Vinyl Q&A for September 2023

Some of you asked some very good questions a while ago. Let's dig into them.

[@gregbenefield7658]

Craig, welcome back. You absolutely are more important to the vinyl community than most. You nail these questions and answers perfectly.

[@marcwaters2600]

lovely to see you

[@Porschedude8]

So good to see you back, and thank you! 👍👍

[@xforevercathrynx]

Great to see you back, Craig!

[@paolomarcelogalvan1938]

Thanks for the information about vinyl and turntable 😊

[@paulaj2829]

Good to have you back man.

[@masonic72]

So glad you are making vinyl videos again . Always really enjoy your videos

[@mitchmason8386]

Dammit Craig….you made my day ain’t seen you in forever

[@r8tr273]

I just started replacing my collection. One thing I found on buying newly remastered records, I've found records remastered by the band or a band member that was involved in engineering the original or from the same engineering company as the original are usually really good. Hope this helps, Crank it up!! Allen

[@MegaSnake76]

Welcome back Craig :)

[@kevindonohue8918]

Yessssss. U r back !

[@loki7441]

Hi Craig, Great to see you back. I enjoyed the video. Some good questions there and very informative answers. I look forward to the Fluance review. I bought a Fluance after watching your review on the 85. I downloaded as you suggested the protractor to check the cartridge. I also picked up a micro scales to get the average weight correct. A bit OTT maybe; but everything on the Fluance was A1 out of the box. I had to adjust nothing. Thanks for the recommendation, its a lovely piece of equipment. Most of my vinyl is 45 years old now and thankfully near mint and I only buy vinyl now . Thats final !

[@talonguy]

Excellent to have you back!!! Maybe time for a new Craig’s kitchen too, hmm?!;)

[@prattpt6]

Good to see ya!!

[@sidvicious3129]

If you are looking for great mastering, you are looking for names like Ryan K Smith, Kevin Gray, and Bernie Grunman, just to name a few. If you are looking for the facilities where it was mastered, look for QRP and RTI, just to name a few popular ones. These will give you an indication of sound quality of the record outside of pressing defects and variations in audio equipment. These names are sometimes on the plastic or outer sleeve of the record. Craig is giving good advise as to where to look. Pick your record go on KZbin and someone is probably talking about it as well as AI- Bing, like Craig is talking about. Good to see you back Craig.

[@ElmuO9]

Looking great Craig !

[@TheSoundrookie]

Hi Craig. The difference between two turntables with the same cartridge can be something as simple as different wires in the tonearm. As you know cables do sound different. Another thing can be the presence of lead in the solders on an older turntable. The last part may sound a little crazy, but there are manufacturers who seriously claim that the lack of lead in new solders and components is the explanation for the fact that you cannot achieve the exact same sound when you try to make an exact clone of older synthesizers. We very much agree that there's a limit to how high frequencies recording medias and human ears can store/hear. One thing we do have to take in to consideration though is that some people in fact can hear up to 28 khz (which you can look up in a second). Other research have shown that people in blind tests actually can tell if high frequencies are present or not (even if they can't hear that high) due to the inter modulation between the higher and lower frequencies. We totally agree that we don't need to go as high as 50 khz, but two things it shows is that: 1. The 20 to 20k frase is just a standard they pulled out of their ass (pardon my french) and has no place in the real world. 2. That the 22 khz abrupt cut off on cd's may very well be one of the reasons (besides too low resolution) that some people don't like the sound of the format. Vinyl can reproduce up til 35 khz if recorded (yet another fact that can easily be looked up). Though there's a limit to how high we need to go, we cannot rule out the importance of high frequencies. Especially when it comes to classical music where violins can have overtones up to 45 khz. Great video Mate. Stay cool.

[@mauricewatton9130]

I Craig, Are your Vinyl TV T shirts still available to me in the UK. Really enjoy your video’s Regards Maurice

[@loki7441]

Hi Craig, just something that came into my head yesterday in relation to the question to cartridge and stylus position. There are two other variables, The Amplifier and then the speakers. Both equally as important as the turntable. If you have a crappy amp, $1000 speakers arnt going to make the right sound. And the reverse is the same. Thats something that might be worth a talk on; Speakers and Amplifiers. Probably a mine field.

