Wouldn't have been a problem if the music labels hadn't sabotaged (deliberately, I believe) the introduction of SACD and high-resolution PCM discs. To add insult to injury, most proper high-res downloads from legit retailers have been withdrawn from the market in the last few years and replaced with much lower bit-rate versions (typically 24-bit/48kHz, though some are basically CD downloads - 16-bit/44kHz), usually now infected with dynamic compression if it didn't have any before (see "loudness wars" for info on that). I really wanted a set of the 24-bit/192kHz Rolling Stones downloads (for but one example) but they got pulled before I could buy.
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If Apple Designed a Turntable, This Is Probably What It Would Look Like
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I think your recall of the 1980's is a blur...I think the blocks around the turntable you hazily recall are the turntable strobe platter...I barely recall as well as I stopped my turntable days and moved to cd discs in the early 1980's....
God thats ugly, my old Roksan Radius from 1996 looks better than that.
Roksan Radius 2-Speed Belt-Drive Turntable Manual | Vinyl Engine
Found on Google from vinylengine.com
www.google.com
So,so funny. Ive designed the hinges and the speed control knob. Well thats going to improve sound quality then... I think knob end more like.
It’d be a technics sl 1000 r , arguably the best turntable ever made , direct drive and built like a tank
There's a reason why the majority of top end decks are belt driven rather than direct drive
There a reason recording studios and radio stations don’t use belt drive tooThere's a reason why the majority of top end decks are belt driven rather than direct drive
Records are actually cut on a direct drive tangential arm lathe , certainly not belt drive 😂
If we’re talking about the SP-10R at the heart of the SL-1000, then yes, I would agree. It’s definitely my first choice in the world of cost-no-object audio. Even then, I have my own list of improvements to be made, however small
Ivor teiefenbrun was interviewed a few years ago and said if he was making the lp12 now he’d go for a direct drive over belt
Most companies use belt as it’s easy and cheap , simple as that
Most companies use belt as it’s easy and cheap , simple as that
The reason is money. Most of the high-end manufacturers are very small boutique companies producing devices in very small quantities using excellent design/machining techniques but with mostly off the shelf electronic components - good ones, yes, but off the shelf. Motors for instance, none of these companies are winding their own.There's a reason why the majority of top end decks are belt driven rather than direct drive
DD requires a more bespoke design than these companies can account for, so it’s inherently more complicated than “hey let’s tie this thing to that thing with a piece of rubber so they both spin”
Matsushita is a multi-billion dollar mega corporation with decades of advanced electronics R&D under their belt, so an advanced direct drive system was not such a fantastic undertaking for them.
Not to say there aren’t amazing belt drives out there too, it’s all about the implementation rather than the basic technology at play.
Direct drive motors such as the Technics SP02 are commonly used in advanced cutting lathes today for their high torque and excellent speed stability.
I don't think rich people would buy this at that price! J Paul Getty used to be the richest man in the world back in the 60's. His car of choice back then was a 1963 Ford Galaxie. And drove himself. Really rich people didn't get rich by buying umber expensive stuff. Only a wannabe would waste money on something like this.
What is linking this video supposed to prove exactly? It certainly doesn’t answer what I asked of you.
Is pointing to the MoFi debacle supposed to be some kind of poorly thought out “gotcha”?
You’re only preaching to the choir, I’ve been saying for a decade at this point that Mobile Fidelity’s releases took a dramatic downturn in SQ and have straight up sounded bad for years… now we know why.
Thankfully, they’ll be paying for their transgressions. Specifically, they’ll be paying me, thanks to the class action lawsuit. There is still justice in the world.
So again, I ask you, exactly what is this CD that puts the equivalent “cheapo plastic” “sucks ass” LP to shame?
It’s the claim you made, but you can’t provide one example? I want to hear it, my wallet is open, which one do I buy? I’m still waiting.
It was correctly pointed out to me that Ive's company only designed what turned out to be small parts on the turntable, the hinges and a button. So that makes it what? probably less that 2% of the machines overall design. Anyone know who the actual designer of the turntable is?
I'd say it would look more like an B&O Beogram record player. TX2, 4000c or 8008 comes to mind.
This is just a fancy LP12 (probably with all the posible addons).
This is just a fancy LP12 (probably with all the posible addons).
It's *ahem* complicated. Wiki can explain it better than me.
