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kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: Apr 13, 2021 - 6:50pm

So to keep myself busy and out of trouble, I have dived back into the vinyl full tilt.  Sold 4 albums in the past week and was just contacted by someone seeking me out to digitize / archive some of his vinyl.

Just brought back into service my AT15SS cart with a brand new AT20Sla stylus. The music sounds so good again.  Yep, I'm wearing them out and these don't grow on trees anymore. Got a counter to keep track of the number of album sides played.   Also just found a new old stock AT20Sla cart/stylus and jumped on it.  The wife was even ok with it as she knows what it is and how rare.  Have one more NOS AT20N stylus sitting.  Might get one more to make sure I get to the finish line in the manner I've become accustomed to. Those 4 albums will help out now a lot.    And so it goes.
kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: Feb 9, 2021 - 10:45pm

Moved from the Sade thread.
ScottFromWyoming wrote:
 
I know it was a chronic problem with standard LPs back when I was buying them, but I'm a little surprised that modern vinyl QC—especially in a box set—lets anything but perfect specimens leave the plant.

  
QC is almost worse today then back in the old days.  To get a flawless box set these days is the exception rather than the rule.  There are very few pressing plants still operating with the biggest and the worst being GZ Media in the Czech Republic.  They are quite capable of doing a good job, but cut corners based on the clients dictates which in most cases these days is UMG or Universal Music Group, which owns damn near everything now.  

Here are the reviews of GZ Media as a company.  https://www.discogs.com/label/430654-GZ-Media/reviews

It is very pathetic and discouraging when you have to do your due diligence to see who is doing the pressing before buying and then finding out who is doing something you really want.  Then you have to buy them from someone who will deal with the returns.  Amazon is the first obvious choice, then Music Direct for MOFI's and generally higher end releases, but not always.  https://www.popmarket.com/ is the other major player, and returns do ok there.

Lastly is the  UMG's store front down in Virginia that shares the same building with Music Today, which is where I bought the Sade box set.

Here is what the BBB has on them.  https://www.bbb.org/us/va/crozet/profile/music/udiscover-music-us-store-0603-63411757

I have an ongoing problem with a return that is lost on their loading dock since December 16.  Called the local PO and they admitted that they dropped the ball and that this happens all the time down there.

Now I'm about to deal with Music Today on the SADE set.  I'm thrilled, not.

https://www.bbb.org/us/va/crozet/profile/music/musictoday-ii-llc-0603-63410621

I still have these tabs open from my UMG experience back in November and ongoing.

The list of box sets that I have bought mostly over the past 3 years is pretty big and it has been more misses than hits.  I get them because at this point in my life they are most likely to have what I still want in one place, hopefully with a high sound quality and also hold their value over time and even appreciate in price, even though opened and played.  On the other hand with all of these known problems, a play graded and verified trouble free set increases in value and is more resalable than a sealed crap shoot.

Known problems sets include: 

PF Pulse, have two only went halfway through one and got bummed out, the other one sits sealed.  Bought them from Amazon.jp hoping to get the EU version, got the USA instead.
John Lennon's recent, went through two copies to build one good one.  From popmarket.
Steven Wilson's Yes remixes.  Bought three to end up with two good sets.  From Amazon.com
Abbey Road 50th  Got two kept one.
Electric Ladyland 50th Again two to make one.  Music Direct.
The Beatles 50th Initially two copies exchanged one kept two, one open and one stupidly still sealed.

The good stuff:
Tom Petty's Volume One
Tom Petty's Volume Two.  Two copies, one open, one sealed.
TP Wildflowers and All The Rest  Two copies one open and a disc damaged when cleaning
CCR Studio Albums
Rolling Stones In Mono
Buffalo Springfield
George Harrison All thing Must Pass

Sitting unopened and unknown:
Steven Wilson Home Invasion Live.  Read the reviews and they were all good.
Hendrix at Maui 50th.  Taking a chance.  Not enough time and not in the mood yet.
Doors Soft Parade 50th Same as above.

