4-2023

Azimuth, VTA, Anti-Skate and Tracking Weight – We Got to Live Together

More Record Playback Advice

With a shout out to my man Sly!

The commentary was written in 2005.

One of the reasons this record is sounding so good today (1/12/05) is that I spent last weekend adjusting my Triplanar tonearm. The sound was bothering me somewhat, so I decided to start experimenting again with the azimuth adjustment.

I changed the azimuth in the smallest increments I could manage, which on this turntable are exceedingly small increments, until at some point the following changes became evident:

  1. The bass started to go deeper,
  2. The dynamics improved, and
  3. The tonal balance became fuller and richer.

In essence the cartridge was becoming perfectly vertical to the record.

I don’t think this can be done any other way than by ear, although I don’t know that for a fact.

Azimuth, VTA, anti-skate and tracking weight all work in combination to create the sound you hear. They are like trying to juggle four balls at the same time. They all interact with each other in mysterious ways.

This is one of the reasons why I think everyone needs to know how to set up their own front end. Nobody you could ever pay is going to put the time and effort into getting it just right. I have at least 30 or 40 and probably closer to 50 hours of set up time in this arm. [It is in the many hundreds by now.]

This is, of course, over a period of two years. But as I have played around and experimented in different ways with the setup, I have managed to tailor the sound to my taste while maintaining what I consider to be the highest levels of accuracy.

Robert Brook has some advice for those who would like to learn more about analog setup, and you can find it here.

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Letter of the Week – “I did not know this was a well known example of a below-standard re-issue…”

More of the Music of Paul Simon

Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Paul Simon (and Art Garfunkel)

A new customer writes:

Tom,

I read about your experience with the re-issue of Paul Simon’s Graceland.

I did not know this was a well known example of  a below-standard re-issue, but your experience reflects my own  a few years ago,  over here in the Netherlands. Being very disappointed about the sound quality, I have returned my copy to the shop and asked my money back.  As I told you, I have done this more often, but always because of excessive surface noise – that does not belong on a new record at a price of €30+ .  This was the first and only time I have done this because of sound quality – apparently it was that obvious.

Peter

Peter,

This is NOT a well known example of a below standard reissue. We are the only critics of this record that I know of. The audiophile reviewers loved it!

A famously clueless audiophile reviewer even visited the hack who remastered it, that hack being a Mr. Ryan Smith, so he could learn more about the man’s approach to mastering.

Perhaps he wants to stop writing reviews for bad audiophile records and learn how to make them. If so, he is studying at the feet of a master.

A Short History of the Remastered Audiophile LP

Older audiophile records, typically those made by Mobile Fidelity in the ’70s and ’80s, suffered from a common group of problems on practically every record they released:

A boosted top, a bloated bottom, and a sucked-out midrange.

Nowadays that phony sound is no longer in vogue. A new, but equally phony sound has taken its place.

What seems to be in vogue these days, judging by the Heavy Vinyl Reissue pressings we’ve played over the last few years, is a very different sound, with a very different suite of shortcomings.

These newer records, with few exceptions, tend to be compressed, thick, dull, opaque, veiled, recessed and lacking in ambience.

These are currently the hallmarks of the Heavy Vinyl LP. Whether made by Speakers Corner, DCC, AP or any other label, starting at some point in the mid-’90s, the sound these labels apparently preferred had an infuriating tonal balance problem we noted in practically every record we played — sound that was just too damn smooth.

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Do Original Pressings Sound Better?

Robert Brook has a blog which he calls

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Below is a link to the commentary he’s written about his experience as a guest on The Audiophile Roundtable.

(He’s the fellow in the lower right corner.)

Do ORIGINAL Pressings Sound BETTER?

Do all audiophile represses sound better?

All?

Wouldn’t it be better to pose the question as “Do any audiophile represses sound better?”

But better than what? That’s the $64,000 question. No one seemed interested in answering that one. Or even noticing that it needed answering.

A fellow in the comments section asked:

Here’s a question to Robert, because he said he didn’t like the sound of the Tone Poets he heard… compared to what?

I don’t remember what Robert said but here’s my answer:

Compared to the hundreds of great sounding jazz records you’ve played! Compared to Way Out West if we have to pick one.

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