| From: | Don Cox |
| Date: | 5 Aug 2000 at 12:36:58 |
| Subject: | Re: Fudge, No Recipe x:Mpeg 3 playback. |
On 05-Aug-00, greenboy wrote:
>> plus sounds below 20 hz and above 20Khz.
>
> Wrong. Way wrong on the bass bump, baby. A cartridge may be
> electrically capable, but by the time it is loaded into a tone arm,
> set on a gimbal on a platorm that houses a turntable, and plays a
> sonically compromised recorded product... You can find info about this
> - read up on cutting lathes and RIAA curves. There's not much that
> much bass below 60hz on vinyl (variable, based on total bass content
> and desired playback time), and the tonearm/cartridge combo is pretty
> maxed-out when too much is attempted in "club mixes".
That low bass is there and can be found. I have a subwoofer that cuts in
at around 50Hz. Even on vinyl it makes a difference, and you can see the
cones (15 inch) moving. There is more solidity in the sound, more
weight, more punch.
But the difference is subtle and it is easy to forget to switch the bass
amp on and not realise for an hour that there is anything missing. It
was more noticeable in a previous house when I had a larger room.
Also, I do have the turntable on a 2-stage rubber suspension to isolate
it from feedback.
The 50Hz crossover also helps by taking some of the hard work away from
the main amp and speakers. It doesn't do any good to try to push signals
into speakers that are below their natural range.
> The signal-to-noise ratios of the two mediums are magnitudes apart.
> You might not realize dbs are logarithmic; a 10 db difference is
> typically equated as being twice as loud (or as soft). The difference
> between 76 and 96, 20 db, is 4 times. This is similar in contrast to
> musical peaks produced by a 10 watt amplifier and a 1000 watt
> amplifier (though that is only to give an idea about what kind of
> dynamic range we are talking about).
However, the brain is quite good at ignoring hiss. Not so clicks, which
is why I listen mainly to CDs these days, like most people.
The obvious thing is to transfer the LPs onto CD, but this turns out to
be a very long process if you want to remove the clicks first.
One problem with older LPs is resonances in the disc cutter arm. This
was very bad in early EMI LPs (late fifties - early sixties). The result
is hardness and shrillness.
But many early tape-to-CD transfers were bad too. Things have improved
lately.
Regards
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