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pseydtonneI spent hours yesterday trying to get good levels from my vinyl albums. Today fixed all of that and redeemed my entire sound system.
It started around 9 AM, when I was awakened by the phone. It was one of the supervisors from work, asking me to come in a half-hour early for an all-day training session. This was about 100 minutes before I'd planned to wake up, but I was completely awake.
This also meant I could get out of work a half-hour early. This doesn't sound like a big deal until you realize I get out of work about a half-hour before closing time of most shops. Since I always use an extra twenty minutes at work to tidy up my work, this means I never get to shop on weekdays. While this has staved about four hundred impulse purchases, it's also made me lose time on the weekend to shopping.
I booked and headed to Danvers (about twenty minutes from work) as fast as possible. I got to a certain music shop to check out small mixers. My buddy Dave from work said the Behringer mini was cheap and doable. I saw it and one from Alesis, the Multimix 6fx. While the Alesis was more expensive (but still on sale) and had this silly effect bay on it that I have no plan to use, it did provide XLR connectors and phantom power for a future condenser mic, an external power supply to cut down on hum, and enough of what I needed for input slots. Also, the kid I asked thought it was more durable than the Behringer. While I prefer Mackie's stuff, I didn't have the cash for Mackie and I needed a fast solution. This would be it.
I grabbed a burger, got home and got to setting up. I was getting better input levels (good enough to start recording vinyl, in fact) when I started thinking about my phono stage (the preamplifier that converts the output from the turntable to the normal power of, say, a CD player). I looked it up online and found its manual. I compared that to the information about my phono cartridge (the link is actually to the newer version, which also costs slightly more).
Okay, those links are kinda vain of me. "Ooh, look at his audio equipment." I'm not actually bragging: I'm trying to show both the level and elegant simplicity of what I have. Look, you know how some people get into cocaine or speedboats? I got into audiophile stuff in 1997. I got so into it that I bought the Parasound Phono Stage Preamp. I bought it because I'd bought a receiver but it didn't have a phonograph input. I went on a hunt for a phono stage converter but all the others I'd tried had audible clicking or other proof of crappy craftsmanship.
You know how wine suddenly crosses from "stuff better than screw top" to "shit, what's wrong with you spending the cost of an iPod on a fuckin' bottle of red?" This is what I was going through in a desperate attempt to play my record collection. I had all these cool albums and nothing to hear them on. I found that the turntable itself made no difference so long as the platter weighed something, had a decent belt and came with a tone arm that allowed for good weight control. (Long story short: direct drive turntables are made for durability and scratching. However, they also transmit motor noise directly to the needle. That's fine for FM or a party but rotten for obsessive-compulsive disorder at home.) However, the cartridge and the phono stage were the pen and ink of reproduction. So I saved up and spent. Then I said to myself "I just spent how much on what is essentially a frigging power converter from Canada? Okay, I have a problem. The only way to fight this is to stop." So I put on some Cannonball Adderly and kicked back.
This was seven years ago. I had stayed clean since then, except to get a MiniDisc recorder and a DVD player that also played SACDs about two years ago. Computer technology has finally caught up to my vinyl collection. Still, I was getting low output from the turntable.
The manual referred to some jumpers, but I didn't see any on the outside. In fact, all the phono stage has is a ground screw, left and right input and output RCA jacks, and a power plug (the kind you use for a desktop computer). There isn't a single switch nor even a light to tell you it's on. So I got out the screwdriver and found the jumpers. I then realized that I'd owned this phono stage and this moving coil cartridge (lower voltage, and now I'm learning lower bandwidth) but I'd had the setting wrong for two thirds of a decade. I went from having low levels to too damn much level in ten minutes!
I also had the richer, fuller sound coming from my records! I was in shock. Suddenly, I want to play all my favorite albums again and hear everything I'd been missing. I'm already getting instruments I'd been missing from Utopia and Rush. Imagine how Sketches of Spain is going to sound. Too bad I gotta go to bed now and I've lost time typing about this.
Oh, and I've got a fresh copy of Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out" live from Letterman. I'll admit it -- it's catchy and fun while still hinting at Gang of Four meets emo.
