a $5 turntable makes we wanna throw out my XM & I-pod!

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I've got really sensitive hearing, and I can hear well into the 16khz range. Because of this, I can pick out distortion a mile away, and I absloutely cannot stand poor quality audio. Well, lately, I've been getting a bit of listener fatigue with my two most frequently used sources of music...my I-pod, and my XM radio, which I listen to in my company van. My most favorite tunes I've always enjoyed just didn't invoke the enjoyment that they used to. I figured I was simply getting tired of listening to the same stuff

I was at a flea market over the weekend and I found a really nice professional grade Technics direct drive turntable for only $5. Most of my albums long since copied to cassette, then bought on CD, and then compressed to fit on my I-pod were dug back out again to try this baby out. The old turntable on that "all in one" system I had in high school long since gone. A few months ago, I found an old Stromberg-Carlson vacuum tube amplifier at a yard sale to, so I connected the newly found turntable up to that, and my Cerwinn-Vega 12 inch speakers I bought in college. HOLY CRAP!! !! this thing sounds NICE!! ! Yes, there are a few cracks and clicks in the audio, but it didn't take long to realize that I was not listening to a stereo in my office, but Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart (RUSH) cranking out all the tunes with all their heart, along with many other musicians. The stereo was literally transparent as I heard every subtle nuance of music that was beyond the walls of the room. I wasn't just hearing drums, but I could tell where and how the drums were being hit, and the fact that every hit was different than the last. The square waves from synthesizers made me shiver they were so chilling.

As I drove home this evening listening to my XM radio I became readily apparent as to why I was getting such fatigue with listening to music...the audio quality on this thing SUCKS!! !! I could hear the variable bit compression switching in and out when high frequencies were present in enough quantitiy to demand a higher bit rate. Even then, it sounded garbled, like the cymbals were being played under water. Symballence in the "s" and "t's" of singing was so slopped out singers sounded as if they were spitting. Audio compression knocked all the punch out of the music, and brought the quiet passages up too loud. I'm ready to throw my XM out the window and be done with it, especially since they started playing commercials on the music channels...gotta love ClearChannel communications!

My I-pod sounded a little bit better, but still lacked that transparent feel that the turntable was giving me last night. It just sort of sounded dull and lifeless, and again, compression artifacts reared their ugly head. Yes, an I-pod stores several days of music on a disc about an inch and a half large, but it cannot compare with the fidelity of only 45 minutes of music stored on a huge 12 inch disc of vinyl! I couldn't wait to get home this evening and crank up this old system and re-introduce myself to my favorite music again!

Let's hear it for 50 year old recording technology!

Well av geek there's a diffrent format that might give you the full range of sound you want but it still very new and $$$ Here is a link about it. http://www.hdmi.org/resourcecenter/index.asp
that's the audio part
"New lossless audio formats: In addition to HDMI’s current ability to support high-bandwidth uncompressed digital audio and all currently-available compressed formats (such as Dolby Digital and DTS), HDMI 1.3 adds additional support for new, lossless compressed digital audio formats Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD." HDMI press release site

I can barely make out the difference between MP3s with varying bitrates. I guess I should consider myself lucky. Maybe you should turn up your headphones up really high until you lose enough of your hearing so that you can't notice the difference anymore.

I'm with Enig_Odd on this one.

iPods support WAV and ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) files. Also, there is third-party firmware called Rockbox which lets you use FLAC files on your (4th generation or later) iPod. FLAC is my preferred format, so I'm thinking about trying it out. I just haven't gotten up the courage to replace the Apple firmware yet.

http://www.rockbox.org/

Ahhh, you kids with your digital technology. I must agree, the compression in satellite radio is terrible. MP3s? I can take 'em or leave 'em - they're sort of the PDFs of the audio world, and I listen to them strictly out of convenience. But there's nothing like sitting in the sweet spot of your favorite system and hearing EVERY NUANCE of a musical piece as if it's being performed right there in front of you. Do a side-by-side of an LP and an MP3 and see what wins.

AV Geek: I must ask which Technics you got. I've had a couple myself but none truly high-end. And do stop by vintagetechnics.com to find out more about yours.

Here's the turntable I found, a SL- QD33:

http://www.vintagetechnics.com/turntables/slqd33.htm

It's got a Audio-Technica 3003 cartridge in it...a very bright, crisp sound to it...not sharp like that of a CD, but just so totally clear and transparent, tight sound

The Stromberg I found has 7355 finals, and 12 AX7 pre's with 12AU7 turntable and tape head preamp tubes. Pretty standard stuff that seems to still be avaliable brand new even today.

I'll hafta try running a line-in from my XM into the tube amp to see how it all sounds. I think you're right about the I-pod though, there's hope for that if I use a compression ratio that's 160 bits or higher. I'll only get that by making it off my own CD's and records...can't by that bit rate off of I-tunes. That's sort of a throwback to the old days of the cassette. I remember my Dad saying that he can make better tapes by purchasing the record album, and then copying the record to a high-bias cassette, than if he were to buy the music already on a cassette.

You can have tubes integrated with an iPod:

Those look like McIntosh amps aren't they? Perfect for an ipod...connect it to a different kind of Mac!

I'm impressed with your knowlege of tube audio, Fogman. I love my tubes, but I'm not a tech at all. I've cloned a Fender amp and put together a few kits, but my first scratch built PPP amp is not yet finshed. Maybe by the end of fall ...

I've only recently (last summer) re-discovered the wonderful sound of a decent turntable. I have a couple of old Duals, but I'd like to get a modern belt drive at some point. Something like a Rega or VPI would make my day!

AV Geek,

Did you ever hook up your Ipod to your Stromberg Carlson? Does an Ipod have an analog line level out or would you need a DAC?

Had to laugh at the iTube thing. I wonder how much of the digital edge it would take off the sound. Would it be enough to justify the $900 price? (love the "hand-wired" reference in the decsription - reminds me of Zenith back in the day)

AV-geek: I'm kinda partial to Audio-Technica carts too. I'm thrilled to death with the AT440ML I put on my Pioneer last year.

DirtDawg: which Duals? I have a 1212 I got not long ago, and a 1229 that needs a lube job. Love to get that fixed up.

I have a 1219 with the same AT cart you mentioned (AT440, but maybe an earlier suffix) and a 650RC with an Ortofon ULM55E. I run whichever one I'm using at the time through a Lazarus Cascade tube pre/phono and then to 2 EL84 SETs in mono, plus various single driver speakers to complete my minimalist rig.

Recently I put an old Garrard back in good shape for use on 78s. I put a special stylus designed for 78s on an old Shure I had laying around and it really works great. I can't believe how many great old classical collections are available on 78rpm for a quarter. I am totally addicted! Kinda wierd for an old headbanger, but that's me ...

Furtwangler conducting Beethoven's 9th played on a 'direct to disc' 78 sounds like heavy metal to me!