Desk still not cleared away.
I spent much of the weekend with family stuff so not much going on stereo-wise. I showed the Phaser TT to my daughter. She hinted I may becoming a collector. God I hope not! I object to people who assemble so much stuff they cannot enjoy any of it. I had not bought turntables in DECADES. In two months I bought two. There is another one out there that is very pretty. Stop, slap that wrist.
I have space to set up one TT even after the rack goes up. Well I could set one up in the AV system too, but I would never use it. When I was at my daughters house I asked her where she was going to put “the Turntable”. She has already figured it out. Her husband was a bit surprised. She is looking for a particular shelf / table. She just got another and found LPs fit in it. I have earmarked the Harman Kardon for her. It is pretty easy to work Delicate touch not required.
The Sony is an instrument. I am leaning towards selling it. It would be local. I do not want to deal with the shipping hassle. I have had it forever. Other side is it is nice to have a spare.
So things are in flux. I have some headshells coming so I can swap cartridges fast. I can play audio reviewer. I also have another cheap cartridge coming. Supposed to be very good for under 500 bucks. It was way under 200 bucks!
I am fascinated with why cartridges sound different. Detail and resolution are from eliminating distortion or masking sounds. I will have to swap out the AT7v for the 440Mla to see if it is the TT or the cartridge. I think it is both. Same family, but quite different.
The math is wild. The voltages applied to the cutting head apply a force resulting in an acceleration of the cutter. It is not a simple displacement proportional to the voltage. That in simplest terms is a phase shift as input and output are trigonometric functions. The stylus in the groove is accelerated by the displacement of the walls. That generates another voltage based on the velocity. That is another phase shift. If at that point everything is perfect (not actually, but assume it is) then the signal to the speakers does this again when the air is pushed. The fun part is that this shift can be different at different frequencies. Well I have already gone past my University Math. Just say that nothing is right and live with it.
I have been reading reviews of these beasts and some other brands. It is interesting that the terms and descriptions are not technical. LIfe and bloom and richness are used again and again. I suppose there is no viable test process for straight on accuracy. No step from the master recording to pressing the album to playing on a TT to listening through a preamp and speakers is free from distortion. It is what you like.
One review of a lot of cartridges used what I consider crap speakers and a good, but not high end turntable. If the guy likes them and what they do to the sound well more power to him. His opinions do not help me. In the end it is just what you like. Do you prefer a Pinot Noir or a Cabernet? Is one the best?
I am protected by limits to what I can spend. Short of a Lottery win I will not be spending 4 figures on LP playback. Even then I doubt I would ever do that.
For the hundreds of dollars I have spent recently there is a difference and some improvement. I hear things I did not hear before. Some things sound more real.
The really cool part is this is all in the front end. My amp and speakers are just loafing along eating it up. Not even close to those limits.
