DVV, and everybody else, IF you have a low frequency signal coming in, FIX IT! I agree that record warps can cause this, BUT you just have to optimize the arm-cartridge compliance to fix it. I have seen worse that warp, but it WAS a defective turntable. High pass>10Hz filters will change the bass quality.
No it is an unavoidable thing in mechanically rotating pieces of mass on a spindle driven by a wheel or a string. And even if you get lucky on the table, there's the hle in the record beng not perfectly centered. You never win.
I've been measuring dozens of tables in preparation for a future article, the $ 100 ones as well as $ 15,000 ones. Some are better than others, in general more expensive are better.
And don't get me started about 40dB max channel separation and THD nobody would accept in his electronics. See attached for a typical sample.
Jan
Have you seen the measurements that the old (now defunct) High Performance Review used to publish? They would show curves of distortion vs level for the 2nd and 3rd harmonic, vertical and horizontal. These were remarkably good for a 1900 technology, remarkably bad for a 1985 technology.
IME that law can largely be sidestepped in audio - convincing sound, or close to it can be achieved for remarkably little cost, everything beyond is icing on the cake. Mainly, higher competent SPLs, and better rendition of low bass are gained with money, prudently spent; also, "purity" of very simple, audiophile style recordings is improved.
Dan, many here haven't learned how to listen for flaws and faults in the playback sound, it's something that probably needs some "training"
to acquire ... a good example is unnatural vocal sibilance, which most interpret as a 'bad' recording, rather than a pointer to faulty playback.
Jan, any chance you can borrow some time on the laser TT? I would love to put to bed the doubt that the tests tones actually are/aren't distorted themselves. For 30yr. no table/arm/cart combo has ever bettered ~-40dB levels for me.
You can never step in the same sarcasm twice (attributed to Heraclitus, possibly apocryphal).
Amen to that---another reason that objectivists found LPs so problematic for double blind (or single-blind) testing.
Yes I really should do that.
But where do I find a laser TT.
There's apparently a dealer in Hamburg, Germany, 300 miles from my place. Maybe a trip to Hamburg is in order ;-)
Jan
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Hamburg is a lovely place.
You'll like it; the laser TT is just the excuse.
Patrick
SOME area's in Hamburg are fun - my visits to Reperbahn as a young lieutenant come to mind
Jan
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