AudioSceptic
Major Contributor
Or even 80.Point me to a record with 96 dB dynamic range please.
Or even 80.Point me to a record with 96 dB dynamic range please.
I would like to share some info with you. Take it for what its worth and judge for yourself.Point me to a record with 96 dB dynamic range please.
I would say it might depend on your records. If they have scuffs and pops, the Puffin is great. If they are pristine, I am not sure how much you will get from a great phono stage while running a conical stylus. Also, if you are doing rips Puffin should be great.Found out my cartdrige model is stanton 680 hp.
Does the loading of your audio interface give you any trouble?IME digitising the cartridge output then applying RIAA correction in software gives a quieter and more accurate output than an analogue phono stage.
IE comparing a Goldmund PH2 phono stage into a Metric Halo ADC was not better than the phono stage in my Devialet amp and the Goldmund PH2 into the Devialet analogue input sounded fine but seemed pointless.
Anyway i gave up ripping LPs anyway and just play the LP itself if i want to listen to it
What is your 0dB reference for these graphs?I would like to share some info with you. Take it for what its worth and judge for yourself.
Here are 3 pics - the first is the noise floor of my phono preamp with the stylus simply resting on the record and the record not turning - its paused. This is just to capture baseline ambient and inherent noise level of the system.
The second and third pics are the record playing and stylus in the lead-in and lead-out (silent) grooves.
I would like to draw your attention to the difference in noise floor between these especially above 1Khz. Even if you go down to 500hz its pretty respectable. This is the reason why I believe the medium has a lot of dynamic range.
And all this on nothing fancy - this is a simple vintage yamaha direct drive turntable, with a even more basic cartridge (shure m75) and no fancy isolation and placement tactics applied. I bet if this was a $4000 heavy marble platter tt molded in 100 lbs of concrete with $2000 microline stylus and a $1500 preamp, mounted on a $1000 wall mount, these pictures would look even better all the way down to 100hz.
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edit: btw, those silly spurs at 17khz and 38Khz are probably my neighbors solar panels. you may ignore them.
edit2: just noticed the overload margin on this puffin preamp is terrible. I would not let that stanton 680HP anywhere near it. Its a high output cart that will overwhelm the preamp very easily.
With the Metric Halo it was the Goldmund PH2 which loaded the cartridge. MH will load one of the inputs to your cartridge requirement (or they would a few years ago) and RIAA is a standard selectable plug in and it was what I was going to do before I bought the Devialet D-Premier which had the quietest phono stage I had tried.I would say it might depend on your records. If they have scuffs and pops, the Puffin is great. If they are pristine, I am not sure how much you will get from a great phono stage while running a conical stylus. Also, if you are doing rips Puffin should be great.
Does the loading of your audio interface give you any trouble?
The ADC is a M-audio C400 usb interface, preamp is Cambridge Audio Solo, so 0db would be standard line level. I get the RIAA eq and cutting level, and cartridge level but does it matter as long as the frequency being output registers 0db at the end of the chain ? Surely you cant be saying that its impossible to hit 0db on a record as tracking test signals are usually +12, +15db or more. And you already saw the noise floor is easily -100db for much of the spectrum. So what is missing ?What is your 0dB reference for these graphs?
One of the difficulties in measuring the usable dynamic range of a record player is that the maximum level is pretty well impossible to define because it is frequency dependant (it is not possible to cut high levels at high frequency) and "acceptable" distortion dependant which depends on the company and cutting engineer, since they don't want very distorted or skipping records but they don't know what cartidge is being used so they have limits of their own.
You have shown what the low level frequency content of an unmodulated groove can be on your system but not what the maximum level is, which is not a straight horizontal line for an LP anyway, so this doesn't tell us anything about dynamic range yet.
There is a bit of info about cutting levels here
I only asked what you had set as 0dB.The ADC is a M-audio C400 usb interface, preamp is Cambridge Audio Solo, so 0db would be standard line level. I get the RIAA eq and cutting level, and cartridge level but does it matter as long as the frequency being output registers 0db at the end of the chain ? Surely you cant be saying that its impossible to hit 0db on a record as tracking test signals are usually +12, +15db or more. And you already saw the noise floor is easily -100db for much of the spectrum. So what is missing ?
Just a reminder: the level of the noise floor in a spectrum is not identical to the signal/noise ratio. You have to add the FFT gain which depends on the FFT size.And you already saw the noise floor is easily -100db for much of the spectrum. So what is missing ?
I would like to share some info with you. Take it for what its worth and judge for yourself.
Here are 3 pics - the first is the noise floor of my phono preamp with the stylus simply resting on the record and the record not turning - its paused. This is just to capture baseline ambient and inherent noise level of the system.
The second and third pics are the record playing and stylus in the lead-in and lead-out (silent) grooves.
I would like to draw your attention to the difference in noise floor between these especially above 1Khz. Even if you go down to 500hz its pretty respectable. This is the reason why I believe the medium has a lot of dynamic range.
And all this on nothing fancy - this is a simple vintage yamaha direct drive turntable, with a even more basic cartridge (shure m75) and no fancy isolation and placement tactics applied. I bet if this was a $4000 heavy marble platter tt molded in 100 lbs of concrete with $2000 microline stylus and a $1500 preamp, mounted on a $1000 wall mount, these pictures would look even better all the way down to 100hz.
View attachment 123886
View attachment 123887
View attachment 123888
edit: btw, those silly spurs at 17khz and 38Khz are probably my neighbors solar panels. you may ignore them.
edit2: just noticed the overload margin on this puffin preamp is terrible. I would not let that stanton 680HP anywhere near it. Its a high output cart that will overwhelm the preamp very easily.
You coul put something passive like a Schiit Sys or Douk RCA switcher between the TT and the Puffin. Of course this will change the loading a bit.i have a turntable with two tone arms, one with a cartridge for vinyls and an other one with a cartridge for 78's. as i see that the puffin only has one input, i will have to change cables every time i want to switch between vinyl and 78's. or am i wrong ?
i have a turntable with two tone arms, one with a cartridge for vinyls and an other one with a cartridge for 78's. as i see that the puffin only has one input, i will have to change cables every time i want to switch between vinyl and 78's. or am i wrong ?
You're measuring with an MM cartridge? Apologies if you already said.Measuring the Puffin LO cut off and deRumble with Elipson test tecord, White and Pink noise. Note the difference between the WN and PN(RTA setting in REW) tracks
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I'm surprised to see that resonant peak above 10kHz. Not that I know the background very well, but is it from the interaction with the preamp? Is it a measurement artefact?Pickup is Audio Technica MC. OC9ML/II on SME V on Michell Gyro SE