The other real problem is that you have 30 days to verify whether or not you're gonna keep them, so you must play them, especially with the money involved.  That is in real time, too.  Since I rip everything, that involves at least 30 minutes cleaning them and playing each side at least three times.  If I miss the 30 day window, then if I get burned, I can buy a new set and swap the defective one, but if the replacement set is bogus, then I still end up with a bogus set.

So I bought the Sade box set based on the mention here at RP and rolled the dice.  Both me and the OP got bogus sets, but at least I can get my money back and still have the sound and repair it and enjoy it with a mouse click down the road.  He is not so lucky.  He gets neither. It ain't easy, but with practice it has gotten much easier.  Already I have over 300 markers on the one side of the problem Sade album and I am only a third of the way through after about 6 hours.  But when I'm done you'll never know there was a problem with the pressing.

But this is what I do.  This was planned as my retirement hobby 40 years ago.  This is also the perfect thing to do to occupy my time constructively during this lockdown.  I did the stamp thing as a kid, even got the Merit Badge (really) but this is so much better.  And the results are even better than I could have ever hoped for.  Just coming here to RP way back when put me into contact with people who are just as much into music as I am and have met people here who have furthered my skills and knowledge to do this.  hippie taught me how to use the software, in person at his home in Portland which I traveled to twice.  BG has also shared some knowledge and feedback over the years that have helped me improve my efforts to this end.  The last lesson was the actual volume of the track itself, keeping things under a certain Db level to keep the sound and dynamics as much intact as possible.  That was the turning point for my final approach to getting this stuff right and having some sort of consistency throughout my remasters.

With the world going nutz and the USPS stopping to work properly after Thanksgiving, I shut down my store on Discogs and went back into my pile of rips.  So far since then and beginning in January I have ripped the Sade box, done four whole albums by individual track and and another two album sides of Allman Bros and some individual songs for a total of 52 individual tracks with about 1 man hour per track.  And put together a couple of mixtapes, too.  Then I have to squeeze in real world quality listening time to review my work, mostly while driving, which isn't as much these days.  Got to hear this stuff in other places besides the studio.

So now the USPS is up and running again, so I have to start ripping again just so I can keep my little store stocked.  I've gone through most of the good stuff and now have to go deep into stuff that I haven't played or heard in maybe 40 years in some cases.  Got to get into the mood for a lot of this stuff, so then it becomes more work than fun.  But again, I'm rediscovering the deep forgotten stuff in the process.

I've been ripping while composing this so I have plenty of time to occupy during the process.  That and this is my journal thread, too.  Notes for the future.

FWIW, of the few remaining fears in life that I still have, one of the biggest is the thought of having to buy a new cartridge.  If nothing else, besides rolling the dice on a new sound, it's at least 50 hours of wasted playing time just breaking in a new one.  I've got some back up carts, but ...  I'm sure that the one I'm using now is well into middle age and maybe another 500 hours left if I'm lucky.  If nothing else, Shibata's last the longest of any stylus type, up to 3,000 hours if you keep the vinyl clean and everything properly aligned. I really, really ♥ my AT Shibata's. 

https://www.discogs.com/user/kurts.ear.candy/collection?search=box+set
KurtfromLaQuinta

KurtfromLaQuinta Avatar

Location: Really deep in the heart of South California
Gender: Male


Posted: Jan 10, 2021 - 7:37pm



 kurtster wrote:
Been really busy being overwhelmed by life and everything else for far too long lately.  And letting things get by and slowly build up to must do situations.


 
Music is a drug...
I, too, am addicted.


rhahl

rhahl Avatar



Posted: Jan 10, 2021 - 9:27am

Check this out. Restoring old music.
 
 
and
 
https://mobile.twitter.com/dusttodigital
kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: Oct 19, 2020 - 9:36pm

Been really busy being overwhelmed by life and everything else for far too long lately.  And letting things get by and slowly build up to must do situations.

