Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts

Thursday, August 29, 2013

An awesome decision by my parents, ca 1979



A very long time ago my parents made a very wise decision. Instead of purchasing a car when I had just received my drivers license, they bought me a stereo instead. During that time those all-in-one stereos with the cassette deck, record player, 8-track and tuner were very popular, (I just dated myself). They broke with the trend and decided instead to purchase separates. A Pioneer receiver, an SX-450 if anyone cares, a BSR turntable and a set of Kenwood 2-way speakers. They bought it at Tech HiFi, which has since gone out of business. I have the original receipt hanging on my wall. It was a great system, sounded great, but more importantly that modest little system ignited a passion for music that I have to this day.

I have never been without a stereo since that day and pray to never be without one. I listen to music quite a bit and get great pleasure from it and profound stress relief. The original stereo - long gone, but I have a nice system that I have built over the past few years that sounds quite nice. I celebrate August 29th each year to this day and call my Mom and say thanks!

Thanks Mom, Thanks Dad!

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Mono Cartridge Affordability?

I currently have a Grado MC+ Mono Phono Cartridge.  I was looking on ebay and found several mono cartridges for over $200 each, some were over $1000.  I want to step up to a better mono cartridge, but I cannot see paying that much for one.

Mono recordins sound sweet and are less noisy.  I have over 100 of them currently and expect that number to expand as I continue to collect older recordings of Jazz and continue to find mono versions of early rock and roll records.  I have found no loss of enjoyment listening to mono recordings, and seldom miss the stereo effect of records.  I found the mono releases of the Beatles to be more satisfying than the stereo versions because of the musical information that is lost in the stereo mix.  I have quite a few old Jazz recordings that are mono and I absolutely refuse to play a mono recording with a stereo needle!

The Grado is a good cartridge, but I am thinking that like the MC cartridge that I finally purchased, there must be more sound in the grooves that can be extracted with a better mono cartridge.  I have no beef with the sound of the Grado, but as always, I am looking for more!

I was on ebay and saw a Denon, which I have the DL-110 MC stereo cartridge, which I got for around $160, but the mono Denon cartridge was over $200.  Is it worth it?  Does it sound good?  Will it be a vast improvement in the listening experience of my mono recordings?  I wish I knew!

I read a review of a mono cartridge made by Ortofon and it costs over $900, I am not ever going to have the disposable cash to spring for one of those puppies, so I am hoping to find a reasonable mono cartridge that is better than my Grado for around $150 or so. 
Is it possible?

I HOPE SO!

Keep listening!

Jeff

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Vibration Absorption - The inexpensive way!

I was listening at club level volume at home one day and something that had never happened before occured.  The CD player skipped.  I had never had that happen before and it scared the heck out of me!  I thought maybe the CD was messed up, something had scratched it or it was dirty.  I inspected the CD and it was clean as can be. I take very good care of my media!  At that point I started considering that maybe my old player had seen better days and it was malfunctioning.  I took a look and everything seemed to be good, I played several more CDs that day and I was happy with the result, there were no more skips.  So I pulled that near perfect CD and placed it on the disposal pile and went about my week.  The next change I had to play the stereo at 11 was a couple weeks later.  I was cranking some 80s Hair band rock and it skipped again.  At the volume level that I had been listening to it was quite startling! Inspection revealed that this CD was nearly perfect too.

I was trying to determine what my course of action was, because I was pretty sure that the CD player was dying.  I found it quite strange that both 'skips" happened during very loud playback.  Before the first listening session where the skip occurred, I changed the location of quite a bit of my gear and moved it to a lower rack on a wood cabinet.  I noticed that it was right in the dispersion field of the speaker that I was using when this happened.  Hmmmmm......

