Hello and welcome to Ask the Expert
My name is Christopher and I'm your host
Today we've been fortunate enough
to have Claus with us
And Claus, you are a bit of a vinyl-buff
Can you talk a little bit about it?
Well Christopher, pleasure to be here
My job at Dynaudio is Chief Commercial Officer
So, I have the overall
commercial responsibility for our global
markets in all the segments that we operate in
I've been a... I've been a music-buff since birth
and I've been a hi-fi enthusiast probably since I was 13 I believe
That's a lot of years
That's, that's a long time
I've always been in this industry now
for you know a very long time and I'm
here by choice. I love what we do here
I love what we do here and I love the industry in general.
Yeah my passion for vinyl has
been going on for more years than I
would care to mention here, yes.
But, that's good because that's what we're
going to talk about today.
So, should we just jump into the questions?
Absolutely. Let's do it.
Claus, our first question is from Tim Werner.
And, Tim has been
noticing that on a lot of records it says
how much of they weigh and he's paid
special attention to the ones that weigh
180 grams and he asks:
"Does the heavier record, does it matter -
- that it's heavier or?"
Well, first of all it is obviously lovely for us record lovers
to see so many titles being released on vinyl now.
Both new titles from young
artists and as well as old of course and
and also a lot of old titles being
re-released now.
So, times are great.
The 180 gram sort of sticker that
you see on a lot of covers has
become a bit of a marketing point.
180 gram is definitely heavier than your
average record which will probably be
around 120 - 130 gram.
But, it's important not to take that
particular thing out of context.
What really matters in the
quality of a record is the quality of the recording itself,
it's the mastering the quality of the mastering job,
it's the purity of the vinyl,
it is the vinyl really flat has no
warp and is it very well centred
meaning is the hole exactly in the middle.
All of those things have a
big influence on the under final sound quality.
A 180 grams you could argue the record
is a bit more stable it creates
perhaps a more stable platform for when
the cartridge is reading the musical information in the groove.
On the other hand,
you could also argue that a heavier
record perhaps will store the
vibrational energy for longer remember
that the cartridge is vibrating when
it's reading the musical information in
the groove it's that vibration that's
turned into an electric signal but when
the cartridge is doing that it's also
sending vibration into the record which
is not a good thing.
So, there's obviously
both good and bad thing about it.
Yeah, yeah two sides to every story.
What I hear you say
is that you can't use it as an isolated
factor for deciding if it's a good
record or not, a quality record?
That's exactly it and I mean we see that a lot in
in the audio industry and
everyone who's very keen to put together
a very good system and people that
really like without CDs or records that
there's a tendency to stare yourself
blind on just one single parameter or
factor or take one issue and blow it up
and sort of take it out of context and
the truth is that there are so many
factors that influence that the final
sound quality and it really is important
that you don't just focus on one little
thing but that you look at the big
picture and and getting back to the
weight of the record.
Again, there are
arguments for and against and you'll be
you're the best judge of evaluating the
quality of a record.
Especially, if you
have the opportunity to compare one
pressing to another.
So, if we are to
give, Tim, like an answer to this it's more
about you know actually bringing it home
listening to it comparing to another sample or?
Yeah, and if your really into
your sound quality if you have the
opportunity to maybe read a review where
that particular pressing is compared to
another pressing that was it
has been made at the same time or
perhaps much much earlier if it's the
pressing we're talking about is a
re-release then see how it's being
compared to the original pressing of
that same recording.
Okay, thanks.
These days, Claus, there's a lot of remastering
being done whether it's on LPs if it's
in the digital domain and Mads Kok
he's noticed this and he asks is the
remastered record always better than the original one?
Remastering has clearly become a bit of
a marketing gimmick and it gives
record companies an opportunity to
release the same musical content again
and again and again and remaster it and
remaster it and remaster it.
A remastering job you cannot really say
that it's better worse it really depends
on the quality of the original mastering.
As well as the quality of the job that's
been done again.
Mastering is about taking the musical content that
has been through the mixing process and
preparing it for whatever format it's
being you know it's being put on and so
the mastering of an LP and I would say
you should we've certainly seen certain
technological advancements
in you know in studios and the whole
process and the quality of equipment but
at the end of the day it comes down to
the skill set and the opinions and the
ears of that particular engineer who's
doing the mastering you have certain
I've certainly seen many examples where
I find that the remastering is quite
horrible and I much much prefer the
original and now and then I experienced
a remastering job where can hear that in
my view it's a vast improvement on the
original job so again unfortunately
perhaps the answer is really not that
clear it you have to evaluate yourself
and if you have the opportunity to compare
an LP that has been remastered to the
original LP that will give you obviously
a very clear answer do you think it
sounds better or not.
Yeah, it's yes or no.
