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?
I have mounted many cartridges. I use an electronic scale for the cartridge weight. A professional protractor. My iPhone magnifying glass to see if the angle of he stylus is 90 degrees to the record. I don't really know what else to do to be more accurate.I'm not in Australia so you could come over and take a look. I do what you do. Go to Discogs. If they don't have a decent copy, I look for mint-, I'll try other sources or perhaps a VG+ that sounds good. |
I use a Moon 280D streamer. I guess it is at the bottom of the high-end. Still it sounds good to my ear. If it errs, it's on the musical side. I own vinyl records that I can also stream at 192 kHz sampling with a 24 bit word length. It sounds awfully good. Maybe not quite as present as an album, but that might just be my relatively inexpensive streamer. Are any of you streaming, and if so, how do high bit-rate albums sound versus your vinyl rig? It seems to me, when I hit 96 kHz, it starts to sound pretty damn good. |
Ditto Mint- (near Mint). But to circumvent some wear, maybe a different shape/style stylus (likely narrower) than what was used before to get to unworn parts of the groove. Lusting for DS Audio which is quieter. I have to purchase a Degritter also, haven’t broke the news to my wife yet- self preservation. Timing is key minimize friction in hobby purchases. Audio sounds awful in doghouses;) |
I wasn't suggesting that changing the capacitance of your phono pre was altering the sound character of your Sonus Faber's in any way just that their tonal balance may not be too your taste. My bad you were talking about your XP-25. In the simplest of terms - the resistance and inductance of the moving coil create a high frequency resonance which is damped by the input impedance of the phono preamp. Lower input impedance more damped higher less damped. Elevating top-end caused by improper loading or too high an impedance results in high frequency distortion making the top end sound edgy and bright. |
@audio-b-dog Alignment questions. Two cost free basic aids that are very reliable. I reply as per your request for any other ideas about these two……. Arm parallel to the record easy check is to lay a pencil or another long cylinder type object under the tonearm while stylus is in the groove and a record (obviously) stationary. Try several LPs if required to double check. Reducing the distance (gap) between the wand and the object makes height adjustment easy to judge. The less gap the better and more accurate. Cigar shape arms need not apply! Stylus 90 degrees to record. Use a simple mirror the thickness of a record placed on your platter, and lower the arm. The reflection of the cartridge body in the mirror is easier to judge than a record. Any azimuth error doubles. Looking head-on at the cartridge body you can check both sides of the bottom of the cartridge are equal height. Of course any irregularity with a cantilever will effect stylus angles, but for a cartridge alignment it works. Simples!! If you achieve good results, then expensive equipment may not be required. As l say pretty basic tasks that work well before you have those important, vital final listening tests. |
