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What is turntable “liveliness”.

I have listened to turntables for sixty years. I bought my first high end TT about thirty years… it was revelatory. I do not swap tables often. I do a huge amount of research and then stay with one for fifteen years or so. My most recent upgrade was from a VPI Aries (heavy mass) to a Linn LP12 (light weight, sprung)…very nearly the very top level. Could we please not turn this into a religious thing about Linn… mine is an outstanding TT which compares favorably with any other $45K analog leg (TT, cartridge, and Phonostage)

The term lively comes up in descriptions. One of the differences in character I noticed between the VPI and Linn… which I thought might be considered liveliness was to me a bit of what I perceived as the images very slightly jumping around… the kind of thing you would think of when you see films of “The Flash” maybe vibrating in place. While I found this gave me the feeling of the notes wanting to jump out at me, I found it a bit disconcerting. I attributed it to a relatively light weight rig, that is really good at rejecting low frequency vibrations (it is a sprung table… known to be lively sounding) up to a relatively high frequency… but beyond that not. Something a really heavy rig would not be effected by.

 

To test my theory, I had a Silent Running Ohio Class vibration platform constructed for my turntable. The image smear, as I called it disappeared. There is no smear and it has great solidity.

Is this attribute “liveliness”?

ghdprentice

Showing 1 response by frogman

frogman
7,364 posts
 

All the @lewm has written is spot on.  Or, at least, I agree with.

I wholeheartedly agree with his comment that absolute speed accuracy, while very nice to have, is not essential.  Speed “constancy” is.  I would take it a step further and suggest that there might be aspects related to a turntable’s temporal performance that relate to speed constancy that, just as with other “distortion” issues, are not fully understood.  Rhythm is THE most important aspect of music and hence the most important in its reproduction.  It is also the most neglected consideration in audiophile-speak.  I don’t claim to understand the “why’s”, but I am confident in saying that compared to the free, unrestricted rhythmic feeling of live music performance (assuming the playing is producing it), turntables vary greatly in how they reproduce this feeling.  Some capture (reproduce) that wonderful feeling of unrestricted and nuanced forward momentum in the music while others reproduce music with varying degrees of a feeling akin to the feeling of driving on the highway with your left foot on the brake.
 

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