brook-think

Think pieces brought to you by Robert Brook, the man behind The Broken Record.

The “X-Factor” in Analog Playback

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 higher fidelity — and are willing to go the extra mile and pay the extra dollar to make that happen.

The “X-FACTOR” in ANALOG PLAYBACK

Robert closes his story with some ideas that I have been advancing for years, ideas that, implemented with the seriousness and rigor required, are practically guaranteed to help anyone find more joy in the music they love.

Systems that have this X-factor are a rare thing indeed. The time and effort they require is far beyond what most of us are willing to put into this hobby, and even then, we need to be blessed with a good ear to boot.

But such a system is well worth striving for. And while not cheap, money only gets us so far in building it. Rather, we need to have a clear understanding of what we’re aiming for. We need to know what a system with this X-factor actually sounds like. Which means we need to be able to hear it in the first place.

Robert is a case study in what it takes to make the kind of dramatic progress in this hobby that he has achieved.

He also has written at some length about what motivated him to devote so much time and energy to the improvement of the playback quality of his favorite recordings. For some of us this is very familiar ground. It has been my experience that only the unrestrained love of the sound of music can be the driver of real success in audio.

Music does the driving, sure, of course it does, but the vast majority of music lovers never cared much about sound, which is no doubt why Spotify has been so successful. I hope to be able to find the time to write about an experiment I carried out not long ago comparing the sound of a track I heard on SiriusXM versus the same track called up on my phone with Spotify. The differences I heard really knocked me back on my heels.

(more…)

Problem Solving in Audio

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 and pay the extra dollar to make that happen.

PROBLEM SOLVING in AUDIO

We have a section on the blog under the heading Making Progress that digs into the kinds of issues that audiophiles tend to run into, especially when they are first getting started. They’re the ones Robert Brook writes about in his commentary above, and they’re the ones that tripped me up over and over for decades after I first got started in this hobby sometime in the mid-70s.

It wasn’t until around 2005 that I stumbled upon, mostly through luck and audiophile friends, the elements that make up my current system.

Imagine being so clueless that you actually had to spend thirty years in a hobby before you figured out. That was me!

Of course I thought I had it all figured out right from the start. I was the proud owner of monstrously-large, ridiculously-expensive speakers, tube equipment (also expensive, and the latest and greatest cutting edge technology back in those days), Half-Speed mastered records, records made live directly to disc, fancy cables — you name it, I had everything required to play music at nearly-live levels with near-perfect fidelity.

All the most important boxes I was told about had been checked off right from the get-go in the 70s. I was all in, and for the next thirty years I did everything the audiophiles I knew liked to do: find and evaluate better gear, try new tweaks, and, more than anything else, learn to appreciate music that I had never heard before — some of it new, some of it very old.

These are all stories that have been told here on the blog in hundreds and hundreds of posts.

Everything changed when I started doing audio and records in ways that nobody I knew had ever done them before. (That also is a story that has been frequently told here.)

Taking the approach to audio and software that audiophiles tend to take — the bulk of the story Robert Brook tells in his commentary — can only get you so far. That’s the lesson I learned after spending my first thirty years in the hobby.

It’s why this blog is devoted to one concept above all others — the importance of being skeptical.

Requiring empirical evidence to back up whatever I might choose to believe was the shock that my system — my nervous one, as well as my audio one — needed to jolt it out of its comfort zone and force it to come up with a better way.

At the start I believed what I was told — hey, it seemed to be working, and who was I to argue with the “experts” anyway? I went along with the crowd, and I got the average results crowds tend to get.

This blog, as well as Robert’s, is simply trying to help you circumvent the bad ideas that we run into everywhere in audio these days. We’ve tried lots of them, most of them didn’t work, or didn’t work very well, and the good news for you, dear reader, is that we found others that we know do work.

(more…)

Why Does “Why” Matter in Analog Audio

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 and pay the extra dollar to make that happen.

Why Does “WHY” Matter in Analog AUDIO?

 

I wrote a piece about this subject years ago, exhorting audiophiles to forget their theories. An excerpt:

We don’t know what causes some copies to sound so good.

We know them when we hear them and that’s pretty much all we can say we really know. Everything else is speculation and guesswork.