Vibration!  Oh no!  I started looking on Ebay, Audiogon, checked out my local stereo store and read some articles on vibration control.  I was bummed because the cost of even a modest vibration control scheme, was like $50 and they ranged to the hundreds of dollars to treat more than one device.  So, I decided that I would go down a different route to eliminate the vibration.  If the device cannot move, it should vibrate a bit less, so I added 10 pounds to the top of the CD player, in the form of a dumbbell.  It worked!  At least it stopped skipping during the very loud passages.  I am not going to claim that I heard sonic signatures from the vibrations that I know were still attacking the component.  I just did not know what my inexpensive options were.

I have a fellow audiophile friend and we visit each others' houses to do listening and to learn about new music that either of us have discovered, or re-discovered.  He has a smallish listening room with a bunch of speakers mounted on the same shelves as his components.  We were in there for hours listening to all his components, through various speakers, quite loud too, and not a single piece of equipment did so much as hiccup in all that time and as loud as it was playing.  I was pretty impressed, so I spoke about my experience with the skipping of the CD with him and he agreed it was vibration that most likely caused the issue.  So I asked him how the heck he was able to have all his gear co-exist on the same shelving structure as some of his speakers.

He Showed Me!

I was floored, what an awesome solution that never even crossed my mind!  I figured that if it worked for him it would work for me since my equipment is at least physically isolated from the sound source and not sitting together.  I went to my local sporting goods store and purchased a large pack of a dozen racquetballs, yes racquetballs!  He told me to cut them in half along the mold line which is straight and use them like a cup and put each under the feet of the desired component to absorb vibration coming from the room, the furniture and some of the vibration coming from the speakers.  I did this and have not had a single problem with skipping CDs since, and I have listened quite loudly since.  Plus I got rid of the dumbbell.

I found this "tweak" to be one of the most effective and cost-efficient methods out there to control vibration, which is the enemy of your components, and can cause issues with the sound.  The cost was $12.99 for 12 balls.  When you consider that I can cut them in half and put them under 6 components for that price, it truely is the cheapest thing going! 

I have used my first dozen balls up, so it is time to buy some more.  I have placed them under my solid state and tube amps, my CD Player, my home theater receiver, and my preamp, I will probably use them in my other systems in time. 

Again, I am not going to say that I heard more detail, better sound or any of that malarky, although it could be true, I just have not noticed.  I am just resting assured that the vibration control will allow me a few things, the ability to play my system very loud, to protect the sound from being altered by all the vibration, and it should help my tubes last longer as they are not being assaulted by vibration when being used.

Unless you point it out, no one notices.

Keep Listening!

Jeff

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Jeff's Beer Rating System:


1 Beer - Weak - did these components come out of a kids toy?

2 Beer - OK - these would sound OK at a party or at party-level listening, not for critical listening.

3 Beer - Good - this component would sound good just about anywhere, in any system, not great, but a good component at a good price, not revealing or articulate, but rocks the house down and handles music very nicely.

4 Beer - Solid -make great recordings sound incredible and in a perfect room the performance would be outstanding, quite a few of these level of components are reasonably priced, can be revealing and articulate, but usually a great sounding component and a good value to own.

5 Beer - Sweet - these would play articulate, revealing and sweet sounding music, clean source material is a must, nearly perfect sound with nearly any music or source, a nice component to have if you can afford it.

6 Beer - OMG - these would knock your socks off, sound amazing, redefine your idea of what a perfect system can sound like, it's almost like you are in the room with the performers, the component(s) to have if you can afford it.

Make it a great day! 

Keep Listening!

Jeff

The Turntable Itch

The turntable itch

I have been recently infected with the itch to change up my turntables.  I have two vintage turntables that I use as daily drivers.  Neither of them are high-end; remember I am the budget audiophile!  I have a belt-driven Technics SL-B3 turntable, this table has an interchangeable head shell system, it was built around 1980. I brought this one back from the junk pile, I traded a 17" monitor for it.  This thing was very dirty, the belt had melted to the platter.  I restored it, cleaned it, lubricated it, got a headshell a new belt and brought it back from near-death.  I also have a direct-drive JVC L-F210.  This table is a direct-drive straight-arm table from around 1982, it also has the interchangeable head shell system. 


