Vinyl Junkies …

thanks sounds good advice

a long read that might be of interest

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/extreme_record_collecting_confessions_of_an_analog_vinyl_snob

Not a fan of the writing style but most of the conclusions are sound. Porky interview is a classic. Always surprises me what his name turns up on.

Agree on the writing style. Not 100% sure that his conclusions are sound.

He says that digital masters are massively compressed. I doubt that is correct.

He talks about valve amps using only point to point wiring. Ok, nice high end hand made gear but I doubt you can "hear" a PCB.

Valve amps introduce measurable distortion. Many people enjoy this. That's fine, but I don't buy that it's somehow "closer to the original sound".

I do agree that LPs made from CD rips are a waste of time, and are audibly inferior. Someone gave me an Oscar Peterson LP on one of those labels. It's rubbish. The same argument does not apply, IMO, to LPs made from studio digital masters.

He talks about valve amps using only point to point wiring. Ok, nice high end hand made gear but I doubt you can "hear" a PCB.

This geezer says P2P wiring will always sound better than PCB, but is impractical to impossible in many situations. (@ 4:57)

https://youtu.be/wFMv0Y8TsCc?t=297

Speaking purely out of my arse, I would imagine having thicker gauge conductors throughout the circuitry would have an effect.

It probably is a better way of doing things, in certain applications. But better and perceptible are not necessarily the same.

But he specifically says the opposite to that though?

He says it will always "sound better" but it is not practical.

Yes. And there are people who say that hanging little wooden disks off your doorknobs makes your hifi sound better.

Some claims are more credible than others.

In my experience, the ability to reliably differentiate even between quite dissimilar audio sources is low. When you get into realm of a few cm of wire, I have a lot of doubt.

And there are people who say that hanging little wooden disks off your doorknobs makes your hifi sound better.

Are there? Is there really a need to be that condescending? He seems like a credible guy to me.

Apologies, it wasn't meant to be condescending.

I was just meaning to point out that the hifi world is full of people making claims about one thing or another, and not all seem justifiable, or are demonstrable through observation, or are backed by science.

I was suggesting that whilst the wiring guy is a more credible than the wooden disc enthusiasts, it doesn't necessarily mean we can actually "hear" a pcb in a well designed amp.

sorry if it came across badly.

Here are one lot of wooden disc exponents - see product B.

I may have exaggerated slightly when I said "hanging... off your doorknobs" but it's pretty similar.

http://www.shunmook.com/text1.htm

Edit: see here for pricing! https://www.analogueseduction.net/shun-mook.html

Ah but they are Japanese though.

Wooden disks hung from doorknobs, honestly, how amateurish. It's all about uncooked spaghetti candelabras suspended 1 5/6' from the boxes.

FFS! https://www.analogueseduction.net/shun-mook/SHUNMOOKprod4.html

I was going to say there's a killing to be made fleecing gullible audiophiles, but there's not a single review against any of the items - so maybe the pool of eejits is pretty shallow. That said, they don't expire and can't cost much to make...

(says the guy with a power conditioner)

Usually when proper micro electronics experts get involved in hi-fi electronics they are measuring stuff like harmonic distortion and the noise floor created by circuit design and physical wiring characteristics. The numbers involved are quite often vanishingly small.

It has an effect on capacitance and voltage drop. It's one reason why p2p valve amps use a lot of energy.

I would imagine it's easier to repair P2P too

It's got to be easier to diagnose but you are generally dealing with high voltages inside valve amps so you have to be a bit more careful.

This Dutch company make nice looking point to point wired valve amps, and not that expensive by the standards of small volume niche hifi products.

I would be interested to hear one of their pre amps in my current set up, but the price makes that unlikely in the foreseeable...

https://hifilounge.co.uk/product-category/brands/primaluna/

An update to my previous post - a friend had a spare Technics separates system knocking about - so I've put the turntable through that, and the difference is worlds apart compared to the built-in speakers. I can actually hear some proper bass now!

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get a new turntable too you will see a big improvement

Oh I'm sure we will at some point, but already this has made an incredible difference, so it'll keep us going for a while.

Another recent pickup of a grail

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On my want list as well. I am on an old rave spending spree at the moment.

Kicking myself for missing the Deram repro of this gem on the last RSD list, fortunately found a UK seller with a copy who wasn't charging the earth... Banger! STILL need a copy of the Frankie Valli version...

https://youtu.be/WJ_QW3m_YO8