Last song on most LP's pressed with compression


Over the last few yrs, I have spent more time with my cd player than analog rig. Anyway, the winter is here and I'm feelin the groove and started listening critically to LP again. What bothers me is the last song on a side is often compressed. You have hear this as a reduction in sound quality, akin to what an MP3 does to a cd original. Now if you inspect the LP closely that bothers you. You can see visually that the grooves towards the end are actually cut into the record differently. They are compressed together. I don't care what cartridge or equipment you use, the distortion is there..period . Once your brain locks onto it, listening thru this distortion is very difficult. Now before the experts chime in, I'm not talking about inner groove distortion here. Nor is there anything wrong with my alignment,VTA, tracking,azimuth etc. If you can't hear this on your rig (with an LP that is cut compressed on the last track- not all are)then no doubt your system is not resolved enough. Part of my LP collection (about 500 records)are 12" singles. These do not suffer from this problem for obvious reasons. But I'd bet that 60% or more of regular LP's do. What all this means for me is that the days of investing big $$$ on LP playback are over. What I have is what I have and when it eventually wears out, I doubt that I'll replace it. Yup, I am that bugged by wasting a portion of my valuable listening time listening to a lower quality signal. I modify my own equipment to achieve the highest quality signal that I possibly can. So subjecting myself to a flawed LP format is a step backwards. Before I play an LP now, I examine that groove pattern towards the end. If it looks extra compressed, then back on the shelf that title goes. I'll pick the original (non maximized) cd version every time.

Feel free to chime in.
reb1208

Showing 1 response by hxt1

Ha! I just went thru vinyl HELL!!! the humming, the buzzing, the wondering if my alignment was right, the wriggling in my seat, listening for hum, giving up on it all...... Finally cursing records, my stupid noisy (when it wants to be)! tube phono preamp, my stupid 'high resolution' cables, and even cursing my TT.
Sickened, I turned the whole works off, and watched some tv.
Yes, vinyl is a flawed medium... there are SO many variables, and so much that can go 'wrong' but when it all goes right.....
I think from now on, when I come stumbling in after a 14hr workday, and have 1 hour to eat, drink a cup of tea, and 'decompress' with some music, I'll put on a CD, grin, and bear it! There, I said it.
I was listening the other night, and I must admit, there are a few albums that I do notice lack of dynamics on the innermost tracks on...... but on the majority of my favorite albums, they just sound good thru and thru...
Thanks for giving me one more annoying thing to listen for! arg!