Being older gives one perspective I grew up in a world with tubes in TV, music, radio…whatever Transistors quickly displaced tubes We had records and tape … period I have witnessed a lot of change in my life I don’t disagree with what you are saying and in fact coming back around to vinyl My system is being optimized for analog and finding your channel has refined that optimization I enjoy music from every era and find enjoyment from the past to the present and continuing My roots are choral, chorale, choir and organ most of all But, for me, there is great music being created today which I really enjoy Thank you for helping me get back to the roots of audio and I agree that even digital will sound great on an analog system It is fantastic to see the vinyl/tube renaissance Be safe out there
Lots of different rooms, gear for HiFi, myriad of different engineers, and experiences, and mostly different opinions. I applaud your opinion. It's an opinion. All subjective. Thanks for a good video.
.i think it is like science fiction films contra historical films. SF always will have advantage in unusual not seen before scenery but lack of true humanity due to created unnatural environment while historic films having usual scenery prioritizes humanity and psychology. Probably palette of mastered colors shold be also different for both
Very nice discussion of the differences between engineering audio playback and the art of audio playback. The former focuses on the accurate reproduction of music, attempting to extracting every detail as correctly as possible. The latter is primarily concerned with conveying the message and emotion of the artist to the listener as fully and completely as possible. I agree that that these can be different things. Interestingly, one could argue that in the case of the art of audio reproduction, some of the burden is on the listener.
I don't understand anything.😂❤🤔 Maybe I have no feelings or no way to connect to them..😂 I have thousands of LPs. And I have optimized my room and system with my turntable and those LPs..😂 "optimized for analog.." I am logical and thinking audiophile terms all times. All the technical types of LP recordings. All from recordings starting from 1906 and forward. Tying "direct to disc" recordings, Direct to Metal, first pressings, modern pressings of old recordings, mono/stereo, special audiophile pressings and so on and on. After optimizing and modifying front end TT and everything else. What I can say with a certain is that reel to reel (R2R) of a old (analog) recording is SUPERIOR to any version of LPs issued of the same recording! The problem is that most of us think that R2R is so much better and LP is the next best sounding that we can lay our hands on..😅😅 That is true but nobody reflect over.. HOW MUCH MUSIC IS PROVED TO BE LOST WHEN MAKING A LP, AND PLUS ALL ADDED SHIT THAT WERE NOT PRESENT IN THE REXORDING SESSION OR IN THE R2R THAT WE GET FOR FREE!🎉🎉 The ting is when I have optimized my system with TT, RIAA and DSP. That LP LOFI that NEED ALL help it can get (that is why we make tonearms using silver wires, advanced stylus shapes, on the fly SRA adjustments and so on and on (the list goes on)...😢😂 So my system is optimized with all of those LPs and when I switch over to digital playback. Then wow!! 🎉🎉 All those optimizing (except the frontend of course) will also benefit the digital playback!! So what we can say that by optimizing with LP (LOFI) then you need tweak everything everywhere when the source is so poor that it needs every help it can get in any form it can get.❤❤ Yeah, I have not the latest and I am a DIY with 40 year old magnapans that are highly regarded so no wooden box either so no emulation of acoustic instruments or other brain ghosts to chase.😅😅 So my personal conclusion is coming from that everyone says that LP is wonderful, analog is the preferred version, this and that old recording is just wonderful and so on.. (How do you think that I got all of those old recordings.. Yes I listen to "experts" that says this is great because of this and that.. Yes, I am courios to learn what they hear and I just source that old pressing..😂😂 but it is not even my preferred genre..😂😂😂 but shows how far I am going to find out what is good..😅 I am so easy to influence and I have during many years collected, studied, tweaked and DIY optimized. 😅😅 So I know at least two or three ways to adjust every angle on the stylus plus which one is the most optimized using and trying digital microscope and other techniques.😮😮 When nothing is left to the chance I can easily say now after intensive many decades of modifications, optimization and tweaking.😢😢 That no LP is not the magic bullet😢😂🎉 And MY mistake to listen to those that says it is so "wonderful".😂😂 (Not that someone else is doing the same wasteful journey, if the goal is the "nirvana of sound quality"..) It is fun hobby anyway.❤😂
Great write-up. Apparently even well copied cassettes (since they ran straight from master tape copies) hold up well against LP. For me being trapped in the world of DACs, LP was not insta-nirvana, but looking back it definitely got me on the path to connecting to music, being able to tweak, tune, design amps to a higher level and develop my hearing and taste. What's your favourite mono cartridge (I run everything mono)?