The Sondek LP12 turntable, introduced in 1972, uses a suspended sub-chassis design and a patented tightly toleranced single-point bearing.
The LP12 has evolved since its introduction, but its basic suspended sub-chassis design has remained. The design was identical to the Ariston RD11 and similar to the Thorens TD150, both in turn based on the Acoustic Research XA turntable that was launched in 1961. The XA was created by renowned audio pioneer Edgar Villchur.
The similarities between the LP12 and the Ariston RD11 resulted in a patent case: Ariston vs. Linn. The patent was opposed on various grounds, including that 'what was being claimed as new, was in fact old', and that the idea was 'lacking in inventive step' over what was already known. Further grounds of opposition were that the invention had been 'obtained' from Hamish Robertson, and was his original idea rather than that of Jack Tiefenbrun. Jack Tiefenbrun had formed Castle Precision Engineering (Glasgow) Ltd some 15 years earlier. Hamish Robertson had a company called Thermac in 1967, which became Ariston in 1970, and Ariston Audio in 1973. In 1970 Jack's son Ivor formed a friendship with Hamish. In 1971 Ivor made a prototype turntable with a ball bearing, and then went to Israel. While Ivor was away, Hamish changed the ball bearing to a single point bearing. Robertson's company Thermac then ordered forty of the turntables from Castle Precision Engineering Ltd. In 1971, and now operating as Ariston, Hamish showed the turntable under the model name RD11 at the Harrogate show, and set up a distribution network with C. J. Walker and Company. By the end of 1972 relations between Robertson and the Tiefenbruns had broken down. This allegedly led to a threat to Robertson that a copyright action would be brought against him if he had the RD11 turntable made elsewhere than at Castle Precision Engineering. In February 1973 Linn Products Ltd was formed to sell turntables made by Castle Precision Engineering. Robertson left Ariston, which by now had been taken over by Dunlop Westayr Ltd, and became director Fergus Fons Ltd.
Linn Sondek LP12 - Wikipedia
Look up the definition of a master recording and then look at all the flaws and issues and limitations one can have with vinyl. There are master recordings of every album/song. How many absolutely perfectly pressed vinyl albums are there and who keeps them in a dust-free clean room? It's a silly to say that vinyl is equal to a master recording.
People who spend hundreds of thousands on their system and listening room keep their records in as dust free an environment as possible.
The bill from the hospital from cardiac arrest when people see the price is probably another 60 thousand dollars.
As someone who loves audio equipment, here's some information for those who posted here.
$60,000 for a turntable in the hi-fi world is considered a mid-price point nowadays. You can easily spend over $100,000 on a turntable and there are several choices above that price point. Whether it is right or wrong, too expensive or not, someone is buying these things or no one would be making them.
The original Linn Sondeck LP 12 from 50 years ago does not look that much different than this one. Some of the materials are different and there are other subtle changes but most turntables have this basic look. Whether you like it or not, the important thing is does it sound good and this design works.
Yes, it is spinning a vinyl disk which seems so primitive, but digital audio has its own issues and is not perfect. If you've heard a really good turntable and compared it to a digital version (preferably a DSD or hi end FLAC file} of the same song, sometimes the digital might sound a little better, and other times the vinyl disk might sound better but it is a close call most of the time. Often it is a matter of preference and for those who are willing to spend this kind of money it is obvious what their preference is.
Beyond that, what is interesting is there must be more to this story. Some critical thinking on this subject makes me wonder how involved Ive was. It had to be a very collaborative affair as a turntable is mostly a mechanical device that has to do a few things very well. 1. It has to create no vibration of its own which would get transferred to the loud speakers. All the materials, the bearings, the tone arm have to be used in a way as to not add in vibrations. 2. It has to isolate any vibration in the room which mostly will come from the loudspeakers. If that boom boom boom of the drums vibrates the turntable that will end up as feedback into the system and will sound horrible. 3. It has to maintain a very precise spinning speed. There are many ways to do that but it is not as easy as it sounds and the blocks that were mentioned that keep a light in the same place is a poor way to achieve that. No turntable over $15,000 has those lights because they only highlight a problem, they do nothing to solve it. 3. The cartridge needs to get as much information out of the groove as possible. It needs to be light so it can move quickly to track the groove which is usually why moving coil cartridges are better...the needle is lighter. There's more to it than that but suffice it to say you can spend well over $10,000 on the best cartridges. Again, not me to judge that price point.
