John Gatski is the Publisher & Executive Editor of Pro Audio Review.
I recently was sent a new phono cartridge to check out from Audio-Technica. Actually, it is an improved version of its ML150 moving magnet cartridge that came out in the 1990s.
Despite digital audio advances over the last 25 years there is a persistent and even slightly growing element out there that still listens to vinyl. Albums are still released on vinyl; turntables and cartridges continue to be made. Even mid-priced turntables are cropping up from companies such as Music Hall, Thorens, etc. LP- fanatic companies — like Acoustic Sounds in Salina, Kansas — not only sell audiophile pressings (and DVD-As, Dual Discs and SACDs), but actually produce new pressings of old classics, as well as recording and pressing newer releases, onto vinyl. They even sell turntables and hi-fi gear so you can hear them at their best.
I have to admit that when you play a well-made audiophile LP (direct-to-disc, half-speed mastered on high quality virgin vinyl) without the high noise and ticks and pops, there is something in the audio that often sounds “more real” than an original digital recording. With all the advances in accuracy and digital resolution, there is something still appealing about the analog LP — even with all of its faults.
Recently, I have been having fun combining LP technology and digital technology. I have been doing transfers of records at 24-bit/96 kHz (or 192 kHz). To my ears, the high resolution digital copying of the first playback of an LP is more open than a CD dub of the LP.
I have been buying up great sounding pressings of jazz recordings from Acoustic Sounds. For example, I recently paid $50 for Wes Montgomery's Full House — a live recording from 1963, remastered and pressed onto four sides of two LPs at 45 rpm. Besides the virtuoso straight-ahead jazz guitar performances by Montgomery and his band, captured on tape by the Riverside Label, the analog sound is magnificent. The CD version sounds decent, but the LP is better.
I made a great sounding dub of the LPs with my LP dubbing chain, which consists of a Rotel belt drive turntable, the A-T cartridge, my custom Audio-by-Van Alstine FET Valve preamp with tube phono preamp, Benchmark ADC1 A/D, TASCAM HD-P2 digital recorder and a set of Kimber cables.
Since an LP's biggest negative is the stylus destruction of the fragile high frequency grooves, I recorded the records on the first pass. I played the four side LPs onto my trusty Rotel belt drive turntable with the new A-T cartridge, tracking at 1.25 grams. I took the preamplifier audio signal into the TASCAM HD-P2 via the Benchmark A/D at 24/96. I then took the digitally-copied LP cuts, transferred them to my G5, and burned the vinyl-to-digital tracks onto DVD-A, preserving the best possible playback of a record before repeated plays eventually wear down the grooves.
The digital transfer does a very good job of preserving the analog sound's seductive simplicity and the open, smooth top-end of a well-cut record. Funny thing about digital — I think it does a great job at preserving original analog recording.
In this issue we have a look at the new Midas XL8 digital board by Dan Wothke. Some of you know Dan from his work with our sister magazine, Audio Media. Welcome aboard, Dan.
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