@@EduardBroekman Thanks, that is a interesting rabbit hole to go into with mono.🥳 Unfortunately that has not been explored by me of several reasons. I have one TT with one arm board. And no quick connection for the head shell. Making a "quick" swap not that "pain free". So all my modifications and adjustments efforts went into one TT and stereo cartridge(s). Not having enough mono LPs to justify the work and cost to swap and buy a true mono cartridge. 😥 I have one of many projects/ideas regarding mono/stereo comparison. 💖 When I got a set of LPs of Miles Davis that contain a stereo pressing and a mono pressing of the whole album on two separate discs in the same album. My idea is to compare them when they probably is cut from the same source and produced on the same vinyl compound in the pressing plant (yes the cut and plating is producing other metal parts and they will differ). 🤔 Probably the closest comparison between mono vs stereo I could be able to do. 🤔 But I have not yet played that specific mono LP when I got several other stereo pressings of that album (Japanese, UHQR and so on). 🥰 And I know that to give the mono pressing a fair chance I need in my mind use a mono cartridge and do the comparison "correctly" and fair.🥰 And of course I have listening on other mono LPs in my collection but with my stereo cartridge. 🤪 And I hear the "potential" and how great they actually sounds and it is somehow in its "simplicity" captivated. 🤓 And sounds much better than I could imaging, feels like and sounds like, that less is more somehow.🥰 Do you feel that you can connect to the music better with mono than stereo ? I guess the power of mono is that there is not that much of the added information of stereo information that clearly makes it interesting with sound being placed horizontally and the ability for sound being panned left to right as a effect for example. 🤪 I suspect that all of those "stereo effects" makes it interesting/fun/spectacular. 🤔 But on the other hand it is probably in reality is a distraction from the real core/emotions of the music and makes it harder to connect to it!? 🤔🤯 For example do we really need a sound/instrument that gets panned left to right back and forth..🤔 Yes it is a cool and interesting effect that entertain and draw our focus towards that effect as wow and cool it sounds.. But is it music or just a ADDED effect to the music?! 🤔 When it is not coming from the artists really in many cases and it is a added artistically effect in the production after the recording have been captured by a mixing engineer. That draw a knob (or in the computer) left to right or just place the captured musician (from his microphone) to the left of the singer when it could in some cases be 50/50 percent chance that he could placed him to the right that day! (Especially on recordings where the musicians were recorded separately and were not at all playing together in the same session.). I suspect that it steel and robs our attention to the music and MAY be one reason why I maybe don't connect to the music in a deeper way ??🥳💖 With all of those "distractions" that is in its core not music from a artist..🤕🤯 What is your experience and thought, regarding this as a dedicated mono consumer ? 🤔
Sorry, to clarify the term LP as "LOFI".. It is not the same as saying it is not good enough.. But that is a whole other discussion.. 😝 I got it from my daughters husband friend. 🤕 When he is younger (40 year) and I were showing him my dedicated listening space with the system.. He referred and pointed to all of the LPs as "LOFI"..🤣🤪 We did not have time to listening to the system at that point.. 🎶 I were reflecting on the given "LOFI" remark. What did he think that someone put all the effort with treating the dedicated symmetrical room without comprises, and then just put on a crappy LP with bad sound to enjoy all the spent time and efforts?? 🤯 But yes the man have defiantly a big valid point.. 🥰 (I am not trying to stroke my brain to convince my self that that LPs is something better than they actually are.. They at what they are..) 🤓🥰 But I guessed that the man had some skewed view of what level of sound quality LP can in practice give. 🤔🥳 So the next time he were on a visit I had qued up a song on Michel Jackson thriller album (ultradisc one-step pressing by mofi. (Yes, just that ONE that started the mofi gate scandal. That showcased that audiophiles can't hear a difference between a digital processed LP or a fully analog one!)). 🤣🤣 And also stated the same tune on streaming. 🍭 All level matched. 🎶 Placed him on the sweet spot with the remote.. 🎂🍻 And told him: Here is the selector for switching between the sources. You don't see or know what source you got. The same song is playing. And you just need to identify which is the "LOFI LP" and which is the "superior" HIFI streaming? 🤣🤣🤯 Well it were one of the better LPs that I used so no klicks or pops were present on it so it will not give away that it were the LP source.. 🤪🥰 But anyway the random man with his preconditioned mind set of LOFI. 🤪 I saw him struggling and almost sweat when he were not able to determine which source were what with the remote in his hand going back and fourth.. 