G'day maties, we're having a very warmish x'mas and cheers to all for the season!
Today it was a nice 38C in Melbourne (that's about 100F in the US). Way too hot to listen to music, let alone tubes adding to the heat...
Nice topic I must say, and something I've been wondering about a lot lately; new releases are not at all great compared to older ones. Also to me, or at least on my analog rig, the older ones sound far more musical or at least more pleasant to listen to. Quite a number of new LP's that I do have from ECM, Music On Vinyl, Prestige, Blue Note and MoFi have been pretty good. Although not labelled as reference recordings, rather heavy weights from 180g to 200g. I must say that for me spending large sums on so called "ref quality records" are not justified compared to older pressings. Some are dead silent and have wonderful tones, they not only sound better but seem to be far more natural, there's something captivating about the recording & just plain vinyl!
One of my dealer mates, who also happens to be a TT and LP guru, advised to wash new LP's with a tiny bit of dish washing liquid and leave to dry on a tea towel! Stated that he has noticed some sort of powder being sprayed on new LP's before packing (anti-fungus or some sorts). This powder build up was always accumulating on the Ortofon 2M Black stylus, which I had to continuously send across for cleaning. He would look closely at the stylus with his magnifying tool, and wonder where on earth I was buying my LP's from...
I did wash one or two new ones, and found this build up of powder to go away, it was as if something had been sprayed on the surface of both sides. One LP was from Liz Wright and the other was Esperanza Spalding, now both of them sound great and no build up on the stylus either. However, I don't think this was due to powder build up or anything but rather VERY dirty LP's bought from a second hand shop, which now I don't go to! I used a magnifying tool to have a closer look and noticed at once all the gunk in those older LP's! That was the problem, and so I started cleaning these ones at least.
The washing and drying was also cumbersome and I wasn't too sure about using Fairy liquid either. For new LP's just a quick clean with recommended cleaning solutions, sorted out that build up problem. I also use an Ortofon 2M Blue instead on the first play. This sort of clears out any unwanted bits if at all, and on the second play I place back the 2M Black.
So far, nearly all my LP's are alive and sounding well, and now I'm very careful where and what labels to look for.
I never knew this was such an issue until I experienced these new pressings and found older LP's to be completely different, specially in tonality. I also noticed the MoFi Labels are very much lower in output compared to the many well established labels that I have. For some reason, I have to turn up the level quite a bit to get a good presence of realism. I'm not too sure if others experience this? It has also somewhat put me off into buying MoFi, although I must admit they do sound superb!
Ah! Digital, no worries there whatsoever, just pop in a CD/SACD and hit play, and tunes start! (definitely a different level of musicality compared to LP's, as I am now enjoying both LP's and CD's). Sometimes I wish for those pops & clicks to just vanish on LP's, and then again sometimes I wish for those digital recordings to have that extra extension & vibrancy in tonality... some have it and some definitely don't.
I must say interesting read on other posts, it certainly gave me more insight as to choose more wisely for good labels. Thanks and Cheers to 2016, and we shall welcome in 2017!
Big woof, RJ