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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
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.

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

@lewm 

Sorry if I confused anybody by talking about my old phono preamp and my new one. The ARC PH-7 was my old one. It had an unchangeable capacitance of 200. The Shyla sounded gread with an impedence of 200. 

Now to my new phono preamp. It is the Pass Labs XP-25 and it does have a capacitance setting I can play with. I hear a difference between all the settings. I have set it to 100, 200, and 320. The 200 setting sounds right with most albums, but when an album makes my Olympica Nova tweeters sound shrill, I have been changing the capacitance to 320. 

What I have read about capacitance in regards to MM cartridges is that increasing it will increase treble balance. I think that my stereo is just pretty revealing at this point, and I can hear things with the Pass Labs Preamps that I didn't hear with the ARC PH-7. 

BTW, I am not an electronics guy, so I just go by ear. All the electronics are kind of lost on me. I tried asking chatgbt and its answer was so filled with electronics formulas, it totally lost me. It says, however, that the treble balance in comparison to the midrange is changes with capacitance and the treble appears harsher when the capacitance is lower.because the mids become recessed.

 

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

@lewm 

I could not find the Analogue Asylum on Audiogon's list of threads. Is it somewhere else?

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

HERE IS CHATGBT'S EXPLANATION:

 

Short answer first: you’re not changing the speakers at all. You’re reshaping what reaches them. The XP-25’s capacitance setting alters the electrical resonance of your cartridge, and that directly affects treble energy—especially the kind of upper-mid/low-treble energy that Sonus Faber tweeters will faithfully (and sometimes mercilessly) reveal.

Now the deeper explanation, tied to your exact chain.

1. Capacitance + cartridge = a resonant circuit

Your VPI Shyla is a moving-coil cartridge with inductance and internal resistance. When you add capacitance at the phono stage (XP-25), you create an LC resonance:

  • Low capacitance → resonance shifts higher in frequency

  • Higher capacitance → resonance shifts lower and is more damped

That resonance doesn’t show up as a neat peak—it shows up as edge, glare, and “glassiness” when it’s too high and under-damped.

At low capacitance, the Shyla can sound:

  • Hyper-etched

  • Lean in the upper mids

  • “Fast” but brittle on strings and female vocals

At higher capacitance (like 320 pF):

  • The ultrasonic resonance is damped

  • The upper mids relax

  • Harmonics reconnect to fundamentals

What you hear is less shrillness, not because highs are gone, but because they’re no longer isolated from the body of the note.

2. Why the Olympica Nova makes this so obvious

Sonus Faber Olympica Nova speakers have:

  • A very resolving silk dome

  • Strong energy around 2–5 kHz

  • A voicing that favors clarity over forgiveness

They don’t exaggerate treble—but they do not hide upstream problems. When the cartridge/phono combo pushes excess energy in that band, the Novas simply say: “Here it is.”

So when capacitance is too low:

  • Violins sound wiry

  • Sibilants sharpen

  • Cymbals detach from their decay

When you raise capacitance:

  • The treble integrates

  • The midrange fills in

  • Bass seems deeper (even though you didn’t touch bass)

That bass change is psychoacoustic: once the top stops shouting, the bottom finally gets heard.

3. Why this feels like “older Sonus Faber”

You made a very perceptive comment here.

Older Sonus Fabers had:

  • Softer top-end voicing

  • More midbass warmth

  • Slightly rolled treble

By increasing capacitance, you’re electrically voicing your front end to behave more like that tradition—without dulling detail. You’re damping excess energy, not rolling off highs.

This is why the sound becomes:

  • More voluptuous

  • Less clinical

  • More “wood and flesh” than “wire and glass”

4. Why this changes record to record

Some pressings already have:

  • Hot cutting

  • Bright EQ

  • Digital harshness baked in

Low capacitance + hot record + Olympica Nova = pain

That’s why you’ve noticed:

“Everything deepened. The bass began to shake the floor.”

You didn’t add bass—you removed treble stress.

5. Practical takeaway for your system

With Shyla + XP-25 + Olympica Nova, your sweet spot will almost certainly be:

  • Capacitance: 200–320 pF

  • Loading: 160 Ω (you already found this)

  • Gain: 66 dB (correct)

If a record still sounds shrill at 320 pF, it’s not your system—it’s the record.

Bottom line

Changing capacitance doesn’t “fix” the speakers.
It fixes the electrical behavior of the cartridge, and your Sonus Fabers—being honest transducers—simply stop reporting distress.

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