Dear Halcro:
Regarding what I think is the overall point of your post, I agree that everyone has and should have the freedom to listen to the sound that they like.
Regarding the Olympos, I should point out that the Titan-i is the more neutral, better-performing cartridge, but it is more demanding of setup, and it is more demanding of partnering equipment.
>If you've ever heard what room 'volume' can do for your sound, you'd select that over most other parameters I believe.
I have friends and business associates that I visit frequently, with big listening rooms that are acoustically shielded, structurally solid, and receive electricity from dedicated, 3-phase power lines. I agree that room volume is good, but past a certain point, I prefer proper mechanical, acoustic and electrical setup, and I prefer close listening proximity to the speakers (and a speaker that allows this). The air between your ears and the speakers is a great sound absorbent (filter), and you can tell a lot more about the faults of your system and components if you can listen from within, say, 1.5 meters from the speakers (although I try to stay closer).
>The greatest changes I've heard to my sound over the last 2 years is in fact in the reduction of distortions from the turntable.
If you use a DD motor and you don't have much moment-inertia in the plinth, you will be creating a form of noise which is somewhat similar to the background noise of an LP (but is a separate, distinct phenomena). FWIW, Sansui designed a couple of contra-rotating turntables specifically to combat this distortion without requiring so much moment-inertia in the plinth.
If you have a tonearm mount that allows relative movement between the LP and tonearm pivot, you are also creating distortions.
And if the turntable shares the same acoustic space as the speakers, without structural and air-borne isolation, you will again be creating measurable, audible distortions (although the magnitude of the problem depends on how much acoustic or structure-born energy the turntable receives).
You can quantify the difference by making a high-bit recording of your turntable without the speakers playing, and with speakers playing at your customary listening levels, and compare the two files. If you put the two files through a program such as DiffMaker by LIberty Instruments, it is possible to extract the difference component and listen to it as a distinct "distortion" track.
There are reasons why I said that some of the posts suggested that the poster wasn't hearing distortions that were almost certainly present, and should be quite measurable and audible.
>major reduction in analogue distortions to my ears, has been the switch to MM cartridges over LOMCs.
My experience is that MM vs. LOMC is largely a phono stage and tonearm issue. LOMCs need a good phono stage, they need as few electrical contacts between themselves and the phono stage as possible, and the low-compliance types need a suitable tonearm that can sink a lot of mechanical energy without becoming perturbed.
I have heard (or own) some MMs that I rate fairly highly, but they still leave me somewhat wanting. OTOH, I do believe that MMs or MIs have more performance potential than most previous efforts have been able to demonstrate, and in the future, I hope to be able to design an MM or MI cartridge that shows this to be true.
>Now you obviously do not hear these distortions so I'm not sure that a meaningful discussion between us on that topic is achievable :^(
It would be more accurate to say that I hear other distortions from MMs or MIs that annoy me even more (^o^).
>I find far greater differences in cartridges than in drive type and I admire those who claim to hear those differences.
Interesting, because I've designed and built various turntable power supplies, control systems and drive amps, and I assure you that the difference between topologies and components (semiconductors, capacitors, rectifiers etc.) is quite audible. And that is without changing the particular motor or drive system under test, let alone the drive type.
>I can't stand the distortions I hear in digital reproduction yet most here, can happily live with them?
I hear a different set of distortions from digital than I do analog, but both have audible distortions. Open-reel tape has audible distortions, and recording microphones do, too (smile). FWIW, my experience is that the transport, DAC and line preamp all have a significant effect on the reproduced sound quality from digital audio.
My present digital system is capable of playing back 384kHz 32-bit studio master-grade recordings, and the transport is a dedicated solid-state device that runs in synchronous clock mode with the DAC (effectively eliminating or at least drastically reducing jitter). At this level, digital doesn't sound so bad (^o^).
>We all are different and all our experiences are valid.
When it comes to subjective preferences, everyone is free to choose whatever they like (and for whatever reason). But let us also keep in mind that not everyone who dissents is an armchair critic, Sunday designer, or lacking in the experiences that make others go ga-ga.
>This is a 'discussion' Forum and the more we have.....the more we can possibly learn.
If the discussion presents dissent as well as assent, yes. Assent only, not so useful.
kind regards, jonathan
