As I become more wise with the passing years, I realize that things that were old are actually better than things that are new. Case in point: Turntables and Records.
In our pursuit for all things new and perceived as better, we're quick to move away from the tried and true and for the most part, never seem to look back. Well I decided it was time to go back 30 to 35 years ago and try something I thought was over the hill and I was very pleasantly surprised.
With music, I feel we're trying to get as close as we can to hearing music being played live and in person. A recording of that performance is also trying to convey the performance as true as possible and our equipment should be designed to fulfil this need. Over the years we've gone from simple operation and playback to things that are far too complicated, require constant tweaking and then for no apparent reason, a setting changes and nothing works and it takes hours to figure it out and get it working again.
So I decided to re-enter the world of analogue audio and purchased a Clearaudio Performance DC Turntable, with a Magnify Tonearm, Talismann V2 Gold Cartridge and run it through the Bryston BP1.5 Phono Stage. Well I cannot be happier with the results and upon first hearing this setup, I at first noticed a tremendous ease with a removal of the tension you feel from digital based music. It has a warm relaxed sound that is much more real and natural sounding and is much easier to sit and listen to for extended periods at a time, where digital gets tiring after too long.
I liken the experience to a sine wave, where sound is meant to be a smooth wave with changing wavelength and amplitude. This is how sound in nature and live music is conveyed and this is what we're trying to capture in our listening experience. Digital on the other hand, I liken to a square wave of either on or off and all of the effort and energy we put into finding the right equipment is basically taking this square wave and trying to smooth out the corners to give us back a smooth sine wave. No matter how hard you try to smooth out a square wave, you'll never get back the original wave and you'll be left with that something missing that your ears and brain can detect. Then you have compressed digital music that is missing information on top of trying to smooth out a square wave and that really messes with our brains ability to process what it is hearing...
So I'm no expert on sound waves or how the electronics do what they do, but I can certainly hear the difference in analogue audio and I'm sold and happy to be back. I even pulled out some of my records from when I was a teenager that had been in storage in my basement for 30 years, gave them a clean (also bought a VPI HW-17 record cleaner to go with) and they also sound incredibly good and far better than I remember them.
Anyways, if you want convenience and to put music on and walk away and keep it playing, then digital music fits the bill nicely. But if you want the real thing and you're prepared to clean your records and care for them, sit in your listening position and get up every 20 minutes to turn it over or change the record, then I can say that you'll be very pleased with the results.
Wayne.