My music must deal with this now problem happened Saturday night when trying to save a 200 mb rip I got the message that this format was too large to save.  The partition size is 1.23 TB.  Alrighty then.  A time of reckoning.  Let it be known that every time I drop the needle, I hit record.  Let it also be known that for at least the past 15 years my turntable has been plugged into an ADC digital preamp with a USB out to a computer and the only actual analogue anything that I have heard since then is AM radio broadcasts.  Since I got my SL 1200, I must have acquired nearly 2 TB of wav files.  They are all grouped in files relating to a certain part of the progress of my improvements and tweaks.  In many of these folders are files of albums I no longer have and they are all I have left, regardless of how good they are.  Culling these folders and files for these files is a long term project, but dealing with a full partition is an immediate problem, especially since I must keep playing and ripping to keep my little store at Discogs with stuff in it.  That and I'm still getting new vinyl, mostly box sets and they have to be played immediately in order to see if they have defects and can be returned in time for refund or replacement.  I just went through two copies of the most recent Lennon Box with 8 sides each and each side played 3 times. 2 x 8 X 3 = 48 rips in real time, being forced to stay put and listen for defects on at least the first playing of each side.  With cleaning averaging 30 minutes per side there are nearly 2 man hours for every side that gets cleaned and ripped.  So these Lennon boxes have somewhere between 24 to 32 man hours involved.  Probably 28.  One is defective and must go back.  There is a huge problem with Side A on many pressings, which effectively ruins the set even if the other 7 sides are excellent, which they are.  It was pressed in the well known shit plant in the Czech Republic.  Got to open em up and play them.  Can't take a chance of having a crappy sealed copy kept as an investment.  And now I have to deal with returning the set and deciding to refund or replace.  The way this box set has been released a known good copy could double in price in a year or two.  Decisions, decisions, yeah a first world problem but this is what I do now to ride out the rest of my life.

So Sunday afternoon I decided to tackle the most recent rips and collate and delete copies of files of rips that have been superseded by a new and what is finally the last rip at the highest level I can get.  But being the digital pack rat that I am, I'm just letting go the metadata and extra rips of the same track.  I usually keep 3 copies of each album side, the second take / playback and the third and then a Work In Progress (WIP) version of the third rip that I use for click removal and editing.  Always keep a raw copy of what you are working with in case you fuck up or corrupt a file that you're working on so you can always start over.  Bytes are cheap.

The rest of Sunday until the wee hours of Monday morning was spent going through nearly everything in two folders, one about 300 GB and the new primary nearly 600 GB. And then I needed to defrag the partition and needed to get 15% free space in order to be able to do that. In the end I ended up with a 700 GB folder with 768 folders and 4,003 files.  I deleted about 200 GB of files and metadata going through every last file.  I was hitting shift and control so much that I had to get a pot holder to place under my left wrist to help me finish.  I was determined to get this done so I would not get into this mess again anytime soon.  I also need another 2 TB HD to replace my last 1TB which is getting up there in hours.  That would take me to 8 + TB.  And a separate 3TB NAS that I need to do more with.

So I got it done hitting defrag and going to bed and see what happened in the morning.  Now what I have in this folder is organized and someone who ended up with it after I was gone and could not explain what is in it could figure it out and make sense of it and realize that it just might be a treasure and worth keeping.  I do have a plan to distribute the best of  these album sides that I have finished so they do not end up in a dumpster.  I have found that 128 GB flash drives are not very expensive anymore.  Stay tuned ...
kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: Aug 6, 2020 - 2:42pm

 ColdMiser wrote:


 ScottFromWyoming wrote:


 I met someone over at discogs who also lives in Powell. Big into vinyl and preservation.
{#Cheers}If you had stopped with just that, there's no way it could be anyone but Dave! Actually, just "discogs" and he's the first one I thought of. You two would definitely get along.... And Grady (the guy who made the table) and his brother would get along. Both tinkerer/inventors. Not sure how Dave and his brother wound up so un-alike.
 
I'm on a few Vinyl Facebook pages that Dave Rose is VERY active on. His collection is mind boggling. He occasionally posts pictures of his listening digs. A converted 2 car garage that has library like storage complete with rolling ladders. He listed once the quantity of his stuff and it was pretty astounding, I forget the numbers. Cool to see him mentioned here in the RP forum.

