HiFi help appreciated

prowla · October 2018

Turntables are especially sensitive to the surface they are on and can be somewhat microphonic and pick up vibrations from wooden cupboards, etc. (if you can put your ear on it and hear stuff, then that's going to feed into the turntable).

You can get racks suitable for turntables, isolation tables or bases to sit under them on top of a cabinet, get wall-mounted shelves (Sound organisation used to do onw), or even try a marble chopping board.

Incidentally, CD and other hi-fi components can also be sensitive to what they are on; I have isolation feet under my kit.

jdgm · October 2018

Nothing wrong with any of your gear, that's all good stuff. Speaker placement - are they on those little stands? I would put them along the longer wall myself but...whatever....

robgilmo · October 2018

Sounds like you need to set the VTA on your tone arm.

robgilmo · October 2018

It wont be your speakers or amp if the CDP sounds Ok.

robgilmo · October 2018

Also, isolation, dont get caught up with it, think coupling and decoupling, your enviroment will dictate what you need, concrete or wooden floor etc, will it react to heavy foot fall?

robgilmo · October 2018

If ypu arnt already a member get over to vinyl engine and have a read.

TheMarlin · October 2018

I bought my niece one of those turntables, it’s not great. Sounds to me like the stylus is misaligned, or the weight is wrong, arm set too light or heavy.

roberty · October 2018

Could be electrical, what's your cartridge and TT?

Could there be an impedance mismatch between your cart and phono stage?

Not all cartridges are flat, and impedance mismatch can cause treble loss

It took me a long time and a lot of money to get vinyl and digital sounding balanced. If I could go back in time I wouldn't do it again!

Gagaryn · October 2018

roberty said:

Could be electrical, what's your cartridge and TT?

Could there be an impedance mismatch between your cart and phono stage?

Not all cartridges are flat, and impedance mismatch can cause treble loss

It took me a long time and a lot of money to get vinyl and digital sounding balanced. If I could go back in time I wouldn't do it again!

This.

You could try using a different interconnect from the TT with lower capacitance or loading plugs.

First thing to do though is make sure the TT is set up correctly, cartridge alignment, tracking weight, anti skate and VTA all make a difference.

Phil_aka_Pip · October 2018

"Active" speakers is just buying an amplifier and speaker all in one box. You get more choice by buying them in separate boxes.

The people who said check the turntable setup are right. If the CD is acceptable and the LP isn't the difference is either in the recording or the playback device. If the phenomenon is consistent across all LPs and CDs then I'd suspect the playback device. Do check it out incl placement & isolation.

strumjoughlamps · October 2018

This thread not only needs a Wow button but also a Flutter and Warble one

darthed1981 · October 2018

strumjoughlamps said:

This thread not only needs a Wow button but also a Flutter and Warble one

Haha - very good.

viz · October 2018

Get a cheap digital scale for jewelry from ebay - they’re like £10 - and a small spirit level; check everything is level; check tracking weight - use a deck of cards to make sure you’re checking it at the same height as the record because it can be 30% out if you’re too high or low; you can check and compare the sound from different VTA by playing the record on thicker mats or even on top of another record; make sure the side tracking force is adjusted properly if your tonearm has that adjustment setting. So far that costs you 20 quid max.

Then consider isolation. Use proper isolating feet; put it on a firm table, or install a wall shelf.

Next consider the cartridge and phono preamp. What cartridge are you using? I’ve been upgrading and upgrading over the years and the sound has got sweeter and sweeter. Denon do an amazing mc cart called the 103 or even better the 103R - if your phono amp can accommodate MC carts then that’s an amazing “cheap” upgrade.

Nikc · October 2018

Phil_aka_Pip said:

"Active" speakers is just buying an amplifier and speaker all in one box. You get more choice by buying them in separate boxes.

The people who said check the turntable setup are right. If the CD is acceptable and the LP isn't the difference is either in the recording or the playback device. If the phenomenon is consistent across all LPs and CDs then I'd suspect the playback device. Do check it out incl placement & isolation.

No thats a powered speaker - many active speakers are also powered but is is quite possible to use seperate amplification to a speaker in an active configuration. Naim and Linn both offered active setups like this and I believe still do. In a passive system the cross over is after amplification usually in the speaker itself - this highly inefficient where as an active cross over goes before amplification and allows the amps to drive individual speakers highly efficently.

Since going with an active system I've stop worrying about how my system sounds and just played the music

lasermonkey · October 2018

I very much doubt I that there is anything wrong with your gear. On many of my records I have noticed that there's often considerably more bass content than on the CD.

What's interesting is that these albums are almost always pre-2000 and I think that it's down to one thing: mastering. Back then, mastering engineers had lifetimes of experience in mastering on that format, whereas CD was still relatively new. It only really occurred to me when I bought both the CD and vinyl copies of a recently released album and was taken aback when the vinyl sounded significantly worse than the CD, which is counter to what experience had taught me.

I guess that in the time when vinyl almost died a death, the experience of mastering for that format went with it, whereas mastering for digital finally caught up to the point where vinyl had been.

That said, it's always a good idea to make sure your tracking weight is set up properly!

AllthegearNoidea · October 2018

Sort of result

Booming has stopped after doing what is now obvious.

Its level

Arm is set up

still need to try a decent cable but the detail from the Carbon is nowhere near the CD.

viz · October 2018

AllthegearNoidea said:

Sort of result

Booming has stopped after doing what is now obvious.

Its level

Arm is set up

still need to try a decent cable but the detail from the Carbon is nowhere near the CD.

Excellent. I think your next bet would be a more precise cartridge, or to investigate mc cartridge and preamp but you’re getting into money there. Though they’re both upgrades that you could still use if you upgraded any of the other components in the chain later on.

My records sound much more detailed than the equivalent cd. As well as much fuller.

strumjoughlamps · October 2018

AllthegearNoidea said:

Sort of result

Booming has stopped after doing what is now obvious.

Its level

Arm is set up

still need to try a decent cable but the detail from the Carbon is nowhere near the CD.

Something is wrong IMO as I have a ProJect Carbon with 2M blue cartridge and Acrylic platter and it knocks socks off of CD, especially cymbals and soundstage.

AllthegearNoidea · October 2018

strumjoughlamps said:

AllthegearNoidea said:

Sort of result

Booming has stopped after doing what is now obvious.

Its level

Arm is set up

still need to try a decent cable but the detail from the Carbon is nowhere near the CD.

Something is wrong IMO as I have a ProJect Carbon with 2M blue cartridge and Acrylic platter and it knocks socks off of CD, especially cymbals and soundstage.

I must admit the cable is ancient. Will order new today

AllthegearNoidea · October 2018

Massive difference in volume levels at the same setting.

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