Vinyl Record Myths I've Changed My Opinion On
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- Опубликовано: 26 сен 2024
- Today I present the 5 vinyl record myths I've changed my beliefs and opinions on.
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I grew up with vinyl and then changed to CDs when they became available. About 10 years I got back into vinyl and have enjoyed it. Then recently I upgraded my entire system. When I put on a CD I was shocked at the phenomenal sound. So nowadays there are times when I want the experience of “playing records”. But, if I want to put on headphones and hear music play seamlessly from beginning to end with absolutely superb sound, then I choose CDs. Both are great.
Cheers to that! And thanks for the comment!
While I dislike the awkward artificiality of listening ocver headphones or earbuds, I think you're right that vinyl LPs are not meant to be heard by injection directly into the ears. The surface noise is unavoidable and it's like listening with dirty ears. Keep the Q-tips handy!
That very accurately describes where I'm at also.
CDs don't include the ultrasonic frequencies that musical instruments emit, so I don't see how it could be better than vinyl which includes those frequencies.
I went from vinyl to tapes to cds then to streaming then back to cds and tapes. Now, for the last 2 months nothing but vinyl. Don't get stuck on any one format as you're only robbing yourself. Change it up, ypu'll have massive enjoyment
I have been listening to vinyl exclusively for months, and was blown away when I listened to a new CD for the first time in a while. Now I will happily collect and listen to both
And that’s what it’s all about! Cheers!
After a while you may not want to hear vinyl again
If I could speak for myself Rick, it really is what you like at the end of the day!! I love EQ's, tone controls... Even I had a million dollar amp.... I just love sounds, music, and the joy it brings me!!
Exactly!
No tone controls just give you a flat response to me that's not natural at all
@@Extremesam43 absolutely!!
Tone controls are great especially when you play vinyl going back
the RIA curve was all over the map back then in the 50s and 60s.
Do you remember when stereos used to have different buttons for the different RIAA curve depending upon the company behind the record? 😂😂😂
Right. Why would anyone prefer to listen to a crappy recording when it sounds much better using the tone controls
@@TheJoyofVinylRecordsI never saw any of those. I got into audio and video in the late 70s and 80s.
I use a audio mixer each channel had its own set of EQ or tone controls. Advantage set tone settings for each device and forget about it. I wonder if there are any amps which allow a preset for each device connected.
I do.
On a side note, I got back into a vinyl almost 20 years ago. I'll find that what is so awesome about it is the whole experience of playing records.
In fact, I seem to be going back in time. I now truly appreciate shaving by using the horsehair brush and shaving soap to lather my face.
And of course all my cars except for the main car use manual transmissions.😂
I'm finding I really appreciate the experience of physical contact and the process of doing things, as opposed to just letting something else do it for me. It makes all of those experiences more tactile and more compelling.
I'm the same way! My truck is manual transmission and 13 years old. I'm afraid to let it go as it'll be hard to find a manual transmission these days.
I never bought a car with automatic transmission. All my cars have been manual. If you cannot drive manual then you don't know how to drive!!! 😂😂😂😂😂
Word! 😂😂@@davesdream
Vinyl has that hands on tactile feel coming from a time before CD and playing music via streaming.
@@davesdream Same here. All I drive is manual. Once I bought my first car. I made sure windows were not electric as well 😊
Since day 1, 45 years ago, still making cassettes, and oh boy, are they sounding great, perfect for camping tunes!
Cheers! 🥂
Tone controls are a must ,unless you never alter the Volume.
Analogue > digital myth. Mofi gate opened my eyes to this fact. “Audiophiles” would swear they could hear a difference (many who I listened to), yet not even the most prominent figures had a clue that mofi was digital until the news broke. Mastering matters most
Love that you brought that up, Tim. I am planning a video on a similar topic brought about because of that whole thing. You read my mind!
@@TheJoyofVinylRecords Consider this as I type on my brand new Desktop with the only moving parts are the fans, those One Steps on Super Vinyl were cut from tapes that are over-sampled DSD files that even an SACD couldn't handle all that data from. When cutting an LP, well you're converting the entire oversampled DSD stream to analog and cutting a record. Funny how that works out still in an LPs favor(sort of, (mostly?)).
You dont need to be an audiophile to hear the difference in a CD and vinyl, vinyl sounds stale
Only get originals
@@SynthematixMy Metallica ,Prodigy, Kraftwerk and Ronnie Size lps disagree
6:30 After fixing a Audio Desk and hear the improvement I agree with you
Tone controls are great….. when properly implemented, including being able to be bypassed completely if necessary 🤗
Exactly, Darren!
Absolutely love your channel, please keep making videos. I’ve been a music connoisseur for almost my whole life which isn’t saying a whole lot as I just turned 39. I was into cd’s for the majority up until the last 2 years or so when I discovered vinyl. I started to try to buy basically everything I liked on vinyl. I had a mediocre setup being like 500ish dollars and I wasn’t satisfied at all. It wasn’t anywhere near the fidelity that I had expected or wanted. So I decided to keep upgrading and upgrading to try and get the best sound that I could that was inside my budget. I have a decent cd rig and a decent vinyl rig now. I noticed that my newer vinyl records weren’t really improving as much as I wanted, but the cd versions sounded killer. So I narrowed it down to original pressings and a lot of the older stuff on vinyl and or analogue productions and MOFI releases just sounding amazing. Moral of the story is I believe cds/streaming is at an easier grasp as opposed to buying a proper vinyl setup. But…I don’t regret my decision to invest in vinyl. I’ve found so many amazing old school albums that just sound amazing and seriously blow away the same cds I have….Ive just had to spend way more money on my vinyl setup than what I had thought I would. I hope all that made sense. I’ve had a little bit of rum tonight. Again, thank you for all the help and please keep doing your thing. Also, that tube amp looks sick! Stay safe and thank you again.
Thanks, Christopher! I plan to keep going unless funds stop me 😂
And everything you said made perfect sense! CDs are a more affordable entry point for most. For me it's vinyl but I do get that it's not for everyone.
Cheers! 🍺
Love your reviews . Just subscribed. Thanks. I do clean brand new vinyl. When them grooves are cut in they leave particles, and when the needle hits them it burns them in and that is the pop you hear. Just my opinion. I use the spin clean record washer.
Thanks for subscribing, Gary! The Soin Clean is a great investment. 🍺
I agree, dirt, plastic residue, oils all need cleaned from new LPs. Oh yeah, love the Spin Clean, I’m needing a new set of brushes as I type!
Agreed! I love my tone controls, my loudness button. I buy different speakers to give me a different sound so why not have controls on an amp to give me a different sound. All our ears are different. What I like, you may not etc. I love my vinyl, it’s the interaction part too. I also love my cassettes, watching the spoils go round. The VU meters flicking, whether needle or LED’s. Fabulous times. As for CD’s. Less so, clinical, accurate but no excitement about using them. I will go down the isolation route one day. But now I will start cleaning my vinyl. TBH in the day, before using a brand new tape, I used to run it forward and back before making my mix tape! All in the preparation!
I remember doing that with tapes! To tighten them right?
@@TheJoyofVinylRecords kinda. Think it was to help make the tape be of even tension on the spoil or take up any slack?
A grew up with vinyl and was an obsessive mix tape teenager, embraced CD with awe, became a Napster acolyte, A Usenet audiophile, eventually a Spotify obsessive listener, but all through that kept my favourite radio stations on the dial. I still listen to all of it.