[@lafazia]

Old BackCreekBrewing here, Glad to see ya back Craig. Imagine you have an unlimited budget to create the ultimate vinyl listening experience. What turntable, tonearm, cartridge, and other audio components would you choose? Would love to hear your dream setup.

[@neilginnerboden9556]

PS Enjoyed your video

[@AmazonasBiotop]

Hi great to see you! No the first pressing don't need to be from the master. But it might be and the likelihood is higher if the pressing is done in the same country as the master were conceived. In other words a rule of thumb is if it is a band from Germany then look for a German first pressing. Why? For all the pressing plants on the globe you don't just have one "tape".. that is sent around the world.. to South Africa, Australia, USA, UK and so on.. What they do in this case I. Germany they make multiple first generation tape COPIES from the master. Those copies is then sent to the different pressing plants around the world (not risking that the original master has a boating accident in the Atlantic ocean..) Why. When we make a copy from tape to tape. The copy Loose 1 dB of dynamic range. It is not much but the degradation has started.. So if ALL other factors is the same then go after the land of origin. But digital masters don't has that issue..

[@LudovicoPVD]

Hi Craig!! Thanks again for comming back with your videos. I think I can listen to you for hours, always learning a lot!!. I have a question : what are your thoughts on speakers? I think is also a matter of personal taste, but do you have any recommendations in terms of set up? for exemple, how the distance between speakers and the amp can influence sound? how much the sound is afected by the speaker's materials or shapes? Thanks from France : )

[@neilginnerboden9556]

Talking about different turntables Craig...KZbin M.Zillch Audiophile Turntable TESTED:Acoustic Research AR-XA

[@dropgold]

Not quite a vaughn rant' but informative! Hope to see vinyl make a return on Vaughn 'Craig tube' real soon! :)

[@wicketworldwide3114]

Where did you get the shirty your wearing? I love it

[@alvarosundfeld]

Hey, Craig, good to see you again! How do you clean your records? I personally wet-clean them in the sink, using water and neutral detergent, careful not to wet the labels. It works for me, anyway, they sound very good and really clean. How do you do it?

[@salmorreale7900]

Agree, I've been successful with plain old tap water. Taken unplayable to working just fine,

[@VinylTV33]

I find that my tap water must have too many minerals in it for cleaning records. It leaves the record with a surface noise full of little pops and hiss. So, I use distilled water. I bought a water distiller for this reason. I use a Spin Clean with that water and the additive they include with it. I clean the records and then dry them in a dish rack. When the distilled water evaporates, it doesn't leave any minerals in the grooves. This seems to work well and the records have much less surface noise than when I used tap water. Thanks for the question!

[@salmorreale7900]

@@VinylTV33 Very interesting, my tap water is soft here in NJ USA. But will deffinatley give distilled water a try!

[@Vaalfator]

Hi! I recently bought a vinyl with "Dream On The Horizon" song (from internet). Unfortunately, it arrived so warped that the stylus just jumps on it. Money is not a problem here, but how sad! Craig, how often have you received vinyl with defects that make it impossible to use? And maybe you have some tips on how to fix warped vinyl?

[@MegaSnake76]

I've got a 180g of Metallica black, and even though it's a new remaster on 180g it has 1 track which has no grooves, they stuffed it up in factory, which kind of sucks because I didn't get around to listening to it for about 3mths after getting it , and now it is out of return window now from the eBay company, so it just means that I have to lift the stylus and skip past that track.

[@bronsonosborne3962]

you should open it when you first get records and listen to them

[@MegaSnake76]

@@bronsonosborne3962 I usually do, only life got personally hectic for our family around that time with the loss of my wife to cancer, so no I didn't get around to opening it until too late.

[@Miersemann]

What do you think of half speed recordings (The one mastered at Abby road Studio).

[@michaelo2l]

In the past I often listened to my records while lying on the floor with a speaker oh either side so I could hear every single nuance... I notice on one of my favourite artists albums, the sound was particularly excellent, I'm guessing it was well engineered... No here's the question... Years later, I bought CD's (of the same albums) and while they sounded good, there was something missing, I could hear the main voice, the guitar and percussion but not all the voices... that is, the artist added additional voice tracks to the mix. I even went looking for high definition versions of these tracks just in case but still the voices were not there.. Am I loosing it, or is my memory playing tricks on me or is it possible the the master used to reproduced CD versions were missing tracks? I recently bought the same album again (original album from 1970), now I'm looking to buy a turntable just to check my sanity...