Each of my turntables have it's strengths and weaknesses.  Both have interchangeabe headshells, albeit both are different styles of headshell.  The JVC sounds brighter than the Technics, which has a nice and rich sound.  I have each one of them for a reason based upon preferences and performance.  The question is, what do I replace and with what?


I have been looking around the Internet and have been toying with the idea of purchasing a used turntable of a higher-grade than what I am currently using.  I have also been looking at some of the new turntables available.  What are the considerations I must think about as I start the pursuit of a different turntable?
On the surface purchasing or replacing a turntable seems pretty easy, right?  Do you know which direction you would take with each of the listed choices below?  Which would be your primary consideration?
  • Belt-drive, Direct-drive?
  • Interchangeable head shells or one pre-mounted or permanent?
  • 33, 45, 78 or 33,45?
  • Automatic, Manual or Auto-return only?
  • New or used?
  • Build a custom-made turntable from parts?
  • Price

I have found several good, used turntables.  Dual 1219 and 1229 would be nice turntables to have, although not necessarily an audiophile pick.  I was looking at a couple Garrard's from the 1970's and they look pretty good.   These models have the fixed head shell so I cannot interchange needles on them. As much as I would like either of them I will probably steer clear until I have one perfect needle that I wish to live with on one perfect turntable. (as-if...).  The cost of these can range from less than $100 to more than $300. I thought about Technics, but in order to get a better turntable, I would have to buy a 1200.   Shipping is another problem, over the years I have had about a 50% success rate with having turntables shipped to me.  Half have arrived either broken, smashed or not working as intended.  I hesitate to have anything shipped to me except in original packaging, with shipping insurance or a guarantee.


I have looked at some new turntables, like the Rega and the Project turntables.  I like the way they look, they get great reviews, however there is no way to swap the headshells on the affordable ones, (if you consider $369 - $700 afordable).  I found a Thorens which is in current production that has the removable headshell, 3-speeds and auto return, very nice, but over $1200.  I tend to avoid the Stanton, Numark, Crosley and the remainder of the budget, entry-level or USB turntables.


What about a custom-built turntable from parts?  I have an old Garrard with a very heavy platter that spins forever, it has that funky, antique astatic needle with vibration pickup arm. It is not audiophlile by any stretch of imagination, (YET!).  I have acquired a couple tonearms from broken turntables that I have had in the past and online and I plan to use one.  The arms that I have all use the interchangeable head shell setup for which I have about a dozen needles ready to go.  To make this a reality, I need to have a base, or plinth designed which will house the motor assembly and the electronics, and needs to be heavy enough to deal with the vibration that it will encounter and big enough to house everything under the covers.  I will remove the old tonearm from the turntable, move the motor, base and platter assembly to the new base.  Then, drill the appropriate holes in the turntable base to accomodate the new tonearm in the desired location.  When I design the base I will be emulating the shape and size of my Technics table, so I can use the geometry from it to correctly place the tonearm for similar alignment and playback performance, (hopefully).  The speeds available on my home-made turntable will be 16, 33, 45, 78rpm, which makes this table quite flexible.  I have needles mounted on headshells for special records that I will be able to play on the home built table.  I have a 78 Cartridge, a Mono Cartridge and a couple spherical ones for playing crappy records.  I will be able to change to any of them I want to use for the record I wish to play.  This is one of my favorite parts of havinig a turntable is having multiple needles, see my post on multiple needles and the benefits.


I think I will be building the custom turntable as it offers the most fun for me, it also offers the most flexibility for playback.  I think the challenge of making all this work properly will be quite fun and enlightening.  As for the cost, it will probably cost me a couple hundred dollars to get the right piece of wood for the plinth and have it shaped to fit the turntable base I intend to use and hold the tonearm in the correct location with a nice finish.  A dozen hours on the base, another few hours drilling and placing everything where it should go.  100 hours of playing records to test it, tweaks here and there until I get good sound or better, fun, fun, fun!  The final table should be something fun to watch and listen to, while it will probably not be audiophile grade, the grade it will get for fun should be an A+!