I doubt Joey Ive is the kind of mechanical engineer to do this on his own. So during the design process there probably was collaboration with the people who could say whether this material or that will work or won't, or this design approach has more sonic problems with it than it solves. Etc. So to say Joey Ive deigned this turntable is really a bit disingenuous. The fact it looks so much like all the other Sondeck's tells me he tweaked an already great design and that is that.
My turntable is a Rega P7 with the Ania Pro cartridge. That was the right choice for me.
$60,000 for a turntable in the hi-fi world is considered a mid-price point nowadays. You can easily spend over $100,000 on a turntable and there are several choices above that price point. Whether it is right or wrong, too expensive or not, someone is buying these things or no one would be making them.
The original Linn Sondeck LP 12 from 50 years ago does not look that much different than this one. Some of the materials are different and there are other subtle changes but most turntables have this basic look. Whether you like it or not, the important thing is does it sound good and this design works.
Yes, it is spinning a vinyl disk which seems so primitive, but digital audio has its own issues and is not perfect. If you've heard a really good turntable and compared it to a digital version (preferably a DSD or hi end FLAC file} of the same song, sometimes the digital might sound a little better, and other times the vinyl disk might sound better but it is a close call most of the time. Often it is a matter of preference and for those who are willing to spend this kind of money it is obvious what their preference is.
Beyond that, what is interesting is there must be more to this story. Some critical thinking on this subject makes me wonder how involved Ive was. It had to be a very collaborative affair as a turntable is mostly a mechanical device that has to do a few things very well. 1. It has to create no vibration of its own which would get transferred to the loud speakers. All the materials, the bearings, the tone arm have to be used in a way as to not add in vibrations. 2. It has to isolate any vibration in the room which mostly will come from the loudspeakers. If that boom boom boom of the drums vibrates the turntable that will end up as feedback into the system and will sound horrible. 3. It has to maintain a very precise spinning speed. There are many ways to do that but it is not as easy as it sounds and the blocks that were mentioned that keep a light in the same place is a poor way to achieve that. No turntable over $15,000 has those lights because they only highlight a problem, they do nothing to solve it. 3. The cartridge needs to get as much information out of the groove as possible. It needs to be light so it can move quickly to track the groove which is usually why moving coil cartridges are better...the needle is lighter. There's more to it than that but suffice it to say you can spend well over $10,000 on the best cartridges. Again, not me to judge that price point.
I doubt Joey Ive is the kind of mechanical engineer to do this on his own. So during the design process there probably was collaboration with the people who could say whether this material or that will work or won't, or this design approach has more sonic problems with it than it solves. Etc. So to say Joey Ive deigned this turntable is really a bit disingenuous. The fact it looks so much like all the other Sondeck's tells me he tweaked an already great design and that is that.
My turntable is a Rega P7 with the Ania Pro cartridge. That was the right choice for me.
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I don't want to get into a long, back and forth about something that is relatively low on the pecking order of worldly-importance, but I'll rattle off a few things really quickly.
How is lossless streaming better than vinyl records?
No inner grove distortion, doesn't lose fidelity with each play, no ticks and pops, no wow and flutter, no need to clean before and after each play, no need for physical space to store it, higher fidelity playback, can be enjoyed at home via nice stereo system, while jogging, while in your car, while at work, while at a sports game, or even at a funeral (God only knows why you'd want to do that, but yeah) etc, can allow you to easily jump between songs, offers the ability to create playlists, no need to get up and flip the record over when its half finished, can store as many songs as you want on a record without the risk of the album sounding bad due to inherent limitations in the geometry of an LP, no need to buy new styluses when they wear down, no need to buy expensive turntables, infinitely cheaper... and on, and on... and on.
As of a month ago, I was in the other camp, so I'm certainly not claiming some sort of superiority. But my eyes have been opened. There's a reason the world moved on from vinyl records, and it wasn't marketing, or even just straight up convenience like a lot of us think. It's because it is superior to stream your music. Not perfect. Nothing is. But clearly, as you can see, its positives far outweigh any negatives you can come up with. For every one thing streaming doesn't do well compared to physical albums, there is at least twenty things that it does. So clinging on to the past in this regard really makes no logical sense at all. Actually, clinging on to the past never makes sense. It's the past. It's gone.
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If you read the article linked, you’ll see all he (and his company) designed was the hinges and the switch. Nothing more.
This news item is incredibly misleading.