I lived and breathed Napster for a couple of years when it first hit the scene. I can't believe that was a quarter century ago now!
Same as some of the other comments: experience = vinyl; sound = cd.
Isolation: This takes me back to college... where I didn't have any friends--uh, no. Not what I meant. Actually it was one of my friends who bought a huge, expensive audio system with 2 gigantic subwoofers. He set it all up in his little pre-turn-of -the-20th-century apartment, with saggy wood floors, and invited me over to hear it. My God! I've never heard so much bass in my life! My friend was loving it, and I was saying, "something is wrong". At the end of the track, the rumble continued and got louder and louder. The floor shook, and the table that the turntable was on shook. It was quite the bass feedback loop we had going. The right isolation feet for the turntable ultimately cured the problem.
I ran into another another weird case of an isolation problem with another friend who had recorded some of his parents' records to tape to play in the dorm. There was one tape in particular that he said reminded him of his parents so much that he would swear he heard them while he was listening to the tape. I then listened to the tape and I could hear their conversation quite plainly in quiet passages. I asked my friend if the record was warped, or bowed up around the edges so that it did not sit tightly to the platter, and he said that was the case. The record was acting as a diaphragm, vibrating to the sound of the voices in the room and that was picked up by the cartridge. The only solution to this: Tell your folks to shut the heck up!
😂😂😂😂. That's wild , Norm
I have a theory I haven't heard anyone talk about yet. When you play a record on a turntable with the dustcover up, that dustcover acts like a large "ear." That is, it collects ambient sound vibrations from your speakers and transmits it to the stylus via the tonearm through the turntable base where the dustcover hinges are mounted. The fix might be to lower the dustcover when playing or remove it. What say you?
I think your theory is spot on. I completely remove the dust cover when playing a record for exactly the reason you mention. Leaving it up does serve as an audio wave "catcher" in a sense and those subtly vibrations will most likely reach the stylus. It can also serve as an reverberation chamber that enhances those vibrations. I also suspect closing it during playback might create similar issue.
Behind you is an album from the Blue Oyster Cult 1977...Listening to their 1972 album on
vinyl, track No.3 "Then came the last days of May" was such an awesome experience....
One of my favorite songs!
Great video! My take...
1. I have no problem with tone controls, but I do like having a bypass button to shorten the signal path.
2. There's a lot of great audio bargains out there and I've heard enough six-digit systems to know that sometimes you're just listening to bling or some niche set of preferences, but some of them knocked me on my butt and had me re-evaluating my own system.
3. CDs can be just fine but 44.1KHz sampling took a while to reach its potential, mostly due to artifacts of the required 20KHz brick wall filtering. Cassettes are decent under the best of conditions, but there are a lot of compromises baked into that form factor.
4. I notice an improvement almost every time I wet clean a record. However, getting the contaminated fluid off before it dries is paramount. Cheap systems like Discwasher just moved dirt from one record to the next.
5. Put your stylus on a record that isn't turning and go around the room tapping on things. You'll be surprised how much of it makes it way back to the turntable.
One that I no longer believe is that direct drive was inferior to belt drive. Sure, not all DD systems were equal back in the day, but the main reason the high-end guys hated it is because only the tech giants had the resources to implement it. Also, I still love automatic turntables because it gets my wife to play records more often.
That's a great one - the whole direct drive/ belt drive debate. I'm partial to belt but certainly have no issues with direct. I've owned both.
That's great advice - the whole tapping around the room. I once owned an AT LP5 that seemed to pick up everything.
I've always hated vinyl records, even when I was a kid, that is why I tried to make a tape recorder in the fourth grade, I didn't succeed obviously, but at least I tried! The ticks, and pops, plus surface noise, and the eccentricity of vinyl records drove me (when I had enough money), to purchase a used teak A1500U, reel-to-reel tape recorder, but I could easily still hear the difference between "source and tape", the dreaded tape hiss. In 1978 as an engineering consultant for the "Great American Sound Co., I traveled to Japan to visit GAS dealers and the Tokyo Electronics Show. In the Sony booth at that show, I saw for the first time, a model PCM-1, 12-bit digital processor playing music from the video track displaying thousands of black and white, undulating bits on the monitor, from the same SL-8200 Beta max VCR I had at home, I had to own one of these! In 1983 I attended an AES meeting featuring Marshall Buck who was presenting his new "coaxial two-way" loudspeaker he had designed for Cerwin-Vega! In his demonstration he was utilizing a "vocal-only" recording of a female singer that sounded fantastic with an incredible "dynamic range" and no background hiss. Immediately after Marshall's demonstration, I walked up and asked him what equipment was playing back his recording of this singer? He pointed to this diminutive silver box, and said I'm using a Sony PCM-F1, 16-bit Digital Audio Processor and a VCR. I said how much for the PCM-F1. He said $1,500.00, and I said sold! I built a portable recording rig that included the PCM-F1 and other custom-made equipment that I utilized for various musical performance recordings made on location and I won an Emmy for an outdoor performance of the opera Faust! I've been a digital advocate ever since, if you wish to learn more about my current endeavors, search RUclips with the following: "JBL SYNTHESIS CREATOR", and ALSO: "HOWTOHOMELIFE". If you have questions, feel-free to call me @ 818-314-7275 Pacific time. David Riddle
I have both. CD and Vinyl and both are Great. CD's are also good if u have Limited Space :) Also i prefer these 2 much more than Streaming! Personally i only use streaming to hear some podcasts and that's it.
Same. I thoroughly enjoy podcasts ( have one myself).
@@TheJoyofVinylRecordsnice like me :)
No matter how many gadgets and gizmos they come up with at the end of the day digital streaming will ALWAYS have too much compression which music was never intended to be subjected to.
I agree with you on all those points. Something I was wrong about was cables. For 35 years I didn't think you could change speaker wires or connection cables and improve (or change) sound of your setup. I was very wrong.
I'm with you on that, Ed. I could have easily mentioned that (and should have).
Passed a certain basic quality level, wasted money... For example, Canare 4S12F is a very good quality twisted pair speaker cable. Same applies to signal cable, you have Mogami 2534 Star Quad, Canare L-4E6S, Belden 1192a, etc.
@@guyboisvert66 Just going with a homemade set of braided oxygen free copper speaker cables of equal length did alot for clarity and detail on my setup.
@@edjackson4389 No need to waste big money to get very good results!
Last year, I upgraded my very modest system. One thing that I reused was the old Radio Shack speaker wires, the type bought on spools and you made your cable. I felt that something was still missing. I bought new cable of a larger diameter and made new speaker wires. I was very pleased with the results! Stronger audio in general with improved bass response. I cut open the old RS wire and found that the wire itself had actually turned black with, I’m guessing, corrosion and general deterioration. In future I’ll be mindful of my cables.
I enjoy your videos Rick. This one got me: Tone Controls. Yep, I used to think exactly the same. Tone controls were bad. If your system didn't sound great with all the controls set to FLAT, then you had something wrong with your system. I have slowly come to believe otherwise, just as you have. Sometimes recordings will just need some tweaking to sound the way you like them. There's no harm in that (although I have to admit it still pains me to do any adjusting.)
And you mentioned speakers. Years ago, I bought a set based on how they sounded. I was fortunate enough to go into a store that let you play your own music, and switch between different sets of speakers. I was absolutely amazed at how different they all sounded with the same music. And, the pair I bought stood out from all the rest to me. I still use them to this day.
I still find it hard to employ the tone controls and only because it was baked into me for so long to avoid them. When I encounter an exceptionally bright sounding recording it's good to know they are there for those moments!
