RIAA vs Columbia vs Decca

Remastered LPs of original monos will have the RIAA curve even though the original might have used different EQ. BTW most of the alternate EQ settings (Columbia and Decca being two examples) are used for 78s and were never used for LP.

Chakster, I can't agree with you on the above statement. The reason why is the labels did not choose the EQ curve. The manufacturer of the cutterhead electronics did. For example we use the Westerex 3D cutterhead and the 1700 electronics. The EQ curve is set by Westerex, not the various and many labels that used that equipment. The same is true of Neumann, who made the lathes and electronics used by many of the European labels.

If you hear differences between the labels (I know I do) its not really because of then not using the RIAA curve (every stereo LP made uses it). Its because that particular label did something to the signal prior to it ever getting to the cutter electronics. A great example is Everest, who had a special tape machine that recorded on 35 mm tape that was the same format as 35mm motion picture film. Turns out they had a bug in the EQ of the recorder that rolled off the bass at 6db/octave starting at 100Hz.

The latter sentence in your quote is simply untrue and is some sort of urban legend. If you think about it you will see why- after the inception of the stereo LP, all phono reproducers had the RIAA curve installed, with a very few preamps made that still included the older mono EQ curves. None of those older curves were used in the stereo era and by 1965 or so there were no more preamps made with the older curves. So where in the heck would the Europeans buy their preamps to play back their LPs with non-standard EQ curves?? The answer is of course that they didn't; all stereo LPs actually employed the same curves.

Phase shift is removed by the act of equalizing. It was put there by the pre-emphasis network during the mastering process. So when you play it back its removed.

Vintageaxeman, The curves referred to in this thread are an urban myth, other than the RIAA curve itself. This is why you don't see switchable EQ curves on modern electronics.

We have had a polarity reverse switch on our preamps going back to 1989. I find that it has no effect at all unless the recording is minimally miked. Then it becomes helpful- a lot easier than reversing the speaker cables on both amps!