🤣🥰 And maybe he got a different view point and respect of the LP LOFI and its sonically capabilities. 🤔 Mission completed! 🤣🤣🥳 Note, that even with one of the BEST or BETTER LP pressings and tweaked front end TT (micro line, silver tone arm cables, discrete RIAA and so on).. The LP did NOT blow the streaming out of the water or were superior in any way. 🎶 Even when the streaming setup is a modest setup and far from tweaked and not put all of the work, attention and efforts into it as the LP frontend needed and had got. So the average LP in a collection has a lower sonic qualities than the one I used for this comparison. 🤓 (Limited pressing and retails for 100 USD for a record..) So with all that in consideration LP is LOFI but can be good or "good enough" and there is other reasons to listening to LP than just sound quality. 🥳 And we should not mix those two things together that LP is the same as "good" sound quality automatically! 🤯🥰
@@AmazonasBiotop There's a lot to unpack and in your thoughtful comments, but in short I'd say this: if you discover, or you prefer above else to feel directly 'why is an artist on stage', anything beyond mono is a distraction and actually anything that tries to impress/stand-out. Music is of the whole, the invisible spirit that interconnects every part, has it flow, expand, contract and perform magic. Mono also sounds far more like what you'll hear live with your eyes closed. For me mono also helps in how I listen to music: anywhere in the house, not sitting down in a sweet spot: the whole room is the sweet spot here. This is partly because I employ a nearly complete omni directional mono speaker, so I enjoy a near-total lack of phase cancellation and a very even sound level throughout the room. It also sounds great in the next room. On the pragmatic side, it allows me to far quicker prototyping of cables, amps, .. at half the cost - or doubling the budget for the same component! Now finally, to return to the subject of this video, it's my experience so far that a mono system is easier to tune and build to get in touch with the heart, soul, energy, flow, inspiration that created the recorded music... it also forces you to get fulfilment from music that has less distractions, so it comes from both ends. The way I started my journey was just listen to one channel, reposition your speaker where it sounds the best and then live it for two weeks - it will take that kind of time to getting used to it.. Don't expect though that you immediately will 'connect', there's no magic bullet for that but at least you've got a nice TT setup, so you've got elements in place that make it possible. I also bought some records that others had heard once that so impressed them (on let's say a exotic horn system at a show), but that same album sounded so shite at home so that got them into a journey to get the same sound... and with me having such records, it does the same.. at some point as the system gets to a point where these 'difficult' records comes to live, and so they help guide you to where the barriers between music and you are disappearing. In my experience, you'd like your audio system to get out of the way of music ... for which it doesn't need to be neutral but can pass on the spirit and energy when they hit 'record' !! :) Hope that makes some sense :))) Btw Janos has excellent record tips for this.
@@EduardBroekman Thanks for the replay! Yes then we are on the same page that stereo and other "distractions" is lowering the chance of engagement and connection to the music. And I see that moving around in comparison to sitting in sweat spot is beneficial to use mono. But I am lucky to also being able to work in the sweet spot but as said stereo is still a distraction in that position. 🤔 Maybe I should pursue more mono listening in my life..🤯👍🥰 Question have you a technique or a preferred way to make music of today into mono ?? I mean when they pan stuff and put stuff to the right and left on today's recordings then just taking one of the channels will make you to loose some information that is only present in worst case on the other channel. 🎶 So I guess it needs to be summed together, L and R somehow.🤔 I am not interested in to just listening to only 70 year old recordings that were recorded pre introduction of stereo. Then we miss out of 90% of today's different genres..🤔 Maybe it is OK to just take L and R RCA and sum them into a Y connector and get one summed channel? Or is there better ways to do it? 🤔 Did a quick google search and found: "To sum a stereo pair to a mono signal it is recommended to terminate 2 1K ohm resistors to the Left and Right channels and then tie them together. Solder one side of the first resistor to the left channel followed by soldering one side of the second resistor to the right channel." 🤔 Funny that we came to the same conclusion but from different experiences. 🥳🥰
Great talk! I just adopted my first tube amplified stereo: Telefunken Hymnus from the 1950's. This is my first electronics rebuild and I want to replace the caps and resistors to really bring the most out. Do you have any recommendations on what kinds of caps and resistors will make my stereo shine?