We have data. What we don’t have is a theory that explains that data.

And it simply won’t do to ignore the data because we can’t explain it. Hot Stamper deniers are those members of the audiophile community who, when faced with something they don’t want to be true, simply manufacture reasons why it can’t be true or shouldn’t be true. That’s not science. It is in fact the very opposite of science.

Practicing science means following the data wherever it leads.

The truth can only be found in the record’s grooves and nowhere else.

If you don’t understand record collecting as a science, you won’t be able to do it well and you certainly won’t achieve the success that’s possible by using a scientific approach.

(For those who like to get into the weeds with data in the form of stamper numbers, we’ve got plenty on the blog to share with you.)

(more…)

What Do Audiophiles Think about Analog?

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 caused my head to 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.

(more…)

There’s a Better Way to Do Analog – Part One

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.

There’s a BETTER WAY to do ANALOG – Part One

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:

(more…)

Compounding Distortion in Analog Audio

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

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Compounding DISTORTION in ANALOG AUDIO

Some excerpts:

Your Hot Stampers will sound WAY better when you get your turntable set up right, isolate it properly and get the equipment you need to make the speed of your platter accurate and stable. And that’s because all of these system improvements are highly effective ways of reducing distortion and its effects on your system.

Aside from our records, our analog front end, our amp and our speakers, our electricity and its effects on our equipment represents yet one more source of distortion in our system. I’ve posted more than one article touching on this issue, and I have shared the ways in which I’ve learned to manage the electricity powering my gear.

When I posted my last article on electricity, I was convinced that improving the electricity going to my system by limiting the effects of other electrical devices in my home was absolutely essential for getting my system to sound its best. The reason being that improving my electricity seemed to greatly reduce the level of distortion in my system.

I still feel this way, but my views on why improving electricity helps have evolved. What I’ve come to understand, or at least understand better, is that back when I wrote that article and for a long time after, I had a lot more front-end distortion than I realized. That distortion was compounded in different ways, one of which was by way of the electricity.

Throwing breakers and unplugging appliances was and is an effective way of reducing compound distortion in my system and improving the way my records sound. But since revamping my turntable setup and learning to better control the platter speed, the improvements I hear by ameliorating the negative effects of my electricity are significantly less than they once were. In other words, with less front-end distortion there’s a lot less distortion to be compounded by bad electricity.

(more…)

Hard to Play Records and Why We Want to Play Them

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Beethoven Available Now

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

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Robert’s latest posting is about the sonic delights that he has recently discovered on the wonderful Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 with Richter performing, an RCA Living Stereo recording from 1961.

HARD TO PLAY RECORDS and WHY We WANT to PLAY THEM

Robert’s Approach to Audio and Records

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

(more…)

Classical Records – The Polestars of Analog

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

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Robert’s latest posting is about the value of classical music in improving your listening skills, which in turn allows you to refine your stereo system, taking advantage of the higher levels of discernment you have acquired.

As this is a drum I have been banging on for more than twenty years, I expect to have some comments to post soon.

Robert and I are in total agreement as to RCA’s brilliant recording of the work with Monteux and the Paris Conservatoire — it’s simply the best on record.

CLASSICAL Records: The POLESTARS of ANALOG

Robert’s Approach to Audio and Records

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

(more…)

What’s on Your Turntable and Why?

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

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Here is Robert’s latest posting.

WHAT’s On Your TURNTABLE? and WHY?

You say your stereo is having trouble playing challenging recordings like The Firebird with Dorati?

You can’t get the strings in the loudest passages to sound the way you think they should? Too screechy are they? Or too smeary? Or too thin? Or too hard? Or even congested and almost distorted in the climaxes?

It’s amazing how many different ways there are for strings on an orchestral recording to sound wrong. If getting The Firebird’s strings to sound right is a goal you wish to achieve, you, my friend, have your work cut out for you.

Because nothing in audio is harder than reproducing the massed strings on the biggest, boldest orchestral recordings.

We have some good test discs for that specific purpose, but it will take a real commitment from you to bring about the success you seek.

