Who are using vinyl as main source?

[PhilP]

I was a noise and vibration engineer working on the design of record players in the mid 70s before going motor racing full time so I am pretty familiar with all this, and sadly there is a lot of mis-information on the net about most aspects of record players from those who have discovered them since they returned to popularity.
The pickup is a seismic type of transducer, and all output from the cartridge at frequencies below about 2x the arm cartridge resonance are spurious. There can be a huge signal at the arm/cartridge resonance, since that is what is happening. It is best removed since it will move the loudspeaker cones away from their most linear range. The exact frequency at which the cartridge output is an accurate transduction of what is on the LP and the magnification at resonance are both dependant on the damping. More damping in the cartridge reduces the resonance peak but raises the lowest frequency at which accurate bass is produced. Damping in the arm is better but doesn't suit all cartridges.
The phase shift due to the high pass filter in the 1976 curve will be considerably less than the bass phase inaccuracy of most (non-SAMed ) speakers anyway, and with the digital RIAA correction in the Devialet there is no phase shift.

I shouldn't worry about -1dB at 40Hz either room effects will be massively more than this. The main thing is a substantial reduction at around 10 to 12Hz to stop the resonance getting to the speakers.

It is certainly true that some people like the 1953 curve more, but IMHO they just like more bass, and the fact that most of it is subsonic grunge doesn't seem to upset the "more bass is better" feeling.

Edit. The LP replay system is not capable of accurately reproducing the bass of an Organ. It can give an indication but not accuracy. OTOH the bass boost due to the arm/cartridge still being influenced by its resonance may be impressive even though not accurate.
In fact quite a few of the LP system "shortcomings" are enjoyed by many since most of them (but not all) are euphonic.

Well you've certainly had an extremely interesting working life

I've always enjoyed listening to vinyl but have only fairly recently found digital systems like Devialet which I can really enjoy. The shortcomings of many/most digital systems are usually not euphonic which is a big drawback of the technology. Simple things like 'dirty' mains or inadequate DACs seem to introduce an edge to the sound - particularly vocals - which I really hate. I've never experienced such problems with vinyl.

BTW, Whilst I was reading about RIAA curves etc I was surprised to see that the lowest note on a Bosendorfer Imperial Grand piano has a frequency of 16.5 Hz which a pianist presumably can't hear when he plays it. Also a tuner has to use an electronic device to check that it is in tune.