Great video! What I like about those early non-microphone recording, is that our stylus wiggles in the same way, the original stylus carved it into the shellac master... nothing beats such connection despite it's limitations.. the sense of 'registration' or being allow to pop into that performance is something that 'technology' can't provide as I feel it inserts to many steps between event and us to listen to it again. In some sense, what pro-digital people say is to get great music, let's digitalise it, then analogue it again... looks like saying to get the best steak, we must mince it first and then re-create the steak... that make so much sense ;-)
So well said Eduard! Since then we have all the hype and show, but the direct link provided by shellac-stylus is gone. If I engage my clinical brain I can dissect the sound and figure things out that lack in technicality. However, the mind refuses to go the clinical way, it's a direct heart-to heart connection that is entirely unknown in later eras. Yes, each technology has its own aspect, and we are so easily dismissing the lack of the most fundamental aspect because we don't get to experience it.... and it is this lack that feeds the never ending hunger to up the technology, and in the meanwhile the answer lays in simplicity, to go back to the foundations, the roots. I was super busy lately, did not get around anything audio. I've read your email about the 3-way extension with the midrange unit. My take is that I cannot predict which version will give the best tone. You could optimize it for linear output, but tone takes priority over that, and it's next to impossible to predict how the crossover regions interact with each other. You will find the optimal solution by playing around with the values once it's up and running. Also, the exact positioning of the low midrange cabinet will affect it a lot, will give plenty of room to play around.
@@earl007 I have heard tube amp - LP systems that were absolute stone dead-cold and clinical. You can't put all of that diversity into a simple you lot ; ).
Very good points Janos! Thank you. You understand the magic music works on our souls. When we train ourselves to be critics, of the sound quality or anything else, we are deliberately stepping back from engaging and being immersed in the transformational experience. If you approach your meal with the mindset and vocabulary of a food critic, you might well enjoy the visceral experience far less. And possibly gain less nutrition as a result!? The problem with digital is that it has a finite sample rate and resolution. When the CD standard was established, the electronics were crude and storage was limited. Brick wall filters were used and dynamic compression. A very dynamic track (like most orchestral music) requires reserving headroom for the loud passages. This means quite passages are running on much less than 16bits.
Music is life. I took piano lessons for the purpose of studying harmony and theory. Never got too far advanced in playing. The Bach Chacone is my favorite for piano (Busoni and Brahms editions) My instrument is guitar and I like many styles of music from different times. But one of my favorites is Musica Antiqua (Early Music). Imagine what the musicians sounded like during the times of kings, queens, gallant knights, and fair ladies. 🤔 Must have been an interesting time!
@@EduardBroekman I've heard of him. In addition to the early and classical guitar, I also like lute, vihuela, viola da gamba, and many other stringed instruments too. Thanks for the suggestion. Cheers 🍻
A Video, thats worth to listen to. Thanks a lot. Did you listen to the Rachmaninoff-Album with a pure Mono-Cartridge, so that the noise doesnt matter? I listen to Monos only with pure Mono-Carts like Ortofon SPU/MPU oder Miyajima Zero.
Janos runs two cartridges I think, Benz for stereo, AT33Mono for mono.. from what I gather, it's best to get the cartridge that has a needle that fits the cutting equipment of the time the record was pressed...
i realized that the DDC part brakes the musical flow. now I use tube DDC. custom made. closer to vinyl. much much closer. DAC and amp is NOT the limiting factor.
@@verbatim_transfer a classical highend dac cant speak on USB format language. officially its USB conversion to Spdif. that means we have to convert a digital signal to an other digital signal without to lose musicality. Digital-to-Digital-Converter: DDC. this conversion is really primitive on DAC's with built in DDC, with USB in. best is: digital source > external DDC > stand alone spdif DAC.
@@MrBazsi888 is the DDC only necessary if there is a USB implementation? what if the chain is cd transport/digital source > tube nos DAC with spdif? no USB.
Being older gives one perspective
I grew up in a world with tubes in TV, music, radio…whatever
Transistors quickly displaced tubes
We had records and tape … period
I have witnessed a lot of change in my life
I don’t disagree with what you are saying and in fact coming back around to vinyl
My system is being optimized for analog and finding your channel has refined that optimization
I enjoy music from every era and find enjoyment from the past to the present and continuing
My roots are choral, chorale, choir and organ most of all
But, for me, there is great music being created today which I really enjoy
Thank you for helping me get back to the roots of audio and I agree that even digital will sound great on an analog system
It is fantastic to see the vinyl/tube renaissance
Be safe out there
21:18 Love this. Very accurate!! It's not a typing contest.