 
He is pretty active on Discogs.  Nice guy and very helpful with the myriad of questions that pop up all the time.

He got the house and the records.  Not an easy thing to do. 

Probably has forgotten more than I will ever know regarding vinyl or music in general for that matter.
kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: Aug 6, 2020 - 11:48am

 kcar wrote:

Congrats on your recent good fortune! I hope it continues. I don't blame you for avoiding eBay: the few times I've used it have often led to disputes and sellers trying to rip me off...

Now, not everything between the two of us has to take a political turn but this bit from your post made me snort-chuckle:
CV 19 has turned this little world totally upside down with international shipping almost at a screeching halt. The USPS is one of the last somewhat functional postal services left on the planet. And it has suffered greatly too but limps along for better or worse.
Could you pass that thought on to Trump? 'Cause he's trying to break USPS.
 
Thank you.

We have been discussing the international postal crisis at length on Discogs since March and well before that actually as shipping rates are skyrocketing world wide.  I don't do politics over there although there are a few who try and start things there.

With the USPS, it's more of a manpower thing than anything else.  People keep getting sick and go out for weeks at a time, disrupting the system. I've learned about the various hubs and transfer points and at times some are all but shut down due to CV 19.  The funding is not that much of a problem, yet. There is also a lot of talk about privatizing the USPS but not much lately.

And now I must go to see my favorite mail lady at the PO and drop off two albums.  I always let her know what they are as she takes them in across the counter.  Last time she said, you sure have a lot of albums and I replied, yeah, I could have had a down payment for a house if I never bought all these albums. Today, it's Japanese pressings of BOC Agents of Fortune and Tommy.  Two of my recent rip and flips.
kcar

kcar Avatar



Posted: Aug 6, 2020 - 11:01am



 kurtster wrote:
Verlllly interwesting ...

My little record store thingy on Discogs is really starting to get busy.  My free time is being taken over by now having to rip and re rip in many cases and play grade my stuff to keep stuff in the store for sale.  I'm trying to catch up on stuff I've had listed for a long time now before someone buys it.  More than a couple of times in the past few weeks I've had to drop what I'm doing and go pull an album and knock it out so that it can leave the building and me having a rip that I can live with.  I still miss some that I sold before system improvements but, Oh well.  Seller's remorse.  It was hard to get to Oh well, but I'm getting better slowly. The new stabilizing ring mentioned below has helped with a new found enjoyment of the sound I'm getting which makes things more fun again.

The bonus part is that I have come up with a term called "rip and flip" where I state that I bought the album, cleaned it, ripped it and am reselling it at my break even price, which I am.  These are starting to move now, much to the wife's delight ... 

CV 19 has turned this little world totally upside down with international shipping almost at a screeching halt.  The USPS is one of the last somewhat functional postal services left on the planet.  And it has suffered greatly too but limps along for better or worse.  There are endless tales of packages taking 3 or 4 months to move from certain countries to other countries.  The lists of what country will not ship to which country are constantly being changed.  The international postal accord is falling apart with rumours of the USA withdrawing completely.  The tales coming from Canadian sellers just trying to do business in only Canada are having fits with all the variables including distances.  The UK to the EU and vice versa is now more fun, not, especially with the VAT's involved.  Fortunately for me, the USA is still a huge market, Media Mail is still reasonable and I have a lot of imported stuff that few have here stateside, so those are now moving.

It is keeping me busy and off the streets.  And I'm learning more about shipping than I ever wanted to learn.

Lastly and worsely, Discogs is going through some drastic changes that will take full effect October 1st when automatic shipping policies are required and Pay Pal will become the only acceptable form of payment.  There is a possible mass self delisting of small seller inventories in protest come the first of September which I plan to take part in.  It could be another fun while it lasted thing, because the changes are so short sighted and limiting with certain countries forbidding the use of Pay Pal and in the EU, it is forbidden to only accept one form of payment for online market places.

