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No, I don’t expect everyone to agree on this topic but here are some observations that I’ve made about the current state-of-the-art of analog playback. Specifically, is the problem with the analog medium itself and the recording process or in the playback aspect? The answer is—and maybe shockingly so even to me—is in the playback of the LP. The analog medium is far better than anyone realized and there’s a whole lot more information on those discs than people ever realized. The newest generation of turntables, arm, catridges—and in my estimation especially phono sections—have really narrowed the gap between LPs and tape. Sure tape still rules the roost but LPs are capturing aspects of the recordings once solely the domain of tape until now. Have we now captured all there is to recover from those grooves now? Not even close in my estimation either!
Now, one of the main reasons I acquired a tape deck years ago was to have a reference source for doing analog equipment reviews (yes I’m aware of the issues but the LP playback system should have the “qualities” heard on the tape). The million dollar question? Does using the best examples of both analog mediums, the LP come close—and how close at that—to the sound of the tape? And there are many good examples/pairing with which to compare such as Arnold Overtures on Reference Recordings, Bill Evans Waltz for Debby on Riverside, Lee Morgan’s Sidewinder on Bluenote, Garcia-Grisman on Acoustic Discs, Suite Espanola on Decca, various Opus 3 discs, etc. (and I’m not counting the Yarlung examples as I still have to order some of their LPs; yes, I know shame on me!) So there’s no shortage of discs and averaging out the vast number of recordings available mitigates the possibility of drawing an erroneous conclusion.
While there have been significant improvements in turntable, cartridge and especially arm design (yes let’s not forget turntable isolation either), there’s been no bigger improvement in analog playback than in the area of phonostages. Old timers will remember the noisy phonostages with inadequate gain to amplify those low output MCs. Sure there were SUTs but again, they weren’t without their own issues. The newest phonostages sporting higher gain numbers while at the same time being ever so much quieter have allowed more information than ever to be revealed from records. Better parts, far better power supplies, better circuit design, less susceptibility to overload (Bill’s blog about how hard it is to properly design a phono section that basically has to amplify a signal just above the noise floor is recommended reading!) are just a few of the improvements that are seen in modern day phonostages.
The end result has been quite significant. If I were to rank the various cartridges vs. tape, the Atlas would come in at about 80-85% of the tape. The biggest areas of breakthough include the ability to capture ever so much more of the sense of ease and low frequency dynamics of tape, more sense of space and most significantly, a better sense of instrumental timbre. No it’s not there yet, and may never be, but the improvements are nothing short of extraordinary.
But I could see that argument.
! One thing for sure; most of the today's mediocre products might suffer different ills but are no better than yesterday's mediocre and the best are still fewer than a dozen so like they've always been..
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