Frequently asked questions about turntables and vinyl, belt-drive vs direct-drive, cartridges, headshells, alignment and more.
The FAQs save everyone time, by addressing questions I’m most commonly asked. Honestly, there are questions I’ve probably been asked hundreds of times now over the last 10+ years. Answering commonly asked questions like these takes a chunk of time and, without a good alternative, I’d almost never get any work done! I write each …
System resolution limitations or ‘bottlenecks’ are critically important as they define the maximum performance attainable with a given set of equipment. Think of it this way: You could have the best pair of speakers and source equipment in the world, but if your amplifier can only support a certain level of performance, maybe it has …
What are system resolution limitations and why are they important? Read More »
Unfortunately, this is rarely possible. Please note that this isn’t to be difficult, it’s simply a logistical limitation resulting from the dozens of potential new booking enquiries we receive weekly, which amounts to hundreds per year. Keeping track of everyone wanting to book equipment in for work is just not possible, nor even sensible. Using …
Can you contact me when you are accepting new bookings? Read More »
Generally no, unless you are able to have equipment inspected and you understand that PayPal offers no buyer protection on Gumtree. You need to be careful when buying anything like this on Gumtree, a local classifieds selling platform here in Australia. Did you know sellers can circumvent the buyer protection that normally exists when you use PayPal? …
Do you mean those ‘affordable’ modern phono preamplifiers that cost $1000 or more, contain about $50 worth of parts if you’re lucky and sound ordinary? Not a lot. You first need to understand that I’ve been spoiled by great phono preamps made when vinyl was at its peak. Much of the excellent equipment from that …
Mike, what do you think of affordable, modern phono preamplifiers? Read More »
Very good, actually great, for the money, and on the right tonearm. TLDR: The Denon DL-103 MC cartridge is, in my opinion, probably the best cartridge available for higher mass arms at the ridiculously low $400 asking price. That being said, it isn’t well-suited to many turntables and tonearms, nor is it anywhere near as …
Other things being equal, a longer tonearm is always better, with one exception: linear tracking arms. The reason you want a long conventional arm, or a linear tracker of any length, is to eliminate tracking error and therefore tracking distortion. When a tonearm moves across a record, it does so in an arc, because the …