The needles I use are:


Technics SL-B3, SME interchangeable stylus system

Pickering V-15 - PD07-C spherical stylus - tracks crappy records
Shure V15 RS - original stylus w/stabilizer brush - only used with new or perfect records
Shure M91ED - aftermarket stylus
Shure M95ED - aftermarket stylus
Shure M97Xe - original stylus - with stabilizer brush - tracks warped records
Grado Prestige Black - original stylus
Grado Prestige Blue - origina stylus - reference - perfectly aligned and very honest
Grado Mono - original mono stylus - only for playing mono microgroove recordings



JVC L-F210, straight-arm standard interchangable stylus system

Audio Technica - Model unknown, came with turntable
Shure M91ED - Original stylus
Shure M97Xe - original stylus - with stabilizer brush - tracks warped records
Pickering XV-15/625e w/d700 aftermarket conical stylus w/brushmatic - tracks crappy records




What would you do?  Which table should I replace?





Do some listening today!

Jeff

Who needs more than one needle?

Who needs more than one needle?


I do!  Right now I have two turntables; neither are glorious, but both work very well for me.  I am a budget audiophile, not someone with tons of money laying around to buy gear.  I have 12 headshells with cartridges mounted and currently in service.  None of these cartridges that I currently have cost anything close to $100.  I have maybe 10 cartridges that are not mounted that I will swap in and out when I feel like listening to something different, or the need arises. 

Why different needles?  Well, each model and brand of needle sounds just a little bit different.  Some are bright, which means they have lots of treble, lots of high-frequency music; some are a little less bright and have more bass response, which is the boom in music.  A few are sweetly in the center and go with the flow, some cost hundreds or thousands of dollars.  Others are special needles for special types of records.  I have a 78 Cartridge, specially made for the wide grooves of a 78 record.  I also have a mono cartridge, and it is not just the two channels of a stereo needle joined together, it reads the grooves differently than a stereo needle does.  I have one model, the Shure M97xE, which is still in production, mounted on a headshell for each of my turntables.  This cartridge is a great performer at a reasonable price, ($60 - $90 depending on source) and has a brush that cleans the surface of the record, but also acts as a shock-absorber.  I had a record with the strangest warp that none of my other needles would track, so I mounted the Shure and I was able to track it with no issue at all.  I have a needle that is conical/spherical in shape, now these will play scratched up records quite well due to its shape and the way in which it reads the grooves.  This is opposed to Elliptical needles which are quite honest and quite a few are brutally honest with deep scratches.  However, on perfect records, I believe the elliptical sounds better and causes less record wear.  So, if my records are 78, I have a needle for that;  mono, yep; crappy scratched up records, got that covered too, so what are the rest of them for?

I have needles that I have rescued from old turntables that I have owned over the years.  Some have been good performers, from the 70s and 80s and I hung onto them.  I have kept what I thought I would need for the different types of music that I listen to, found replacement or NOS styli for them and "rescued" them from the trash-heap.  I use my Pickering 625e for playing jazz and symphonic music mostly as it has a dark character in my system.  I use my Shure V15RS for archiving perfect recordings because it is a Shure V15 and a very excellent performer.  I use the Shure M95ED and the M91E as general purpose, light-wear needles, when I want a change and want to hear things a bit on the bright side, these both track at about 1gm, which is quite nice on record surfaces.  I use the Shure M97xE as my daily driver, it will track anything and has a very nice sound.  I use my grado blue and black prestige cartridges when I want brutally honest sound.  I have gotten both of these aligned very nicely, so they will play a perfect record beautifully, but a crappy record like hearing a cat-fight at 2am. 