It started around 9 AM, when I was awakened by the phone. It was one of the supervisors from work, asking me to come in a half-hour early for an all-day training session. This was about 100 minutes before I'd planned to wake up, but I was completely awake.
This also meant I could get out of work a half-hour early. This doesn't sound like a big deal until you realize I get out of work about a half-hour before closing time of most shops. Since I always use an extra twenty minutes at work to tidy up my work, this means I never get to shop on weekdays. While this has staved about four hundred impulse purchases, it's also made me lose time on the weekend to shopping.
I booked and headed to Danvers (about twenty minutes from work) as fast as possible. I got to a certain music shop to check out small mixers. My buddy Dave from work said the Behringer mini was cheap and doable. I saw it and one from Alesis, the Multimix 6fx. While the Alesis was more expensive (but still on sale) and had this silly effect bay on it that I have no plan to use, it did provide XLR connectors and phantom power for a future condenser mic, an external power supply to cut down on hum, and enough of what I needed for input slots. Also, the kid I asked thought it was more durable than the Behringer. While I prefer Mackie's stuff, I didn't have the cash for Mackie and I needed a fast solution. This would be it.
I grabbed a burger, got home and got to setting up. I was getting better input levels (good enough to start recording vinyl, in fact) when I started thinking about my phono stage (the preamplifier that converts the output from the turntable to the normal power of, say, a CD player). I looked it up online and found its manual. I compared that to the information about my phono cartridge (the link is actually to the newer version, which also costs slightly more).
Okay, those links are kinda vain of me. "Ooh, look at his audio equipment." I'm not actually bragging: I'm trying to show both the level and elegant simplicity of what I have. Look, you know how some people get into cocaine or speedboats? I got into audiophile stuff in 1997. I got so into it that I bought the Parasound Phono Stage Preamp. I bought it because I'd bought a receiver but it didn't have a phonograph input. I went on a hunt for a phono stage converter but all the others I'd tried had audible clicking or other proof of crappy craftsmanship.
You know how wine suddenly crosses from "stuff better than screw top" to "shit, what's wrong with you spending the cost of an iPod on a fuckin' bottle of red?" This is what I was going through in a desperate attempt to play my record collection. I had all these cool albums and nothing to hear them on. I found that the turntable itself made no difference so long as the platter weighed something, had a decent belt and came with a tone arm that allowed for good weight control. (Long story short: direct drive turntables are made for durability and scratching. However, they also transmit motor noise directly to the needle. That's fine for FM or a party but rotten for obsessive-compulsive disorder at home.) However, the cartridge and the phono stage were the pen and ink of reproduction. So I saved up and spent. Then I said to myself "I just spent how much on what is essentially a frigging power converter from Canada? Okay, I have a problem. The only way to fight this is to stop." So I put on some Cannonball Adderly and kicked back.
This was seven years ago. I had stayed clean since then, except to get a MiniDisc recorder and a DVD player that also played SACDs about two years ago. Computer technology has finally caught up to my vinyl collection. Still, I was getting low output from the turntable.
The manual referred to some jumpers, but I didn't see any on the outside. In fact, all the phono stage has is a ground screw, left and right input and output RCA jacks, and a power plug (the kind you use for a desktop computer). There isn't a single switch nor even a light to tell you it's on. So I got out the screwdriver and found the jumpers. I then realized that I'd owned this phono stage and this moving coil cartridge (lower voltage, and now I'm learning lower bandwidth) but I'd had the setting wrong for two thirds of a decade. I went from having low levels to too damn much level in ten minutes!
I also had the richer, fuller sound coming from my records! I was in shock. Suddenly, I want to play all my favorite albums again and hear everything I'd been missing. I'm already getting instruments I'd been missing from Utopia and Rush. Imagine how Sketches of Spain is going to sound. Too bad I gotta go to bed now and I've lost time typing about this.
Oh, and I've got a fresh copy of Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out" live from Letterman. I'll admit it -- it's catchy and fun while still hinting at Gang of Four meets emo.
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-05 06:52 am (UTC)niiiiiiiice.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-05 04:54 pm (UTC)totally off topic.
Date: 2004-10-06 05:11 pm (UTC)