With that in mind, I'm going to be a ripping and listing fool to get it while I can !

and no, I don't want to go to E bay.

So iffen you're looking for any hard copies of music, act fast.  The good stuff will soon be gone for a very long time and may never be easily found again anytime soon.
 

Congrats on your recent good fortune! I hope it continues. I don't blame you for avoiding eBay: the few times I've used it have often led to disputes and sellers trying to rip me off...

Now, not everything between the two of us has to take a political turn but this bit from your post made me snort-chuckle:


CV 19 has turned this little world totally upside down with international shipping almost at a screeching halt. The USPS is one of the last somewhat functional postal services left on the planet. And it has suffered greatly too but limps along for better or worse.


Could you pass that thought on to Trump? 'Cause he's trying to break USPS.
ColdMiser

ColdMiser Avatar

Location: On the Trail
Gender: Male


Posted: Aug 6, 2020 - 7:13am



 ScottFromWyoming wrote:


 I met someone over at discogs who also lives in Powell. Big into vinyl and preservation.
{#Cheers}
If you had stopped with just that, there's no way it could be anyone but Dave! Actually, just "discogs" and he's the first one I thought of. You two would definitely get along.... And Grady (the guy who made the table) and his brother would get along. Both tinkerer/inventors. Not sure how Dave and his brother wound up so un-alike.
 
I'm on a few Vinyl Facebook pages that Dave Rose is VERY active on. His collection is mind boggling. He occasionally posts pictures of his listening digs. A converted 2 car garage that has library like storage complete with rolling ladders. He listed once the quantity of his stuff and it was pretty astounding, I forget the numbers. Cool to see him mentioned here in the RP forum.

kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: Aug 6, 2020 - 1:21am

Verlllly interwesting ...

My little record store thingy on Discogs is really starting to get busy.  My free time is being taken over by now having to rip and re rip in many cases and play grade my stuff to keep stuff in the store for sale.  I'm trying to catch up on stuff I've had listed for a long time now before someone buys it.  More than a couple of times in the past few weeks I've had to drop what I'm doing and go pull an album and knock it out so that it can leave the building and me having a rip that I can live with.  I still miss some that I sold before system improvements but, Oh well.  Seller's remorse.  It was hard to get to Oh well, but I'm getting better slowly. The new stabilizing ring mentioned below has helped with a new found enjoyment of the sound I'm getting which makes things more fun again.

The bonus part is that I have come up with a term called "rip and flip" where I state that I bought the album, cleaned it, ripped it and am reselling it at my break even price, which I am.  These are starting to move now, much to the wife's delight ... 

CV 19 has turned this little world totally upside down with international shipping almost at a screeching halt.  The USPS is one of the last somewhat functional postal services left on the planet.  And it has suffered greatly too but limps along for better or worse.  There are endless tales of packages taking 3 or 4 months to move from certain countries to other countries.  The lists of what country will not ship to which country are constantly being changed.  The international postal accord is falling apart with rumours of the USA withdrawing completely.  The tales coming from Canadian sellers just trying to do business in only Canada are having fits with all the variables including distances.  The UK to the EU and vice versa is now more fun, not, especially with the VAT's involved.  Fortunately for me, the USA is still a huge market, Media Mail is still reasonable and I have a lot of imported stuff that few have here stateside, so those are now moving.

It is keeping me busy and off the streets.  And I'm learning more about shipping than I ever wanted to learn.

Lastly and worsely, Discogs is going through some drastic changes that will take full effect October 1st when automatic shipping policies are required and Pay Pal will become the only acceptable form of payment.  There is a possible mass self delisting of small seller inventories in protest come the first of September which I plan to take part in.  It could be another fun while it lasted thing, because the changes are so short sighted and limiting with certain countries forbidding the use of Pay Pal and in the EU, it is forbidden to only accept one form of payment for online market places.

With that in mind, I'm going to be a ripping and listing fool to get it while I can !

and no, I don't want to go to E bay.

