UHF No 70 (Net).indd - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

Free Advice
determining the exact start of the pit.
Some players, indeed, may do better than
others. Some players can’t read CD-Rs
at all, and it is easy to suppose that some
others will do so less than perfectly.
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• Classic Records
• Mosaic Records
• Simply Vinyl
• Speakers Corner
• Sundazed
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10 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
We ourselves had had excellent results
with both TDK and Maxell discs. The
worst are CD-RWs.
If it’s any consolation, commercial
pressing of CDs is not problem-free
either. Ask any music producer whether
the CD he gets back from the plant
sounds exactly like the original master
tape. He’ll laugh. Or perhaps not.
I have loved music since I can remember.
I have subscribed to UHF almost since its
inception, and I am trying to put together a
music system.
My modest budget and gear currently
consists of: SOTA Sapphire turntable, Syrinx
PU3 tone arm (with upgraded wiring),
Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood MM cartridge,
Rega EOS phono stage, Vecteur Club 10
amp, Totem Tabu speakers, Wireworld
Atlantis speaker cable and Eclipse 3 interconnects,
Inouye powerline conditioner, and a
Gutwire cord for the phono stage.
I listen to a lot of live music at work,
and I have spent quite a bit of time trying
to put together a system which will let me
enjoy this kind of faithful reproduction at
home. I purchased the amp, speakers, and
phono stage used without hearing them,
trusting to favorable reviews by you. Don’t
get me wrong, I have all the faith in the
world in your opinions; after all, believable
music reproduction is what you’ve always
been about. I believe the fault obviously
lies somewhere within (my system, not my
head).
I have continuously read in your magazine
that this ideal is defi nitely possible, but
so far the experience has eluded me. I listen to
the electronic signals, and they sound reasonably
detailed, semi-rhythmic, and somewhat
dynamic, but, unfortunately, not believable.
I’m at a loss!
Please tell me the most logical way to
determine what the problem is. I thought
that, with this caliber of equipment, I would
be able to recreate a reasonably good facsimile
of real instruments and voice. I close my eyes,
listen, wish really hard, but all I get is major
disappointment and more spam. Do you sell
anti-depressants and/or ghetto blasters at the
Audiophile Store? Both are becoming more
and more attractive alternatives.
Clay Palfenier
BURNABY, BC
Oh, we think we can suggest considerably
better than either boomboxes or
Prozac, Clay, which doesn’t necessarily
mean we can give you a quick answer
on something obvious you may have
overlooked.
Our fi rst observation is that at least
you’re working from the right point of
comparison: live music. That’s better
than any “reference system,” but the
down side is that you’re difficult to
please, and you won’t easily settle for a
poor imitation. We suggest fi rst looking
at the source, not because your source is
poor, but because you have only a single
one. If you also had a quality CD player
or a good tuner, we would ask whether
alternative sources also fail to please.
What we would do first, then, is
double-check every possible turntablerelated
setting: suspension tuning (a
little time-consuming on the SOTA),
lubrication, belt condition, leveling,
lateral cartridge alignment, correct arm
height (this is often way wrong) and antiskating
setting. We ourselves go down
this check list once a year…more often
if we hear anything we don’t like. Some
of this sounds like spring cleaning, and
in fact some years ago we published an
article on spring cleaning for music systems.
It included cleaning and tightening
all of the connections, and straightening
out the rat’s nest that the back of a system
can quickly become.