LP's and sound quality

[MontyVeda]

I remember from years (and years) ago Curved Air Air Conditioning album had complex pictured in multi-coloured vinyl ie not black but multi-coloured with pictures. Playing quality was not great (but back then static and dust was also a massive challenge (for me) so I don't know the actual cause.

picture discs are apparently worse as that is paper sandwiched between two halves of clear vinyl. Possibly because clear vinyl is softer or because each half has to be thin.

 

[yello]

Spurred on by this thread, I've ordered a basic record cleaning kit. Hopefully I can listen to The Smiths again in all their 'glory'. If not, I'll stick with The Fall where extraneous noise is not quite so out of place.

 

[Profpointy]

Back in the day not long after CDs came out I needed a new record player. Listening to mid range kit like the Rega (both 2 or 3) but and some others I also listened to a couple of comparably priced CD machines. OK there was no "wow" (ie pitch inconsistency) from the CD and no surface noise but the LPs on decent quality kit was overall far superior. I think people then impressed with CD were comparing £200 CD players with crappy £25 record players, and if you spent equivalent money, the LP were far better. In the end I bought a Linn for a month's wages - and I could have bought a Rega 3 AND the CD for less money.

40 years later,digital reproduction has improved immensely and is simply superior, after all, using digital media you are getting the music pretty much in the format it's in before it even gets to the record ! I have a computer card of similar type that might have been used in the studio, so you aren't doing better than that. In any case was rather forced down the CD route as classical music is nearly all on CD these days. OK CDs aren't quite studio quality but are very close

My Linn, thought I enjoyed having it, is now awaiting sale, likely for more than I paid for it 40 years ago

 

[yello]

My Linn, thought I enjoyed having it, is now awaiting sale, likely for more than I paid for it 40 years ago

I dunno if decent kit is popular again, what with the supposed increase in vinyl sales, but it certainly does, achem, hold it's value. I look nostalgically from time to time. I'm very wary of old amps though (age isn't kind sometimes) as they're costly to repair and those skills are hard to find.

I've an embarrassingly cheap set-up that does the job but I do periodically look at replacing it. My wife expressed interest once (in listening to her Simply Red albums...) so I priced up what I thought a decent budget system but she baulked at the €800 odd.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

I remember my ex wife forever telling me that her sister dated Neil Arthur the lead singer of Blancmange in the 1980's, as he came from nearby Darwen Lancashire. Was it before or after their 'solo hit'? She couldn't remember.🤷😉

This one?

 

[Profpointy]

I dunno if decent kit is popular again, what with the supposed increase in vinyl sales, but it certainly does, achem, hold it's value. I look nostalgically from time to time. I'm very wary of old amps though (age isn't kind sometimes) as they're costly to repair and those skills are hard to find.

I've an embarrassingly cheap set-up that does the job but I do periodically look at replacing it. My wife expressed interest once (in listening to her Simply Red albums...) so I priced up what I thought a decent budget system but she baulked at the €800 odd.

Despite my being a bit of a hi-fi snob, at least to some degree, I have to say I've been astonished as to how good some cheap kit is these days. For example, my own studio-grade sound card would be something like £600 new (I paid £200 secondhand), but on first listen it only seemed a little bit better than the motherboard in-built sound on my PC (cost maybe a fiver of the £100 the motherboard was). OK I didn't do a lot of comparison, but still... And whilst my £500 Kef floorstanding speakers (£3k+ new and then said to be their best ever speakers) are genuinely superb I have to say I've been amazed by how reasonable the sound has been from a £100 bluetooth speaker the size of a brick. Sure, the Kefs have more clarity and way deeper bass, but the cheap kit really ain't that bad

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

Despite my being a bit of a hi-fi snob, at least to some degree, I have to say I've been astonished as to how good some cheap kit is these days. For example, my own studio-grade sound card would be something like £600 new (I paid £200 secondhand), but on first listen it only seemed a little bit better than the motherboard in-built sound on my PC (cost maybe a fiver of the £100 the motherboard was). OK I didn't do a lot of comparison, but still... And whilst my £500 Kef floorstanding speakers (£3k+ new and then said to be their best ever speakers) are genuinely superb I have to say I've been amazed by how reasonable the sound has been from a £100 bluetooth speaker the size of a brick. Sure, the Kefs have more clarity and way deeper bass, but the cheap kit really ain't that bad

I always find the ads on TV for other TV brands amusing. Where you are watching on eg a Panasonic TV and advert for Sony TVs and they try to make the ad look really good quality to convince you how good quality Sony TVs are. But your limiting factor is that you are watching a Panasonic so if the Sony ad looks good quality then your Panasonic TV must be good quality. I suspect all the advertiser can do is wind-up the saturation on images that don't reflect reality (eg pots of paint being thrown around) to convince those who don't question too much.