[@MegaSnake76]

I've just found out that 1 of my turntables was using the wrong stylus, it had the ortofon club mk2, which is a DJ stylus not a at home use type and have now upgraded it to the ortofon 2m blue, which is much better.

[@VinylTV33]

The 2M Blue is a wonderful cartridge for the money. Mine pretty much handles sibilance as good as my AT440mla microline.

[@ReneAlexisPenalozaMunoz]

Wonder if at any point AI will help and assist on audio matters to improve things.

[@kevindonohue8918]

I have a ton of vinyl from when I was a kid. Here's the deal ....they are better than the reissues I have bought.

[@shadowaccount]

Ehh I would say it's 50/50. Even back then I had some of the same records that were bought brand new months apart, and I could tell the difference in quality. I have new presses that sound better in every way than near mint 1st presses, barely played original masters from the 70's. Not all of course, but it's subjective and 50/50. Like Craig said, it's Russian roulette, but even what I think sounds like garbage others will love every facet, and vice versa.

[@thefloop2813]

i only have a few reissues that DONT sound better then the originals. (that i have anyway) bad example, but my 2016 pink floyd reissues (remasters) are the best sounding records i have. And whether anyone believes it or not, i have a 73 darkside, uk pressing, just missing the poster. And the 2016 remaster does indeed sound better to me, on my setup, but i also have no idea how many plays the record has and on what kind of setup. it was a $2 thrift store find. (has several skips, and noisy areas.) But like i said, Pink Floyd is a terrible example. Id make the back in black reissue i got at khols my negative example, but craig already did that too. And often "remaster" just means they did a DMM from the original source audio and it now has a lower noise floor, clearer high end, but otherwise should sound exactly the same, the differences are in the mastering process of the inital vinyl master used to make the stampers like craig said, not anything to do with the mastering process of the source audio track itself. one word on a sleeve sticker offers no clarification usually either.

[@crosleyfiver8686]

Craig, QUESTION: Can you ground your turntable to "EARTH" ground instead of AMP Ground screw??

[@VinylTV33]

I've never does this. I have, however, had problems with "ground loops" when grounding different components to different grounds. Ground Loops will cause a hum in your audio that's different than the hum you get when you don't ground at all. But if you want, just ground it to a pipe in your house and see what happens. Used to work great for my crystal radio when I was a kid.

[@crosleyfiver8686]

I know we use a common Earth ground with our ham radio transceivers/receivers. If I do try one day will do with a expendable turntable:) BryanJ in Old El Paso@@VinylTV33

[@daleboylen6427]

A few corrections. Early vinyl pressings were not necessarily made from the master tapes. In fact, few were. The master tapes generally were mixed to 2 track and that copy was used. Then they would make a metal father, and several mothers and stamp records off the mothers. Explain "properly digitized". Digital is a philosophy? Digital audio SAMPLES the analog waveform. SAMPLES IT. That's why it's called the "Sampling frequency" A SAMPLE is NOT the entire thing. Sorry. It absolutely changes the sound. How can it NOT? Cannot improve upon what's ON THE TAPE Craig. Sorry. You can EQ it, you can digitize it, you can compress the hell out of it, use a ton of plug ins, limit it, etc, but you CANNOT improve it. The SOURCE is always the most important thing. Amazon may be the WORST place to get reviews. Steve Hoffman forum is a good resource. And it's not like CD's or other digital formats aren't "mastered" as well. Apparently ALL the so called vinyl "Experts" on KZbin are unfamiliar with dynamic compliance matching between tonearm and phono cartridge. They need to be COMPATIBLE. It's a match between the stiffness of the cantilever and the mass of the arm. Has to do with RESONANCE FREQUENCY. Bit depth is STRICTLY a DIGITAL phenomenon. Has NOTHING to do with analog. Digital doesn't have a "ceiling" where it cuts off. Digital has to have what's called an anti aliasing filter inserted at exactly 1/2 the sampling frequency. If the sampling frequency is 192 khz, the filter is at 96khz, hardly anything humans or dogs can hear. The big no no with early digital was the 44.1 khz samplig rate which put that brick wall filter at 22.05 khz. The phase shifts caused by that filter were horrendous, which quickly led to oversampling. Which is why we need to record at HIGHER sampling frequencies. ALIGN YOUR CARTRIDGE.