Is RIAA equalisation enough for Phono Stages?


This question was bought up in the latest HiFi+. In particular, the editors report back from the Dem he put on at the Rocky Montain show. To summarise the argument, he says that even after all companies signed up to use RIAA in the 70's I believe, in fact they did'nt. The poor results from DGG in particular, with screetchy, painful treble, is all due to this. Played with the proper correction, they are transformed.
Now a number of stages, both cheap and expensive, provide alternative equalisation, but not all, including many expensive ones. I believe Graham Slee at the cheaper end, EAR, Manley Steelhead, Zanden, all do, for example. Should it be a more important considerration in choosing a stage? Looking at discussions on this site for example, it does not seem to come up much.
david12
I remember om the old days, Scott, Fisher, McIntosh all had various rolloff configurations. I remember RIAA, AES, FFRR and other indications you can point your control to.
My first phono preamp was a Heathkit, and it had separate switch-selectable "Turnover" and "Rolloff". Damn nuisance!
Standardization was the right idea.
Seems to me the original poster was not talking about historic recordings pre RIAA standardization, but that after the adoption of the RIAA curve some recording companies were stubborn or otherwise got creative with eq. Maybe someone can set the record straigth here, hell maybe even David12 himself if people let him!
I am only reporting the Jist of the HiFi+ article, whether the problem was non adoption of RIAA, or as Steph Gaynor suggests, other aspects of cutting and mastering, I am not sure. It certainly ties in with my experience of DGG, that I never really enjoyed them. Roy Gregory reports finally understanding why Karajan was considered a great conductor, with specific equalisation of his DGG pressings. I claim no great expertise or experience in using different equalisation circuits. I raised the subject, simply to find a general view of it's usefulness in considering a phono stage purchase
It appears that some definitive research is in order as to what different curves would be appropriate for the different eras of the different companies.