2. analog
  3. 142489-46

What do you mean you “heard” the turntable

I don’t get it. Maybe I just don’t have the biological tool set, but I read all the time how someone heard this turntable or that turntable and they comment on how much better or worse it sounded than some other TT, presumably their own or one they are very familiar with. 

Thing is, they are most likely hearing this set up on a completely different system in a completely different environment. So how can they claim it was the TT that made the difference?  The way “synergy“ is espoused around here how can anybody be confident at all considering how interdependent system interactions are. 

Can someone illuminate me?
last_lemming
michaelivosevic
3 posts
 
I found a significant difference in the musical presentation between two quality direct drive turntables. One, a Technics SP10 had a very metronmic effect on music that had me questioning if the albums I was so familiar with, had really been recorded in this fashion. The other, a Teac TN400 had a more flowing presentation, more akin to a belt drive. These turntables were both mounted in identical and substantial home made plinths and compared in the same room using the same equipment and supports, only the arms, cartridges and tonearm wires were different. Idler drives also have characteristics that distinguish them from other turntables, so YES, you can "hear the turntable".    
last_lemming OP
407 posts
 
 People keep running to “of course you can hear a turntable.” That’s not the question, the question is how can someone go to some other system and talk about how that specific turntable sounds better or worse than a completely different TT in a completely different system and make overreaching statements about how and why it is better sounding. 
tomwh
72 posts
 
You already know the answer.  It is impossible.  Just changing the rack and or feet makes a difference.  All the rest of the variables just complicates the matter further.

Enjoy the ride
Tom
ianderson
26 posts
 
+1 Millercarbon, will said and on point. +1 Has2be ditto. Lew, if Larry isn’t open minded to new points of view that are experianced based, and on facts, he’s not going to maximize enjoyment of this hobby and the great knowledge this community has to offer. Unfortunate really.

nandric's avatar
nandric
3,263 posts
 

According to Popper there is no theory independent observation.

So ''I have seen with my own eye'' or ''I have heard with my own

ears'' is no argument at all. What we hear or see our brain need

to interpret in the context of some premisses.

Take ''our'' scientist Lew as example.  He own 5 TT's but neither

of them is belt driven. Does he have some prejudice against belt

driven TT? The most of his TT's are DD kind. So presumably he

has some premises about drive systems in the sense of , say,

quality. Can he hear any difference between his TT's by listening

to them ''naked'' next to each other? Well this may be the case

with his Lenco because  its driving system may produce some

''rumble'' which is difficult to supress. That is why he made 100kg.

plinth for the precious (grin). But hearing whatever from his DD

 TT's is not probable. This would imply that something is wrong

with the one with, say, sound on its own.

So this thread is at least not clear formulated. One can only

''hear'' an TT in combo with an record , tonearm and cart. The

last mentioned 3 are those which (re)produce sound.

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