Great to hear about your speakers!
Great video. I agree with your points, and have had similar learning moments myself. I love tone controls (and graphics equalizers as well). My brother in law is the opposite, and leaves everything flat. His argument has always been that changing the settings changes how the artist intended you to hear it. My argument back was that his stereo would sound completely different from their studio. Besides, anytime you change anything such as your amp, cartridge or speakers, the sound will be different than before. Thus I always felt his thought process was wrong. That being said, if that's how you like to hear it, then who am I to say you're wrong. Like you said, enjoying the sound of your music is how you want to hear it.
We are of the same mind in that respect, Stacey. I try to explain that as well - different equipment = different sounds and tone. Those little knobs can save someone some money.
I’m new to vinyl, my parents had a turntable when I was little but I don’t remember much about it. Got an inexpensive “do it all” paperboard player and a mix of older records from my mother in law and some new ones as well. So far I love it. Don’t know that I’ll ever get into the technical side of it or not but I’m very glad to have found your channel.
I'm glad you're here as well! Cheers!
Hey JVR. I had to do most of the things on this list to tame the new Klipsch RP-600M II. Tone controls, (haven’t turned those knobs in 12 yrs). Record cleaning, (Ok fine, if I must). Isolation mats under the stands, (hard wood floor over an echo chamber basement). Even had to get the HO/MC cartridge back in the line up. The results are astounding. The 1st pair of speakers, I’ve had, that weren’t just plug and play- that’s for sure. Ask not what Klipsch can do for you…Picked them up because of Cheap AM and Steve G reviews. Thanks a lot guys. You didn’t say anything about needing to use power tools, (had to cut the 3/4” rubber stable mats)…I just wanted to play some Christmas records while the big speakers are on IR…(and I’ll tell you I’m not an audiophile)…😂🍻
This made me smile - The speakers I had before my KLH Model 5s were the Klipsch RP-600M IIs, also helped along by a review Steve G did when he talked about how fun they were. I ended up placing them on a pair of Pangea stands filled with sand. They were a bit bright which I attribute to our listening room. Sounds like you have tamed them!
Very well thought out video, Rick. Thank you!
Thanks Shane!
40 years ago i read in a Dutch audio/video magazine about the grease or oil that remained in the groove (oil/grease and paper innersleeves...), they cleaned the records with soap and used a drill to dry it. They used a tool that fixed the record, made something myself but it ended up with a Focus record flying through my room. It finished my path of cleaning records but lately i started cleaning records with detergent for wool using a throw away patch and a knosti and it works well, cleaned it with tapwater and dry it with soft toiletpaper....it makes the record a little static but before i play it i use an anti static cleaner and i'm satisfied with the result. There are recordcleaners Dustbug alike with an anti static function. Maybe the next thing to buy.
Love the sound of vinyl, very pleasant. CD's can sound great too especially classical music and Jazz but overal i prefer vinyl and my Stanton and B&O cartridges aren't the best available.
For classical music i choose CD.
I recall hearing about the oil in the grooves too back in the day. Always stuck in my mind. It was only a few years ago that I began to be very concerned about it. Glad I am now.
@@TheJoyofVinylRecords _Someone said the oil or grease comes from within the vinyl when pressed but it's there and in the beginning it wasn't a problem (with non paper innersleeves! ) but over the years the grease or oil becomes thicker?? and adds negative noise to the music, you hear negative noise but the record looks 100%.
Hadn't played vinyl for decades but in my memory many of my records sounded a way better decades ago, not musically but the amount of unwanted noises.
I typically always listen to LPs but a thing I like about CDs is that dead silent background in most all situations. I have some vintage LPs that were either made with a great amount of surface noise or previous owners lovingly cared for them but listened ALOT!
The Schiit Loki came to stay in my living room, since 2019!
Schiit is a great company
I’ve just subscribed to your channel. I’ve watched a few of your videos now and I like your relaxed presentation and I think you choose good topics to discus 👍
Thank you Michael. Made my day!
@@TheJoyofVinylRecords you’re welcome 👍
Sooo #4
I left vinyl behind due to the no nonsense sound of CD, but time went by and with digital mastering increasingly getting worse, I returned to vinyl recently.
Unfortunately quality control has never been worse. In the past I never, ever had issues with new records. Now I get a new one from an allegedly good pressing plant and it's like I'm listening to old, dirty records. Clicks, pops, surface noise like never before.
It's making me feel it was a bad idea to come back to vinyl, but the sound is so good and my ears don't ache so bad anymore...
I feel the same way about QC these days. Hopefully it gets better when they get a handle on things. Until then it's just making sure they are clean before hitting the TT.
Try to buy original LP pressings!
I listen to vinyl, cd, streamed music , I run 2 recievers, Marantz 2216B, Onkyo 2500 MK II. Advent1 and Bose 901, Boston Acoustics HD5s, Fluance 85, and Mani 2 phono preamp, Ortofon Blue Cartridge. My system is 1978 mixed with 2024.
That's awesome Curt!
Without watching this, I'm gonna say that in the early days of CD's back in the 1980's, the recording masters that were used to make the CD versions weren't properly prepped for that new format. A LOT of them sounded terrible and the vinyl versions of those albums were superior. Pink Floyd's The Wall would be one of those albums. When their catalog was remastered in 2015, The Wall FINALLY got the proper and far superior presentation that a new digital release could bring.
Duran Duran's CD/Digital release catalog for example sounds AWFUL, even after Sony "remastered" it, without the bands involvement. They're pissed about it.
Having said that, SOME albums will sound better on vinyl if they were never given a proper digital remaster if the original source material was mastered for vinyl. Therein lies the myth since most lay-people know nothing about this stuff.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
As a house vinyl dj I wouldn't touch anything else. Digital has ruined the craft, but more money and opportunities for the DJs who keep it as the lost art. Vinyl sounds way better when mixed compared to cd or digital. Great video, by the way. :)
Thank you! Cheers!
Good points. Two ways to dramatically improve one’s vinyl playback experiences: 1) buy the best cartridge you can afford and have it installed professionally; 2) have your records cleaned ultrasonically. Oh, and 3) don’t expect old, uncared for vinyl to sound magical. Abused records can’t be made to sound wonderful. Old, well cared for records can be ultrasonically cleaned which, when played on decent gear, can sound stunning.
Great additions Mark. I really want to check out ultrasonic cleaning at some point (budget allowing).
I wet-vac cleaned my collection for over 20 years (VPI 16.5) which did a decent job. When I bought the iSonic cleaner, which allows me to clean up to 7 records at a time, the fidelity, noise reduction, detail, and dynamics improved noticeably. In some cases, dramatically.
Notice your Blue Öyster Cult Spectres on the side there. Great album !
Had just listened to it the night before 🍺🍺🍺
I like the song Godzilla a lot. I really do. If I put the entire BOC canon on a bell curve, it would be in the top half for sure....but how on earth it is widely considered one of their top 3 songs is beyond me. It would be my 4th or 5th favorite song just from the Spectres album alone! 🤣
My pretty expensive vintage McIntosh amp has tone controls. I dumped all my vinyl and turntable back in the early 1980s as I was convinced digital (CDs) were better and they didn't need a lot of care. Well, I was kind of right. Yes, CDs are very reliable and do not require much care. But, I have spent a lot of money recreating my vinyl collection and I am still not where I was.
That McIntosh must sound awesome 😎
Interesting, I ruled out CD’s right off the bat in the 90’s. Still have my CD player, lots of cd’s but never dumped my vinyl, 4 milk crates of pristine albums. Guess I made the right choice!
