[Audio Empire]

On Wed, 16 Feb 2011 05:37:56 -0800, Arny Krueger wrote
(in article ):

"Audio Empire" wrote in message

On Tue, 15 Feb 2011 05:30:47 -0800, Arny Krueger wrote
(in article ):

"Audio Empire" wrote in
message
On Mon, 14 Feb 2011 09:56:57 -0800, Arny Krueger wrote
(in article ):

Serious development of the vinyl LP pretty well petered
out in the middle-late 1960s. There have been no new
technical developments that were generally accepted
since then.

I think that you'd be surprised at just how incorrect
that assessment is. DMM is one innovation that has been
added since the '60s

DMM fails the test of general acceptance. Plenty of
recordings are being made by traditional metal plating,
to this day. Classic Records for example if you can
believe their PR.

Many current releases are DMM mastered and many aren't.
Those that are benefit from it with quieter surfaces.
Also records are premium products these days with some
titles costing as much as $60.

So what? Much of the cost of items such as LPs come from production
volumes.

They all use
super-high-grade virgin vinyl which was generally not
used in vinyl's heyday - especially for non-classical
releases.

So what? That's not a technological advance, its just quality control.

It's a materials technological advance. The vinyl mix used today in these
audiophile pressings is much different and much improved over what was used
in records before the CD. And yes, It's quality control too. Since volumes
are smaller, the pressing plants can afford to do things that weren't
practical in a high-volume environment. Things like waiting for the records
to cool sufficiently before removing them from the presses, using enough
vinyl to avoid underflow, more thorough cleaning of the mold-release from the
records before packaging, etc.

Even where virgin vinyl was used, it wasn't of
the quality used today.

Prove that with information from a reliable source. PVC has been around
since before WW2 and was a stable technology, even in the 60s and 70s.

Records aren't made from pure PVC (you don't know that? Wow!). It's a mix,
with additives such as plasticizers and stabilizers and anti-static compounds
among others. Today's vinyl mixes are made with different versions of those
additives than were the vinyls of yore. You can LOOK at a modern record and
tell that.

I can't find anything on the web about this, but there have been a couple of
articles about modern record production in Hi-Fi News and Record Review in
the last year or so.



as well as things like digital lathe control,

Again failing the test of general acceptance. Many
experienced cutters prefer to control the lathe manually
to this day.

And many don't.


You've made my point. Thank you.

There is no "test of general acceptance".


You're denying the way that we all know that the world works.

And even if there were, I doubt that you have a poll of
all the mastering engineers in the business today to be
able to tell us what the "general acceptance" actually
is. IOW, you are basing these conclusions on your own
prejudices.

The advantage of automated cutting would be reduction of operator skill and
more reliable results. Even in the 60s mastering engineers could manually
preview an entire recording before hand and work out a script of adjustments
that would equal what a computer could do because it was based on human
wisdom and perfect foreknowlege.

better sounding acceleration limiters for the cutter
stylus,

Ditto.

Ditto to you as well.

IKWYABWAI.

better "lacquer" disc materials (less noise)

Questionable benefit.

To who? You? Given your prejudicial attitude toward
vinyl, I don't doubt that everything associated with LPs
is of "questionable value" to you.

Show me the beef, which in this case is superior technical performance.


My measurements show that modern 180 gram pressings are
no quieter than well made LPs from the 60s and 70s.

Your measurements? Where would you find a large enough
cross section of un-played pressings from the 60s and
70's with which to make such a comparison?

I bought a goodly number of test records off of eBay a few years back. Some
were obviously virgin or close to it. They were amazingly plentiful and
economical to obtain. I don't need a cross-section to make my point. All I
needed to find was a few very good ones. I'm not commenting on the general
run of LPs, but the respective SOTA, then and now.

Test Records? That's your criteria for SOTA vinyl production, then and now?
'Nuff said!