Travis In Austin

You made a great post in the "what's in your audio future" thread talking about the tactile experience of listening to vinyl, the artwork, the gatefolds, and the permanence of ownership. I just assumed that preference applied to all entertainment in your life - books especially - and so I found it amusing to see you hoping for a Kindle version.I'm full of inconsistencies!I was an early adopter on Kindle, because the nature of my reading habit is impulsive. I've downloaded books in the middle of the night because I get to thinking about some author or subject that suddenly interests me. That benefit quickly outweighed all the digital downside! Someone bought me a Kindle last August and I am loving it. I will never go back to a regular book for pleasure reading unless for some reason it isn't available on Kindle.

Thank you for posting your review Josh, I thought I was the only one who went in for this kind of thing. I picked it up in '09 and I think your review is spot on. I wish everyone who is interested in how and why audio sounds the way it does would read this book. I think the historical aspect is very accurrate, my Dad was with Ampex when all of the stuff with tape, Col. Orr and audio recording started to take off in the US. It has been awhile since I read it but I believe some of the technival information he obtained about Beatles recordings is in error, but there are two very definative sources on the technical aspects of Beatles recordings, which deck, techniques, etc. if people want to delve into that. I tend to buy up everyrhing regarding the history of recoring music, especially the tape era. I have a few other reccomendations if someone really likes this kind of stuff and wants to dig deeper. Thanks again for a great review. Travis

Welcome and congrats on a great find. How are they sounding so far?

Come to think of it, this amp put out some wierd waves. 211s with mercury rectification

I have only seen that after consuming peyote or mescaline.

Bass atenuation can take place anywhere in the recording chain. A 6 or 12db 40 hz high pass filter is typically place on the bass guitar but it depend if it from AMP or DI or combo of both. KICK drum can be anywhere from 30hz to 50 hz and will be attenuated so it is not lost in the bass line. Every microphone has a unique frequency response curve, some with bass boost, some not. Most bass and drum lines are mixed with use of high pass filters to obtain a clear mix of kick drum and bass line. Thwre are multiple techniques on where to add add and where to subtract to avoid mud. At mastering, if wverything was done properly at mixing, they just sequence, edit, put in fades and cut flat. More likely, something is not 100% and can be improved with eq. If mastering for vinyl they have to look at whether bass attenuation is necessary to fit record on one side without having grooves slammed up against each other. They may have to do low pass filter at upper frequencies to protect cutter head, even if helium cooled. The big problem is like in the case of your excellent Vannelli example. The of original vinyl of that lp is excellent, mastered by Bernie Grundman, one of the best in the business. Unfortunately, later on some poor guy had to master it for Cd and, based on your curve, it appears he was given what is referred to as the EQd limited master, the vinyl master, the one with the bass cut and the upper end boosted. This tape was recorded right from the cutter head amplifier outputs so that it could be sent to other pressing facilities. These were readily available, as opposed to 2 track mixdown tape, and this is all the CD mastering guy had to work with. Based on your curves and the era I am pretty sure they did that cd from the EQd limited master. What you are observing has been known and talked about for a number of years on the recording, mixing and mastering forums, and the Hoffman forum. People like Barry Diament (about the biggest name there is in quality cd mastering and remastering) has talked about loudness wars, high rez digital, and possibility for audiophile quality in mixes and masters being the rule rather than the exception. I don't think it is possible to tell where attenuation occurs in the chain unless you know a lot of factors, drum head used, bass recorded on amp with mikes, what kind of mike or was DI used, were the bass and drums recorded seperately, or in some cases together "live" etc. The hardest part of mixing a rock/pop band is getting the bottom end right. Keeping the kick and bass seperate, coherent and clean. Often the masterer gets it and it is smeered mud and fixed in the tape, pre eq and limIter applied and the masterer has to try and save it. Sometimes he or she can, and sometimes you just cant polish a turd. If you look at any top mastering services website (not people working out of their garage) but mainstream people like Grundman, Ludwig, Saxe (both), and Diament they typically have what they would like to do their job properly. Travis

Are you saying the Kardashians don't work hard for their money? Well I wasn't going to mention any names, but that was who instantly popped to mind when I thought of that category.

Thank you for posting this, I had not run into him before. I like his quotes that introduce a subject. You gotta love a guy who is willing to send you his hearing test results and charges $10 per question at Ask Arthur. I wish his interests in music were more like mine as he had some great information on recordings. He has a long writeup on K Horns, and I think he has a lot of greats things to consider about them. I wonder if he sold them. It is a breath of fresh air when some one in the industry can speak without feeling beholden to anyone. Travis

Your right Dave, it is extremely dangerous work out in the oil patch. "Number-crunching by the Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center at the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station shows the oil field's outsize fatality rate: 24.2 out of 100,000 oil and gas extraction workers were killed nationwide last year, compared with 1.7 of 100,000 involved in chemical manufacturing." Quote above from this Houston Chronicle article. http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Industry-opposes-push-to-tighten-oil-field-safety-5399724.php The average oil field worker made 108K in 2013. http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=18691

Other overpaid jobs, in my opinion: 1. Reality TV show "actors" 2. Producers of reality tv shows 3. Professional athletes 4. Head valet at Las Vegas casinos 5. Mutual fund managers who can't beat S&P 500 or other relevant index

I, for one, am over paid. Well at least according to this survey. Full article is located here http://www.businessinsider.com/most-overpaid-and-underpaid-jobs-2014-1

Have you come across any CDs that either didn't have rolled off bass or the hump?

