Analog Addicts
Mar 12 '02 (Updated Mar 13 '02)
The Bottom Line There is a treasury of music on records that have not been released on CD's. Turntables are still being produced for the home audio market
NOTE: This review is not for those whose main interest is to use a turntable for DJ use, but it is intended for those who are curious about why some turntables cost more than what most people spend on their entire stereo.
Did you just watch movie Tomb Raider and saw the Clearaudio Master Reference w/ a Reference TQ-1 linear tracking tonearm that retails for over $10,000? Why would anyone be interested in purchasing a turntable when you cannot find records at most music stores? Well, the most logical answer would be that you own records whose music has not been released on CD. There are also exists a minority of audio enthusiasts who will tell you that records sound more musical and sound better than CD’s. I won’t argue this point, but I will state that people who have made the comparison on my system are amazed at how much better the record sounds as compared to the CD on recordings that I own in both formats.
RECORD PLAYERS
Many people may not be aware of what a record player is. This is a turntable with a mechanism that allows you to stack multiple records on the spindle and the player would change them once it had finished the bottom one. I am not aware of any manufacturer that makes this anymore. This is probably what your grandparents used for playing records.
TURNTABLES
Turntables only play one record at a time. Turntables can be classified as AUTOMATIC or MANUAL. They can also be classified as BELT DRIVE or DIRECT DRIVE. The parts that make up a turntable would be: the platter – where you place the record, the tonearm – this holds the cartridge, the cartridge – is usually attached to the head shell which in turn is attached to the tonearm
AUTOMATIC – This type of turntable incorporates a switch to start and stop playing the record. There are also a few that are SEMI-AUTOMATIC. These usually offer a feature that will lift the tone arm off when the record is finished playing, but you may have to position the tonearm manually for starting.
MANUAL – This type of turntable requires you to start and stop playing the record manually. In other words, you have to manually place the tonearm at the beginning of the record and manually lift the tonearm at the end. Usually there is a mechanism for setting the tonearm down and lifting it up.
DIRECT DRIVE – On this turntable, the motor for driving the platter is located directly beneath the platter. The shaft of the motor acts as the spindle for the platter, hence the term direct drive. Most DJ’s turntables and the cheaper turntables that are currently available are of this category.
BELT DRIVE – The motor that drives the platter is mounted away from the platter and the motor shaft drives a pulley that has a belt attached to the platter. This belt can be a string or a rubber belt. On most of the ultra expensive turntables, the motor is mounted on a separate chassis from the platter. Though most platters are round, there are a few that are not. Instead, they use a different shape to support the record. It is accepted in the “audiophile” community that belt drive turntables sound the best.
For many years, the company that made the best turntable was Linn Sondeck. The Linn Sondeck LP12 was the turntable that many audiophiles owned and used LP12 are still sought after today. Linn Sondeck originated the idea that if you could not retrieve the information from the record or source, it didn’t matter how much money you spent, you would not hear the music in your stereo system. This idea was contrary to the popular thinking that you should spend the most of your audio budget on the speakers.
HOW TO PICK A TURNTABLE
If you are contemplating purchasing a serious turntable, the process is not simple. The reason this process is not simple is because you need to decide which cartridge, and which tonearm you want with your turntable. For those with modest budgets, you can purchase a turntable package where you do not have to make these choices. There are even audio enthusiasts that make their own turntables.
Okay, so where does a person start. Well, first you need to consider where you will place the turntable. The most practical would be on the top of a very solid and stable shelf stand. I can’t stress how important it is to have a stable and solid stand. The thing that degrades the performance of any turntable is vibration. Especially micro-vibrations that might come from bad turntable bearings, poor suspensions, and tonearms that resonate. These problems coupled with external vibrations from the turntable’s environment. Well, you can see where all this leads to. You can understand why people like CD’s so much.
When I shop for a turntable, I start by tapping. I tap the platter, the base, and the stand that the turntable is sitting on. This gives me some idea as to how well this turntable will battle vibrations. I prefer turntables that have massive platters. A massive platter on belt driven tables usually translates to good speed stability. I disconnect the belt and manually spin the platter to check the smoothness of the bearing and the trueness of the platter. I’m looking to see how long it takes to platter to stop. The longer it takes the better.
HOW TO PICK THE TONEARM AND CARTRIDGE
There are two basic types of tonearms, PIVOTAL and TANGENTIAL. The PIVOTAL tonearms are the more conventional style. The older styles may be curved, but most of the modern designs are straight. The TANGENTIAL arms are mostly based on the Souther design. The advantage of this design is that the cartridge is always positioned 90 degrees to the record groove. However, this type of arm is very complex in comparison to a PIVOTAL arm which causes it’s own set of design and execution problems.
Cartridge selection may be a factor in deciding what tonearm to purchase. There are two categories for cartridges: FIXED COIL and MOVING COIL. Most inexpensive cartridges are the FIXED COIL design.
MOVING COIL can be further divided into LOW and HIGH output. LOW output MOVING COIL designs require a moving coil preamp in order to generate enough signal to be amplified. Some preamps and receivers have moving coil preamps built in.
Mating cartridge to tonearm is an art, but some science is required. The reason for this is that some cartridges work better with certain arms than others. This is usually based on the mass of the arm. This is an area where you need to discuss this with the retailer that you are purchasing this equipment from.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
You have finally decided what you want. Now what? Setting up the turntable can be relatively easy to very complicated depending on the choices you have made. No matter how simple or how complicated it is, doing it correctly will ensure optimum performance. You can think of it as calibrating the turntable. As in a calibration, you must have the instruments for making the calibrations. The three basic pieces of equipment you need is a small mirror, a stylus gauge and a protractor. Because of the skills required for this, I would suggest you find a retailer who is proficient in this.
A descent turntable does not have to cost a fortune even though the Library of Congress own turntables that are in the $40,000.00 each category. To my knowledge, the cost for a decent turntable is about $350 for something new. This includes a belt-driven turntable, pivotal arm and fixed coil cartridge. Even though I mentioned that you could not purchase records at most music stores, new records are still being produced and sold through stores that cater to analog audio enthusiasts. In addition, many are searching garage sales and thrift stores. Recently, the University of Arizona had a sale of their records and I understand that there were some gems that were purchased for less than a dollar.
78RPM
I left this for the end, because this is for individuals who own vintage recordings. There are still a few modern turntables that support this format. You also need a special cartridge for playing these types of records.
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harveyny
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