Mcintosh setup ass well. And yeah growing up with cd burners etc. I have a huge wall with cd's, no cd player anymore. I trust my vinyl plates more than id trust any of the cd's (burned mind you).
@@vissersven I certainly don’t have a McIntosh but a medium grade setup. Somehow never bought into the CD craze although I have a lot and made some mix CD’s. I do like the album art as well, nothing like cracking open Quadrophenia and reading the booklet/liner story!
Owning a album with great cover art work on vinyl is much more satisfying than owning it on cd for me 👍
I'm with you on that, John. Nothing compares.
Just learned ELP, Japan co., makes a laser turntable system that reads the vinyl....no cartridge ! Hefty price around 12k
I heard about that Bobby. I can’t imagine what that must be like. I have a feeling, but I may be wrong that any little particle in the groove would affect the laser. But what do I know. It’s still cool.
Yes, kind of defeats the purpose, no cartridge stylus on vinyl, why not just leave it at a compact disc especially at that price ! Today also seen a Japan audio engineer had developed a CD player that looks aesthetically like a turntable and the familiar tonearm has a laser where the stylus would be....interesting ! @@TheJoyofVinylRecords
The best analog is live a live band :-) Vinyl has various limitations and suffer from different types of distortions compared to digital. A thing I find funny is vibration isolation used on solid state devices. As though vibrations in to transistors cause noise. I will at some pint inherit my Dads vinyl. I look forward to enoying it. The same time, I also stream high resolution digital. Quality streaming distortion is below perceptible, at least on paper. The few issues one could point their finger at, like jitter, are no longer issues.
The other day I bumped into a doof on an audiophile forum going ape about their new massive improvement to his $25,000 system, a $250 phono pre-amp.
Reading to the end, they had never had the RIAA curves for MM and MC phon cartridges before.
Woah!
Just thought I'd mention, my 70s preamp actually has a tone control bypass switch on it. I always use tone controls now to match the room to the speakers. But if you really want to amp up your tone controls, get a BBE sonic maximizer. I was turned on to those a couple of decades ago and I swear by them. I even use one in my pa. My bass rig has one built into the preamp.
I had to look that up to see what it was 😂. Thanks!
I just turned 50 two months ago, and looking back to my childhood brings me fantastic memories of enjoying the music for what it was, it could be coming from a great sounding record player console system, a big FM radio or a small AM radio, or maybe from a great-sounding pre-recorded cassette tape, or a mix tape from the radio recorded in a portable boombox (back when I ven the cheap ones were good). Then CDs came in and were the best you could get, then minidisc… then the CD loudness war began, and streaming started getting popular after a while. Then something amazing happened: the vinyl record resurgence! 180-gram pressings with fantastic remastering, but others of very bad quality as well, and many turntable options for all budgets, with a wide variety and availability of moving magnet cartridges and styli… what a journey it has been! And all along the way, our perception changes; our taste evolves and devolves; our opinions turn into new directions, and so it goes on… what a lovely thing music is! Thank you for sharing your opinion and knowledge, keep up the great work! 😊
Thank you, Joe. It really is a journey and you're right - tastes change. I know mine has many times over the years. I even remember carrying around a little red transistor radio as a kid. When the antennae broker off it became a retractable sword to tease my brother with 😂😂😂
New to your channel (12 minutes ago) and new to vinyl (4 months ago). I have a cheap turntable that I think is technically a record player because it's all in one, and I'm simple. But I'm enjoying this journey.
For me, right now, it's fun to browse some great stores in Denver and build a collection. I enjoy the tactile presence with the music and even the crackles of some $6 finds (I'm simple, simple).
I have a lot to learn, so thanks for adding to it!
Glad you're here Andrew! There is nothing wrong with starting simple at all. You're only at the beginning. If you ever have any questions please don't hesitate to reach out. I'm always happy to help if I can.
Use a Bic pen, not a pencil.
I haven't owned a Bic in years 😂😂😂
I'm a firm believer that all formats have a place in a music fan's library. In the past there have been cassette tape releases with exclusives that still have never been released on CD or vinyl. Now you can transfer those exclusives to CD relatively easy. CD's have the advantage of time. A double LP set can fit on a single CD so you can enjoy the whole album non-stop. Vinyl LP's sound great too & have a "comfort zone" factor included. You can sit back & listen to them while comfortably reading the liner notes booklet. Unlike trying to read a CD bookle or cassette cover (At that size I feel like I'm reading a toaster instruction manual.). My opinion. I'm a new subscriber & will be watching your other videos. In case you didn't cover this yet, here's an interesting question. What is better & what sounds better...A half speed mastered 33&1/3 rpm LP or a 45 rpm double LP? Thank you. --- Bill
Hi Bill. Love that last question and I do have an opinion on that - great suggestion for a video!
You had me laughing out loud on the toaster instruction manual comment. So true. I need a magnifying glass to read them 😂😂😂
Another fine video Rick..thanks for presenting some food for thought for us audio lovers trying to improve our listening experience. Speaking from my own experience, however, as a diehard analog lover for years with the preconceived notion, as well as belief, that digital audio could never rival analog as far as sound quality is concerned, I now maintain a different point of view in support of digital. After adding the Marigo Audio cd mat for improved stabilization and reduction of jitter during playback, and the RD-3 CD Demagnetizer from Acoustic Revive, utilized for removal of unwanted magnetic buildup on new, as well as used cds, I now contend that, to these ears, anyway, digital audio has finally come of age...producing sound which is now both tonally correct and musically pleasing, while eliminating the hard, harsh and bright sound that once characterized the format...LET THOSE WHO HAVE EARS HEAR!!!
Hi Louis! I don’t doubt it for a second based on what I’ve heard and learned. Digital has indeed come of age and can easily equal analog sonically. I will always hear that inexplicable sense of umami with vinyl that enamors me. Cheers!
@TheJoyofVinylRecords yea Rick I hear ya...truth to be told I'll always be a diehard analog lover at heart!
I've been cleaning records since the 1980s. New records have always been dirty.
Live and learn. I wish I'd paid more attention when I was younger. Youth is wasted on the youth 😂
4:45 Analog sounds much better at the extremes, I mean 40 hz and 12 khz, a hi hat sounds more crystalline on a LP than on cd same song, another advantage is that LP high midrange is softer less irritating
Cheers to that! 🍺
My personal takeaway is that the differences in audio equipment are highly subjective. In recent years I’ve accumulated a lot of new gear based mostly on recommendations here on RUclips. Cheap Audio Man, Techmoan, etc. though I own several high end turntables, I had never bothered with external phono preamps, and never used an external DAC. Now I own 3 different phono preamps and 4 DAC’s ranging in price from $60 to $900. The ear opener for me was trying out A\B comparisons. I purchased a few of my favorite albums on remastered 180g vinyl, and two copies of each album on CD. I have two A/B devices, one that switches line level before final amplifier, and one that can select amp A/B or Speaker A/B. I carefully matched the output levels of everything with test discs and a VU meter. I should mention that though I have a lot of experience with audio (former recording engineer and DJ) I am now 65 years old, and hearing tests show I have a steep rolloff above 10k. BUT, with that in mind, my A/B audio comparisons were consistently unremarkable. LP vs CD? pretty much identical, with a few occasional clicks or pops from the LP’s. Preamps and amplifiers (AB vs D)? No discernible differences. Internal DAC vs external? No discernible differences. The only A/B comparison that made a real difference in the sound character was speakers. With speakers it is easy to choose a favorite. Currently the Sony SSCS5’s are my favorite, but I’ve only compared bookshelf speakers. I have several pairs of tower speakers and some oddball units like homemade DML panels that I plan to A/B compare next. Bottom line for me, other than the prestige and cool aesthetic factor of my more expensive gear, I conclude that my music sounds just as good from $200 worth of components as it does from $2,000 worth of components. Speakers matter a lot. Everything else MEH
This really made my day to read. I have a bunch of questions around this because it speaks to everything I think about. If you ever want to chat drop me a line through the website.
