Robert Brook runs a blog called The Broken Record, with a subtitle explaining that his blog is:

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

We know of none better, outside of our own humble attempt to enlighten that portion of the audiophile community who love hearing music reproduced with the highest fidelity and are willing to go the extra mile to make that happen.

What Do AUDIOPHILES THINK About ANALOG?

Looking at the picture above, I’d say it probably gives a great many of them a headache.

And why shouldn’t it? It sure looks easy, and the fact that everyone who writes about it, reviewers and forum posters alike, seems to think it is easy. They all seem to think that all you have to do to get good sound is to buy the right equipment and play the right records — mastered by the right people, of course — and you are good to go.

But it actually turns out to be hard, so hard that some people — no doubt many of the ones who bought into the idea that it was easy in the first place — want to throw in the towel and move on to something else, preferably something that offers more bang for their hard-earned bucks.

If I had taken the above advice, and bought the remastered records the so-called experts have been recommending to audiophiles liek me for decades, who knows, I might have thrown in the towel too.

But I was obsessed with music, and obsessed people don’t give up on anything easily. (The result, for what it’s worth, is hundreds of great sounding records for sale and thousands of blog postings.)

My Two Cents about Robert’s Post

(the slightly edited version taken from the comments)

Robert,
Thanks for taking on some of the more specious arguments — as well as some very good ones, to be sure — advanced by the music lovers you quote.

Job well done, and one that I could never have taken on as it would have made my head explode right at the start.

I wrote a piece recently about what I believe is fundamentally at the heart of the many misunderstandings music lovers of these various persuasions are unable to overcome.

It’s far more esoteric than the many good points you make. I’m assuming that at this stage of the game we can all agree that analog is superior to digital.

What I am trying to do is to get audiophiles to listen critically enough to recognize that no two sides of the same record have the same qualities in the same proportion, that variations in sound quality are almost unavoidable, and that record shootouts are the only way to bring this idea home to the typical analog audiophile enthusiast.

You can find it under the heading of breaking barriers and crossing bridges.

P.S.

Someone mentioned a blindfold test, and I was glad to hear it as blind testing is something I have been recommending for years.

When they tested me for my part in the Washington Post video on audiophiles, I was happy to submit to a blind test.

I did the same with a shootout for the 45 RPM pressings of Rumours in front of a world famous record collector, and it was obvious to me, if not to everyone, that none of the three copies sounded exactly like any of the others, yet they were brand new and pressed on audiophile vinyl in limited numbers.

I have an audio friend who asked me to do the same — be blindfolded — to judge some changes he had made to his stereo, and I agreed.

Afterwards he told me that none of his other audio friends would allow themselves to be blindfolded.

Having spent my life around other audiophiles, this is something I have no trouble believing!

I’m sure Robert would, because Robert knows how easy it is to be fooled, and to fool yourself.

For that very reason. all of our records shootouts are blinded. No other method would be reliable.

Thanks for the great piece, glad you took the time to write and research it.

It probably won’t change any minds. Minds are hard to change, and those who offer simplistic explanations for complex psychological tropes have minds that are impossible to change, in my admittedly limited experience.

Best, TP

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Robert’s Approach

Robert has methodically and carefully — one might even say scientifically — approached the various problems he’s encountered in this hobby by doing the following:

• Improving his equipment,
• Teaching himself how to do a better job of dialing in his turntable setup.
• Learning how to do controlled shootouts for his favorite albums, and, most importantly of all:
• Carefully testing every aspect of audio and records empirically, using his ears — and nothing else — to guide him.
• Sometimes Robert has an interesting take on some aspect of records or audio which we have found consistently worth reading and recommend highly.

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Further Reading

• Good digital beats bad analog any day
• Hot Stampers and audio progress go hand in hand
• The science of Hot Stampers – incomplete, imperfect, and provisional