keskiviikko 11. lokakuuta 2017 19.29.47 UTC+3 Don Pearce kirjoitti:
On Wed, 11 Oct 2017 09:20:19 +0100, Adrian Caspersz
wrote:

Just spotted some rebranding going on, they know their limitations...

https://thevinylfactory.com/features...sley-c10-c100/

There is no such thing as top end with vinyl. Poor-to-middling is as
good as it is possible to get. It has built into it distortion levels
which, in an amplifier, would result in it being binned.
Bass response is limited by the need to limit groove amplitude in
recording, and by the necessary arm resonance at reproduction.
Treble response is limited by temperature rise in the cutting head.

In short, if you are interested in musical reproduction, forget it,
but if you just want to collect interesting technology make a bid. But
don't go over a tenner.

d


By the mid 50's Decca had an ffrr cutting head that followed RIAA within 0.5dB to 15kHz. The Neumann SX68 is (usually better than) +/- 1 dB 40Hz to 16kHz. In Decca trials, its successor the SX74 was -2dB at 22kHz ref RIAA. We had a test disc for internal use (cutting and listening rooms turntable/RIAA set ups) which had a glide tone 20Hz to 20kHz. Many Decca classical LPs were cut at half speed, so hf was not compromised.

The problem that Don mentions: "Treble response is limited by temperature rise in the cutting head" is solved by half speed cutting and/or cooling the cutter head with helium.

What is actually on the disc depended greatly on the skills of the cutting engineer. The object of the exercise is to cut an acetate master which is as close as possible to the original master tape. (Any fool can make it sound different-) Given the medium involved, and the expectations of producers and engineers, this is no easy task.

The general public used cheap turntables with doubtful stylii played records which were poorly looked after, and expected high fidelity. Budget labels, especially in the UK, used to punch out the centres of unsold and returned vinyl pressings to be recycled in the vinyl mix for subsequent production. The same matrices were used for over-extended runs pressing runs.

These days, now that vinyl and well and truly matured, people are willing to pay more for a quality product, and we are offered immaculate 180 gr pressings, pressed in very short runs before stamper renewal. On a goods vinyl rig, they sound wonderful. This, a 12inch gatefold sleeve and a booklet which one can read without a magnifying glass all add up to a quality product.

Interestingly, comparison of many non-classical parallel productions, CD and LP, often give listeners the idea that LP is in fact better, because they prefer what they hear. And due to the lack of compression, people often assume (eroniously) that vinyl has a greater dynamic range.

In A/B/C comparison, it is not unusual for people to conclude that the vinyl is closer to the master than the CD.

The principles of CD mastering are totally different to those of vinyl cutting. During the various steps of the mastering process, the CD quickly starts to sound noticeably different to the original digital recording, - which depending on your viewpoint, may, or may not be a good thing:-))

But trying to give the public what they think they want, is not without its problems.


Iain