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 4 responses by mahgister

When the stylus of my body touch the groove of my wife no external vibration must enter into play save pure love... 😊

The first years were very bad sound, it was why it really take improvement before i like cd...

But a bad turntable as most cheap were in a living room was not my liking too...

I go with cd the years it was not too much atrocious... 😊 My priorities was BUYING many albums it was more easy with cd...

I did not have any other choices... Cd were more cheap and easy to buy for me in classical...

Anybody knows that the cd beginnings were atrocious , even me....Anybody can listen to the diffrence between digital sound and vinyl....But this diffrence decrease litlle by little... Not completely but enough to make cd listenable with a good cd player...

But i never go back to turntable....I did not need to ... I did not have no more vinyl at the times...

for the last decade and more cd listening is no more a plague...

 

By the way i trust mike lavigne costly system and acoustic room and for him vinyl is better then cd at the end post line...

It does not means that no audiophile experience is possible with cd...

Acoustic of room in my knowledge matter more today than vinyl and cd difference...

All is a matter of everyone convenience.... I own 10,000 albums cd or files...How many vinyl do you have ? 😊

 

for books it is the same... it is better to own real paper books for many reason than ereader... But i sell all my paper books for convenience... Too much place...

it is better for memory to read a paper book and more easy to come back to it at will...

Nevermind i was in the obligation to stop after many multi thousand books in two or three rooms ...I own only 500 paper books now...

I feel the difference between reading on a digital reader or paper as i sense the diffrence between analog and digital...

but life is a trade-off set of choices...

You dont keep 20,000 books till you are dead nor 10,000 musical vinyls...

When i was way younger i must choose between buying books or vinyl albums... I need more the books... And anyway i was listening Bach all day long it is not costly... 😊

Then when cd arrived i begun music with cd buyings...

But it seems you’re saying that one required a good acoustic, by which I assume you mean a good listening room, to divine the difference between early RBCDs and vinyl. In my opinion there’s no listening space bad enough to obscure the vast gulf between them. Classical music was most mutilated on RBCD, as opposed to other genres. Massed brass or string passages sounding like the crumpling of cellophane.

You read me wrong ...😊

I just said that cheap turntable with no acoustic room and cd were not so far apart...

I disliked the first cd , they were not good but at least they did not pop at first listening and were more convenient and it was my only cheap way into music anyway and all classical goes into cd release  more than vinyl release with the passing years...The return of vinyl is mostly a pop music phenomenon...I listened mostly classical almost exclusively...

There was more classical in cd than in vinyl release in no time...

i did not have money for good turntable anyway and a good acoustic was completely out of my understanding at the times...As it is even today for most people in audio...😊

 

Mahgister, if you preferred early RBCDs to vinyl as it was ca mid-1980s, then just to begin with, we are miles apart. I found early RBCDs to be so odious that I could not stand to hear them even in someone else’s house, let alone in mine.

It is interesting to someone like me with no turntable since 45 years ago to read this thread...

I was irritated by my turntable and the bad vinyl album i was listening too 45 five years ago ...

I discarded my system till cd entered the place... And bad turntable in room with no acoustic was not better than cd primitive system when i begun...

Now reading this i am very pleased to not deal with the very complex problem created by vinyl and turntable...

I understand those who enjoy it for sure...There is a difference and i dont doubt it but not so great now with new tech......

I had so much hard time with room acoustic and how to figure it out ... But you can create a small room acoustic with no money... I dont think that a great turntable experience will be possible with no money to invest in vinyl albums and in turntable platter, cartridge and needle coontrol... this is why i am not interested personally...

Audiophile experience under 1000 bucks excluded turntable and vinyl albums for cost reason...

but few people here need and want a 1000 bucks audio system i think and even think that it is possible for one to be more than only good... 😊😁😉

 

And any "liveliness" experience , nevermind the gear is experienced through room acoustic if the room make it possible or not.... I imagine a 10,000 bucks turntable can do it better than a cheap one but in a bad room it will be not optimal at all...