Jim Lesurf wrote:
In article , Serge Auckland
wrote:
Our dear departed friend Keith has posted this on his web site, so he
still has an interest in audio...........

http://www.apah69.dsl.pipex.com/show/show.htm

I got a link for a multi-MB download. Since I'm still using a POTS/modem
connection I decided I could live without that. Indeed, that I might not
live long enough to discover the contents weren't worth the wait. :-)

Anyone care to comment on what the download tells us?

Essentially it was a company that has taken over the original EMI
pressing machinery, and is turning out vinyl. Since they started the
numbers initially climbed, but have now plateaued at (I think) about a
million a year. The chap in charge had nothing to say about sound
quality - his thrust was that it was all about owning the "thing" and
what fun it was.

Mechanically it all looked very hit and miss, but the chap did say they
used a "process" to make it happen.

I would imagine that the pressing quality is rather better now than it
was in the '70s. If nothing else, having guards round the presses
should help to keep dust down. Health and Safety sometimes is of more
use than just the obvious.

Hard for me to tell. I've only acquired 8 LPs in the last 5+ years. These
are a box set of fancy-produced Henrix re-issues I got for comparison
purposes with a 4 CD set. One LP side is audibly off-center, and others
have clicks in various places. Came shrink-wrapped, so it looks like even
fancy LP issues still show manufacturing/factory problems. Alas, a guard
around the machine won't ensure they will bother to put the hole in the
center... :-)


It looks like SOTA equipment is rather confined to the playing side of
things. :-(

But overall, the sound seems fine - albeit at the cost of sides limited to
about 15 mins, so requiring 8 LPs.

That said, I discovered in another comparison that my old Frampton Live
double LP set has songs which were omitted from the single CD of the same.
Odd, since the timing would allow them to all fit onto one CD...

Slainte,

Jim


Never known omissions on CD - always extras.

d

In article Y5GdnbBqJYm6cK_VnZ2dnUVZ8vSdnZ2d@plusnet, Don Pearce
wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:
In article , Serge Auckland
wrote:


Anyone care to comment on what the download tells us?

Essentially it was a company that has taken over the original EMI
pressing machinery, and is turning out vinyl. Since they started the
numbers initially climbed, but have now plateaued at (I think) about a
million a year. The chap in charge had nothing to say about sound
quality - his thrust was that it was all about owning the "thing" and
what fun it was.

Did they give the name/address of the company? I'd still like to talk to
some people who are making LPs to find out the details of the cutting, etc.
I tried contacting a few people some months ago, but they didn't give me
the details I was asking for. So far I've had to rely on ancient textbooks,
etc, for the series I've been doing on LP.


Hard for me to tell. I've only acquired 8 LPs in the last 5+ years.
These are a box set of fancy-produced Henrix re-issues I got for
comparison purposes with a 4 CD set.

Just recalled that I also recently bought a batch of test LPs. :-) I used
the Analogue Productions LP to do measurements on some MM cartridges.

BTW Anyone know the address, etc, for Technics LPs? I think they also make
test LPs, and am curious to check them out, The AP LP is good for some
purposes, but I'm still looking for an LP with accurate white or well
defined pink noise, for example. So far, all the test LPs I've tried have
noise which is far from either white or 1/f.

That said, I discovered in another comparison that my old Frampton
Live double LP set has songs which were omitted from the single CD of
the same. Odd, since the timing would allow them to all fit onto one
CD...


Never known omissions on CD - always extras.

That is usually my experience, so I was puzzled by the Frampton example. I
could have understood if the playing time of the double LP was above 80
mins, but it isn't.

The title is "Frampton comes Alive". Double LP is A&M SP3707 from 1976. The
CD of this I have is 396 505-2 (only date given is 1976 so clearly just the
copyright date).

CD has 10 songs, 2LP has 14. Missing from the CD are "Doobie Wah", "Its a
Plain Shame", "All I want to be", "Penny for your thoughts". Song orders
also differ. That is also odd as it is meant to be a 'live concert'
recording.

CD 62m 26s long. 2LPs 78m 30s (approx).