So iffen you're looking for any hard copies of music, act fast.  The good stuff will soon be gone for a very long time and may never be easily found again anytime soon.
ScottFromWyoming

ScottFromWyoming Avatar

Location: Powell
Gender: Male


Posted: Jul 15, 2020 - 12:54pm



 I met someone over at discogs who also lives in Powell. Big into vinyl and preservation.
{#Cheers}
If you had stopped with just that, there's no way it could be anyone but Dave! Actually, just "discogs" and he's the first one I thought of. You two would definitely get along.... And Grady (the guy who made the table) and his brother would get along. Both tinkerer/inventors. Not sure how Dave and his brother wound up so un-alike.
kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: Jul 15, 2020 - 1:19am

 ScottFromWyoming wrote:


 buddy wrote:


 kurtster wrote:
The journey continues.  
 
If you go before I do, I want all your stuff.   

 

My friends just posted this:

May be skipping a lot in 2020 but not skipping records! Watching Vinyl Nation on April 18th, I was determined to listen to more vinyl, starting with The Spinners. Challenge: Breathing while playing records causes everything to jiggle in our place. The Grady Turntable project was born and, just over 6 weeks later, a 128 lb table was bolted to the wall. The inaugural spin, John Doe's "The Golden State" from A Year in the Wilderness.

The project included: Steel, Teflon, titanium, and Sorbothane, plus a new stereo cabinet, new capacitors, cartridge, and feet for the Harman Kardon plus cleaning all switches and contacts, and a new pre-amp.

========================

She shared 45 photos and videos of the project on Facebook but it's a private post. I told her to throw it on her personal website (which is probably actually more private), so we'll see. He custom-built everything, maybe including the feet for the turntable, I'm not sure but I think so.

 

 
That sounds pretty interesting.  Always fun to see how determined people go about solving audio problems.  But the reward for success is worth all the effort.  Ear candy is its own reward.

obtw, I met someone over at discogs who also lives in Powell.  Big into vinyl and preservation.  Says he knows you.  His last name is Rose.  I told him to say kurtster says hello the next time he see's you.  I predicted that you might say something like sorry to hear that in a tongue in cheek way.  {#Wink}  Anyway, it's a small world getting smaller all the time.
{#Cheers}
ScottFromWyoming

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Location: Powell
Gender: Male


Posted: Jul 14, 2020 - 11:25pm



 buddy wrote:


 kurtster wrote:
The journey continues.  


 
If you go before I do, I want all your stuff.   


 

My friends just posted this:

May be skipping a lot in 2020 but not skipping records! Watching Vinyl Nation on April 18th, I was determined to listen to more vinyl, starting with The Spinners. Challenge: Breathing while playing records causes everything to jiggle in our place. The Grady Turntable project was born and, just over 6 weeks later, a 128 lb table was bolted to the wall. The inaugural spin, John Doe's "The Golden State" from A Year in the Wilderness.

The project included: Steel, Teflon, titanium, and Sorbothane, plus a new stereo cabinet, new capacitors, cartridge, and feet for the Harman Kardon plus cleaning all switches and contacts, and a new pre-amp.

========================

She shared 45 photos and videos of the project on Facebook but it's a private post. I told her to throw it on her personal website (which is probably actually more private), so we'll see. He custom-built everything, maybe including the feet for the turntable, I'm not sure but I think so.


kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: Jul 14, 2020 - 10:46pm

 buddy wrote:


 kurtster wrote:
The journey continues.  
 
If you go before I do, I want all your stuff.   

 
You now have first dibs. 

{#Angel}
kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: Jul 14, 2020 - 7:59am

The journey continues.  One more moving part added into the playback food chain.  A weighted outer ring for placing on an LP to really flatten it out and really tightly couple it to the turntable platter and remove measurable noise.  

The science behind it.  The Universal Record Stabilizing Ring

The one in the video below just became available since January of this year.  The one referenced above has been unavailable for many years.  I just learned of it about 3 months ago on the VPI support forum.  The has been nothing like this for the mid end turntables of different designs other than the ring in the article basically ever.