Yes or no. Ultimately you have to decide
whether it's a quality improvement to you or or not.
And, as you said it's about
the complete picture and I guess if you
like a certain engineer the way that he
masters a record you might think that
it's a better better remastering and if
you don't like him you think it's worse
so there's also an aspect of personal opinion.
Yeah, you do have you know us
vinyl purists and music lovers some of us
will actually pay attention to the
name of who's done the mastering.
I'm almost embarrassed to say it's not
something that has been too much time on
but if you really get into comparing
especially with very old recordings as
something as being re-released who is
doing that we're mastering and there are
certain individuals in the business that
have a very very good reputation for
taking old original recordings and
actually making them sound better than
they've ever done and that's oh that's a
wonderful thing but it's not the general rule.
Okay, perfect.
Henrich Kruse. He's heard that
some are against digitizing a vinyl-system.
But, he actually still wants to
have a vinyl system with a streaming
possibility so he can stream to
a pair of active speakers.
Is that possible?
It is possible as long as your streaming
device will accept an analogue input
then what you need to make sure of is
that you have a phone pre-amp that
will amplify the signal from the
cartridge which requires very powerful
and a special amplification and you hook
that up to your streaming device that
accepts an analog input and then off you go.
It's perhaps a little bit unusual
combining the playback of a record
process with streaming but it can be
done and if that's your thing and if
that's what you want to do to get
maximum enjoyment out of your music and
listen to more music then I would
strongly recommend it.
For us vinyl purists we're generally against digitizing
an analogue signal but what we I guess
sometimes forget is that whether we like
it or not a lot of recordings today or
the majority of recordings today are
actually made in the digital domain and
then it's converted and
then you have an LP and and then you
have the sound and the analogue format but
the original recording was made in the digital domain.
I think it's important
not to get religious about it but
for people that are really into high-quality
LP playback like myself...
Yeah, we probably
would not do it certainly not when we do
our active listening.
But, it is possible
it's a phono pre-amp,
a streaming device that accepts an analogue input,
and off you go.
Correct.
Perfect.
The next question is from Mohammed Saleh.
And, Mohammed, he asks:
Why do I need a phono pre-amp?
Two things are unique about the signal from your cartridge
1) is that the signal is
very very weak it therefore requires
extra amplification.
That amplification needs to be very high-quality because
you want to keep the noise at an
absolute minimum the signal from a
cartridge is far far weaker than the
signal from the CD player for instance.
The other unique thing is that when you
make records this signal is equalized in
order to allow for long playing time and
to minimize the surface noise.
You actually weaken the base notes and you
boost the treble so - roughly speaking - so
when you amplify it you obviously need
to apply it in reverse in order to
get that signal that's linear so that's
the reason why you simply cannot take
your turntable and hook it straight into
any kind of amplifier you need to make
sure that either you have a separate
phone pre-amp or that you have that
phono amplification built into your
pre-amplifier or integrated amplifier.
So, when I've taken care of the the phone stage
is it then just about plugging it directly
into my passive speakers?
That, yes, well
you plug the phono pre-amp into your
pre-amp or your integrated amplifier you
would still need your conventional
amplification because you need the volume control.
And, if I haven't... What if I have an active system?
Well, then it should also
be possible but here I have to say
something that you should try out first
it depends on how powerful the signal is
coming out of your phono pre-amp if
that in itself is powerful enough to
feed your active speakers.
Then job done.
But you would have to try it out first.
But, it would certainly make for a very easy
system to set up and enjoy.
But with active speakers just make sure to try out beforehand.
Yes, you need to do a little bit of
investigation first and find out whether
the phono pre-amp is sort of up for
the job of feeding the active speakers directly.
Perfect.
Franz Umber asks
what's the difference between a belt drive,
and a direct drive turntable?
A turntable consists fundamentally of
three parts the deck itself,
a tonearm
and a cartridge.
And the whole purpose of
the playback system is really to protect
the cartridge and make sure that the
cartridge has the best possible working conditions.
Now, the deck itself
you can mount the platter directly on a
motor that would be a direct drive
principle that will give you great speed
accuracy and the platter will start up
very very quickly but the challenge is
to eliminate vibrations from the motor
and any motor will will have vibrations.
The challenge is to prevent those
vibrations from entering the platter and
then into the record itself because you
don't want to pollute the signal that
the cartridge is reading in the record
you want that to only be the musical
information not vibrations coming from
the external environment or the motor.
The belt driven principle well here you
mount the platter on a bearing and then
you have the motor next to the bearing
sometimes very close sometimes not so
close and you connect the two with a belt
Now what that will give you is a
usually a much better way of eliminating
vibrations from the motor entering the
platter itself and then going into the
record it's a little bit more difficult
to achieve the same type of speed accuracy.