Maybe they wanted to release a 'special reissue' at a later date and higher
price that has all the original material! :-) However I'd have hoped a
special issue would provide *more* material that the original 2LP set.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Change 'noise' to 'jcgl' if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

Jim Lesurf wrote:
In article Y5GdnbBqJYm6cK_VnZ2dnUVZ8vSdnZ2d@plusnet, Don Pearce
wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:
In article , Serge Auckland
wrote:

Anyone care to comment on what the download tells us?

Essentially it was a company that has taken over the original EMI
pressing machinery, and is turning out vinyl. Since they started the
numbers initially climbed, but have now plateaued at (I think) about a
million a year. The chap in charge had nothing to say about sound
quality - his thrust was that it was all about owning the "thing" and
what fun it was.

Did they give the name/address of the company? I'd still like to talk to
some people who are making LPs to find out the details of the cutting, etc.
I tried contacting a few people some months ago, but they didn't give me
the details I was asking for. So far I've had to rely on ancient textbooks,
etc, for the series I've been doing on LP.


http://www.portalspacerecords.com/da/13006

d

In article , Don
Pearce
wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:


Did they give the name/address of the company?

http://www.portalspacerecords.com/da/13006

Ta! :-) IMHO The webpages are awful, tiny text and rely heavily on the M$
version of JavaScript and Flash. So a PITA for me. But the page whose URL
you gave does have an address for contact, so I've sent an email to see if
I can get a response. Had to resist the temptation to suggest they fire the
firm who did their website for them. ;-

FWIW I hope to put the first couple of HFN articles (limits of
cutting/replay and stats of peak velocities, etc, from various LPs) onto
audiomisc soon. And the 4th article with the results comparing various
carts with my ancient Shure V15/III is due to appear in the mag in a couple
of weeks time. Would be useful to do another article to try and tie the
measured results to what the people cutting the LPs do to produce what I
found. Particulary curious about the differences between vertical and
horizontal modulation stats on some LPs... :-)

Slainte,

Jim

--
Change 'noise' to 'jcgl' if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

Jim Lesurf wrote:
In article , Don
Pearce
wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:

Did they give the name/address of the company?

http://www.portalspacerecords.com/da/13006

Ta! :-) IMHO The webpages are awful, tiny text and rely heavily on the M$
version of JavaScript and Flash. So a PITA for me. But the page whose URL
you gave does have an address for contact, so I've sent an email to see if
I can get a response. Had to resist the temptation to suggest they fire the
firm who did their website for them. ;-

FWIW I hope to put the first couple of HFN articles (limits of
cutting/replay and stats of peak velocities, etc, from various LPs) onto
audiomisc soon. And the 4th article with the results comparing various
carts with my ancient Shure V15/III is due to appear in the mag in a couple
of weeks time. Would be useful to do another article to try and tie the
measured results to what the people cutting the LPs do to produce what I
found. Particulary curious about the differences between vertical and
horizontal modulation stats on some LPs... :-)

Slainte,

Jim


Good. I've read what you've written so far in the mags and I have to say
I haven't been hugely surprised by what you found. I am very
interested in the way the back rake angle of the cutter limits excursion
at HF. I would like to know the balance between that and overheating at
various high frequencies.

d

"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message


FWIW I hope to put the first couple of HFN articles
(limits of cutting/replay and stats of peak velocities,
etc, from various LPs) onto audiomisc soon. And the 4th
article with the results comparing various carts with my
ancient Shure V15/III is due to appear in the mag in a
couple of weeks time.

How does the V15/III compare to modern carts?

In article , Arny
Krueger
wrote:
"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message


FWIW I hope to put the first couple of HFN articles (limits of
cutting/replay and stats of peak velocities, etc, from various LPs)
onto audiomisc soon. And the 4th article with the results comparing
various carts with my ancient Shure V15/III is due to appear in the
mag in a couple of weeks time.

How does the V15/III compare to modern carts?

ahem Well, you could buy the issue of HFN that will be appearing on 30th
May to find out the details... :-) ...although I'll be putting the
article on the web after the usual delay of about 6 months. As well as
frequency response, I also did THD versus frequency and signal level, etc.