I listen to my LPs through an ADC. A superior LP (ex: recently listening to Ellington's Back to Back in mono) will still shine through.
Lots of different rooms, gear for HiFi, myriad of different engineers, and experiences, and mostly different opinions. I applaud your opinion. It's an opinion. All subjective. Thanks for a good video.
.i think it is like science fiction films contra historical films. SF always will have advantage in unusual not seen before scenery but lack of true humanity due to created unnatural environment while historic films having usual scenery prioritizes humanity and psychology. Probably palette of mastered colors shold be also different for both
Would be great to see a visual walk-through of a crossover with a speaker. Thanks
Very nice discussion of the differences between engineering audio playback and the art of audio playback. The former focuses on the accurate reproduction of music, attempting to extracting every detail as correctly as possible. The latter is primarily concerned with conveying the message and emotion of the artist to the listener as fully and completely as possible. I agree that that these can be different things. Interestingly, one could argue that in the case of the art of audio reproduction, some of the burden is on the listener.
I don't understand anything.😂❤🤔
Maybe I have no feelings or no way to connect to them..😂
I have thousands of LPs. And I have optimized my room and system with my turntable and those LPs..😂 "optimized for analog.."
I am logical and thinking audiophile terms all times. All the technical types of LP recordings.
All from recordings starting from 1906 and forward. Tying "direct to disc" recordings, Direct to Metal, first pressings, modern pressings of old recordings, mono/stereo, special audiophile pressings and so on and on.
After optimizing and modifying front end TT and everything else.
What I can say with a certain is that reel to reel (R2R) of a old (analog) recording is SUPERIOR to any version of LPs issued of the same recording!
The problem is that most of us think that R2R is so much better and LP is the next best sounding that we can lay our hands on..😅😅
That is true but nobody reflect over..
HOW MUCH MUSIC IS PROVED TO BE LOST WHEN MAKING A LP, AND PLUS ALL ADDED SHIT THAT WERE NOT PRESENT IN THE REXORDING SESSION OR IN THE R2R THAT WE GET FOR FREE!🎉🎉
The ting is when I have optimized my system with TT, RIAA and DSP.
That LP LOFI that NEED ALL help it can get (that is why we make tonearms using silver wires, advanced stylus shapes, on the fly SRA adjustments and so on and on (the list goes on)...😢😂
So my system is optimized with all of those LPs and when I switch over to digital playback.
Then wow!! 🎉🎉
All those optimizing (except the frontend of course) will also benefit the digital playback!!
So what we can say that by optimizing with LP (LOFI) then you need tweak everything everywhere when the source is so poor that it needs every help it can get in any form it can get.❤❤
Yeah, I have not the latest and I am a DIY with 40 year old magnapans that are highly regarded so no wooden box either so no emulation of acoustic instruments or other brain ghosts to chase.😅😅
So my personal conclusion is coming from that everyone says that LP is wonderful, analog is the preferred version, this and that old recording is just wonderful and so on..
(How do you think that I got all of those old recordings.. Yes I listen to "experts" that says this is great because of this and that.. Yes, I am courios to learn what they hear and I just source that old pressing..😂😂 but it is not even my preferred genre..😂😂😂 but shows how far I am going to find out what is good..😅
I am so easy to influence and I have during many years collected, studied, tweaked and DIY optimized. 😅😅
So I know at least two or three ways to adjust every angle on the stylus plus which one is the most optimized using and trying digital microscope and other techniques.😮😮
When nothing is left to the chance I can easily say now after intensive many decades of modifications, optimization and tweaking.😢😢
That no LP is not the magic bullet😢😂🎉
And MY mistake to listen to those that says it is so "wonderful".😂😂
(Not that someone else is doing the same wasteful journey, if the goal is the "nirvana of sound quality"..)
It is fun hobby anyway.❤😂
Great write-up. Apparently even well copied cassettes (since they ran straight from master tape copies) hold up well against LP. For me being trapped in the world of DACs, LP was not insta-nirvana, but looking back it definitely got me on the path to connecting to music, being able to tweak, tune, design amps to a higher level and develop my hearing and taste.
What's your favourite mono cartridge (I run everything mono)?
@@EduardBroekman Thanks, that is a interesting rabbit hole to go into with mono.🥳
Unfortunately that has not been explored by me of several reasons.
I have one TT with one arm board. And no quick connection for the head shell. Making a "quick" swap not that "pain free".