 

[Profpointy]

I always find the ads on TV for other TV brands amusing. Where you are watching on eg a Panasonic TV and advert for Sony TVs and they try to make the ad look really good quality to convince you how good quality Sony TVs are. But your limiting factor is that you are watching a Panasonic so if the Sony ad looks good quality then your Panasonic TV must be good quality. I suspect all the advertiser can do is wind-up the saturation on images that don't reflect reality (eg pots of paint being thrown around) to convince those who don't question too much.

Seen the same on youtube where they "demo" this or that piece of hi fi expecting you to hear the difference on your i-phone earpods

 

[MontyVeda]

I always find the ads on TV for other TV brands amusing. Where you are watching on eg a Panasonic TV and advert for Sony TVs and they try to make the ad look really good quality to convince you how good quality Sony TVs are. But your limiting factor is that you are watching a Panasonic so if the Sony ad looks good quality then your Panasonic TV must be good quality. I suspect all the advertiser can do is wind-up the saturation on images that don't reflect reality (eg pots of paint being thrown around) to convince those who don't question too much.

it was similar watching adverts for DVD on rental VHS cassettes... fast-forward a few years and the exact same ads are promoting Blueray over DVD

 

[DRM]

Seen the same on youtube where they "demo" this or that piece of hi fi expecting you to hear the difference on your i-phone earpods

Youtubes compression, means it's impossible to discern any difference when comparing sound sources

 

[swee'pea99]

FWIW, I've found this combo:

+

truly excellent in taking records back to their original state, physical damage notwithstanding. Which can, ironically, makes the pops & crackles actively worse. I heard it descibed as like removing all the mud from a rocky road then going down it in a cart with no suspension. But good records really sing. I honestly don't see how a thousand pound machine could do the job better. It's even vaguely meditational...

The Knosti comes with its own fluid, but everyone says the L'art du Son is better and also as good as it gets, and they're right, so you just have to suck up the occasional £35 for another teeny tiny bottle.

As for good, old, affordable hifi, ebay + patience has worked for me. My speakers took a number of lost auctions and upwards of two years, but I everyone said they were the ones to get and I got 'em in the end and they were right again!

 

[laurentian]

.. And whilst my £500 Kef floorstanding speakers (£3k+ new and then said to be their best ever speakers) are genuinely superb I have to say I've been amazed by how reasonable the sound has been from a £100 bluetooth speaker the size of a brick. Sure, the Kefs have more clarity and way deeper bass, but the cheap kit really ain't that bad

Which KEFs ?

 

[Badger_Boom]

I get a jazz trio to play live in the downstairs lavvy.

Nice.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

We've played a few LP's today. How very quaint getting up every 20 minutes to flip it over.

I found that it was the perfect time to control homework

set up homework
star side 1
do homework
side 1 finishes - so get up and play side 2
do homework
side 2 finishes - turn it over but don;t play yet
chuck darts at a dart board for a few minutes
retrun to line 2
loop until homework finished

BTW - the LP in question was Status Quo - Pictures of Matchstick Men
which I sort of cannot hear nowadays
my brain juts tunes it out wheter the LP mentioned above
or YouTube or whatever

I just played it so many times by brain just ignores it!!!

 

[Jenkins]

FWIW, I've found this combo:

View attachment 822005
+

View attachment 822004

truly excellent in taking records back to their original state, physical damage notwithstanding. Which can, ironically, makes the pops & crackles actively worse. I heard it descibed as like removing all the mud from a rocky road then going down it in a cart with no suspension. But good records really sing. I honestly don't see how a thousand pound machine could do the job better. It's even vaguely meditational...

The Knosti comes with its own fluid, but everyone says the L'art du Son is better and also as good as it gets, and they're right, so you just have to suck up the occasional £35 for another teeny tiny bottle.

As for good, old, affordable hifi, ebay + patience has worked for me. My speakers took a number of lost auctions and upwards of two years, but I everyone said they were the ones to get and I got 'em in the end and they were right again!

Looks just like a modern version of...