Hello I am puzzled by this. I used to play LP records with a Magnovox
Console. As you know it is a furniture like cabinet enclosing record
players, amps, and speakers, and is nothing hi-fi. Now I at last have
a set of acceptable gears to play LPs. When I tried my records on a
Linn, I noticed that the sound is amazing if the records are clean.
But if I am playing a worn record, then the sound (especially the full
orchestra played loudly) is even more horrible than from the Magnovox.
In general, are good LP playing systems more sensitive to worn
records? Or good systems should prevail regardless of whether the
records are worn or not? I appreciate your input.

S.S.

"S. S." wrote in message
...
Hello I am puzzled by this. I used to play LP records with a Magnovox
Console. As you know it is a furniture like cabinet enclosing record
players, amps, and speakers, and is nothing hi-fi. Now I at last have
a set of acceptable gears to play LPs. When I tried my records on a
Linn, I noticed that the sound is amazing if the records are clean.
But if I am playing a worn record, then the sound (especially the full
orchestra played loudly) is even more horrible than from the Magnovox.
In general, are good LP playing systems more sensitive to worn
records? Or good systems should prevail regardless of whether the
records are worn or not? I appreciate your input.

S.S.

I would say that a good turntable should be able to track some records that
a bad one could not. However, you must realize that the function of any
playback system is to output what is on the media. In other words, if the
record is covered with garbage, a good turntable SHOULD output garbage. Its
job is not to differentiate between what you want to hear and what you
don't. It's to accurately represent the input. Bad record = bad output.
The Magnavox probably wasn't good enough for you to tell the difference.

Generally a good table and cartridge will have less distortion and
appearant surface noise with any condition record than a console or
cheap table. The trouble comes from playing the records first on the
console, where that needle and arm have ruined the grooves and caused
irreversible distortion at dynamic peaks. You can't hear it on the
cheap table due to it's lower resolution, but it's still there.
- Bill
www.uptownaudio.com
Roanoke VA
(540) 343-1250

"S. S." wrote in message
...
Hello I am puzzled by this. I used to play LP records with a
Magnovox
Console. As you know it is a furniture like cabinet enclosing record
players, amps, and speakers, and is nothing hi-fi. Now I at last
have
a set of acceptable gears to play LPs. When I tried my records on a
Linn, I noticed that the sound is amazing if the records are clean.
But if I am playing a worn record, then the sound (especially the
full
orchestra played loudly) is even more horrible than from the
Magnovox.
In general, are good LP playing systems more sensitive to worn
records? Or good systems should prevail regardless of whether the
records are worn or not? I appreciate your input.

S.S.

Hello I am puzzled by this. I used to play LP records with a Magnovox
Console. As you know it is a furniture like cabinet enclosing record
players, amps, and speakers, and is nothing hi-fi. Now I at last have
a set of acceptable gears to play LPs. When I tried my records on a
Linn, I noticed that the sound is amazing if the records are clean.
But if I am playing a worn record, then the sound (especially the full
orchestra played loudly) is even more horrible than from the Magnovox.
In general, are good LP playing systems more sensitive to worn
records? Or good systems should prevail regardless of whether the
records are worn or not? I appreciate your input.

It can go either way, I think.

The phono cartridge used with a good turntable/tonearm may very well
have a different type (shape) of stylus than the cheap cartridge used
in your old console. It's also likely to be tracking the groove with
a different amount of pressure.

A cheap cartridge may be tracking the groove with stylus which has a
fairly broad diamond-to-groove contact area, at a relatively high
tracking force. The broad contact area may tend to "average out" the
effect of wear or damage on the groove. Basically, the cartridge just
isn't very sensitive to the effects of the damage it did the last few
times the record was played. Also, the high mass of the cartridge,
and the high tracking force, may cause the stylus tip to create a
somewhat consistent "wear channel" in the vinyl, through which it
travels each time you play the album. Material forced out of the wear
channel by the stulus could end up sitting in other areas of the
groove, above or below the wear channel.

If you switch to a different cartridge, several effects can occur. The
new cartridge's stylus may have a different shape, and would thus
contact a different vertical area of the groove (higher up, or lower
down on the groove wall) and/or a thinner vertical "slice" of the
groove. Many modern high-quality cartridges use "super-elliptical",
"line contact", or "Shibata" stylii, which contact the groove wall in
a relatively tall-and-narrow area. This can enable them to trace out
high frequencies more accurately.

However, it can make them either more, or less sensitive to
pre-existing damage to the groove. If you're lucky, they'll contact a
portion of the groove which is either above or below the damaged zone,
and the record will sound better than it did before (the pre-existing
damage is less evident). If you're unlucky, they might hit chunks of
debris, or distortions in the groove shape which resulted from the
"ploughing" of the vinyl by the older stylus, and the record will
sound worse.

Also, if there's a buildup of dust and dirt on the album (or,
horror-of-horrors, tobacco-smoke tar!) you may find that the very
sensitivity of the new cartridge makes the gunk and grit more audible.

You may be able to relieve some of this latter effect by giving your
worn albums a thorough cleaning (a wet-wash-and-vaccum machine is
ideal). This won't restore the groove wall, but it'll remove any
accumulated dirt, grit, some of the smoke tar, and bits of vinyl worn
out of the groove in the past).

One other thing to check, is your new turntable's tracking force. In
general, it is better to set the tracking force near the _upper_ end
of the range specified by the cartridge designer. Running a cartridge
with too little tracking force is dangerous to your records... during
orchestral peaks and other high-groove-excursion passages, the
cartridge can mistrack - the stylus loses contact with the groove
surface, then slams back into it. This can cause permanent damage to
the groove.

Also, check the skating-force adjustment, for the same reasons... if
it's miscalibrated, the cartridge can mistrack and damage the groove.

To sum it up, a high-quality turntable/arm/cartridge combination is
likely to be more accurate, and more revealing of the album's true
quality and condition, than a cheap 'table. Good albums will sound
better. Bad albums may very well sound worse... the flaws will be
more clearly apparent.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!