Dreamer
Classified Forum Moderator
OK, I've got my turntable set up and dialed in. Most of my good-quality "general issue" and ALL of my "regular weight" audiophile pressings that I've listened to so far sound VERY good. But I have a copy of Johnny Cash's "American V: A Hundred Highways on 180g vinyl that I bought new at a record shop in Baltimore last year, and it just sounds like crap.
Now, I have a few other 180g records that sound good--modern audiophile pressings, and a few older "heavy weight" LPs from the 50's and 60's (mostly classical). So I'm thinking this Cash record isn't sounding so bad because it's an adjustment issue. If it were a disc thickness issue, I'd think ALL my heavy LPs would sound bad, but they don't.
I know that if I've set my cart and arm up to track properly on "standard weight" disks, it won't be optimum for 180g discs, but it has been my experience that they sound good anyway--much better than "regular" discs sound if I set up the cart and arm optimized for 180g discs...
I was wondering if anyone else had experience with this particular LP? I also have the CD, and it sounds delightful--a little raw and either overdriven or heavily processed in a few places, but it has a VERY live, raw sound to it on CD. On vinyl, it's severely over-modulated, glarey as heck in the highs, and has so much surface noise that it sounds like it's got sand mixed in with the vinyl. The imaging is spot-on though, and the mids are well-defined--but there's just a boatload of noise. I've cleaned it several times, and applied LAST treatment to it to no avail. I've cleaned my stylus, tried adjusting the loading on my cart--nothing helps. I'm beginning to think that either these records were made from a crappy master, or I just got a bad copy...
So does anyone else have this LP? How does YOUR copy sound?
Or does anyone have any suggestions? I REALLY like this record, and would love to hear it on vinyl, but every time I cue it up, I can barely stand to listen to more than 2 tracks...
By most of you guys standards, I'm running absolute shit for an analogue front end. Technics SL-1250 TT (rewired tonearm with VdH copper litz), Sumiko headhshell, leads, and Blue Point Cartridge (original version). Phono pre is a Carver C-4000t, and I've got the Blue Point (which is a high-output MC) plugged into the MM preamp (I can't recall what I've got the loading set at--I'm writing this from work--I'll update this when I get home...), tracking force is set to about 1.7g, and the anti-skating is set to 1.2.
I just had another thought--could this be due to the fact that I haven't had this cart defluxed in about 8 years? Granted, it was unused for 6 of those 8, but I haven't had it defluxed since 1999 or 2000. All told, this cart probably has less than 200 hour on it--I rarely listen to a record all the way through...
Thanks,
--Richard
Now, I have a few other 180g records that sound good--modern audiophile pressings, and a few older "heavy weight" LPs from the 50's and 60's (mostly classical). So I'm thinking this Cash record isn't sounding so bad because it's an adjustment issue. If it were a disc thickness issue, I'd think ALL my heavy LPs would sound bad, but they don't.
I know that if I've set my cart and arm up to track properly on "standard weight" disks, it won't be optimum for 180g discs, but it has been my experience that they sound good anyway--much better than "regular" discs sound if I set up the cart and arm optimized for 180g discs...
I was wondering if anyone else had experience with this particular LP? I also have the CD, and it sounds delightful--a little raw and either overdriven or heavily processed in a few places, but it has a VERY live, raw sound to it on CD. On vinyl, it's severely over-modulated, glarey as heck in the highs, and has so much surface noise that it sounds like it's got sand mixed in with the vinyl. The imaging is spot-on though, and the mids are well-defined--but there's just a boatload of noise. I've cleaned it several times, and applied LAST treatment to it to no avail. I've cleaned my stylus, tried adjusting the loading on my cart--nothing helps. I'm beginning to think that either these records were made from a crappy master, or I just got a bad copy...
So does anyone else have this LP? How does YOUR copy sound?
Or does anyone have any suggestions? I REALLY like this record, and would love to hear it on vinyl, but every time I cue it up, I can barely stand to listen to more than 2 tracks...
By most of you guys standards, I'm running absolute shit for an analogue front end. Technics SL-1250 TT (rewired tonearm with VdH copper litz), Sumiko headhshell, leads, and Blue Point Cartridge (original version). Phono pre is a Carver C-4000t, and I've got the Blue Point (which is a high-output MC) plugged into the MM preamp (I can't recall what I've got the loading set at--I'm writing this from work--I'll update this when I get home...), tracking force is set to about 1.7g, and the anti-skating is set to 1.2.
I just had another thought--could this be due to the fact that I haven't had this cart defluxed in about 8 years? Granted, it was unused for 6 of those 8, but I haven't had it defluxed since 1999 or 2000. All told, this cart probably has less than 200 hour on it--I rarely listen to a record all the way through...
Thanks,
--Richard