To sum it all up, do I need more than one cartridge per turntable, probably not.  However, I figure why should I limit my choices in how I hear a recording to just one or two different ways.  This way I can choose a cartridge based on how I want to hear a particular recording.  I have actually changed cartridges during play if I felt that a different, better sound could be achieved by switching out the cartridge.  If you have a turntable that has a removable headshell, and you are feeling brave, go out on ebay and get a spare headshell or two, check to be sure you are buying the correct model, they are not all inter-changeable.  They cost usually less than $25 each, go out and purchase a new cartridge on needledoctor.com and mount it up.  If you do not know how to mount a needle, check youtube for videos on it.  Follow the directions, those colored wires mean something.

:)

Keep Listening!

Peace out!

Jeff

New and Improved budgetaudiophile.blogspot.com

I am forced to re-do my blog due to some error.  I have decided to rename my blog to budgetaudiophile.  Here is the text of my prior blog post:
Hey everyone!  My name is Jeff and welcome to my Blog and my first Blog Post.

I enjoy listening to analog recordings. I like the LP format,  I also enjoy reel to reel or open reel tapes.  However,  I also listen to digital formats too!  I am not here to debate the pros and cons of digital versus analog.  I just simply prefer analog for the experience.  The analog experience is a bit more involved than the digital one.  For one thing, when was the last time you cleaned a CD?  Looked for scratches?  Cleaned the CD Player lens?  Seems strange to be asking those questions?

Well, when playing an analog format there is a ritualistic series of events that are taken to get the very best sound possible from that analog source.  Let's take a LP record.  First, it is housed in a sleeve within the outer sleeve.  The record must be removed very carefully to prevent adding scratches or fingerprints to the surface.  Then it must be placed onto the spindle on the turntable.  Ready to play yet?  Nope, not yet, or I may still not get the best sound from the recording!

Once the LP on the turntable it is time to do a simple cleaning.  I use an anti-static carbon fiber brush to remove the dirt from the grooves.  Once I have finished, I take a look at the record, I look for finger prints, scuffs, stuck dirt or anything else that may interfere with the playback.   If I find any offending dirt, it is time for a deeper cleaning.  I use a record cleaning solution and a series of velvet brushes.  I use the Smart line of products to clean my records and have 4 velvet pads to progressively remove the moisture from within the grooves once I have cleaned the record.

Is it ready to be played yet?  Probably, but is my turntable ready?  I use a stylus cleaner to remove dirt from the needle.  This dirt builds up with each play.  Are we ready yet?  Maybe, is the record Mono or Stereo?  Do I have the correct needle mounted?  Once all those questions are answered I am ready to go. 
A different, but similar process would be experienced using a reel to reel tape player.  I clean mine nearly each time I play them.  The decks need lubrication and cleaning to be in top working order.  The heads not only need to be cleaned, but every once in a while the heads on the tape deck need to be demagnetized. 

These "rituals" are probably why analog playback devices lost their general market appeal over time.  Too much fussing around for some people.  When you look at a digital format, either CD or computer delivered music you click a button perhaps on a remote control and it plays immediately.  If you don't like it you press or click to go to the next track.  With analog you have a couple options, lifting the record needle and carefully moving it to the next track, or with a tape player, you can fast forward the tape to the beginning of the next track; once you find it. In the case of the analog listener, quite a number of people actually play the entire tape or record in one sitting.  I think this adds to the relaxation factor when listening to music to hear the entire thing.  I find it too much of a hurry to listen to a song for 12 seconds and fast forward it if I do not love it.  Sometimes an artist is actually trying to say something in a deliberate fashion song after song on a "album".  I think people that just download one song or fast forward through digital media are missing out on the jewels hidden amongst the most popular songs of a collection. 

I will post on here once in a while with whatever I feel like discussing.  It may be a new record or tape; it may be just to rant or discuss something. 

Just keep listening!

Jeff