Robert Brook runs a blog called The Broken Record, with a subtitle explaining that the aim of his blog is to serve as:
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.
Here is Robert’s latest posting.
Robert writes:
The other day I checked the VTF, yet again, and my scale showed it was set at 1.807. I adjusted it to 1.800 and went back to playing records. Was it now actually at 1.800? Impossible to really know for sure.
But it did seem, if 1.800 is the indeed the magic number, that I’d finally hit it.
I was playing Miles Davis Friday Night At The Blackhawk, an extremely well recorded live album. My copy had generally sounded excellent. On this occasion, the record sounded . . . imagine this, exactly like a live performance.
Of course there was some occasional surface noise and, of course, I wasn’t actually listening to a live performance. It was a record after all.
But never before that moment had a record convinced me so completely I was hearing something I wasn’t. Somehow one tiny little change had managed to strip away just enough of the remaining artifice to lift the experience of hearing a record from very live sounding to uncannily real.
Quite frankly I was taken aback. Then I started to question what I was hearing. Fortunately some of my other records showed a similar, convincing freedom from artificiality, and I began to trust I was actually on to something.
We posted a review of an exceptionally good sounding shootout winning pressing of the very same Miles Davis album Robert discusses in his commentary. This line caught my eye:
If you want to be transported back to San Francisco circa 1961, you will need a record like this to do it.
You can see why Robert and I get along so well.
Here is some additional advice about tracking weight you may find useful.
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,
- Being open to listening to someone who has been doing the above three for decades.
Further Reading