital (re)mastering began in the early 90s.

But I really suspect it's just speaker/room/MLP interactions.

 

[DSJR]

What type of needles were/are you fav poison, MM, MC ?

I'm so far out of it now, my cartridge experience is fast becoming out of date. Prices of pickups have gone totally lop sided as well.

I very much like what AT do at their various price levels, from the eternal AT (VM)95e to the top OC9 MC (the others up from this are questionable and very expensive)

Dynavector are mad and to me, hideously inflated prices now, as are the Sumiko MCs compared to not that long ago, but they impress...

Ortofon 2M Bronze is a favourite and I suppose the older 'Super' OM30 and 530mk2 may be fairly similar here? No knowledge of their current MC ranges, as they, almost more than anyone else, can design-a-sound-balance to taste.

I had an accident very early into using the Goldring 1042 and I don't think my turntable/arm cared for it much (too spitty here), but I'm willing to try a new stylus eventually, as it loves the Rega RB300 series which I also have, an RB330 awaiting a turntable restoration to put it on.

For those with bulging wallets, I'm rather partial to Lyras if in a suitable arm/spinner system

All time fave - and it's for masochists only - my Decca Gold Microscanner Set up right, in the right arm and turntable system and with a phono stage with huge hf headroom, my sample was the closest I'd EVER heard good vinyl to master tape - clean, clear, dynamics, proper bass and total lack of that added 'halo' which many higher end vintage vinyl playing machines as complete entities added to the tone. They're unreliable though and fussy as hell to get right, but when you do......... The ZYX R100 I heard years back was similar, but I didn't do a direct comparison.

So many more from past times I respect, but today, I do like a bit of 'energy' and 'sparkle' from the pickup, if it *must* have a character.

I could go on and on and on, but not in the least bit sure you'd be interested Apologies if I've gone on too long already.

 

[Petrushka]

That is typically a speaker or room acoustics issue.

Also, how sure are you that they 'approach full range'? What make/model?




I can't imagine how remastering would cause 'wandering'. Which sounds like a nulls/peaks effect.

Bloated bass could be too much dynamic range compression in the mastering. Loudness wars digital (re)mastering began in the early 90s.

But I really suspect it's just speaker/room/MLP interactions.

 

[Petrushka]

The speakers are KEF 105/3, reformed and with the ferrofluid replaced. They are probably not as good as new, but using pink noise and a dB app, they have no obvious response defects. I’m not going to rush to any conclusions, but there a distinct difference between the tonal balance on acoustic instrument recordings and electrified instruments recordings.

I’m sure the room contributes.

 

[egellings]

What type of needles were/are you fav poison, MM, MC ?


So much music, so little time.
With vinyl the "fiddling" is constant and never ends.
Just to play a "record" requires like 5 minutes of fiddling having to get the record on the table, clean it. clean the needle. set the tonearm in position and lower it. Then jump up to raise the arm, flip to the other side and go thru the whole ritual all over again. I'm getting tired just thinking about it. LOL

Being a vinyl record listener myself, I have to say that after the initial equipment setup is done, there is nothing needed on my part to keep the TT in good playable condion. Stylus replacement is maybe once every 5 or so years of use. So unless the act of playing a record is considered fiddling, then my 'fiddle time' is very low indeed. Besides, fiddling with a TT is a sort of charm enjoyed by the user. If you do not have any intrinsic interest in TTs, then I see no reason to want or own one.