2. analog
  3. 1050803357

???Cartridge break in???

I just fired up a Nottingham space deck (with space arm)with a dynavector 20X cartridge. My first impression, after all of 30 minutes? Deep, subwoofer bass is not there. Very sharp , thin compressed high end. Somewhat narrow soundstage; I have Audio Physic virgos and know what the hell a soundstage is. Is this the newness of the cartridge? Or something with analog itself? What are the general characteristics of analog vs. digital? What is gained, and what is lost? thanks..........Mark
mythtrip

Showing 5 responses by nandric

nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
If the cart is ''tuned'' by the maker how does he know how the
cart will sound after , say, 40 or 80 hours of use? 
Or, rather, if the cart is tuned than the cart should sound as
tuned without any need for ''break in''.  According to me
'break in'' is a kind of wishful thinking (grin).
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Statements of belief or, more general, ''propositional attitudes, lack
consitent logical interpretaion. On the other side technical specs
can be cheked by measurements. Look, for example, to technical
specs of  Allearts carts. One can hardly believe that hose are ''real''.
But they are real otherwise measurements would prove the
opposite. If break in can improve the sound then the specs
should be also improved which should be measurable, 
I can't imagine better specs for Allearts carts. 




nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Logicaly ''break in'' assume reliability of our ''sound memory''. 
Otherwise comparison between different ''time points '' would not
make sense. The problem is that our sound memory is not
reliable. We probably accomodate to our carts after some period
of time. My (other) brother Don refuse to use comaprison ''better
than...'' but instead ''they sound different''. 
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Dear Lew, We are both skeptical oriented. Skeptic 1. Nothing is
for shure my friend!'' Skeptic nr. 2: ''are you sure about that
my friend?''
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Our own brain is trying to save our own selfrespect by suggesting
that the cart you paid , say, $6000 for and which sounds like crap
will sound ok with, say, 100 hours of break in. I assume that the
reason is Freudian ''super ego'' which wil never accept its own
stupidity (?). 





 
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