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Vinyl foibles

I'd like to make this a space to ask questions about vinyl problems you're having trouble solving. I have a lot of questions, but I think it's better if we ask one at a time, or else I think we could have long lists.

Here is my first question. I have a Degritter album washer. I think it works great. I wash all my albums once, but not before I play them again and again.  Somehow, though, and this includes new albums no one else has ever touched, they pick up ticks and what sounds like scratches. I rewash the album and it sounds like new again. I only touch albums by their edges. How do inner bands become so dirty that sometimes a smudge can last a minute or more?  I've been playing vinyl albums for more years than many of you have lived, and I have learned to be very careful with vinyl. Are there vinyl gremlins haunting my album shelves?

audio-b-dog
audio-b-dog's avatar
audio-b-dog OP
806 posts
 

@faustuss 

No, I'm not confusing them. That's why it's so strange. The impedance is set to 160. I had it set to 200 on my ARC PH-7. 160 sounds good on the Pass Labs. But there is a treble edge. I don't think the capacitance has as much affect as the impedance, but it defintely has an affect. And I know it's not supposed to on a MC. 

With the capacitance at 320 the sound is a bit more weighty. Treble is audibly less shrill. But that weightiness at 320 takes away a light, quickness at 200. So I've put it back there. I had a long chatgbt session about this. It suggests I turn the capacitance to 320 on certain shrill albums. Otherwise leave it at 200.

I know this sounds counter-intuitive, and that's why I'm reaching out to see if anybody can make sense of all this.

richardbrand's avatar
richardbrand
1,389 posts
 

@faustuss

Isn't capacitance part of the impedance?  The other two components of impedance being resistance and inductance....

@mylogic 2?

faustuss's avatar
faustuss
825 posts
 

@richardbrand 

@audio-b-dog 

"Isn't capacitance part of the impedance?  The other two components of impedance being resistance and inductance...."

Good morning, Richard,

I just looked at the manual for audio-b-dog's AR phono stage and he should look at it as well. This phono stage has a fixed gain of 57.5dB for MM and MC and a fixed capacitance as well. Since I can't find a spec for it, I would assume AR chose 150pf for MM and MC as I believe most manufacturers would for the bulk of the cartridges a-b-dog would be using. The phono stage does have 5 impedance settings however, one of 47K for MMs and four more for MCs. He should be using the 100-ohm setting that VPI recommends for their Shyla cartridge, sit tight and let his ears settle into the sound AR and VPI intended or maybe the Sonus Faber's are just too sweet in tonal balance for his preferences.

mylogic
841 posts
 

@richardbrand ”@mylogic2?”

l think you are not tracking right.

Theres only one of me.

lewm
14,677 posts
 

VPI recommends a MINIMUM resistive load of 100 ohms. So any value at or above 100 is fair game. The capacitance of the AR phono inputs ought to be available in the owners manual or on line. But don’t forget also that cable capacitance adds to input capacitance and that the gain device, tube or solid state, adds further capacitance. So if AR does say their phono inputs have 150pf capacitance, you’d like to know whether they include the inherent input C of the gain stage. RB is correct; impedance is the frequency dependent sum of R, C, and L.

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