dougdeacon
Responses from dougdeacon
| Zanden 1200s, have they done it again? Azjake,I heard the Zanden once for a couple of hours, not in my system. The sound was exceedingly warm and "tubey", though how much of that was due to the Zanden would be hard to say. "Some" would be my guess, though neutrality was not that system... | |
| ceramic tip toes Apparently. Many resonance control devices are very equipment specific in the way they behave. Predicting whether a particular tweak will sound better or worse (or just different) in a particular application is difficult at best. Trial and error i... | |
| Cartridge Break-in at High VTF? The Cardas record has cartridge break in tracks designed to excercise a new suspension in both lateral and vertical modes. It's made with locked grooves and a harder than normal vinyl, to withstand extended plays in the same groove. I would use th... | |
| MMF-5 in a Home Theater Setup... Tubes do sound fuller and richer after 20-30 minutes of warm up, but that doesn't mean they don't play right after you power them up. They play just fine. FWIW, SS components also sound better after they warm up. That's why most good SS components... | |
| Review: ZYX Atmos X-SB (low output) Cartridge Dsremer,Thanks for sharing that experience. Your take on Mehran is my take on Mehran, and everyone else's too: one of the genuine nice guys in or out of audio. Also glad you heard a clear jump in performance vs. the Airy 3, as we did.Sbrown,The At... | |
| Mft 's suggested VTF: Follow or not to follow??? Aha! Glad to hear you found a way to eliminate (or at least reduce) the problem.I don't think your improvement is particularly because the SME is designed for Baerwald. It's because Baerwald results in lower overall tracking distortion than most o... | |
| Inner sleeves versus none? Even records that look mint may not play mint. Odds are high that there's stuff in those grooves too small to see, but quite large enough to hear.So make sure you properly wet clean and vacuum before playing them, otherwise you risk grinding any m... | |
| Mft 's suggested VTF: Follow or not to follow??? The thing is that i need a guideline, a startpoint in order to choose the right anti-skating for my turntable-arm-cartridge setup.I gave you that. The right startpoint is ZERO antiskate.Given that different cartridge's stylus profiles, different t... | |
| Mft 's suggested VTF: Follow or not to follow??? Many of Classic Records classical music reissues have pushed HF's. This can make female vocals, violins, etc. sound edgy. Perhaps their jazz/pop vocal issues are similar.Try the "hand play" test on a few suspect passages. Play them with the TT mot... | |
| Review: ZYX Atmos X-SB (low output) Cartridge Hi Peter, thanks for reading my babbling.We didn't happen to spin any blues but my guess is the Atmos would be terrific. As we said, it outplayed the Airy 3 in every way, and the biggest difference (visceral impact and bass) would make a blues exp... | |
| Top turntables? FWIW, I've had a friend's 103R on my TriPlanar/Teres and the thing had a presence, tonal honesty and the ability to make you believe and boogie all out of proportion to its price point. (Or perhaps it's the other cartridges which don't do this tha... | |
| What Makes a Good RIAA or Line Stage? I my case where this took me was less stages of gain overall. Figuring out what the tubes needed to be quiet was the key.Ralph, It sounds like you and my friend Mr. Doshi are working from similar briefs, and from experience I know that's a good t... | |
| Common Hi Fatparrot,DynaGROOVE records were lighter than Shaded Dogs, but they were still around 110-120g - reasonable. It was only during the later DynaFLEX era that RCA's records got truly flimsy, under 80g in many cases. Regarding poor quality vinyl, ... | |
| Common The Q/C and vinyl quality from Classic Records (RTI) has gone notably downhill in the last couple of years. This has been discussed here, on VA and on other forums. When asked about this, the owner of their largest retail outlet routinely shrugs a... | |
| Will an RCM make the Rice Krispies go away? Bballdude,I'll second Psychicanimal's comment. Sharp, intermittent clicks and snaps that bear no relation to the music can often be removed by an enzyme-based cleaner. I use RRL fluids too, but Vinyl-Zyme (or something similar) is also an essentia... |