I'm preferably a man of few words, and prose does not come easily to me.
But I'm very passionate about sound , and derive enormous satisfaction and pleasure from listening to fine music, so when something comes along that provides even more satisfaction I want to tell all the world about it and provide some clue to what I'm feeling.
I'm not so good at that- but here goes anyway.
How does a tiny pointed rock on the end of a equally tiny piece of metal, swinging between microscopic ridges imprinted into black plastic vinyl provide a sound that is so textured, vivid, and alive with a stereo soundstage that is so wide and dynamic, yet equally seamless with its images of right and left channels.
I have some very good dacs here , I'm up to date in the computer audio world, have a very nice CDP , and am reasonably competent in building and understanding digital.
It doesn't compete in any way in equaling the sound of vinyl playback, in particular the sound of a LCR phono preamp with a high quality moving coil cartridge.
Over the years I've been tempted to sell off my record collection, its bulky, is a pain in the arse whenever I've moved house , and just like digital , not all of the recordings are first rate.
But I never have , because when I take the record out of its cover, place it on the platter, clean it, and then drop that rock into the groove, I'm then always grateful that I never succumbed to the temptation.
LCR phono playback has made me even more grateful- LCR phono is the ultimate playback of any recording system, whether its analouge or digital, nothing else compares . (Except maybe master tapes)
Its superiority is mostly in dynamics , which is rather perverse as digital has an overall greater dynamic range , but within a LCR phonos dynamic range its faster, cleaner, simply more alive and exciting.
And this force of dynamics is also audible at lower listening levels, if your restricted in the volume levels you can use, the LCR phono is very worthwhile.
In comparison, digital sounds veiled and choked- yes it can sound very good , but the difference between a digital recording and a LCR reproduced recording is night and day.
Digital has its place, it's convenience cannot be denied , and it can sound very good, but for the ultimate listening experience LCR phono , and even very good standard CR phono (both with tubes of course) will let you hear angels.
Its taken me 30 years to build a moving coil LCR tube phono that doesn't require a step up transformer, is quiet and will work with all moving coil cartridges.
In the next article I will go into the technical details of this design.
Moving coil cartridges. Denon DL103, Ortofon SPU, Accuphase AC-3, Dynavector DV30.
All with Expert Stylus cantilvers and diamonds- highly recommended.
The SPU is superb, amazing with tube LCR.