Please elaborate. Analogman I am interested in this as well. My understanding is that earlier vinyl mastering had tu utilize limiters on the high frequencies so you didn't burn up the cutting head, but eith helium cooled cutters such as Neumann and Westrex. On the low end the only thing that prevents long ultralos passages is space, even with RIAA eq. The Teldec recording of 1812 overture has sections recorded at 8hz, the cannons. All the way up to 35 khz. Having said thay, most mastering engineers mill mix everything below a certain frequency as mono to save space. Sone choose 70 hz at tge point to tie it together. But vinyl is perfectly cabeable of being recorded between 20 hz and 20khz, at least they are with Helium cooled cutting heads. The Neuman SX 74 heads are flat plus/minus 0.5 db form 20 hz to 20 khz dead flat, -3db will get you down to about 7hz and up to 25 or 30 khz 2nd and thrid order harmonics. The lp comes with a disclaimer I thought was ibterestibg when I bought it: "The cannon shots captured on this LP are extremely difficult for most phono cartridges to track. The inability of your phono playback system to play these cannon shots is very typical and not an indication of either your cartridge or record being defective. Acoustic Sounds will not accept returns of this product for reasons of mistracking due to the cannon shots on this record." My kind of warning. You should here the 1812 at about 110 to 110 dbs on Jubes.

You are really going to enjoy it. People that I know who have purchased them are still using them, some for over 8 years. I looked at that mojo cartridge and I am probably familiar with it without realizing it. It is a specially made Ortofon with a user replaceable stylus which makes life so simple and easy. Really interested in hearing your impressions when you have it all hooked up. Travis Travis

Here is a link to the Needle Doctorsite on the 7.1, there are some informative customer reviews to check out. Where will you be placing it, on top of audio rack, other type of furniture? Is the room that it is going in on ground floor, is the floor solid or does it bounce? The reason I ask is that my vinyl rig was upstairs and even light foot traffic went right to audio rack. I ended up getting turntable wall mount which completely isolated it from floor. When I saw some Regas displayed a few years ago they had an optional wall mount that was designed specifically for Rega. You might want to look at that aspect as well. http://www.needledoctor.com/Music-Hall-Turntable-MMF-7-1

Earl, I have many attorney friends I have turned on to vinyl here in Austin and for those that want to purchase a good quality new turntable I reccomend either Musichall or Rega. Both are excellent tables at the range you are looking at. We have an excellent dealer that sells the MH and amother one who sells Rega. Is it from a private party or a dealer? The main thing is having a dealer you can go to for set up, etc. The table is excellent. I have no experience with that cartridge and cannot offer anything about that. Travis

That Vector tonearm is awesome. I'm running that as are Gary and Larry in MD. I don't have the VTA adjustment on mine, it can be upgraded by AJ but I just havent seen the need to do it. You should really be liking that rig now?

Great post. How is that even possible, amazing.

Hope you had a wonderful birthday Deano. Youthful indiscretions, hmmmmmmmm?

Hope you had a wonderful birthday Deano. Youthful indiscretions, hmmmmmmmm?

Welcome to the forum Scott, and I join with others thanking you for your service. There are at least a couple of forum members in Germany, one has Jubilees and very active in attending audio events and shows. I hope you enjoy your time here. Travis

Chris, That is true, Al's meltdown did include Greg Roberts and that thread still exists. The threads where he personally attacked Trey and Roy have been removed. I believe the run in with Trey was over testing of K77 and other tweeters. Trey was going to test three different versions in the chamber and share the data with everyone. The run in with Roy was over a passive he had designed or passed along to someone that ALK disagreed with. As suggested by you, the op, and others in this thread, there are ways to suggest a better mousetrap, to discuss a difference of opinion on crossover design, etc. in a civil and diplomatic way. Multiple people suggested that to Al, and he was either unwilling or incapable of doing so. I just wanted to set the record straight on why he isn't on this forum. He couldn't tolerate anyone disagreeing with him or having a different opinion. Travis

No Al ran himself off. He boasts anout being banned from at least four forums. He directly attacked two Klipsch engineers on this forum. He was incapable of playing by the rules suggested in this post. So I guess he was in a sense run off, Amy was unwilling to allow his attacks of Klipsch and two of it's engineers to continue. She told him and he left. Those theeads do not exist any more. Travis

ETH2, I think your original post was excellent and your objective admirable. However, I am not sure I understand your reference to Al K. If you are suggesting Al ran people off by his cvitrioliccomments then I would completely agree with you. If on the other hand you are suggesting that Al K was run off by responses to his posts, that is not my recollection at all. He began to attack the methods and explanations of two Klipsch engineers who used to post frequently and then he had his famous meltdown of 2006 where he "rresigned" from the forum. He went over to Audiokarma forum from which he also resigned. Here is a comment he made on DeanG's facebook page: "Albert Klappenberger As an old hand at starting riots on the Klipsch forum I got to agree! Doing that does have it's good side though. Being banned turned out to be a good thing! I wouldn't get back on there if they begged me!". Yes I do remember Al K, all too well. If you want this forum to be a gentler and kinder place you do not want the likes of him around. Travis

I would like to see it taken bact to that Taverna in Greece, now that was a great time.