LPs are capable of recording above 20kHz, but not at very high level. It depends on the cutter head. The HF bit wears quite quickly too.
Some cartridges can pick up above 20 kHz. There is a massive difference between cartridges in this area. Some are chock full of resonances above audible frequencies, double digit distortion is common in the top audible octave, even in very expensive cartridges.
Some designers chose to roll the cartridge off early (this sounds best to me
) some starting at 15 kHz some lower. Electrical characteristics of the phono stage and interference susceptibility of the wiring make a big difference at very high frequencies too. Thank goodness we can't hear them...
If you are seeing output above 40kHz it will almost certainly be 100% noise pickup from equipment not screened for this environment.
In terms of a CD and LP sounding different this is no surprise. The compromises needed for each medium are different, apart from the common recent choice to compress the hell out of everything so the sound is OK in a car and on ear buds in public.
If a CD and LP of the same basic recording sounded the same it would imply lazy engineering from the mastering engineer.
For LP the bass has to be mono, or the groove wouldn't be continuous. The signal to noise ratio is poorer so usually low level sound is amplified up a bit to keep it away from the noise. High level upper frequencies are limited if too high (this is not often necessary).
Mono bass is "good" since the power is shared between both amps and speakers and bass is supposed to be non-directional anyway.
Raising the low level sounds makes the detail easier to hear, which is a benefit too.
So there are two shortcomings of the LP manufacturing process which encourage the application of a "fix" which will sound nicer on every system.
Marcor which cartridge, phono cable and phono stage are you using?
Some cartridges can pick up above 20 kHz. There is a massive difference between cartridges in this area. Some are chock full of resonances above audible frequencies, double digit distortion is common in the top audible octave, even in very expensive cartridges.
Some designers chose to roll the cartridge off early (this sounds best to me
) some starting at 15 kHz some lower. Electrical characteristics of the phono stage and interference susceptibility of the wiring make a big difference at very high frequencies too. Thank goodness we can't hear them...If you are seeing output above 40kHz it will almost certainly be 100% noise pickup from equipment not screened for this environment.
In terms of a CD and LP sounding different this is no surprise. The compromises needed for each medium are different, apart from the common recent choice to compress the hell out of everything so the sound is OK in a car and on ear buds in public.
If a CD and LP of the same basic recording sounded the same it would imply lazy engineering from the mastering engineer.
For LP the bass has to be mono, or the groove wouldn't be continuous. The signal to noise ratio is poorer so usually low level sound is amplified up a bit to keep it away from the noise. High level upper frequencies are limited if too high (this is not often necessary).
Mono bass is "good" since the power is shared between both amps and speakers and bass is supposed to be non-directional anyway.
Raising the low level sounds makes the detail easier to hear, which is a benefit too.
So there are two shortcomings of the LP manufacturing process which encourage the application of a "fix" which will sound nicer on every system.
Marcor which cartridge, phono cable and phono stage are you using?
Devialet Original d'Atelier 44 Core, Job Pre/225, Goldmund PH2, Goldmund Reference/T3f /Ortofon A90, Goldmund Mimesis 36+ & Chord Blu, iMac/Air, Lynx Theta, Tune Audio Anima, Goldmund Epilog 1&2, REL Studio. Dialog, Silver Phantoms, Branch stands, copper cables (mainly).
Oxfordshire
