pine weasel

Springsteen Unplugged please, Jon Cheers

They're not hippos, they are sophisticated resonance control devices, and can also double as cable lifters..

This is my little slice of vinyl heaven When it's done right, with the right gear, set up properly, and with the right records, vinyl sounds better to my ears than the best digital that I've heard. And it's more fun! It does, however, take more time and effort , and is dependent on the quality and condition of the the record.

Arrived today and listening now. The Esher demos, just amazing. I wasn't a huge fan of this album until I listened to these versions.

This was from a previous thread involving the PLX1000 I was a very happy owner of a Clearaudio Concept( the MC version) - no issues at all for the 4 years that I was using it.

I'm sorry I missed seeing this. Can I please be next in line if the sale falls through? Cheers

Is this something you've noticed just with the 1 CD? It may be worth listening to a range of music, both on CD and Vinyl, to work out if this is a general issue with your vinyl setup, or something specific to that recording, before you look at making any changes. People have already made some very good points in this thread. CD, done properly, can and should sound very good. Despite having a much better TT than than my CD player, I still find CDs that sound better to me than the equivalent vinyl recording does. This used to bother me, but after discussing this with a number of vinyl gurus, they all told me they've experienced the same thing, and that their vinyl playback systems will sound better 90-95% of the time, but some particular recordings/pressings/etc just don't work with their cartridge/arm/TT/phono stage combination and are nicer to listen to on CD

@Sir Sanders Zingmore I had similar feedback issues with a Clearaudio concept TT on a wooden cabinet. Placing the TT on a platform made with a Stone/slate paver on a bicycle inner tube did the trick - cheap and easy.

Sorry, My fault! I think I edited my post to mention what I'd heard at VAF before I read your reply.

I was wondering if someone here on SNA has any experience/thoughts on the Soundsmith range of cartridges? Having heard the Soundsmith Strain Gauge system at the recent Hi-Fi show , as well as some others at the VAF Turntable night, I'm tempted to venture in that direction. Probably not the Strain Gauge, as I already have a decent phono stage, but maybe something else in the range. Cheers

Welcome to the dark side.

Can I take these please?

A big thanks to Marc and his team for organising a great show, and also to all the exhibitors who were involved. It obviously takes a lot of time, effort and money to set up and demonstrate gear, everyone wants to get their rooms and equipment sounding as good as possible. I was only able to make to over to Melbourne for the day on Saturday, so unfortunately couldn't attend the dinner on sat night. At the show, I managed to catch up with few SNAers I hadn't seen for a while. For me, the 2 best sounding rooms were the SGR room with their flagship active system, and the Kharma/Soundsmith room. Stuart and his team from SGR got that room sounding very very good, but I would have liked to have heard it with the Brinkmann gear that they stock. The Kharma room with the analogue front end was sublime. I think the magic was in the Soundsmith Straingauge cartridge, as it there was definitely something lacking when they switched to the digital front end ( ? Chord Dave?) I think my family would notice if the big SGRs turned up at home, but I could probably slip the Straingauge into my system discretely! The other place I spent a fair bit of time was the Telos B&W/Dohman demo near the foyer. While the space wasn't ideal, the music selection was fun. The SGR and Kharma rooms made me wanted to just sit and listen to music. The Telos demo made want to listen to music and drink beer! The VAF room was my pick for "real world" hifi. A couple of their inexpensive systems sounded very good for the price , and did make you realise just how much "diminishing returns " kicks in with this hobby. It was great to see them showing a number of different TT based systems, some of which had the less expensive Soundsmith cartridges. I wished the Dutch and Dutch system, as well as the Huglich/Holton gear, were set up in bigger spaces, as I felt the rooms were too small and overwhelmed by the sound. There was a lot there to like, but with more space, I imagine they would sound even better. It's fascinating to read the feedback in this thread so far, as we seem to have quite different tastes how we prefer music to be presented. I wonder how much of that is due to what/how we listen to at home, which we become accustomed to as "normal" I'm used to a reasonably large room, and I dont listen at overly high volumes, so I guess thats the sound/presentation I gravitate to. Finally, I picked up some goodies at the record fair Overall, a very fun day.

Why not let the exhibitors who wish to, put up a schedule of what they'll be playing at a particular time ; by genre, or even by particular albums/artists, etc, ie: 9-9:30 Audiophile "coma" jazz 10:00-10:30 Beatles, Stones 11-11:30 Classical - Wagner Operas, Beethoven Symphonies 12-12:30 Metal 1:00-1:30 BYO- each person in the room gets to pick 1 track from tidal/spotify/etc, or from their own CD, vinyl, etc Free sessions would provide time to discuss the equipment, answer questions, etc, and This could posted up on the door of each room, or on the Show Website, so people could plan their visit to each room based on what they want to listen to, or what they want to avoid. If it was on the website, the exhibitors could schedule sessions to avoid clashes, and this could be tweaked as the show went on as some musical sessions will obviously be more popular and well attended than others.