My Russian pianist was a screamer, bitey and scratchy too, sort of a cross between Valentina and Pink.
I can still remember the days when, even on good recordings with above average turntable/element, the last song on an LP-side often definitively did not sound right. With a sound not dissimilar to cross-over distortion. On 33 rpm, LP was definitively pushing the envelope on the slower, inside tracks. This on top of hiss, static, dust, scratches, just to name some. In that sense, LP had its own built in dithering. I have never missed them since the advent of CD. The only thing I miss are the covers.
I'm not sure that digital remastering is the culprit. There aren't many Mastering Engineers that are conversant with both digital and analog, so it may be that the digital remastering was well done, but it isn't done with an analog application in mind. Guy's like Stan Ricker, et al., are very rare anymore.
At our last club meeting we had Jules Bloomenthal and most of the original Soundstream Engineers giving a presention. Jules had brought the Soundstream #1 digital recorder (he hand wired it originally and now owns it) which, if you didn't know, was the world's first digital recorder. He played a number of the original files which were used to master Telarc records and others, back in the day and they were quite good. Most of these records are today considered collector's items (I've got several myself).
For those interested:
Best Regards,
TerryO
Maybe you could change your mind if you listened to a good phono preamp with a recent MC cart.
In the old days I had similar experiences but now I can not agree. New MC carts are awesome.
I had a cd from my colleague who is senior audio-diy. He had a very nice TT with pluto arm I know.
He gave me a CD where he copied his records and the surprising thing is the extra good sound of the record and TT is even on his own digital recording reproduced.
It let me aspect that the cartridge or preamp ad some more room and detail to the sound, because the cartridge is mechanical the stylus and suspension are all parts who ad their own resonances. I think it could be valse detail and depth. Because the digital recording sounded the same.
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He gave me a CD where he copied his records and the surprising thing is the extra good sound of the record and TT is even on his own digital recording reproduced.
It let me aspect that the cartridge or preamp ad some more room and detail to the sound, because the cartridge is mechanical the stylus and suspension are all parts who ad their own resonances. I think it could be valse detail and depth. Because the digital recording sounded the same.
Rcruz, it has been a long time indeed since I listened to vinyl, so I may have missed some developments there. I still have over 3.000 LP's, so if you have some suggestion as to which new MC carts I might wish to try, please let me know.
Here's something from FIM along the same line:
http://www.firstimpressionmusic.com/product_p/limdxd038.htm
Best Regards,
TerryO
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My experience exactly. Typically, a copy of LP on CD sounds indistinguisable from the LP itself, warts and all 😉
jan didden
Was never an issue for me, even with relatively cheap gear and MM cartridges. Some of the best tracks are the last two on an LP side.
jeff
That hasn't been our experience at all. We've compared LPs, Commercial Redbook CDs and several other fomats of disc based media with the Master Tapes used to produce them and Vinyl still sounded better and closer to the master than any of them. However, Computer-based Music Servers with Hi-Rez files are getting very close to vinyl. Just the same, while Analog Master Tapes are still supreme, how much longer is the question.
Best Regards,
TerryO
Jeff,
You only say that because you're so young and still have excellent hearing.
😀
Best Regards,
Terry
Taking in consideration your big collection of LP´s, I believe you should try a good riaa preamp and get hold of a Rega P3 type TT (these appear on ebay at low cost) and a Denon cart.
Denon carts are fast, do not distort even if not perfectly set up, and never skip.
These are very neutral sounding devices.
It easier if you use the stiff MC cart with a medium weight arm like the Rega.
Arm rigidity is very important (no play allowed) and the platter must also rotate without any play. The motor must be quiet so not to transmit vibrations to the platter (this is really very important). (I have built a ricgeddon and I assure you lowering motor noise sounds like placing a dedicated clock on the servo in a CDP)
If you have all those parameters right, then you only need good electronics to retrieve the signal from the TT/Arm/Cart setup.
In the beguinning, I used mostly MM carts like the SP12 and when I first bought my Ortofn MC, it sounded more detailed and crisper but lacked bass and body. After long experimentation I found the thin sound to be related with cart loading.
Be carefull about the riaa preamp and cart loading and you will have difficulty to stop listening to those LP´s.
PS:
If the LP´s are dirty, you can clean them up and they will sound perfect after that. I have dozens of top quality LP´s I bought in the streets... just needed cleaning. 🙂 (No scratches allowed)
I'm really sorry about this, and I do feel like a real spoil sport, but we know that when mastering for vinyl it is a requirement to mix stereo bass to mono and to cut exuberant treble in order to avoid a skipping needle (I really don't want to link to that horse's mouth, real life vinyl mastering web site yet again! But I can). So are you claiming that vinyl captures the already emasculated 'master tape' really well, or are you claiming that it somehow offsets the emasculation of the master tape, and by accident or design turns it back into a dynamic, lifelike recording with the original stereo bass and incisive treble reconstituted? Because it sounds to me as though vinyl may be adequate for James Last and Mantovani, it is *by definition* incapable of capturing Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in all its glory. We have already established in a previous exchange that you are as prone to psychological bias as me (and I've proved it to myself), so what value are the 'sighted' opinions claimed above?
Not wanting to labour the point - but I fear I must - the giveaway is the vinyl mastering businesses that demand that the paying customer submit their master tapes pre-smoothed, or accept that a man in a brown smock, who works at the pressing plant, will do it for them. You may think the result is glorious, but what are you comparing it against?
I listen hard for "inner groove distortion" with modern MC cartridges and never hear it.
John
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