You're absolutely right! Speakers and room treatment is where it's at. The rest don't really matter. All reasonably well made hifi amps sound exactly the same (as long as you don't drive them into clipping). Same thing with digital sources.
You sir are my definition of an audiophile! Money is great but it is the time and mental effort you put in so the great music we listen to sounds the best it can. I built a great setup years ago and it still sounds fantastic. Great investment. But, I listen to my $230 + old iMac system in another room and am missing very little on most sessions. (I have the same Sony speakers you have.) I would second the fact that room treatment and speaker placement is important too.
This is the second video of yours I watched. I loved your relaxed nature, a welcome change compared to other things I watch. Keep up the good work.
Thank you! That made my day.
Good video I agree with you on a lot of your points! What gets me is the people in the VC who constantly talk about how superior vinyl is to CDS But aren’t they the same people who sold their vinyl to buy CDs back in the 80s??? Digital sound is fine with the right equipment People take this it has to be analog thing to far
Exactly, Dave. There is no "one size fits all" when it comes to music or format. Only preference. 🍺
I love the sound of some CDs 💿 and Cassettes. Some of my mixtapes I made in the 1970’s and 1980’s still sound great to this very day. I still buy CDs because they’re a lot cheaper, very convenient and they sound great. This is just my opinion.
And your opinion is always welcome 🍺
Great episode! I recently put my turntable on an isolated shelf mounted on the wall, wish I had done that years ago.
I love that BOC album also!
I keep saying the same thing. Wish I'd bought that shelf years ago too!
The argument I always heard about ‘tone controls’ was that the tracks were recorded exactly how the artist/producer/whovever mastered it intended for it to be heard. How many times have I listened to an interview with an artist/producer/whovever saying the mixing sux and needed to be redone. How many times do bands remaster recordings?
Too many to count!
I always have and will cherish the vinyl experience but recently I pulled the trigger on an RTR DAC - Pontus ll - to enhance the CD experience. No regrets. It doesn't make silk out of a sows ear if the CD is poorly produced. Garbage in garbage out 😊. Greg
Cheers, Greg! I had to look up the Pontius to see the specs. Looks great!
Yeah, exactly the point. Bad recording will always be bad, whatever the format you use. But for high quality, CD hands down. A basic good quality DAC like a 100$ SMSL SU-1 will leave any vinyl in the dust, no pun intended! And the Pontus won't "enhance" the CD experience, it'll be as transparent as it can be regarding to the sound recording in digital format. But surely better compared to the crappy DACs in most of the CD players...
It seems that people sometimes forget how recorded music was produced, all the music you listen has passed trough many parametric equalizers, cheap DACs of all kinds, many of them from the early to mid-80s, just like for example adding a little reverb to the singer's voice, so it's getting silly to think that a $2,000 hi-rez DAC is going to change anything to a production that went through a PCM 1630 with first gen Sony digital to analog converters. It's always said that sound reproduction will always be limited by the weakest link in the chain, and often the weakest link wasn't the one you had at home. That's what the writing on the back of CDs from the mid-80s meant when it said that the recording on this compact disc audio was made using analog equipement, so it's certain that what you hear will be limited by the technology of the time, including all the hiss, distortions dans imperfections.
Well said Francois!
I bought a turntable to play albums for nostalgia. I listen mainly to digital for its clean, uncolored sound and ease of use. I got a subwoofer to get proper low end and tone controls to balance the sound the way I like it. That and a room set up to minimize reflection makes me a happy camper. Noise bothers me the most. And I do miss the Loudness switch.
Cheers, Mike!
Yes! I can tell you have a background in science and technology -- and I say that because I appreciate it. Every recording (having been captured in some acoustic environment somewhere, mixed, EQed and mastered), every delivery format, every piece of electronics (from players to DACs to pre-amps and power amps -- and tubes, as you mention), every set of speakers and their placement in every room is basically a set of "tone controls" that dramatically affect how musical vibrations sound when they reach your ears. AV receivers often come with room-acoustics technology (Audyssey is a popular one) to help correct and adjust the sound for your listening position in your individual space. There are good reasons for that. If "tone controls" (and "loudness"/"contour" switches for low-volume listening?) are forms of "cheating," then so are speakers. They all add their own character to the electronic signals they receive and attempt to reproduce in your room.
P.S. As for dirty brand-new records: They're shipped from the factory, to the warehouse, to the retailer, and somehow wind up in your hands. Cardboard jackets are made of wee fibers, and so are the paper inner sleeves that were the standard until very recently. They shed a lot of debris. I never cleaned my records in the '70s and '80s -- but, I had a record changer for a long time, too, and if I'd known how much dust and damage my records were being exposed to, I would have been happy to clean them routinely. (But I did always have a Discwasher brush and cleaning fluid for when mysterious new noises appeared in the music I was listening to. I still maintain that one of the best record cleaning technologies is your stylus. When a record sounds dirty, wipe it off and play it again!)
Great advice on cleaning the stylus!
Your first paragraph put it wonderfully, especially about the speakers adding to the system's character and sound reproduction in the listening space.
It’s ok to add a little bass playing records!🤪👍
I have a Schitt mini equalizer and I use it to adjust for badly recorded/mastered etc. records. for my ears, the mid and high end can sound harsh on some albums. does work up to a point, love tone controls. My first record cleaning unit was a spin clean. you would not believe the dirt coming off new records...great vid!
Agreed Robert! The Spin-Clean was a great purchase and is still used in my cleaning routine for the rinse.
I too never cleaned new records back in the day - thinking they’d be pristine like you did. Wish I knew then what I know now. I’ve always been one for my tone controls!
Cheers, Andy!
Eh, when buying speakers and headphones, the product label specifications will indicate the width of the frequency range. The wider the range, the better the sound quality. However, a higher price tag does not automatically mean the product has better sound quality; the higher price is often due to the physical quality of the product, not the sound quality.
I always cleaned new or used records before playing them. One time I didn’t clean a new record and played it. I heard a lot of static, hissing and pops. I thought l would have to return it but then decided to clean it. After cleaning it ALL the noise was gone! So now just like you said all new/used records get thoroughly cleaned before being played. I think it also saves your stylus from being exposed to dirt, dust etc… that can be hidden in the record grooves.
Agree about the stylus, Rene. Great callout!
What do you do to clean your records?
I love the sound of your mic. I am hoping it’s not super expensive.
Can you please let me know where I can purchase one?
Hi! It's a Heil PR40. I bought it a few years ago for podcasting.
@@TheJoyofVinylRecords thank you so much!
Hey! I see you included part of a video showing a multi-color vinyl disk. This pressing plant specialises in producing these unique records. That is NOT dirt or dust on the surface as some of your viewers might think.
I don’t doubt it at all Allan. Really. They may be great. The thing I saw was the fingers in the vinyl. I’ve encountered fingerprints on new records (not saying from this plant) but this is an example (this why I blurred the face).
