AudioBanter.com - View Single Post - Why are the hits frequently the last (most distorted) track on the side??

From: "Arny Krueger"
Date: 5/6/2004 2:03 PM Pacific Standard Time
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S888Wheel wrote:
From: "Arny Krueger"
Date: 5/6/2004 1:26 PM Pacific Standard Time
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S888Wheel wrote:

IME the best sounding LPs were not mastered on metal. I think there
is evidence via the product it produces that the current cutting
lathe at RTI is superior to any lathe preceding it. That would make
for a fairly recent improvement in the state of the art in
production.

The main new technology at RTI appears to be the "Zuma" Zumaudio
cutting computer. Other vinyl mastering labs also seem to have them,
and at least one has already come up on the used equipment market.
Cutting computers primarily increase the amount of audio you can get
on a side. Sound quality benefits are secondary. Zumaudio's web site
seems to be in the twilight zone.

There is this.

Our philosophy is to provide the most transparent audio system
possible. Any desired coloration, therefore, may be added by signal
processing, not the system itself. In order to fulfill this goal,
most of the analog electronics were built from scratch. Our system
features custom transformerless, discrete, pure Class-A electronics
from tape head to cutterhead. It was designed to retain all of the
warmth, punch and detail recorded on your master.

That sort of thing is hardly an innovation. It is a means, not an end in
itself.

I suppose so but if it makes the best product that would make it SOTA. I might
add that it seems Steve Hoffman does throw in some tube amplification into the
chain to color the sound when he is involved in the mastering. The folks at
King Super Analog also do a terrific job of mastering records. Some times the
best technologies aren't all that new. Sometimes SOTA comes through refinements
of existing technologies. It could be that no inovations have impacted the SOTA
in LP mastering for quite some time.