I've had it now for a couple of months and it does work as advertised.  So the process begins again, but this will be the last time, unless something breaks.  This is a real good thing because my albums are starting to sell now on a regular basis.  They're gone, they're gone.  On the plus side, I'm finally selling more than I'm buying so now all the ripping and listening is part of an actual purpose.  Can't list them unless they're play graded and properly ripped.

This bug has given me the ideal opportunity to spend my time playing music and doing what I do with it.  Little else to do.  And it seems that vinyl sales have picked up as well with all the downtime people are having to occupy.  It's nice when a plan comes together and actually works.  The work part comes where I have to set aside a 3 hour block for each single album.  Once started it goes until its done, no breaks.  Fortunately also is that I seemed have gotten whatever it is that makes listening to music (at least digital) so fatiguing after long listening spells, gone.  It ain't easy listening to a side 3 times in a row, even music you like.  And it is hard, critical listening for pops and ticks and anything else that should not be heard.  But the process is what it is and the result is worth the effort, imho.

The process has become a little more dangerous with the addition of this ring, however.  Operation of this device under certain medications should not be attempted.  The effer weighs nearly 3 pounds and is turned steel with hard edges.  You can see in the video where installing it is a very delicate operation.  Even an untimely sneeze could bring tears.


A little review I wrote about it over at discogs ...

So I pulled the trigger and got one for my SL 1200. So far, very good. The improvement in sound is rather dramatic actually. Played Sgt Pepper's 50th, a 1st press of Talking Heads Remain In Light, The Doors Strange Days 2 X 12" @45 rpm, a warped 1st pressing of 461 Ocean Blvd, a copy of FM Future Games and finally the UK stereo 1st press of Disraeli Gears. The most noticeable improvement came with the older vinyl. The Talking Heads LP, very complex musically was now stunning. I looked at the wav files of a with and without rip, everything else being the same settings and noticed an increase in the amplitude / height of the wav off of the null point for very soft quiet parts from the Sgt Pepper LP. Not a lot but easily visually noticeable. So there is definitely a signal improvement with the improved fidelity. The music sounds very natural now. The more I tweaked the TT, while more accurate the sound was getting harsher. The ring put everything in a much more enjoyable place.

Didn't like to sit on Sgt Pepper, but everything else including the Doors was fine. Centering device works great. It is the newest rectangular one.

Now a week and a half later and a few more albums.

It has taken some getting used to using it and also the sound. The VTA is even more critical now. .25 mm in a height change can be a game changer on some pressings, mostly 70's and 80's so far. I see what it does watching the tonearm. It generally is motionless now. The vinyl is flat taking away almost all vertical movement and lateral movement is now more dependent on a pressing be slightly off center than anything else. I'm using a high compliance AT MM Shibata cart, so woo hoo !!

The music is smoothed out considerably and the soundstage is better placed with a more even center now. The album that put this over the top is Todd's AWATS. I've got a barely played 1st and the change and improvement is breath taking having ripped it about a month earlier without the ring. The bass now has punch at low volume and the high frequencies are really clear. The high frequencies are tough on this album. (I was getting real signal at above 22 khz on both Todd albums.  CD's cut off at 20 khz fwiw)
...
Yeah, a lot of already ripped albums are gonna go one more round. I think this takes an SL 1200 as far as it can go, so this will really be the last time ...

The website if anyone is interested.  Universal Turntable Periphery Stabilizing Outer Ring Clamp SS- T

kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: May 30, 2020 - 6:06am

 miamizsun wrote:


thx going to give it a whirl in a bit

{#Music}
 
You're welcome.  This is a great one.  Had signal @ 22 khz on Side 1 and @19 khz on Side 2.  It is there, not distortion.  My cart is rated to 45 khz.  This for me was like hearing Sgt Pepper on a CD for the first time.  Parts of this were almost a religious experience.  I could hear the piano keys tinkle at times.  I am tempted to break out the headphones for this even if it means being anchored to the chair for an hour.