So all my modifications and adjustments efforts went into one TT and stereo cartridge(s).
Not having enough mono LPs to justify the work and cost to swap and buy a true mono cartridge. 😥
I have one of many projects/ideas regarding mono/stereo comparison. 💖
When I got a set of LPs of Miles Davis that contain a stereo pressing and a mono pressing of the whole album on two separate discs in the same album.
My idea is to compare them when they probably is cut from the same source and produced on the same vinyl compound in the pressing plant (yes the cut and plating is producing other metal parts and they will differ). 🤔
Probably the closest comparison between mono vs stereo I could be able to do. 🤔
But I have not yet played that specific mono LP when I got several other stereo pressings of that album (Japanese, UHQR and so on). 🥰
And I know that to give the mono pressing a fair chance I need in my mind use a mono cartridge and do the comparison "correctly" and fair.🥰
And of course I have listening on other mono LPs in my collection but with my stereo cartridge. 🤪
And I hear the "potential" and how great they actually sounds and it is somehow in its "simplicity" captivated. 🤓
And sounds much better than I could imaging, feels like and sounds like, that less is more somehow.🥰
Do you feel that you can connect to the music better with mono than stereo ?
I guess the power of mono is that there is not that much of the added information of stereo information that clearly makes it interesting with sound being placed horizontally and the ability for sound being panned left to right as a effect for example. 🤪
I suspect that all of those "stereo effects" makes it interesting/fun/spectacular. 🤔
But on the other hand it is probably in reality is a distraction from the real core/emotions of the music and makes it harder to connect to it!? 🤔🤯
For example do we really need a sound/instrument that gets panned left to right back and forth..🤔
Yes it is a cool and interesting effect that entertain and draw our focus towards that effect as wow and cool it sounds..
But is it music or just a ADDED effect to the music?! 🤔
When it is not coming from the artists really in many cases and it is a added artistically effect in the production after the recording have been captured by a mixing engineer. That draw a knob (or in the computer) left to right or just place the captured musician (from his microphone) to the left of the singer when it could in some cases be 50/50 percent chance that he could placed him to the right that day! (Especially on recordings where the musicians were recorded separately and were not at all playing together in the same session.).
I suspect that it steel and robs our attention to the music and MAY be one reason why I maybe don't connect to the music in a deeper way ??🥳💖
With all of those "distractions" that is in its core not music from a artist..🤕🤯
What is your experience and thought, regarding this as a dedicated mono consumer ? 🤔
Sorry, to clarify the term LP as "LOFI"..
It is not the same as saying it is not good enough.. But that is a whole other discussion.. 😝
I got it from my daughters husband friend. 🤕
When he is younger (40 year) and I were showing him my dedicated listening space with the system..
He referred and pointed to all of the LPs as "LOFI"..🤣🤪
We did not have time to listening to the system at that point.. 🎶
I were reflecting on the given "LOFI" remark.
What did he think that someone put all the effort with treating the dedicated symmetrical room without comprises, and then just put on a crappy LP with bad sound to enjoy all the spent time and efforts?? 🤯
But yes the man have defiantly a big valid point.. 🥰
(I am not trying to stroke my brain to convince my self that that LPs is something better than they actually are.. They at what they are..) 🤓🥰
But I guessed that the man had some skewed view of what level of sound quality LP can in practice give. 🤔🥳
So the next time he were on a visit I had qued up a song on Michel Jackson thriller album (ultradisc one-step pressing by mofi. (Yes, just that ONE that started the mofi gate scandal. That showcased that audiophiles can't hear a difference between a digital processed LP or a fully analog one!)). 🤣🤣
And also stated the same tune on streaming. 🍭
All level matched. 🎶
Placed him on the sweet spot with the remote.. 🎂🍻
And told him:
Here is the selector for switching between the sources. You don't see or know what source you got. The same song is playing.
And you just need to identify which is the "LOFI LP" and which is the "superior" HIFI streaming? 🤣🤣🤯
Well it were one of the better LPs that I used so no klicks or pops were present on it so it will not give away that it were the LP source.. 🤪🥰
But anyway the random man with his preconditioned mind set of LOFI. 🤪
I saw him struggling and almost sweat when he were not able to determine which source were what with the remote in his hand going back and fourth.. 🤣🥰
And maybe he got a different view point and respect of the LP LOFI and its sonically capabilities. 🤔
Mission completed! 🤣🤣🥳
Note, that even with one of the BEST or BETTER LP pressings and tweaked front end TT (micro line, silver tone arm cables, discrete RIAA and so on)..
