vinyl_buyers_guide_2011.pdf

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STEREO • MUSIC
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Contents
Features
• From the Editor
• On The Horizon
• Book Review:
Vinyl Lives
• Doug Sax Interview
• Vinyl Records in
the 21st Century;
an excerpt from
The Complete Guide
to High-End Audio,
Fourth Edition
SPonSoRED by
Turntables
and Record
Players
EquiPMEnt REViEws
Phono
Cartridges
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Vinyl
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From the Editor
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Phonostages
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Vinyl Accessories
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Music Features
Music
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Contents
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From the Editor
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turntables and Record Players
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Phono Cartridges
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Phonostages
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Vinyl Accessories
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Music Features
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Contents
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From the Editor
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on the Horizon
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Feature Articles
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turntables and Record Players
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Phono Cartridges
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Phonostages
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Vinyl Accessories
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Music Features
EquiPMEnt REViEws
Phonostages
Vinyl Accessories
EquiPMEnt REViEws
Music
Features
Turntables and
Record Players
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Phono Cartridges
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EquiPMEnt REViEws
• Four LP Playback
systems from $450
to $2000: Music Hall
MMF-2.2, Pro-Ject
Xpression III, Rega
P3-24, Nottingham
Analogue Interspace Jr.
• Clearaudio Concept/
Pro-Ject RM9/Thorens
TD-160
• SOTA Sapphire
• Townshend Rock 7
• Oracle Delphi
• Clearaudio Innovation
Wood
• Bergmann Sindre
• Da Vinci Grandezza
• Walker Proscenium
• Denon/Lyra/Ortofon/Benz
• Sumiko Palo Santos
• Ortofon Rondo Blue
• Shelter cartridge survey
• Ortofon A90
• da Vinci Grandezza
• Air Tight PC-1 Supreme
• Musical Fidelity V-LPS/
Clearaudio Basic Plus
• Musical Surroundings
SuperNova
• Fosgate Signature
• Nagra BPS
• Naim SuperLine
• Aesthetix Rhea Signature
• Pass XP-25
• ARC Reference Phono 2
• Soulution 750
• Our Top Picks in Tonearms
Clic k on one of the links above to jump to that secti on, featu re or revie w.
3
Guide to Vinyl Playback
• AcousTech Electronics
Stylus Brush
• AcousTech Stylus
Force Gauge
• Aesthetix ABCD-1 MC
Cartridge Demagnetizer
• AVID Level 45 45RPM
Adapter and Level
• Feickert Adjust+
• Feickert Universal
Protractor
• Furutech La Source
Headshell Leads
• Furutech Monza LP
Stabilizer
• Lyra SPT Stylus
Performance Treatment
• Mobile Fidelity Geo-Disc
• Mobile Fidelity Rice
Inner Sleeves
• Vinyl Rules!
• Jazzing it Up
• Mobile Fidelity Feature
• The 100 Best Sounding
Vinyl Records
• Shelter Carbon-Fiber
Cartridge Screws
• Sutherland Timeline
Strobe
• VPI 16.5 Record
Cleaner Bundle
• Walker Audio Prelude
Deluxe Record
Cleaning System
• Zerodust Stylus Cleaner
• Spin Clean
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STEREO • MUSIC
Vinyl Playback
publisher.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jim Hannon
editors-in-chief
. . . . . . . . . . Robert Harley
Alan Sircom
executive editor
. . . . . . . . . Jonathan Valin
acquisitions manager
and associate editor
. . . . . Neil Gader
founder; chairman,
editorial advisory board
. . Harry Pearson
music editor
. . . . . . . . . . . . Mark Lehman
art director
. . . . . . . . . . . . . Shelley Lai
production coordinator
. . Aaron Chamberlain
designer
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mikki Bullock
senior writers
. . . . . . . . . . . Anthony H. Cordesman
Wayne Garcia
Robert E. Greene
Chris Martens
Tom Martin
Dick Olsher
Andrew Quint
Ed Selley
Paul Seydor
Steven Stone
Alan Taffel
reviewers &
contributing writers
. . . . . Ian Harris
Jim Hannon
Jacob Heilbrunn
Jason Kennedy
Kirk Midtskog
Chris Thomas
NextScreen, LLC, Inc.