I DO NOT understand the business with speaker and interconnect cables. Some of them are more expensive than a car. To this day, I still CANNOT hear a difference between these ‘audiophile’ cables and standard cables.
I fall out of my seat when I see some of the interconnect prices 😂
It's nice to have a vinyl head realize that vinyl isn't superior just because it's analog. Sure it's fun, but I got tired of the drawbacks years ago. I didn't feel like cleaning or dealing with feedback and seeing my woofers attempting to escape the speaker cabinet.
It's all about the mastering, but if both the CD and Vinyl have fantastic mastering, the CD is going to sound better.
Too bad CD gets a bad reputation from some releases being compressed out the ass. Tracking down different releases of a CD can be a challenge, but most can be downloaded and compared with each other.
I knew for years that a lot of vinyl was pressed from digital sources, even in the 80s, I saw vinyl mastering machines had CD players along with a R2R. Sending a CD in the mail is cheaper than an expensive reel.
There are so many others here who have the same experience as you do - cheers! Hope you stick around 😎
"Bypassing" tone controls - aside from being an exercise in the bloody pointless - is the best course of action.
To truely bypass any tone controls is to not include them in the first place.
I have found this strategy to be 100% effective!
I think most of us continue to evolve with this hobby over time. "Back in the day" (glad I'm not the only one who says that), I started out collecting music on 8 track for goodness sakes. Talk about an inferior format, it makes cassettes seem like the pinnacle of playback formats. Very quickly I started buying vinyl and instead of buying factory cassettes, I would buy blank tapes and record my albums for playback in the car or make some mixed tapes. Today I embrace the formats of vinyl, cd's and streaming and they all have their place. I am now on my second tube amplifier, something I never thought I would own. Although solid state amps are way more versatile, they don't have that natural sound that I prefer that only tubes seem to be able to replicate. Back in the day (there's that phrase again), I thought you had to have 100 watts of power or more to have great sound. My first tube amp was 8 watts, my new tube amp is 75 watts, and both of those amps have plenty of power with the right speakers to play plenty loud and sound great. Tube power just seems more robust somehow. Wattage is important to some degree, but it is often way over emphasized. Listening to music on 2 channel audio gear made specifically for music is such a fun hobby. I will never outgrow it and I will most likely continue to evolve with it.
I've been dying to hear how well you like the new amp, Neil.
Decware tubes amps put out less than 10 watts! And they are raved about. I was speaking to a man who builds speakers - very efficient speakers - and he said a 1.5 watt tube amp will power them just fine.
ISOLATION! Thank you so much for bringing up the obvious.
High definition digital audio immediately eliminated almost all of the expensive things that I couldn't fix for my vinyl.
I was broke and lived in a mobile home. Isolation nightmare.
I was still using my Discwasher brush and spray. Static nightmare
I eventually got another Zerostat antistatic gun. Sorta fixed
Proper shape of stylus and a good cartridge still not fixed. Expensive
1980's era Yamaha preamp as phono preamp. It's a matter of opinion on that.
Now I have good Internet with high def streaming to a reliable DAC to my home theater system. I also play Blu-ray audio. My entire collection is converted to FLAC and streaming from my server. I even ripped some vinyl that I couldn't find on CD. None of the ritual, but none of the hassle either.
Now I have a headphone shopping list. Planar Magnetic.
Such a journey isn't it? Cheers!
Not just tone controls, Bass, Equalizers...in my eyes even systems.(Oops you said as I was typing it) I have never 'heard' the difference live of a $50k system against my puny 1980's Marantz PM550DC Amplifier. It is rated 65watts yet I was popping speakers 100Watt and up until I found my Audiosphere Research Monitor 18L 350Watt speakers. I love my stereo. I dont care how much people spend/spent on theirs
Awesome! And that's what it's all about!
Room treatment helps tremendously, even in a furnished room, not those bare bones audiophile bunkers you see occasionally. -- There is such a thing as imaging and "hearing the room" [of the performance, not my room]. -- There are differences amongst DACs. -- Old records of "unsophisticated" music [punk, garage, indie] can have surprisingly good sound quality, particularly sound stage.
I know what you mean. When we redid the "vinyl room" recently we added carpet and heavier window coverings. Even that helped improve things.
I've, very recently, changed my mind of quality RCA cables. A nice pair of cables have made an improvements in my system
I do agree with that completely.
There appear to be different levels of quality for RCA Cables; you may wish to consider acquiring equipment which utilizes XLR Cables; these may provide better sound, be more reliable. Some pieces of equipment has provision for XLR cables, some, doesn't. Check!
@@richardsoffice9176 I got some blue jean LC1s and they have been great. Working with a UTrun Orbit plus ATM so that's about as far as I'm going to go with this system.
Same here, after changing interconnects between preamp and amp.
Gold connections on my spny music player make a huge difference to audio quality. I have another Sony player that doesn't have gold and it sounds awful.
Hi. I am an owner of largish LP, 45 & CD collections. I grew up with tone controls in my audio systems until I got my second-hand Linn Majik-I amp. That was because a I had eventually moved into a 5.1/7.1 surround system. However a few years back I decided to have a seperate audio setup exclusively for my records & CD's. I have an old Graphic Equaliser from my previous systems that I wouldn't mind connecting if I could figure it out (it used to connect through the receiver's tape monitor connection which I don't bother with now).
Like you I didn't bother cleaning new records aside from a minor wipe with a cleaning brush. I have however invested in a Knosti Spin Cleaner and it's actually 'repaired' previous 'skipping/popping' issues on some records, including new ones. 🙄 I keep my records inside the sleeves. I have too many to invest in massive amounts of outer sleeves to take them out now. Aside from preventing ring-wear on the sleeve, I really don't see the point of it and it feels quite 'unnatural' to be honest. If anything the actual record is more exposed to damage having it outside the sleeve which offers protection. Plus the records become bulkier taking up more space on your shelf. That's my take on it anyway. I'm a new subscriber from Australia to your channel and I have one myself so you might like to check it out sometime. Cheers mate. 👍👍
I will definitely check it out and subscribe. Thank you for letting me know!
Hi Rick. Another great, thought provoking video. The system I use the most is based on a Harman/Kardon AVR-20 receiver, a BSR 810 record changer I(I can hear the gasps and snickering now) with a Pickering XV-15/625E cartridge tracking at 1.2 grams, and a pair of Klipsch bookshelf speakers on speaker stands. All in all, the most expensive part were the speakers because I bought them brand new. I also have tape and CD. For tape, I have an Akai reel to reel tape deck in in perfect working and cosmetic order that I absolutely love. It is a three speed deck that runs at 1 3/8, 3 3/4, and 7 IPS and records and sounds awesome. Besides the speakers, everything in my system was bought used and it sounds great (in my humble opinion, or is that not so humble? 🙂 ). All in all, I've probably got about a grand in it with speakers and reel deck being the most expensive components. I used to have an equalizer too, and I liked it because it could take a room that was not audio friendly and you could adjust the frequencies to make up for it. Don't know why I stopped using it. Probably because I heard people say that they really weren't needed, and I listened to them more than my music. To me, that's the worst thing anyone can do is let other people dictate what your system should sound like. What it all boils down to it, it is your system and and your music. The only one who has to like the way it sounds is you. When I say that, I'm not talking about you. You are my favorite audio channel on RUclips, and I value your opinion a lot, and I always look forward to your videos.
Thank you Joe. I am still very, very intrigued by the reel to reel. I actually priced them out at one point but figure it'll have to wait.
