Awesome Audiophile Snake Oil

I have an older direct drive automatic turntable and it is wonky, the manual change thing is much more solid

I don't personally find it onerous

I personally feel like people like having 45s way more than they listen to them

The speed on my low-end Technics DD table had recently started acting really wonky with random slide-whistle changes during play. I opened it up to try and clean the guts of the switch (one of those metal slider toggle things), but while following the advice to click it back and forth a bunch of times, the plastic bit connecting the metal switch to the inner workings snapped in half. D'oh! I Krazy Glued it back into place, but some glue got somewhere it shouldn't have and now it's just fused in the 33 position. I never actually listen to 45s on it, so, hey.

Similar thing happened to my Rotel turntable (which is close to 30 years old at this point). The speed would fluctuate in a wacky manner. Took it to get fixed, and the guy said, "How often do you play 45s?" Almost never. "The switch became oxidized from never being used, which is causing the speed issues -- you should click it a bunch of times every time you use the turntable." That was 10 years ago and I haven't had that issue since.

Well that's why I like manual belt drive turntable like a Pro-Ject. These kind of issues could never happen. Speed issues? Buy a new belt for under $20, problem solved.

Plus these decks really punch above their weight with the right cartridge. Recently upgraded to an Ortofon 2M Red and the difference is night and day. I'm tempted to check out the Blue but I'm also not a millionaire and I've read it can be fussier. I'm pretty happy where I've landed tbh.

7”s should only be listened to in marathon sets one after the other on those portable 7” players while lying on living room carpet

This is correct. Also, 7" records should never be stored in any kind of order. They must be be in random piles that sprawl over the floor as you try to find that one banger you haven't heard in years, but you swear you have a copy of somewhere...

You must also never clean a 7" record. The sibilance and inner groove distortion are simply part of the charm.

brimstead otm

https://frinkiac.com/img/S05E06/554002.jpg

Here's a new one: email from mail order customer who bought vinyl 3 years ago. The complaint, the record's actual weight is 173g, not the advertised 180g. He literally weighed the record on a digital scale. Only response I could come up with is that we have a 30 day return policy

— undertow (@UndertowMusic) October 19, 2022

Those last 7 grams is where all the best sound is.

It loses a half a gram every time you play it. You really got to get it down to 165g before it's broken in. And then never play it again.

“You weighed it on a digital scale? There’s your problem right there: you need the warmth and accuracy of an analog scale.”

lol

lol that's the perfect response

lol, i agree

listen what i want to know is, how does it do with detail retrieval

specifically on natalie merchant's 'tigerlily'

tigerlily deserves only the best detail retrieval

i once bought a linear power supply for my turntable from a local maker, and on his request posted a (positive) online review

i could definitely feel myself reaching for the shopworn phrases - bass was better-defined, midrange gained an extra level of expression, less constrained higher frequencies, an overall increase in what you might call "musicality"

like, while i was writing i could feel a demon sitting on my shoulder trying to convince me that it was legit to have dropped a few hundred bucks on a PSU

(i did have an actual technical reason for buying it, but i was absolutely also straining to perceive the sonic improvements that i secretly hoped for)

lol i've literally never heard of linear power supplies before. thank you. it's just incredible what exists out there

god help me I got lost in the world of record cleaning.
I basically learned a) for my needs hand-cleaning with brush, cloth and a homemade solution would give adequate results and b) no force on earth was going to stop me buying the cheapest ultrasonic record cleaner I could find on aliexpress because why wouldn't I want an ultrasonic cleaner around the place?

Some good discussion of various methods can be found itt: Cleaning Records

If anyone's thinking of ditching vinyl, now's definitely a great time to cash out. I just sold my turntable, which hadn't been used in a while but was in much worse condition than when I bought it, and I actually made a pretty good profit. Glad to be rid of it, space has become a premium so even clearing that made a significant difference. (I can now stack a bunch of stuff in that spot, freeing up quite a bit of floor space in the process,)

xp thanks for that link! I never even thought to look on ilx for some reason & instead spent my time digging around audiosciencereview and stevehoffman

xp not ditching, but definitely culling

xxp I think I missed the boat for peak resale but the two technics 1200 mk5's in the house may yet be my retirement fund

I had both of my 1200s (a mk2 and a mk3) serviced at the beginning of the pandemic - just in case they moved, got sick, or otherwise went out of business - but they should be good to go until I finally give up.

lovely, lovely piece by sasha frere-jones

https://harpers.org/archive/2022/12/corner-club-cathedral-cocoon-audiophilia-and-its-discontents/

Great article. I've heard the Fleetwood Sound speakers mentioned in the article at a shop. I was curious since I went to hs where they are made. Sounded phenomenal, but they had some pricey tube amps driving them.

that was great, thanks

haha i totally recognize this impulse:

I find myself defending whoever is on the other end of the spectrum from the person I am talking to. When audiophiles start babbling on about old blues records or some dishwater new classical, I make it clear that I love Doja Cat. When someone tells me they are perfectly happy with Spotify and earbuds, I plead with them to listen to a live recording played through a decent setup.

The issue is people who insist there’s only one way to enjoy stuff.

Enjoyed that a lot. Cheers.

(My uncle bequeathed me a Garrard deck. It's huge and wooden and gorgeous - as much table as deck. I *must* get the thing fixed up and ready to use.)

You should! I would love to get one and have it refurbished.

Seconding that! It's a shame that the industry decided black metal was the standard for audio equipment; I have an old Sherwood receiver that's dying and not worth the cost of repair, but am loathe to give it up because I love the wood and chrome. (Well, that I get a lot of use out of the "mono" switch.)