chairman and ceo
. . . . . . . Tom Martin
vp/group publisher
. . . . . . Jim Hannon
advertising reps
. . . . . . . . Cheryl Smith
(512) 891-7775
Marvin Lewis
MTM Sales
(718) 225-8803
To sign up for Buyer’s Guides
alerts, click here
Address letters to the Editor:
The Absolute Sound,
8868 Research Blvd., Austin, TX 78758 or
rharley@nextscreen.com or alan@hifiplus.com
©2011 NextScreen, LLC
4
Guide to Vinyl Playback
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Music Features
FROM THE
Editor
T
here’s something about vinyl records and turntables that polarizes
audiophiles. If you’re into vinyl, you’re into it in a big way. If not, you see
LP records as an antiquated format that you wish would simply go away.
Since moving to Southern California and having a parade of world-class reference gear
through my room, I’ve been visited by a number of skilled and experienced listeners from
the industry. The listening usually begins with CD as the source (actually, a Sooloos music
server feeding a Meridian 808.3), followed by SACD (dCS Puccini and U-Clock), and then by
vinyl playback (Basis Inspiration turntable and Air Tight PC-1 Supreme cartridge). This CD
and SACD playback is, in my experience, as good as it gets. In fact, visitors are surprised by
the ease, smoothness, and dimensionality of CD-quality digital audio. But then something
happens when I play vinyl; the listener simply enters a different realm. The sound takes on
a different texture that results in a different—and deeper—connection with the music. The
sense of magic is intensified. This isn’t just my perception; it’s been the universal reaction
among my visitors.
Does this mean that I can listen only to vinyl, or that I would play only LPs for visitors
evaluating the system? No way. In fact, most of my listening time is with the Sooloos/
Meridian system, and I enjoy it immensely on every possible level. But I enjoy vinyl in a
different way.
There’s enough music out there, and high-end audio is a big enough tent, for all of us
to get musical satisfaction from whatever source we can. Digital and vinyl both have their
virtues, and as music lovers we’d be shortchanging ourselves to limit our exploration of the
world of music by the technology delivering that music.
It’s all good.
I didn’t realize the depth of passion on both sides until I published a letter in the February,
2011 issue of
The Absolute Sound
from reader Ed Heath. In that letter, entitled “Down with
Tubes and Vinyl,” Mr. Heath argued that a $50,000 turntable could not equal the sound
quality of a CD played back on a $1500 Sony disc player. Moreover, Mr. Heath objected
to this “archaic, inferior technology” appearing in
The Absolute Sound
and displacing
coverage of digital formats that Mr. Heath suggested were “preferred, owned, and used by
a staggering majority of the readers.” Mr. Heath’s diatribe ignited a flood of partisan letters
attacking or defending analog playback.
I have a few observations about this controversy. First, more than half the readers of
The
Absolute Sound
listen to vinyl records, a percentage that is continually increasing. This is
a far cry from Mr. Heath’s putative “staggering majority” of readers who listen exclusively
to digital. Second, why is it necessary to crown one format as superior sounding and
to concomitantly reject the other format? Virtually all of us who listen to vinyl also listen
to digital. Musical enjoyment can come in many forms; it’s shortsighted to exclude
any
format from your menu. Third, in trying to understand the hostility among some to vinyl, I
concluded that their objection is based purely on theoretical grounds; they have never heard
good analog and believe that vinyl simply
can’t
sound good. The idea that a 134-year-old
mechanical system in which a diamond chip is dragged through grooves in a piece of plastic
is superior to 21st Century digital technology affronts their sensibilities.
I also think that not all listeners hear things the same way. For some, the occasional tick or
pop of vinyl jolts them out of the immersion in the music. For others, the distortion imposed
by standard-resolution digital never allows that sense of immersion in the first place. Both
types of listeners are “right” in their preferences.
Robert Harley
C li ck here to tu rn th e p ag e.
www.theabsolutesound.com
5
Guide to Vinyl Playback
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