Is it worth all the trouble? That really depends. Let's start with the sound. If you have a very revealing system and you like to listen to music for fairly long increments of time. It is absolutely worth it. For some of us digital music can have the same fatiguing effect as bright speakers. But, let's be truthful, you first started listening to music for the music but, at some point fiddling with the equipment when not listening to the music started boinging your fun zone.
With vinyl the fiddling has endless possibilities. With digital there is no fiddling, Upgrading, yes, but no hands on fiddling. Since music from vinyl is all about the transfer of vibrations every little part of the playback system can be endlessly adjusted and changed and experimented with. The goal is to eliminate anything that can transfer energy to the needle other than the groves. The theories on how to do this equal the number of grains of sand at the beach. On a macro scale, mass vs light as air. Metal vs plastic vs wood. Layers sandwiched vs solid milled. Then there is the bearing, probably the most important part of the turntable. Again the materials are endless. Then there is the motor, indirect drive, direct drive, cog no cog, etc. Then comes the arm. Once again the theories are endless as are the materials they are made from. Then the cartridge. This is where you need very deep pockets. My experience has been that as far as components go, this is the one piece that has the greatest effect on changing how your turntable sounds. It can be as dramatic as changing speakers. I wish that this was one of those components with diminishing returns but, it isn't. I have had quite a few turntables and arms and they all pretty much sounded the same to me once they were properly set up. Some arms are easier to use and some turntables are less trouble to use but, I only hear a difference when I change cartridges.
So after the cartridge what next? The pre-amp and phono-amp. Now this is one of the components that in my experience diminishing returns clicks in pretty quickly. And it is one of the most difficult components to sort out. Why? Because you want your pre-amp and phono-amp to be as neutral as possible. You don't want it to add or detract anything. You only want it to boost the signal. It sounds silly but, what you are listening for is the sound of nothing. It is like drinking water. What is everybody's favorite? Crystal clear refreshing non flavor, right? That is what a good pre-amp is. Like a stream of melted snow that has been flowing and filtered through sand until it has that refreshing taste of no taste. Make sense?
What is next? Well since we have spent all this time and money trying to isolate the grooves in the record we need to do a little to isolate the whole turntable. You can go crazy with this but, you really don't have to. A stable solid stand is really all you need. Look I have gone crazy with this one building isolating sand boxes and inner tubes and springs and on and on. In the end I found that a good solid, not hollow, metal stand with nice thick maple shelves (thick as in 2" or more thick) and everything on some type of footer be it metal pointed ones or little blocks of wood layered with rubber is all you need.
Now, again this is my personal experience and yours may be different, next to the cartridge the biggest change in sound comes from clean. That is right clean. Clean records, clean cartridge, clean, clean, clean.
I can't emphasize it enough. That also includes clean record sleeves. Any record that doesn't come in a anti-static record sleeve gets put in one immediately after its first cleaning in my home. Because I am obsessive about my turntable set up and keeping all dust and debris off my records and cartridge, I never have to listen to the pops and click associated with vinyl. Not one of my records does that.
So, now the the number one and hardest to find and get right component of all. The record itself. Some are simply poorly made from poor ingredients. There was a time when some companies were grinding up old records to use for new records. i don't know why that doesn't work but, it doesn't. Nothing you can do will make these records play without pops and clicks. The surprising thing I have found with records is I have some that are covered with fine lines and you would think that they would be unlistenable but, they sound perfect. I have also had records that look absolutely flawless and are full of static sounds and pops and clicks. You don't know until you give it a good cleaning what a record will sound like.
So, that is why I say it is complicated. Add to that, you can't skip tracks (which for me is a good thing) and you have to get up and flip the record over. In general I would say that people that say that digital is better are right. It is in all things except sound and tweak ability and those two things only matter to about .000001% of the population. By the way, laser discs sounded way better than the best DVD on the best DVD player but, like vinyl it had so many other issues. But, that is another story.
