Turntables, I need an intro.

tonyv1

Tour2ma
Use this:
http://www.audioadvisor.com/store/productdetail.asp?sku=MHHUNTBR&product_name=Record%20Cleaning%20Brush

madmax

Yea,
That's where I got mine. It has two layers, a high and a low. Once cleaned by other methods you only use the pressure of the weight of the brush and it really cleans out any dust or whatever from the grooves. Funny, out of a few thousands spent this $20 brush really impresses me! I made the mistake with mine of trying to clean it with compressed air and messed it up. I'll be ordering another one soon. There is no real reason to try and clean it. I was just being silly. So far I use the Orbitrac system to clean the disc, the Hunt brush before playing and Stylast cleaner to clean the stylus between each album side and an anti-static gun to eliminate pops. This system has gone so well that I have put off the VPI 16.5 cleaning machine until I can more easily afford it. Some say the Discwasher system leaves residue the orbitrac does not. Who knows. Also one of my friends uses a record preserative/lubricant made by the same company (stylast) which I have read many people have problems with when storing lp's in certain sleaves while others say they are crazy. Some things are better left alone in my opinion. I have also come up with a decent way of packaging and storing the lp's if anyone is interested. Sometimes I feel like the guy we all know who has become obsessed with some of this stuff. It's all in fun though and I wouldn't give it up for anything. I think one of the key obsticles I've overcome in the hassle of caring for my lp's is that I consider them "my" personal copy of the master. Vinyl is so cool!!! So pure, so real, so analog... (so insane)
madmax

George Grand

Whether a properly set up turntable "sounds" better than cd's is still a matter of taste. What is a "properly" set up table? Does the average person have the capability to "properly" set up a turntable? Don't get me wrong, I am not making light of anyones statement. I had GREAT turntable set ups, including AR-XA with Shure V-15 Type III and IV carts. I still have a properly set up Thorens 126 Mk.III w/Grado cartridge as part of my He-Man rig. I don't think it sounds better than any of the standard cd players I use in the same rig.

This is all a matter of taste.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

madmax

What sounds better is hard to say. Overall I think it is a wash between a really good CD player and a really good turntable but some aspects of each is better. Even a cheap CD player has better dynamics than my system. A direct comparison of the same LP and CD with a large dynamic swing painfully showed me this. A different direct comparison of an LP vs CD with lower dynamics but a lot of intricate sounds proved the opposite. The LP was much more desireable. A few other comparisons proved to be a total wash. (I ended up buying several of my favorite CD's on LP)

Just for the record (ha ha) the way I ran these tests was to set the level of my Luxman CD player exactly the same as the turntable. Then I started the LP and synched the CD to it. At this point I reached around the back of my preamp and changed the CD to a random input. This allowed me to get mixed up on which source I was listening to. To do an acurate test you really need to not know which source you are on and my preamp with it's big dim lit controls and many inputs was perfect since I was not familiar with it yet.

It really hurt the few times when I finally realized the CD beat out my new analog toy. Luckily it did open my eyes in that now I know some things are better on one and some better on the other. There are a lot of other variables obviously. I was quite surprised that the "color" or "character" of the sound was the same with both the LP and CD. I think that means I'm doing something right.
madmax