Edit:  And I did put on the cans and gave it a listen.  Yeppers, it does work.  Always nervous to listen to vinyl on headphones because it is just too revealing.  This worked rather nicely even with the couple of things that slipped through the cracks.  Then compared this rip to a pre loudness war CD rip.  The vinyl has more going on, more detail, better depth.  Was very nice to find out.
{#Cheers}
miamizsun

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Location: (3283.1 Miles SE of RP)
Gender: Male


Posted: May 30, 2020 - 5:02am

 kurtster wrote:

bumpity
 

thx going to give it a whirl in a bit

{#Music}
kurtster

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Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: May 29, 2020 - 5:52pm

 rgio wrote:
Thanks for taking the time to share and explain.

I can totally appreciate your relationship with the music, your collection, a residual (or dividend), and the ability to downsize.

I'm too lazy.  I used to make a ton of mixed tapes, but now it just feels like work.  I love the flexibility I get from streaming and my home wireless setup...accepting the limitations of the sound (which is really good...but not album good).

Thanks again for sharing!
 
You're welcome.  It is a lot like work most of the time.  It is something that I have to do and since it is done in real time by playing the album, getting everything done properly keeps that time to a minimum.  It keeps me off the streets and a little something in the pocket now that I am selling more than I am buying.  The wife was most happy to hear about that news.
rgio

rgio Avatar

Location: West Jersey
Gender: Male


Posted: May 29, 2020 - 5:43pm



 kurtster wrote:
Been doing it in one form or another for nearly 50 years for mixtapes or just whole album sides to listen on the road. The files I put up are
the same ones that I will be listening to from hereon in. Now it is  also part of downsizing. The record can then be sold or just put away as
a master recording source if ever needed again for some reason. I am trying to sell them off and the files are what I will have when the
record itself is gone. I also make the rips available for prospective customers to hear before buying to make sure that they hear what the
actual noise or issues a particular piece of vinyl may have so I don't end up with upset buyers. Do you remember listening booths in record
stores ? So it also a sales tool.

I just happen to like to do it and the results are the dividend. That and I have plenty to work with.
 
Thanks for taking the time to share and explain.

I can totally appreciate your relationship with the music, your collection, a residual (or dividend), and the ability to downsize.

I'm too lazy.  I used to make a ton of mixed tapes, but now it just feels like work.  I love the flexibility I get from streaming and my home wireless setup...accepting the limitations of the sound (which is really good...but not album good).

Thanks again for sharing!
kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: May 29, 2020 - 5:31pm

 rgio wrote:


 kurtster wrote:
rgio wrote:
What am I missing?
  
AWATS 

Because CLICKY 
 
Sorry Kurt.....I don't follow

I appreciate the link and the music....but given the storage requirements and time involved...why?  Is there a quality issue I can't appreciate on my end?

 
Sorry, it was suggested I keep my reply brief.

I thought that listening to them would speak for itself as far as why being they are of fairly decent sound to listen to.

Hmmm.  Storage requirements ?  Yeah, they are big files.  Much bigger than mp3's.  Still dl's quickly.  Is storage space a major concern you have about digital music ?  I have several terabytes of music. 

The whole point of ripping for me is to capture a playback under the best possible circumstances and play back the rip, never having to play the record again.  Repair and restore the music itself as needed.  As my process has evolved and equipment upgraded and things going astray, I end up re ripping some of them.  The process is now set and this should be the last time for each album now.  Barring normal wear and tear and ooops when those happen.

Been doing it in one form or another for nearly 50 years for mixtapes or just whole album sides to listen on the road.  The files I put up are the same ones that I will be listening to from hereon in.  Now it is also part of downsizing. The record can then be sold or just put away as a master recording source if ever needed again for some reason.  I am trying to sell them off and the files are what I will have when the record itself is gone.  I also make the rips available for prospective customers to hear before buying to make sure that they hear what the actual noise or issues a particular piece of vinyl may have so I don't end up with upset buyers.  Do you remember listening booths in record stores ?  So it also a sales tool.

I just happen to like to do it and the results are the dividend.  That and I have plenty to work with.
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