Although it’s a long long way down the road since selling off my LP12 to pursue the world of digital, I still remember my antediluvian vinyl front end with some affection.
Honest question: in the light of the outstanding performance levels of the comparatively minimalist Linn and even more spare Regas, what do these enormous and bizarre multi-level, spaceship looking machines (example enclosed) bring to the SQ that simple classics like the ones mentioned, don’t? Or is it just a case of “bling as a statement of wealth”?
They’re just a different way of dealing with unwanted vibrations and resonances through sheer mass. Often very effective but not without some trade-offs (including cost), and somewhat less elegant engineering, I feel. The other advantage though is that you do get the sense of getting something of substance for (a lot of) your money…
Turn the question on its head. Why are some CD players sleek and slender and others are so immensely massive and require an extra deep rack that the CD looks like a 5p coin in comparison?
Why does a Linn Klimax power amp deliver 200w from a 1.5” thick slab but the VAC power amp is as big as the Statement?
All have the same answer: different ways to skin a cat.
Given the technical and often dire manufacturing quality of the “software”, I often wonder if these huge elaborate turntables are a 100 Ton press to crack a nut.
I also wonder why, when modern high resolution digital recordings are technically superior to a vinyl disc, why these machines exist, in the hope of extracting every last bit of sound quality, from an obsolete sound carrier.
Surly it is more sensible to invest in digital. You avoid a lot of hassle setting things up, and you can command everything sat in your chair with an iPad.
I’m not sure they are that different. You can plug in a streamer and hit play. Or you can obsess about network optimisation, switches and servers and protocol types.
You can unbox a SL1200 and plug it in and drop the needle and listen. Or you can obsess about every last detail of calibration, power supply and bearing support.
That’s all really up to the user.
Well that is exactly what I mean. They are generally as big or small as they need to be for the chosen solution (out of many) for the problems being solved.
It is just a different engineering solution to keeping spurious vibration away from the arm and needle. Mass damping is a part of most designs, but usually in a small way. Rega Planar 10 or Naia is an example of the other end of the scale, using different technics to get to the same result.
Using mass is not the be-all and end-all either. You will see that the example you show is made of different materials. This may be partly aesthetics, but also likely getting the mass damping effect in materials with different natural resonance levels.
Having something made of all the same heavy or dense material is not always good for isolation from vibration. A good example of when it does not work well is a large marble kitchen top as an example if you put a glass full of water at one end and tap with a small hammer at the other end of the marble top, you will likely see the water in the glass ripple with the vibrations. So the marble, although heavy, is transferring the vibration easily.
But a technically superior source, enables a superior listening experience.
My digital Nikon Z8 produces much better pictures than I could ever make with my old F1. Not even close. Technology moves forward and enables better results.
Ok I will put it another way. The achievable sound quality both technically and sonically that digital enables is superior to the antiquated vinyl format.
If you are trying to achieve the best sound quality possible at home with your audio system, it just seems more sensible to invest in a digital system.
Sorry guys, I got fed up with LP’s in the 80’s that were more often than not faulty ( The guy in my local record shop confirmed this recently, and told me that the shear number of returns in those dying days of vinyl were a nightmare).
Seriously. We are given a tip of an iceberg in terms of specs because the manufacturer (correctly) knows the number of variables and permutations is so vast as to be prohibitively challenging for anyone at any level of engineering to say with certainty that product A is non subjectively better than B.
I’m the proud owner of a certain amp that a certain, to not be names publication, reviewed as the worst measuring amp they have ever had on their bench. It is a superb amp.
As for completely different formats… comparison seems like a fool’s errand. I don’t compare. What’s the point? I have albums I can only get on CD, can only get on vinyl, can only get on download. I have albums I hunted for in a second hand store but they only had vinyl version on that day etc.
It just gives me more options. It never crosses my mind to compare them because I’m not going to stop listening to some rare records or rare CDS just because I decided one was better than the other. So when I buy a turntable my brain is in turntable mode. When I buy a DAC it is in DAC mode.
Browsing through the streaming section of the forum you’ll find numerous people, having spent tens of thousands of pounds on streaming equipment, spending thousands on switches, switch power supplies, up scalers, down scalers, etc in an attempt to obtain a less digital, harsh, fatiguing sound.
I enjoy streaming and turntables.
Why are you so concerned that people enjoy listening to vinyl.
It doesn’t matter what medium you choose to listen to your music as long as you enjoy it.
With my setup I can stream, use CD, listen to the radio or using my preferred source play vinyl, I get a lot of pleasure from my vinyl collection and hope to continue listening to it for many years to come.
There are people on this forum with turntables that they have owned for a good many decades, happily spinning and listening to their vinyl collections and I am sure will continue to do so for many years to come, I think that this is time and money well invested.
I suppose we have not had one in a while but these threads about which format is best are very boring.
No one is going to change their minds about which they think best or most enjoy. It often seems to come down to those that seem to believe the best way to enjoy what they do is to trash what other people do and enjoy.
