|
Home
/ FAQ
/ News Classifieds / Events |
Audio Asylum Thread Printer |
Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
67.72.98.97
I think I have a pretty good Class B (medium expensive gear) system consisting of VTL tiny triods amps, Audible Illusions Mod 3 preamp., Nottingham analog space deck with a Clear Audio cart., Spendor S100 speakers, -AND an old, 1980's analog Kenwood KT 7000 tuner. I listen mostly to our local jazz station, but my old cheap, ugly, used, Kenwood sounds better then any of the other media I have. It's not even on the FM Tuner Information website. Those tuners this website does list, must be very, very, good. And it seems that the old Kenwoods are most often praised on this web site. This makes be believe, -they just don't make FM tuners as good as they once did.
I have a $5000 cd player, a fully modded Lenco with souped up RB300 into a DL-103R cart, SET's into Lowther DX2 Horns and I am listening to Radio 3 right now and its spellbinding - through a Kenwood 1100SD that i just bought for $7! Ok, my tt set up right is seriously good, but the best sound i have ever heard (including $150,000 systems) was a Sansui TU-710 in my living room with a live feed to 2 opera singers singing Mac the Knife with a single piano. Guess what, I sold the Sansui! i am torally mad, not to mention totally confused????.....
d
.... Sherwood S-3000 FM mono tube tuner, circa 1962, which I use to listen to local small station and NPR. There's no music more 'satisfying' and I think that's the key. It isn't that the tuner is more resolving or detailed than the other sources. It's that it's more natural and undemanding. Jazz, folk and vocals excel and mono can't be beat for this simple music from a simpler time. Perhaps it's a combination of the simplicity of each of the music, the source and the broadcaster that lets the music really shine. The 'mainstream' stations sound like dung.
Notwithstanding my love of FM when it is at its best. ;-)!
I'd also look to seeing what room to move is available to you and those SP100's.
Warmest
Timbo in Oz
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio Scrounger
And gladly would he learn and gladly teach - Chaucer. ;-)!
'Still not saluting.'
http://www.theanalogdept.com/tim_bailey.htm
your LP system properly.
and uses little or no processing, it is entirely possible that it sounds that good.
Warmest
Timbo in Oz
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio Scrounger
And gladly would he learn and gladly teach - Chaucer. ;-)!
'Still not saluting.'
http://www.theanalogdept.com/tim_bailey.htm
Edits: 06/30/09
And How To Do that may be found in the Asylum's FAQ, Vinyl section.
Although some vintage tuners sound good, I think a mid quality CD player would outperform the tuner. The phonograph set up must have an issue.
Best stock SS tuner I heard is Rotel RT-950BX, but have not owned the top 10 at fmtunerinfo site. The Rotel aay outperformed a carefully realigned Pioneer F-90 and was actually better sonically than a stock Fisher KM-60 before mods installed. It is also about on par with my highly modded Eico 2200 except at the higher audio frequencies that are slightly but noticably muted like most SS tuners. On the other hand the Rotel has a super hot front-end and immunity to HD FM stations.
I think my praise here of these Rotel tuners in the last 4 months that 'flew under the radar' at $60-$70 average now are up around $120-$200.
Old Kenwood tuners rock. I have a bone stock Kt-8005 that gives endless hours of listening pleasure.
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
If the tuner sounds better than the vinyl source, it could be due to a misaligned cartridge or RFI bleeding from the digital source. The first thing I'd try is remove the digital source from the system, then play the vinyl. What you hear might stun you.
The single biggest problem with vinyl playback is alignment of the cartridge. VTF, VTA, azimuth, overhang, anti-skate, etc. ...... This is so difficult to get right, unless you have extensive experience with vinyl rig setup and alignment, you should have someone who does have the experience set the system up for you.
I have about 1,000 LP's in my studio, in fact I probably will not hear all of them in my life time, then I have about 500 more down in my living room. CD's just don't excite me enough that I want to listen to them.
The cart. on my turntable was professionally installed by the dealer, and sounds great. If I didn't have that particular jazz station and an FM tuner, I would probably think I have a very good system. It's just that my old Kenwood analog tuner sounds the best. It may be that I live on top of a hill where that station is located close by, -I don't know.
I don't notice this effect so much today, but I remember back in the early 1970s, whenever I played a track on vinyl for the first time after hearing it numerous times on FM...... The first things I noticed were the increased dynamic range, background activity (including the "decays" of instruments and "intertransient silence"), and a "less electronic" quality to the music....... What really bothers me is *why* I don't hear this effect so much today. Too much ambient RFI, I suspect.
A related issue- There is a song by Tina Turner called "What's Love Got to Do With It"...... I remember when I first heard this song on FM in the 1980s, I noticed a "tszz-szzz-szzz-szzz" cymbal with a *slow* decay while Tina sings the refrain. When I hear this same song today on FM (on what I think is a far better system), that same cymbal sounds "leaden", and that decay sounds "vague"......
Maybe my hearing is in decline......
Chances are the FM station's audio processing is "doing the nasty" to the audio instead. These days, finding ANY FM station that isn't SLAMMING the 100% modulation point MOST of the time is EXTREMELY rare.
Sometimes I feel like the only person in the world who is fighting this trend of processing an audio signal to death. I have no problem with SOME compression and limiting, but when a station squeezes the life out of their audio in order to be the "loudest station on the dial", the result is total death and destruction of ANYTHING resembling "top-end."
Even many NPR stations are beginning to do this "death dance" to audio these days. More's the pity!
Bill
"Chances are the FM station's audio processing is 'doing the nasty' to the audio instead. These days, finding ANY FM station that isn't SLAMMING the 100% modulation point MOST of the time is EXTREMELY rare."
A lot of stations do sound awful. I try to listen to least of the offenders...... There is still some excellent-sounding FM out there.
"Sometimes I feel like the only person in the world who is fighting this trend of processing an audio signal to death."
You're not the only person...... I don't really say much about FM, but I have said a LOT about music production in general. From loudness wars to pitch correction. It's a travesty.
"I have no problem with SOME compression and limiting, but when a station squeezes the life out of their audio in order to be the 'loudest station on the dial', the result is total death and destruction of ANYTHING resembling 'top-end.'"
Once again, no argument..... I just listen to the stations that don't offend so much.......
"Even many NPR stations are beginning to do this 'death dance' to audio these days. More's the pity!"
KJZZ 91.5 Phoenix is a *fabulous* station that happens to be NPR..... If that station doesn't sound good, there's something wrong with the tuner.......
Preamp issue?
Post a Followup:
Top of Page ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Support/Wish List ]
[ Copyright © 2009, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ Go Green ]
[ Take5 ]