33rpm vs 45rpm - which is better
Growing up, I was a big Peanuts comics fan including Vince Guaraldi’s music.
Recently, a remastered from tape “Great Pumpkin” vinyl was announced in both 331/3rpm and 45rpm, both are a single LP each at Elusive Disc. Both albums have the same number of songs.
It seems that playing slower allows for wider grooves, while faster may mean longer grooves. If so, I’ve no clue which one is better.
Which version offer the best sonics?
@mijostyn - that's cool! What is max magnification on it? Once I catch up from all my travels I will be redesigning the top and bottom plate of the WallyScope to offer more "overhang" and "cantilevering" as well (I couldn't resist using our parlance in this case). Thanks for the inspiration on this. |
If you can find the same recording pressed in both 33 and 45 and engineered by the same recording engineer, I would get them both to use as a simple evaluation tool for zenith error. Sonic differences between the two speeds are certainly minimized when zenith error is eliminated and the stylus contact edges are tracing in a collinear fashion with the radial line of the record The test works by identifying the track on the 33 RPM record that plays at the inner null point area. Listen to that area of the record (+/-5mm) and then find that same musical passage on the 45 record, regardless of where it is on the record. If you hear a significant difference between them in high frequency extension, dynamics, soundstage size, image specificity and overall coherence/intelligibility of the music then it is SUGGESTIVE of a misalignment of the contact edges of your stylus contact edges relative to your cantilever. (Industry tolerance for two out of the three stylus/cantilever assembly manufacturers is +/-5°.) Go back to your 33rpm playing selection and begin playing with the rotation of the cartridge in the headshell. This can be quite a tedious process without something like the WallyZenith to make changes repeatable and controllable, but it is doable. Of course, conical and elliptical stylii need not apply for this process. I’m also critical of Shibata profiles not behaving like fine line contact profiles. I’m not sure whether this subjective approach to finding proper zenith alignment is even practicable with a Shibata as the entire front half of the stylus is conical and therefore is induced into the same type of pinch effect errors (albeit at half the frequency) as conical styli. Add to that it’s curved contact profile which now behaves more like an elliptical contact edge, etc., etc. |
