I worked in the R&D and design of record players back in the day.
The fact is that they are not very accurate but pretty well all the inaccuracies are euphonic, except speed fluctuation.
Every record player picks up both structure borne and airborne vibration and adds it to the cartridge signal as a bit of extra reverb. Exactly how much depends on the design and support of the TT and where it is in the listening room.
A TT with suspension reduces this vibration pickup, but the TT is most sensitive to vibration in the horizontal plane where most TT manufacturers have mainly only considered the vertical...
A suspended TT will pick up less extra bass than a non-suspended type.
Arm resonances have two effects, one is to add some peaks and troughs to the cartridge output the other is to eventually isolate the cartridge body from vibration coming from the plinth. This isolation starts at approximately the 2x the frequency of the first arm mode.
Cartridges, even the ones with expensive styluses and cantilevers all have very crude magnetic circuits which are non linear. Very good cartridges typically have distortion of 2% in the mid band and often a fair bit more. At high frequencies they are often 10% and more.
I have been playing round with different designs and combinations for 45 years now, and have 4 turntables in use. They all sound different due to different combinations of cartridge distortion, structural resonance and vibration pickup They all sound lovely.
Which combinations of euphonic colouration you prefer will be a personal thing, so auditioning things is the only way to go. My only advice is to only audition items within budget.
IME price is a poor indicator of SQ, more an indicator of what item is in or out of fashion at any given moment. Sadly almost everything to do with "vinyl" has become very expensive, A Garrard 401 cost around £70 new.
Good luck and have fun.
The fact is that they are not very accurate but pretty well all the inaccuracies are euphonic, except speed fluctuation.
Every record player picks up both structure borne and airborne vibration and adds it to the cartridge signal as a bit of extra reverb. Exactly how much depends on the design and support of the TT and where it is in the listening room.
A TT with suspension reduces this vibration pickup, but the TT is most sensitive to vibration in the horizontal plane where most TT manufacturers have mainly only considered the vertical...
A suspended TT will pick up less extra bass than a non-suspended type.
Arm resonances have two effects, one is to add some peaks and troughs to the cartridge output the other is to eventually isolate the cartridge body from vibration coming from the plinth. This isolation starts at approximately the 2x the frequency of the first arm mode.
Cartridges, even the ones with expensive styluses and cantilevers all have very crude magnetic circuits which are non linear. Very good cartridges typically have distortion of 2% in the mid band and often a fair bit more. At high frequencies they are often 10% and more.
I have been playing round with different designs and combinations for 45 years now, and have 4 turntables in use. They all sound different due to different combinations of cartridge distortion, structural resonance and vibration pickup They all sound lovely.
Which combinations of euphonic colouration you prefer will be a personal thing, so auditioning things is the only way to go. My only advice is to only audition items within budget.
IME price is a poor indicator of SQ, more an indicator of what item is in or out of fashion at any given moment. Sadly almost everything to do with "vinyl" has become very expensive, A Garrard 401 cost around £70 new.
Good luck and have fun.
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