When I bought the KLH and gave away a couple other speaker sets I had, but not my Klipsch on the stands - love them!
Bravo!!! I am a Fan od you honest approach and the organic love of Vinyl.
My favorite digital setup has no moving parts and I play the music from a 1tb thumb drive with lab grade power.
That's coming from a person who was putting the tone arm on Records in 1970
Thank you! That means alot!
Might be a bit off topic but what I would love to have is a balance control on a remote control...
Not off topic at all. I would love that also 🍺
Totally agree re cleaning new records . They pick up static quickly anyway
I had brand new audiophile records skipping, I never know it exists btw.
Quasi-Myth: I'm a huge Tone control advocate and an EQ lover, at this point I'm practically collecting EQs. But that being said, there's some truth to the deniers claims and they do degrade the sound the more you alter it, so it's a give and take relationship to find a good....equilibrium. The optimal world would really be having components that get the tone you want without the added distortion (but not everyone has the time or money to get there)
But what I wanted to get at was, on my current amp/phono, it has the ability to completely bypass the pre-amp section and go direct from phono to power....there's definitely a small clarity jump happening when the EQ and rest of that circuit is bypassed, even if the EQ is set to flat. I ended up buying a subwoofer to avoid the bass controls, at least for my turntable & speakers right now (the Tone/EQs stay everywhere else 😅)
I'm hoping to try out a small sub one of these days. That being said - there are times I want to reach for the tone controls myself for that very reason.
The biggest tone controll behind You it’s callsed vacum tubess😊
Tangentially: I always found a pencil ever so slightly too narrow to smoothly turn the wheels of a cassette. An original Bic pen worked much better.
Very true Kerry! I couldn't find a Bic 😂😂😂
In my experience tone controls were to adjust the sound to suite your taste in sound or compensate for unique qualities of your listening environment. I remember 'loudness' buttons which I only used when I had the volume very low. Others used it to pump up the bass. The cost of a product does have a psychological influence on what we hear. Our ability to hear difference in the electronic stages of sound in high quality, not high price, is limited and requires experience, training and blind comparison to tell identifiable differences. It can be like telling the difference in taste of wine, the refined, experienced critics can do it, but us mortals rely on the label. Tube amps and solid state amps do sound different but which is better is in the ear of the beholder. Cassette tapes saved my records. I made a copy of each record. When I just wanted music in the back ground I played the. tape. When I want to sit and listen to the performance of a musician I played the record. In my early days before CD's existed vinyl was the gold standard. Skips records was a problem for many friends who lived on second floor, or higher, apartments. I made them wooden open top box, filled it with sand and put bricks on top of the sand. That isolated the turntable for my friends. We have lots of ways to do that now.
The box with sand technique has been mentioned alot on here the last few weeks. We did what we could back then 😎
Tone/EQ controls are not monsters- your ROOM is the monster. Controls are good, when used appropriately.
Yes!
With the correct selections, any system can be vastly improved beyond $1K.
Exactly, Bill. 🍺🍺🍺
First, "The audiophile man" recently reviewed in a youtube video some isolation pads for speakers and turn tables. I think yourself and many viewers would be interested. The more stable platform your speakers and turntable sit on the better. I also like the idea of isolating components from vibration and digital/electric noise in a price appropriate level to your system. If it is your golf swing, running, racing, etc the better you get, the closer the competition, the more the details matter.
A well mastered recording on any of the forms of media mentioned when played on a good system can sound great. I enjoy good sound and have a Bluesound Vault which I use as a digital media server of sorts as it has a hard drive and CD reader to automatically rip the CD. No more lost, damaged, or organizing CDs. I keep the CDs in boxes out of the way. For me, there is a year and music genre scale to somewhat determine if I spring for the vinyl copy of the music (can't afford to buy it all and used CDs are cheap). 90s or newer rock, I'll buy the CD and rip it in FLAC to the Bluesound. Accoustic of any age, I am more likely to buy vinyl. 80s and older again vinyl.
A friend restores 50s, 60s consoles and some sound pretty good, something like Elvis, early Beatles, Patsy Cline or Cash just sounds right on the old console. I am not going to say it is better than say a vintage McIntosh tube amp and Klipsch horns or whatever dream system but the old console has an enjoyable sound. I'd love to buy one but that can't buy it all statement rings true. He believes music sounds great on the type of system it was recorded to be played on. and... I think he has a point Boston probably sounds pretty good on Cerwin Vegas or JBLs and a big watt Pioneer, Sansui etc receiver, which gets back to my biased illogically logical sliding scale on how I determine which form of media I buy for that particular release.
I think there is some truth to what your friend said, Lamar. The current tech for playback when a piece of music is mastered probably does dictate how it is done. Really good point.
I was skeptical about Thomas and Stereo “hearting” my comment about audiophiles and tone control. I thought he was just being nice, as he like to do. Then I saw the Galion TS-120 with tone controls. Respect.
On my Willsenton R-8 I add capacitance to the global negative feedback because the system was too bright, then I got new speakers, and needed more brightness so removed capacitance to get sound I liked…then changed the power tubes to get the bass and dynamics I wanted. Then I made a tube phone stage and get awesome dynamics and sound when the recording and pressing is right. Still want to turn up the bass on many records. Occasionally I put tone controls in the chain, I enjoy the music better, but it makes an eyesore. My system is now pretty good, that often I use tone defeat. Now I have a solid state and tube setup that I. A cross connect. So I can use dac from here, tone from there, pass it to Ss or tube…I just want a tube amp with tone controls and tone defeat. All that is crazy and gets in my way of enjoying music, I don’t want the “Journey”, I just want music the way I enjoy to hear it.
You built your phono stage? Respect from me on that!
Like most commercial products the market drives to efficiency by satisfying the average consumer. Bell telephone standardized on 300-3000 hz as the frequency response. CDs were a compromise truncating high frequency definition. Vinyl was compromised by speed and physical materials. As someone who would get headaches from florescent tubes and CRTs when they go bad, I know most people don't hear the higher frequencies with any clarity and for them CDs may be perfection but for me they are what I can get for reasonable money. They are good enough.
Florescent tubes do the same to me after an extended period of time.
I've been cleaning my records since the 1970's, yes even new ones, in order to record them onto cassette tape. Of course a quality tape and deck were used. Never have i stopped playing records since the 1960's and have been lugging them from residence to residence as I moved around the country. Now, I'm in my forever house and now have thousands of records, tapes of many formats, CD's and even digital downloads. And My recorded tapes sound just as great as when I first recorded them over 50 years ago. And, I still listen to 78rpm records. Some are a little crackly, but most sound just fine, especially the 50's pop and rock ones.
I love my records and have cherished them for years. I've been playing records since my first record player in the 60;s which played 78's with a steel needle. i don't remember what ever happened to that one or my RCA 45 record changer, but i still have many of those old records. Most will never be available today.
I like that isolation device under your turntable; I really hate when I get feedback through the system.
Your video was great. Thanks for making it and all those others.
And thank you for watching John! Your description of lugging them from residence to residence resonates. I've been doing so for decades as well. I call it my vinyl turtle shell 😂😂😂
Cleaning stylus needles with Magic Eraser. Amazing how great it works if done carefully.
I'm on board with that. I do it myself!
