Hi-Fi Choice - May

HOME RE-MASTERING FEATURE
uncredited – has seen him become
in-demand eyes and ears for artists and
record labels across Europe and as far
afield as America and Japan.
“That’s part of the fun, if not the focus, of
customising your setup,” Sean says. “It’s a
slow-moving work in progress, so every now
and then a carefully selected component
will be added and stand or fall by its
abilities. I imagine every hi-fi enthusiast has
a link in the chain they’re most particular
about. Mine is the cartridge: I still have
every model I’ve acquired since the eighties,
with the exception of the Karma, which I
sold along with my LP12. I’m constantly
buying and getting disappointed by them,
but I just love them”. Old favourites include
Clearaudio’s Sigma (“Tracks heavily at 2.8g
and doesn’t do inner grooves very well”),
Denon’s now discontinued DL-304,
Audio-Technica’s AT0C9 III (“Nice but
smooth and a bit laid back”) and its modern
classic, the AT440mla (“My first one cost
£75. They almost doubled the price when
they woke up to how brilliant a bargain it
was and, to be honest, still is”).
The dream setup
Typically, Sean uses a VPI fan-cooled record
cleaning machine, with home-made cleaning
solution; Milty gun; Clearaudio reference
turntable powered by the company’s
Accurate Power Generator, fitted with
Clearaudio Universal and Moerch DP-6 12in
tonearms; various cartridges, both moving
magnet and moving coil; various phono
stages, though usually Musical Fidelity X-LP2
monoblocs, older X-LP and the Micro
iPhono; E-MU soundcards; Tascam and
Pioneer DAT machines, if required; Cedar
Audio hardware for the declicking and
decrackling process; and Adobe Audition
and various software programs, along
with various custom cables. “The deck
– I’m constantly adjusting it and swapping
cartridges, experimenting with overhang
and azimuth,” Sean admits. “I still haven’t
found the magic formula yet. But I would
get bored with it if I did.”
The latter components are all bespoke
affairs, the most recent additions are tailor
made by online retailer Design-A-Cable,
which allows its customers to select specific
terminators and so on.
The iPhono is also a neat addition – this
£300 cartridge amp is as versatile as it is
diminutive: “Whether moving magnet or
moving coil, you can change several aspects
of a cartridge’s performance,” he says. “All
cartridges have different characteristics, so
depending on your setup, the ability to
change the gain, EQ and loading to your
liking is very handy. The tiny dip switches
are very fiddly, admittedly, but with a
steady hand, you can adjust them on the
fly and see if all the tinkering makes the
difference most pleasing to you”.
The source material from which Sean
works is mostly vinyl, although DAT and
various types of digital file and cassette
are not uncommon. “Sometimes audio
transferred from reels needs some kind
of denoising, due to degradation,” Sean
explains. “My only preference is for good
quality vinyl pressings, but that’s something
of a pipedream. There are very few pressings
I actually rate as being above average.”
When pressed on this subject, he elaborates
with the precision and detailing you’d expect
from some of the most in-demand ears in the
business: “When I bought the Classic
“It’s not unusual to
spend over an hour
trying to eradicate a
single problem click ”
Records’ edition of [jazz drummer] Dave
Bailey’s [1960 LP] One Foot In The Gutter, I
was surprised how quiet the playing surface
was. I later got the four 12in, 45rpm set of
[Miles Davis’] Kind Of Blue and brought it
round to a mate’s flat. This guy was using
an £8,000 cartridge at the time, whose
brand eludes me, but after a whole
afternoon playing both records and CDs,
So What came on… and laid waste to all
that came before it. The leap in scale,
presence and realism was an eye opener...
It was as if all we’d played up to that point
had been flat, two-dimensional.”
Bitten by the bug early, Sean started
collecting records when he was about 12 and
has been working in record shops since the
eighties. An early adopter, he bought his
first CD player in 1990 and still buys discs
There are few
pressings
that Sean
rates, but
this is one
regularly. “I have lost count of how many
records and compact discs I have. If
‘thousands’ is an estimate, I’m afraid that
will have to be it,” he admits, when asked
the inevitable question.
Hi-fi was also an early passion. “I used to
tinker with my father’s record player when I
was young,” curious-minded Sean explains.
“I found that doing things like altering the
height of the cartridge on this BSR deck
changed playback characteristics in some
surprising ways, things like that. I borrowed
a book from the school library called Sound
Recording and Hi-Fi, which was very
informative and easy to understand. The
club music I was into in the early eighties
involved a lot studio manipulation to get
that cutting-edge sound and, in awe of its
protagonists – largely New York DJs
recruited to mix disco records – I wanted to
be an engineer, either mix or mastering. In
fact, my first job interview after I left school
was for the tape library at Tape One Studios,
but I never got the job and didn’t have the
luxury of waiting for an opening in a studio,
so I went to college and studied computing.
It’s little more than a hobby, but still, I’m
doing a variant of something I wanted to do
from an early age – that’s enough for me.
“Occasionally, I will completely re-master
something just for my own personal
listening. I don’t do this much as it’s
extremely time consuming and gets in the
way of paid work if I have any on.”
And without further ado, Sean guides HFC
through the basics, beginning with a concise
definition of the process that defines his
trade. “Re-mastering is preparing a master
recording, usually for reissue,” he explains,
“Technology constantly improves, so
re-mastering an old track may improve
Sean’s Clearaudio deck fitted with Clearaudio
Universal and Moerch DP-6 12in tonearms
Cedar Audio hardware is used in the lengthy
declicking and decrackling process
Several phono stages are used including
Musical Fidelity’s X-LP2 monoblocs with X-PSU
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