That said, the simple answer is - very well. The results I got confirmed my
personal preference, and the measurements didn't show any of the modern
examples being superior. I wish Shure still made the V15/III and stylii for
it as they used to. [1] So if anyone is still using one, I'd say keep with
it unless change is necessary.

Slainte,

Jim

[1] Indeed, more than one person at Shure said they felt the same. But they
feel it isn't a practical market for them nowdays.

--
Change 'noise' to 'jcgl' if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message

In article
, Arny
Krueger
wrote:
"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message


FWIW I hope to put the first couple of HFN articles
(limits of cutting/replay and stats of peak velocities,
etc, from various LPs) onto audiomisc soon. And the 4th
article with the results comparing various carts with
my ancient Shure V15/III is due to appear in the mag in
a couple of weeks time.

How does the V15/III compare to modern carts?

ahem Well, you could buy the issue of HFN that will be
appearing on 30th May to find out the details... :-)
...although I'll be putting the article on the web after
the usual delay of about 6 months. As well as frequency
response, I also did THD versus frequency and signal
level, etc.

That said, the simple answer is - very well. The results
I got confirmed my personal preference, and the
measurements didn't show any of the modern examples being
superior. I wish Shure still made the V15/III and stylii
for it as they used to. [1] So if anyone is still using
one, I'd say keep with it unless change is necessary.

It seems to me that Shure did well with the original V15, but by the time
they got to the III, the rate of progress had slowed down a great deal. I
think the III was what graced my old TD 125/SME system, which I sold when
the CD took over.

Contrary to what some seem to believe, there really isn't a lot of room for
progress with the LP format, because its operational parameters are set by
basic physics and the properties of materials.

Jim Lesurf said:

And the 4th article with the results comparing various
carts with my ancient Shure V15/III

Which stylus did you use Jim? I thought about getting mine back on
the road but have read a few poor reports on the generic ones
available, although the Jilco
http://tiny.cc/v9Bj3
seems to have a good reputation.
It would probable be overkill for my Pioneer PL-112D,on which i'm
currently using an Audio Technica AT110E which I'm very pleased with
it deals with surface noise on my ancient lp's very well.

PS I enjoy your articles in HFN very much.
--
Ken

In article ,
UnsteadyKen
wrote:
Jim Lesurf said:

And the 4th article with the results comparing various carts with my
ancient Shure V15/III

Which stylus did you use Jim? I thought about getting mine back on the
road but have read a few poor reports on the generic ones available,

I am still using original Shure stylii from the 1980s. Have an MR and two
HEs. Had them all checked by a company, and looked at them myself with a
microscope. All fine despite their age. Some photos of stylii will be in
the article and the differences between my MR and the modern stylii is one
thing I think will surprise people! :-)

Comment from the people who checked my stylii was to the effect that 'light
tracking' ones like the V15 mean very low rates of stylus wear. And so far
as my measuements can tell, the suspensions, etc, are still fine.

I did plan to try some of the 3rd party stylii, but when I found the ones I
had were good I postponed that and concentrated on the V15 versus other
modern cartridges. May do 3rd party stylii in future. Though I now know why
many 'reviewers' have given up measurements on cartridges. They can be a
real pig to get decent results as you have to fiddle about so much with the
setup, and the results vary wildly with even small misalignments, etc. Bit
like balancing a pencil on end! My hands and eyes aren't very good these
days, either, which makes toe fiddling about an anxious time. So I won't
rush to do more. :-)

Above said: If anyone has a V15/III cart with no useable stylii I'd love to
borrow/acquire it sometime, though, as a test bed for trying out 3rd party
stylii. Like to keep my present one 'as is' for comparison and use.

FWIW My reaction would be to try a re-tip from the Expert Stylus people as
they can use the existing cantilever and suspension, and put any profile of
diamond you choose onto it.

PS I enjoy your articles in HFN very much.

Don't tell me, tell the editor. :-)

Slainte,

Jim

--
Change 'noise' to 'jcgl' if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html