I sold Hi-Fi between 1976 and 1983. And before I sold HiFi I built my own Dynaco 400 and Pat 5 pre. Once I became a salesman and I can buy everything at half price, I ended up with a Kenwood KD 500 turntable with an ADC tonearm and zlm cartridge. I currently own four turntables and that one is still my main turntable. Looks like direct drive basically lasts forever 😁
Anyway, vibration has always been a big deal for me. That's why my main listening room is actually one end of my new shop building. The concrete floor's really good for killing vibrations. And yes I think the vibrations is the most important thing in your list.
I will throw this out though: I have several hundred cassettes and a couple of cassette decks and I have them mainly for a curiosity. Back in the day I used a very good cassette deck to record my brand new albums on cassette and then proceeded to play the cassettes rather than the album so they didn't wear out. I have a couple dozen of those original tapes and they still sound pretty much as good as they did back in the day, at least to my ears. But I also think CD ultimately completely replaced cassettes especially when they brought the ability to record.
That is, I agree with your assessment of CDs but not cassettes. That's why, though for me it's all about vinyl, I do listen to CDs and I started collecting them from thrift stores because you can get them for 50 cents a piece still. But I'm not interested in cassettes at all anymore. At least I'm not interested in acquiring any more. I have several NOS bricks of blank tapes that I'll probably never use. I probably should sell them to some hipsters.
Regarding expensive equipment, I am actually a cheap equipment snob. Back in the day I had a 600-watt per channel bi-amplified system into a pair of ESS AMT 1B monitors. Though I still have half of that system electronically, my current speakers are a $100 subwoofer and three pairs of very small bookshelf speakers that I paid $5 a pair for at garage sales. And two of those pairs blew all their drivers and I had to buy replacement drivers online. And the comical part is though the speakers were different, one pair was advent and one was polk, I put the exact same woofers and tweeters in both. They sound great. Jazz trio sound like they are in the room. Especially when the three pairs of speakers are stacked vertically with the speakers on their side and the dome tweeters lined up vertically
But the reason I can do this is because I am no longer purely an audiophile. I'm more into the music now.
I've never taken tube equipment seriously because it's just too expensive, regarding bang for the buck. The biggest change you can make in your system to truly improve sound quality is room acoustics. And that's what I focused on when I built my current listening room. And holy cow does it matter.
"sell them to some hipsters" - love that.
As you said - room acoustics may be the biggest improvement one can make. My wife and I finally got rid of the laminate floor and did some other tweaks and I already hear the difference.
And those old Kenwoods are beautiful.
Rick, It's fascinating how the "feel" of the sound from my piano has this uncanny resemblance to a well-recorded analogue piano album on vinyl. While the purists might pick apart the "awfull" measurements, for me, there's an inexplicable allure. There's something about the warmth and richness that vinyl brings, something that digital files struggle to replicate, but is getting closer, not close. Most of my analogue albums, especially those predating 1981, offer a more satisfying listening experience compared to their digital counterparts. Of course, there are exceptions, often found in remastered CD versions, but there's a charm to the original vinyl that's hard to beat.
I completely agree, and I have been diving down the research rabbit hole to try to understand why this is. I can't believe it's completely subjective. I still struggle with it. I wrote this recently while trying to grasp the "feel" you mentioned - joyofvinyl.com/what-we-hear/
I'm excited to dive into the article you wrote! To give you some background, I've spent two decades living as a jazz pianist and teacher, fully immersed in the music world. I didn't pay much attention to the audiophile scene and was content with an old turntable, Bose speakers, and a Yamaha receiver. My ears are finely attuned to the sounds of acoustic instruments. Vinyl affects me in a similar way to live music, especially acoustic music, compared to digital, which I also enjoy, especially with advancements in reproduction and recording quality. While I don't rely on scientific explanations for my experiences, as you said, there must be something behind this; vibration and the essential imprint of sound into the groove, whatever that is...
Fascinating article! Thank you.
Keith Jarrett, a jazz piano legend and my main influence, was apparently at one of these early 80s gatherings where they showcased digital recordings for the first time. The room buzzed with amazement, except for Jarrett. His producer, struck by the lack of background noise, leaned over and said, "Isn't it incredible how quiet it is?" Jarrett's reply? "Just a dead silence."
@@Beyondabsence That's a great anecdote!
@@Beyondabsence I've turned into a student of sound in this respect. There's something to it.
Beliefs I held on to for many years I no longer do
1)The more power an amp puts out the better it is. So 1,000 watt amp is much better than a 100 Watt amp
2) The lower the distortion the better it will sound . So 0.001 % distortion amp will sound much better than a 0.01 % distortion amp.
Yes! The folks at Decware will live you for this.
my hobby is admitting i'm wrong. Many years of this confirming evidence suggests this strategy works for me. On a more serious note i have a Linn Sondek LP12 turntable which does not contain any facility to alter the sound and was sold to me that this was a more 'pure' approach. However there have been instances when i would prefer to 'tweak' the sound. I now, like you, always clean new records. Many come in cardboard sleeves which contaminates the surfaces but, at lease here in the U.K, i'm sorry to say the condition of most new releases in my experience leaves a lot to be desired. Anyway noticed your subscribers numbers are heading north so well deserved and keep up the excellent work please.
Thank you, Barrie - I hope to keep the lights on and the channel running for awhile at least.
I sometimes think I am more wrong than I am right these days 😂😂😂
Since day 1, 45 years ago, full treble, bass at 1/2 or less depending on volume! Only way to go
Cheers! 🥂
hahahaha..... "I bet you can build a great system for under $600." I know you can, I did it and basically managed to build a great stereo out of parts which were given to me (because people I knew were changing their stereos and discarding old equipment). As it stands, my stereo includes one piece of equipment from every decade of the last fifty years; stereo receiver from 1975, tape player from 1981, CD player from the Nineties, stereo speakers and subwoofer from the oughts, USB turntable from 2010 -- and it's great. Basically, the only part of my stereo that I bought were the main speakers, and I got those at a garage sale.
I have a floating floor and it's funny - I never noticed any difference when listening, and I still don't. Maybe I'm lucky, but I have never gotten my turntable to skip with volume -- and I turn it up pretty loud, sometimes.
Love that you have a component for every decade. 🍺
@@TheJoyofVinylRecords hahaha... it wasn't intentional, it just happened to work out that way. But I thought it was pretty funny, when I noticed.
My #1 rule when purchasing equipment is, "hey that receiver looks cool, I wonder how it sounds". The same goes for chicks.
I used a stack system in the 80's.... awful, eventough I can't remember how it sounded. Remember Sounddesign?
I do! Dual tape decks for dubbing and AM/FM receiver, etc. I bet I even had one (or a knockoff back in the 80s).
CDs are not inferior, it is just more passive. That said, the physical limitations of vinyl eliminates brickwalling and requires more care with equalization to have it be playable (i.e. not having the stylus jump from the groove). A CD you can put any garbage mix on it and it will still play fine, albeit with often horrible listening fatigue.
Cassettes much like LPs sound great with the right eqiupment. It is what the deck can get out of the tape that most matters. For example on my Nakamichi, while I still use Chrome or Metal cassettes for certain recordings, with fine bias controls those decks can get amazing results out of a common everyday cassette like a TDK D, Maxell UR or Sony HF. I am generally of the opinion if your tapes "spill" or sound bad you are either using the wrong equipment or equipment in need of maintenance.
I have no doubt you are absolutely right about the equipment the tape is played on. I've never had a decent tape deck.
Great video, totally agree, especially the wallmount😎
Thanks Marc! The wall mount is my favorite recent purchase.
What there are the most of is crummy recordings. Vinyl, tape, CD or digital files cannot fix a crummy recording
A lot of truth to that.