OK, I admit it–I got tired of the Boston A-150 “Frankenstein” speakers I had bought for just over $30 on eBay several years ago. They are quite capable, but I felt like I was missing something. I hauled the A-150s downstairs and brought up my more recent pair of Grafyx SP-10 speakers. Here’s what I posted over at the Speakeasy regarding these speakers…
2011 Grammys: New Year, Same Trainwreck
This will probably be the last Grammy rant I ever post. Usually I complain about the horrible music, the pathetic entertainers, the irrelevance of the awards in general, or anything else that comes to mind. But this year, I think I’ve finally figured it out: I have The Answer, which will save me having to write my yearly rant from here on out. The Answer?
Van Morrison’s Moondance on 180g LP
![Moondance [Vinyl]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HzPAiZWBL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Stunning! In a word, that describes the sound of this meticulously produced 180 gram LP reissue of Van Morrison’s Moondance from the folks at Rhino (Warner Brothers). I need not go into the album itself, which is already a popular music classic. But to hear this release is proof positive that analog LPs can sound every bit as good as digital, and even surpass it. I played this for a friend who was not in tune with the differences between digital and analog–even she was impressed! When I tried to pin down her observations, it boiled down to this: it sounds more “real” than digital.
A real treat, also, is how quiet the vinyl is. My copy is just about perfect. On the first play, I went through my usual ritual–put the LP on the turntable, queue up the lead-in groove, then kick up the volume to a predetermined level of background noise. A few seconds later, you nearly had to peel me off of the back wall of the room–the vinyl is just about as quiet as a CD, and the beginning of “And It Stoned Me” really gave my ol’ ticker a jump start! The best words I can use to describe the sound of this masterpiece: warm, fluid and spacious. The sound is so clean, yet very warm and lifelike. Highly recommended: 5 stars +! View the album on Amazon.
Brian Setzer Orchestra: Songs from Lonely Avenue (LP Review)
The recent recording by the Brian Setzer Orchetra is a high point of his big band projects. The tracks on Songs from Lonely Avenue are of the film noir variety–a collection of songs that are begging to be the soundtrack for a stylish 50’s detective movie. While I’ve written about this excellent album here before, I was anxiously awaiting my LP version. The package I bought is in a beautiful gatefold LP jacket, with the CD attached to one side of the gatefold on a foam hub. (The CD is the image of an almost full moon…clever idea!)
I wish I could be as enthused about the quality of the vinyl release, though. The disc itself is slightly warped, but that is not a major issue. The vinyl itself is a bit noisy, but I have not yet run it through the record vacuum to see if some of the residual noise clears up. It may just be a slightly noisy pressing.
The biggest disappointment is in the mastering. Having the CD and LP versions readily at hand makes for an easy comparison when you’re doing a shootout, but trust me, what you’ll hear (or not hear) on the LP is so readily apparaent that you’ll wonder if something is wrong with your equipment. Yes, it is that bad. I did spin the LP once on my Music Hall/Dynavector DV10X3 turntable rig, and it sounded dull…but that is an extremely dull cartridge to begin with, and I only had it going through an older Kenwood receiver and spare set of speakers. Now that the big rig with the Walker/Grace/Shure V15VMR turntable is up and running, the shortcomings hit you immediately like a wet rag.
Or rather, it sounds like there is a wet rag covering both speakers. The sound is so utterly dead and lifeless, the LP is not enjoyable to listen to. The V15VMR is known to be a very neutral cartridge, and I’ve compared some CDs and LPs that sound nearly indistinguishable which were mastered from the same tapes. Not so for this one. The CD is actually a small amount on the bright side, but the LP is overly dull. “Trouble Train” opens with a high-hat, which doesn’t have a lot of sheen to it. But when the brass comes in shortly thereafter, there is no bite at all to the brass section. Switch to the CD, and all the sonics are back where they should be.