I am going to add one more caveat here. Modern records whose masters are from digital recordings sometime sound better than digital sources, sometimes the same, sometimes not as good. But, my experience has been that records that are made from analog all the way through the process always sound better than its digital transfer.
With vinyl the fiddling has endless possibilities. With digital there is no fiddling, Upgrading, yes, but no hands on fiddling. Since music from vinyl is all about the transfer of vibrations every little part of the playback system can be endlessly adjusted and changed and experimented with. The goal is to eliminate anything that can transfer energy to the needle other than the groves. The theories on how to do this equal the number of grains of sand at the beach. On a macro scale, mass vs light as air. Metal vs plastic vs wood. Layers sandwiched vs solid milled. Then there is the bearing, probably the most important part of the turntable. Again the materials are endless. Then there is the motor, indirect drive, direct drive, cog no cog, etc. Then comes the arm. Once again the theories are endless as are the materials they are made from. Then the cartridge. This is where you need very deep pockets. My experience has been that as far as components go, this is the one piece that has the greatest effect on changing how your turntable sounds. It can be as dramatic as changing speakers. I wish that this was one of those components with diminishing returns but, it isn't. I have had quite a few turntables and arms and they all pretty much sounded the same to me once they were properly set up. Some arms are easier to use and some turntables are less trouble to use but, I only hear a difference when I change cartridges.
So after the cartridge what next? The pre-amp and phono-amp. Now this is one of the components that in my experience diminishing returns clicks in pretty quickly. And it is one of the most difficult components to sort out. Why? Because you want your pre-amp and phono-amp to be as neutral as possible. You don't want it to add or detract anything. You only want it to boost the signal. It sounds silly but, what you are listening for is the sound of nothing. It is like drinking water. What is everybody's favorite? Crystal clear refreshing non flavor, right? That is what a good pre-amp is. Like a stream of melted snow that has been flowing and filtered through sand until it has that refreshing taste of no taste. Make sense?
What is next? Well since we have spent all this time and money trying to isolate the grooves in the record we need to do a little to isolate the whole turntable. You can go crazy with this but, you really don't have to. A stable solid stand is really all you need. Look I have gone crazy with this one building isolating sand boxes and inner tubes and springs and on and on. In the end I found that a good solid, not hollow, metal stand with nice thick maple shelves (thick as in 2" or more thick) and everything on some type of footer be it metal pointed ones or little blocks of wood layered with rubber is all you need.
Now, again this is my personal experience and yours may be different, next to the cartridge the biggest change in sound comes from clean. That is right clean. Clean records, clean cartridge, clean, clean, clean.
I can't emphasize it enough. That also includes clean record sleeves. Any record that doesn't come in a anti-static record sleeve gets put in one immediately after its first cleaning in my home. Because I am obsessive about my turntable set up and keeping all dust and debris off my records and cartridge, I never have to listen to the pops and click associated with vinyl. Not one of my records does that.
So, now the the number one and hardest to find and get right component of all. The record itself. Some are simply poorly made from poor ingredients. There was a time when some companies were grinding up old records to use for new records. i don't know why that doesn't work but, it doesn't. Nothing you can do will make these records play without pops and clicks. The surprising thing I have found with records is I have some that are covered with fine lines and you would think that they would be unlistenable but, they sound perfect. I have also had records that look absolutely flawless and are full of static sounds and pops and clicks. You don't know until you give it a good cleaning what a record will sound like.
So, that is why I say it is complicated. Add to that, you can't skip tracks (which for me is a good thing) and you have to get up and flip the record over. In general I would say that people that say that digital is better are right. It is in all things except sound and tweak ability and those two things only matter to about .000001% of the population. By the way, laser discs sounded way better than the best DVD on the best DVD player but, like vinyl it had so many other issues. But, that is another story.
I am going to add one more caveat here. Modern records whose masters are from digital recordings sometime sound better than digital sources, sometimes the same, sometimes not as good. But, my experience has been that records that are made from analog all the way through the process always sound better than its digital transfer.
Comment