Audio Is Hard

This is a drum we have been banging on for as long as I can remember, to the constant irritation of every less-than-serious audiophile who comes in contact with us — which all well and good. We haven’t catered to that crowd since we gave up on Heavy Vinyl in 2007.

We’re trying to reach a much smaller subgroup of more serious enthusiasts with our approach to audio and records. See here, here and here, and there are great many more discussions to be found on our audio advice page.

If you want to achieve any real success in audio, you need to do a lot of work and spend a fair amount of money. Not a fortune, maybe not even six figures, but trying to do audio on the cheap is a fool’s errand. It can’t be done.

Why is it any of our business how your system sounds? If it’s good enough for you, why isn’t it good enough for us?

A true Hi-Fidelity rig is in fact what makes our business possible.

Without top quality sound, our records can’t possibly be worth the admittedly high prices we charge for them.

We want to help you take audio to the next level for two reasons: one, because that’s where our records really come to life, and two, that’s where the shortcomings of the modern Heavy Vinyl reissue are too glaringly obvious to ignore.

I found a way to get there. Like me, Robert Brook found a way.

We believe that the more time you spend following the advice on our two blogs explaining how we got to where we are now, the clearer the path forward will be. We hope you can learn from our experience. It will cost you nothing and might just save you a great deal of money.

(more…)

What Does Neutral in Audio Really Mean?

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

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

Here is Robert’s latest posting.

What Does NEUTRAL in Audio REALLY MEAN?

I wrote about this very subject in one of Robert’s postings from 2024, this one. Here is most of what I had to say at the time:

Dramatic limitations and massive amounts of colorations are endemic to home audio systems.

The only way to get rid of them is by doing the unimaginably difficult work it takes to learn how to identify them and then figure out practical ways to root them out.

This, in my experience, is a process that will rarely be accomplished, even by the truly dedicated. It unfolds slowly, over the course of decades, and only for a very small percentage of audiophiles. Most will simply give up at some point and choose to enjoy whatever sound quality they have managed to achieve up to that time. To attempt to go further feels like banging your head against a wall.

Regrettably, to push on in this devilishly difficult hobby we have chosen for ourselves is for the few, not the many.

(Of course it didn’t hurt that we got paid to do it. An undiagnosed but all-too-real obsessive personality disorder also played a part, as did certain records that I fell in love with a long time ago.)

Pass/Not-Yet

In our opinion, some of those who gave up the fight did so prematurely.

They thought they’d come a long way, and perhaps they had, but there was still plenty of potentially life-changing improvement possible.

Can you blame them? Devoting the seemingly endless amounts of time and money necessary to climb the greased ladder leading to better sound is not a choice most audiophiles are in a position to make.

Wives, children, jobs, mortgages, and a great deal more — especially the lack of a dedicated listening room — all conspire to limit the efforts of even the most committed audiophile.

Not to pile on, but there is an easy way to spot these folks, the ones who could only take it so far:

    1. By the records they own (many of which are on Heavy Vinyl),
    2. Or want to buy (ditto),
    3. Or have nice things to say about (ditto again, read the posts found on every audiophile forum).

We’ve made a partial list of the records that best identify this group, and it can be found here.

It should be noted that bad records, the kind being made by audiophile labels of every stripe these days, are no good for any of this work. The goal is to figure out how to make top quality vintage pressings sound right. (More on that subject here.)

Most new pressings will only sound enjoyable if the system playing them is good at hiding their flaws. We hope it goes without saying that no right-thinking audiophile should want anything to do with such a system, or such records.

And with his latest post, Robert Brook proves once again that he is an audiophile who knows what the goal of playing music in the home should be — to make it sound as natural and lifelike as possible — and, even more importantly, he recognized that it would take years of work to make that sound a reality, and knowing all that, committed himself to the task.

And why has he done all this work?

Because he is the one who gets all the benefits.

He gets to hear the greatest music ever recorded in a more powerfully immersive way than 99% of the audiophiles who share neither his approach nor his ambition. (You can add work ethic for the trifecta.)

If you want easy answers and quick fixes, Robert (and I) will tell you there are no such things in the world of audio. Until you’ve done the work, this way of thinking may seem counterintuitive and confusing, especially if you’ve spent much time on audiophile forums.

(more…)