Okay, so, is there anywhere where you
would use one instead of the other?
Well, direct driven turntables you always find in
you know the DJ environment for obvious
reasons it's very robust and and the
record will start up immediately and
they can do their thing with with
scratching and what have you. That's simply impossible to do...
You wouldn't do that in a Hi-Fi setting?
No, no, no that's impossible.
Most high-performance turntables in
fact the vast majority of
high-performance turntables for Hi-Fi use
are based on a belt driven principle.
To eliminate all of the
vibrations and give the best sound quality?
Yes, yes.
Thank you.
Claus, the next question is from Steve Wodell and he asks
if you can describe the differences
between a moving magnet and a moving coil?
So, in a moving magnet cartridge
you have two magnets placed at the end of the stylus.
One magnet for each
channel and as the stylus vibrates
these magnets move and they're
positioned in relation to a coil and
that is what is generating an electrical signal.
In a moving coil cartridge it's
sort of the opposite you place two coils
at the end of the stylus and they are
positioned in relation to a magnet now
both the coils and the magnets
regardless of the principle are obviously
positioned inside the cartridge itself.
Does either one have any benefits or
advantages compared to the other?
Well, in a moving magnet
cartridge you tend to get a more
powerful electrical signal compared to a
moving coil cartridge and all things
being equal you could also argue that
it's a more affordable way of making a
cartridge and I'm generalizing things a
bit here but but that is
the general principle.
A moving coil cartridge well because the coils are
lighter than magnets and the coils are
sitting at the end of the stylus you
could argue that a moving coil cartridge
will allow for better tracking of the
record groove and and so you get all the finer details
The downside is that you
have a significantly weaker electrical
signal and that requires a more powerful
amplification afterwards.
So, you would have to pay attention to especially
your amplification stage if you go for the moving coil?
Yes, you have
slightly different amplification for a
moving coil compared to a moving magnet
and you need to make sure that your
phono pre-amp has that capability.
I have to say all quality phono pre-amps
will have that capability but
nevertheless that's something you need
to look out for.
Perfect.
Claus, we've come
to the final question and it's from Andy
and Chuck and they wanted to know how to
match the cartridge with the tonearm?
It's a good question the cartridge needs
to match the tonearm and the tonearm
needs to match the deck.
When match, when you hook up a cartridge to a tonearm
it will always resonate at a
particular frequency what frequency is
quite important when a cartridge is in
the groove it in a way functions as a
spring because it's reading and
vibrating both vertically and horizontally.
How soft or hard
that spring is to put it in sort of
layman terms and the effective mass of
the tonearm which basically acts as a
weight that will determine the frequency
where the playback system will have that
resonance and that is a little bit
critical and usually you would say if it
falls between nine and 14Hz...
You're sort of okay.
Now, it is possible to go in and actually read
that information get the necessary data
when you read the specifications of the
cartridge and also the tonearm
and and you can calculate exactly what
that resonance frequency is but it is an
area where I would say unless you're
really experienced in these matters
I would trust a qualified dealer and also
as with everything in audio you also
need to trust your own ears.
You said something about it has to be within a
certain frequency range what happens if
it falls out side?
It creates potential problems it doesn't
necessarily create actual problems it
creates potential problems.
Let me give you an example if you have a record
that's warped now that warp in itself
that will be at a very low frequency
if then you have a cartridge-tonearm
combination that also resonates at a
very low frequency then it will be
boosted and that's very unfortunate so
that would affect the tracking of the
record and you want that record to be
you know track the best way possible.
So, it would be very audible or?
Could be.
But as I said it will create a set of
potential problems not necessarily
actual problems and so the guideline is
that if it falls between let's say nine
and 14 there will be general
agreement that that is the best place so
but you need to know the compliance of the cartridge,
the weight of the cartridge,
and the effective mass of the tonearm
Okay and as you said if you really
you want to be extremely sure you can calculate it...
You can calculate these,
these things yourself and I would
refer to some excellent articles that
you can find on the internet if you
really want to get into detail if that
seems a little bit intimidating you know
go to a good dealer and trust the advice
that you get from the dealer.
They can help.
Yeah, they can help.
Perfect.
Claus, that was the final question.
We're done.
Thank you, thank you very much for inviting me
I enjoyed that and I have a very
important message here to you ladies and
gentlemen and boys and girls go out and
buy some vinyl it's a wonderful thing to
own and enjoy I'm spending far too much
of my disposable income on these things
I'm not sure I would advise you to do
exactly just that but it's a wonderful
way of enjoying your music.
I guess we could say that you're pretty happy that
it's back 'in'.
I am very happy that it's
back 'in'... My bank manager is not.
That's it for this time guys.
Thank you so much.
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