In general that gear is worth fixing, it's usually the capacitors and a complete replacement set would cost under $40 in most cases. The time and ability to fix is a greater barrier, but if you have a soldering-iron savvy friend it could be doable.
I've probably already mentioned it but I got my amp, a 1979 Marantz 2285B receiver, for $150 from a local repair shop about 17 years ago. I've spent maybe $80 in replacement components and lamps, and probably 15 hours of pulling it apart and replacing stuff, but it's worth ten times that now.
https://i.imgur.com/v5YGxUt.jpg

Love that era of Marantz! And the Nak at the bottom.

Did enjoy the SFJ article. I should experience the SET-horn thing once in my life, just to see what it's all about.

You've inspired me: I've just found a local(ish) guy who repairs old decks and valve amps etc. Have emailed to see if he's interested in fixing her up. Fingers crossed. (I mean, I'd basically have to remodel my lounge to mount the bloody thing but I'll worry about that if I get it sorted!)

remember wandering around ginza late at night and randomly popping into a record bar (i think it was called something generic, like "ginza record bar"). dimly lit, smokey. we ordered a cocktail, the proprietor put on the first record for the night. it blew me away - the vocalist on the song sounded like she was next to my ear. didn't get a chance to shazam the song. he put on 'eye in the sky' by alan parsons project next, first time i ever heard the song (by this time i had gotten my shazam out). i suspect people on this board will regard it as bland MOR, but i'll forever remember/associate it with that sound system. i made a note of the speakers, tannoy westminsters, and i looked them up later - $30k MSRP, each. run on mcintosh equipment, naturally. the bar itself couldn't have been more than 3-400 square feet, railroad style. one wonders how those speakers would sound in a properly large room, but maybe that was part of the magic - $30k speakers vibrating a shoebox.

i have this documentary in my queue on youtube, been meaning to watch. my sense is that even if you are skeptical of the money that was spent on this, it is a beautiful gesture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b2IOOhJmxw

xp to myself - here it is! ginza music bar.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g14129573-d8148325-Reviews-Ginza_Music_Bar-Ginza_Chuo_Tokyo_Tokyo_Prefecture_Kanto.html

https://media.timeout.com/images/105234750/image.jpg

i think we ended up visiting 4-5 music bars in and around tokyo that trip, this is the one that stood out to me - all the others had (relatively) average sound.

It's a shame that the industry decided black metal was the standard for audio equipment

When I read this sentence I had a hilarious (to me) vision of someone testing out their brand new hyper-expensive stereo by popping on Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas instead of, you know, Donald Fagen's The Nightfly or something.

龜, I am planning a trip to Japan at some point and one of the highlights for me will be hitting record bars. Thanks for the recommendation.

James Murphy's wine bar in Williamsburg had McIntosh gear when I went a number of years ago.

go Chinaski!!

went to a whole mess of jazz kissa etc but my favorite was violon, a classical-oriented one: https://experience-suginami.tokyo/2015/09/violon/

very cool article, love to think about listening environments. my own ideal is a mix of corner and cathedral that I can stay inside of forever.

Lion Classical Cafe in Tokyo is one of the best places I've ever visited.

https://thevinylfactory.com/features/meikyoku-kissa-lion-tokyo/

i'm enjoying the article so far, but this sentence

I bought a Lodge cast-iron skillet that cost about forty dollars. It heats up quickly and evenly and can be easily cleaned.

is a huge hit to his credibility

In what way?

I've been cast-iron agnostic for years mainly because I didn't have the patience to keep my previous one seasoned. I got a new one recently and after the initial seasoning it has been great.

1) maybe inflation has taken its toll, but a lodge cast iron costs maybe $15 at target. online the prices hover around $30-40 (with free shipping) because the shipping cost is built into the price. cast iron is very dense, so it costs a lot to ship!

2) cast iron does not heat up quickly - it takes a lot longer vis a vis aluminum or carbon steel. this article appears to be the victim of internet formatting but:

Cast iron has a higher heat capacity than copper, so it takes more energy to heat a pound of cast iron to a given temperature than a pound of copper. More energy is stored in each pound of the cast iron. Aluminum has a higher heat capacity than iron (it stores more heat per pound) but is much less dense than iron. For a given volume, therefore, cast iron stores more heat than aluminum.  Because cast iron pans typically weigh much more and are thicker than the same size pan in another material, they tend to store more energy when heated. This combination of high heat capacity and weight means that cast iron takes a long time to get hot. Once hot, however, a cast iron pan usually contains more thermal energy than other pans at the same temperature — a significant cooking advantage. Cast iron has unparalleled searing power because it has a lot of available thermal energy – and unlike almost any other type of pan, cast iron pans won’t warp when left dry on a burner to heat up. Thick and heavy cast iron will remain flat and true.

3) cast iron does not heat up evenly - it has hot spots! same article:

The popular wisdom that cast iron cookware provides even heat is misleading. A cast iron skillet placed on a gas burner will develop distinct hot spots where the flame touches the pan. If you heat the center of a cast iron pan you will find that the heat travels slowly towards the pan’s edge, with a significant temperature gradient between the center and the edge. The pan will heat very unevenly, because cast iron is a relatively poor heat conductor compared to materials like aluminum and copper. An aluminum pan will heat more evenly because heat travels quickly across aluminum. Because of poor heat conduction, undersized burners are incompatible with cast iron cooking. The edges of a large cast iron pan will never get hot on a tiny burner. On properly sized burners you can minimize hot spots by heating slowly, but the best way to evenly heat cast iron is in the oven.

and images!

https://cookingissues.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/casr_iron_gas.jpg