The LP did NOT blow the streaming out of the water or were superior in any way. 🎶
Even when the streaming setup is a modest setup and far from tweaked and not put all of the work, attention and efforts into it as the LP frontend needed and had got.
So the average LP in a collection has a lower sonic qualities than the one I used for this comparison. 🤓
(Limited pressing and retails for 100 USD for a record..)
So with all that in consideration LP is LOFI but can be good or "good enough" and there is other reasons to listening to LP than just sound quality. 🥳
And we should not mix those two things together that LP is the same as "good" sound quality automatically! 🤯🥰
@@AmazonasBiotop There's a lot to unpack and in your thoughtful comments, but in short I'd say this: if you discover, or you prefer above else to feel directly 'why is an artist on stage', anything beyond mono is a distraction and actually anything that tries to impress/stand-out. Music is of the whole, the invisible spirit that interconnects every part, has it flow, expand, contract and perform magic. Mono also sounds far more like what you'll hear live with your eyes closed.
For me mono also helps in how I listen to music: anywhere in the house, not sitting down in a sweet spot: the whole room is the sweet spot here. This is partly because I employ a nearly complete omni directional mono speaker, so I enjoy a near-total lack of phase cancellation and a very even sound level throughout the room. It also sounds great in the next room. On the pragmatic side, it allows me to far quicker prototyping of cables, amps, .. at half the cost - or doubling the budget for the same component!
Now finally, to return to the subject of this video, it's my experience so far that a mono system is easier to tune and build to get in touch with the heart, soul, energy, flow, inspiration that created the recorded music... it also forces you to get fulfilment from music that has less distractions, so it comes from both ends. The way I started my journey was just listen to one channel, reposition your speaker where it sounds the best and then live it for two weeks - it will take that kind of time to getting used to it..
Don't expect though that you immediately will 'connect', there's no magic bullet for that but at least you've got a nice TT setup, so you've got elements in place that make it possible. I also bought some records that others had heard once that so impressed them (on let's say a exotic horn system at a show), but that same album sounded so shite at home so that got them into a journey to get the same sound... and with me having such records, it does the same.. at some point as the system gets to a point where these 'difficult' records comes to live, and so they help guide you to where the barriers between music and you are disappearing. In my experience, you'd like your audio system to get out of the way of music ... for which it doesn't need to be neutral but can pass on the spirit and energy when they hit 'record' !! :) Hope that makes some sense :))) Btw Janos has excellent record tips for this.
@@EduardBroekman Thanks for the replay!
Yes then we are on the same page that stereo and other "distractions" is lowering the chance of engagement and connection to the music.
And I see that moving around in comparison to sitting in sweat spot is beneficial to use mono.
But I am lucky to also being able to work in the sweet spot but as said stereo is still a distraction in that position. 🤔
Maybe I should pursue more mono listening in my life..🤯👍🥰
Question have you a technique or a preferred way to make music of today into mono ??
I mean when they pan stuff and put stuff to the right and left on today's recordings then just taking one of the channels will make you to loose some information that is only present in worst case on the other channel. 🎶
So I guess it needs to be summed together, L and R somehow.🤔
I am not interested in to just listening to only 70 year old recordings that were recorded pre introduction of stereo. Then we miss out of 90% of today's different genres..🤔
Maybe it is OK to just take L and R RCA and sum them into a Y connector and get one summed channel? Or is there better ways to do it? 🤔
Did a quick google search and found:
"To sum a stereo pair to a mono signal it is recommended to terminate 2 1K ohm resistors to the Left and Right channels and then tie them together. Solder one side of the first resistor to the left channel followed by soldering one side of the second resistor to the right channel." 🤔
Funny that we came to the same conclusion but from different experiences. 🥳🥰
Great talk! I just adopted my first tube amplified stereo: Telefunken Hymnus from the 1950's. This is my first electronics rebuild and I want to replace the caps and resistors to really bring the most out. Do you have any recommendations on what kinds of caps and resistors will make my stereo shine?
Great video!