A friend of mine came over on Thanksgiving, and his thoughts were the same. In fact, after hearing the high hat on “Trouble Train” from the LP, before even hearing the CD, he passed me a look that pretty much summed up how I felt about the whole thing: what the heck is wrong with this LP?? And while the CD was slightly bright and compressed, it is clearly the better of the two. I can turn on the tone controls and crank the treble up to about 3:00 to make it listenable, but then the ticks and clicks are bright enough to zap mosquitos…three states away. My friend and I have both played in big bands (and, being in the front row, I can attest to the sound of having a full trombone and trumpet section behind me). The LP does the brass section no favors.
I had written Surfdog Records about my disappointment, but never received word back from them. Surfdog is distributed by Warner Brothers, so I had expected better. But I can’t fault manufacturing…just the mastering. I really wanted to like this LP, and looked forward to it for months. Utter disappointment. I’d still give the music 4-1/2 out of 5 stars, but the sound quality of the LP I could only give 1-1/2 stars out of 5. Save your money and get the CD this time out.
The Walker CJ-55 Turntable
Back in the early 80s, I took a huge jump in LP sound by upgrading my cartridge to a Shure V15 Type V, which originally had the “HE” (hyper-elliptical) stylus. When the Micro Ridge stylus became available, I replace the HE with it. That cartridge tracked anything I threw at it, even 45s that sounded like crap with my earlier cartridge with its lowly elliptical stylus.
As I had it mounted on an older direct drive turntable, I shopped around quite a bit for a replacement. As a birthday gift one year, I bought myself a Grace G707-II tonearm, which was clearance priced at Absolute Sound. It took me months of looking, but I finally settled on a turntable made by a small UK company called Walker. The model (which may have been their only one at the time) was the CJ-55. The “CJ” were actually the initials of the owner and his wife: Colin and Janet Walker. Colin went on to another audio manufacturer after Walker folded.
I’ve always liked the sound of this turntable–it always had a warm, inviting sound that took away some of the clinical hard edge I noticed in other turntables. This is due to its construction. It is based on the same type of design as the Linn Sondek, with a floating subchassis. As you would expect, isolation from room movement is very good. The difference is that the design of the CJ-55 is essentially all wood, or wood by-products. The enclosure and subchassis are fabricated from wood. The plinth is high-density MDF covered in a black vinyl veneer. The platter and subplatter are made of a material called Tufnol, which is very similar to Bakelite…another wood-based product.
One thing that plagued me for years was the speed of the turntable. Not only did it run fast (which, to a person with perfect pitch, will drive that person completely insane…trust me), the speed was not very stable. A new belt from the importer helped things for a brief spell, but it always suffered. As CDs were “the next big thing” in the early 80s, I ended up retiring the Walker for awhile, not playing it very often. Finally by 1995, I got so disgusted with the speed issues that I found a used Denon DP-1000 turntable and mounted the Grace arm and Shure cartridge on it, and have used it for the past 15 years that way.
I was determined to get the Walker back up and running in recent months, and tackle its issues. It was not all smooth going. First of all, checking the motor, the pulley slipped on the shaft, and finally came off. I noticed that they had used an adhesive, so I repaired the pulley with some adhesive I had on hand. In addition, the belt was shot. I stole the belt from the Music Hall MMF-2.1 on hand, which is 1½ inches shorter in length than the Walker’s original 21 inch belt. It is a little too snug, but the torque is there. Being tight, the belt tends to hop around a bit on the motor pulley, so I’m hunting down a slightly larger belt.
How did I solve the speed issue? Surprisingly, using something very low-tech and readily available! I managed to find some wide rubber bands, and put three of them next to each other on the subplatter. I haven’t checked with the strobe yet, but to my ears, it sounds like it is accurate. Stability is pretty much cured, but with a looser belt and an oil change in the bearing, we may have it tweaked as much as possible. A few weeks of listening should reacquaint me with the sound of this setup.
The turntable system is comprised of the Walker CJ-55 turntable, Grace G707-II tonearm, Shure V15V-MR cartridge, and a “tacky” rubber mat called “Music Mat.” (The vinyl clings to the mat when it is clean, dampening vibrations in the vinyl.) For clamping records, I have a plastic “tripod” clamp which grips the spindle. I’d hate to think what this would cost in 2010 dollars, but back then, it probably retailed in total for about $700-$800. The worst part of this whole trip down memory lane is that I originally put this system together 27-28 years ago!