What I like about those early non-microphone recording, is that our stylus wiggles in the same way, the original stylus carved it into the shellac master... nothing beats such connection despite it's limitations.. the sense of 'registration' or being allow to pop into that performance is something that 'technology' can't provide as I feel it inserts to many steps between event and us to listen to it again. In some sense, what pro-digital people say is to get great music, let's digitalise it, then analogue it again... looks like saying to get the best steak, we must mince it first and then re-create the steak... that make so much sense ;-)
So well said Eduard! Since then we have all the hype and show, but the direct link provided by shellac-stylus is gone. If I engage my clinical brain I can dissect the sound and figure things out that lack in technicality. However, the mind refuses to go the clinical way, it's a direct heart-to heart connection that is entirely unknown in later eras. Yes, each technology has its own aspect, and we are so easily dismissing the lack of the most fundamental aspect because we don't get to experience it.... and it is this lack that feeds the never ending hunger to up the technology, and in the meanwhile the answer lays in simplicity, to go back to the foundations, the roots. I was super busy lately, did not get around anything audio. I've read your email about the 3-way extension with the midrange unit. My take is that I cannot predict which version will give the best tone. You could optimize it for linear output, but tone takes priority over that, and it's next to impossible to predict how the crossover regions interact with each other. You will find the optimal solution by playing around with the values once it's up and running. Also, the exact positioning of the low midrange cabinet will affect it a lot, will give plenty of room to play around.
In a word:Turntables, tube amplifiers and home-made speakers.
Which all boils down to Distortion. I think you lot call it Warm.
@@earl007 Since Janos has been running this channel, it has always boiled down to these three things.
@@earl007 I have heard tube amp - LP systems that were absolute stone dead-cold and clinical. You can't put all of that diversity into a simple you lot ; ).
Very good points Janos!
Thank you.
You understand the magic music works on our souls.
When we train ourselves to be critics, of the sound quality or anything else, we are deliberately stepping back from engaging and being immersed in the transformational experience.
If you approach your meal with the mindset and vocabulary of a food critic, you might well enjoy the visceral experience far less.
And possibly gain less nutrition as a result!?
The problem with digital is that it has a finite sample rate and resolution. When the CD standard was established, the electronics were crude and storage was limited. Brick wall filters were used and dynamic compression. A very dynamic track (like most orchestral music) requires reserving headroom for the loud passages. This means quite passages are running on much less than 16bits.
If you find the time please speak about and show the builds of your amplifiers. Good video. Thanks
Music is life. I took piano lessons for the purpose of studying harmony and theory. Never got too far advanced in playing. The Bach Chacone is my favorite for piano (Busoni and Brahms editions) My instrument is guitar and I like many styles of music from different times. But one of my favorites is Musica Antiqua (Early Music). Imagine what the musicians sounded like during the times of kings, queens, gallant knights, and fair ladies. 🤔 Must have been an interesting time!
As a guitar player then you may like albums like Jan Akkermans' Tabernakel, taking older music into today..
@@EduardBroekman I've heard of him. In addition to the early and classical guitar, I also like lute, vihuela, viola da gamba, and many other stringed instruments too. Thanks for the suggestion. Cheers 🍻
Could you post the vinyl details you mentioned in your presentation.
Thanks
Dusty
Hi Dusty, it is: RCA Camden CAL-486: The Art of Sergei Rachmaninoff Vol 2.
Thank you very much
A Video, thats worth to listen to. Thanks a lot. Did you listen to the Rachmaninoff-Album with a pure Mono-Cartridge, so that the noise doesnt matter? I listen to Monos only with pure Mono-Carts like Ortofon SPU/MPU oder Miyajima Zero.
Janos runs two cartridges I think, Benz for stereo, AT33Mono for mono.. from what I gather, it's best to get the cartridge that has a needle that fits the cutting equipment of the time the record was pressed...
i realized that the DDC part brakes the musical flow.
now I use tube DDC. custom made. closer to vinyl. much much closer.
DAC and amp is NOT the limiting factor.
DDC?
@@verbatim_transfer a classical highend dac cant speak on USB format language. officially its USB conversion to Spdif.
that means we have to convert a digital signal to an other digital signal without to lose musicality. Digital-to-Digital-Converter: DDC.
this conversion is really primitive on DAC's with built in DDC, with USB in.
best is: digital source > external DDC > stand alone spdif DAC.
@@MrBazsi888 interesting. i’ll look into it. as of right now, my thoughts on the best sound were transport > nos filterless DAC
non over sampling certainly helps regarding musicality.
@@MrBazsi888 is the DDC only necessary if there is a USB implementation? what if the chain is cd transport/digital source > tube nos DAC with spdif? no USB.
what are your thoughts about digitizing vinyl such as Technics does with the SU-R1000