Tuesdays with Tom is, what I hope will be, a weekly exchange between Tom Port of Better Records and myself on the subject of analog audio and really anything else that happens to come to mind. If for some strange reason you’re not already familiar with Tom Port, I’d recommend reading the interview he did with me here.
Tom’s unconventional approach to analog audio and his single minded doggedness toward finding great sound and great sounding records has both fascinated and inspired me. I’ve learned a TON reading his blog and picking his brain with questions via email, but I’ve learned even more following his generous advice and taking advantage of his vast experience in audio.
Yesterday I had just read Tom’s review of Analogue Production’s 45 rpm remaster of Cat Stevens enduring classic, Tea For The Tillerman and couldn’t help but reach out and share a recent insight:
TBR: You refer a great deal in your writing to “transparency” and identify it as an essential feature of the records you sell and the systems you recommend playing them on. I noticed something today when I had my phono preamp directly on a shelf in my rack after changing tubes. I was playing The Eagles debut and it just wasn’t sounding right. Whenever I hear something “not right” with my system, I then need to figure out what is “not right” about it.
In this case I realized there was an unpleasant glare to the guitar and the vocals that I hadn’t remembered hearing before. I started fiddling with VTA and got it a bit better, but I couldn’t fix it. Then I thought to put the unit back on the buckwheat pillow and, viola! The glare was gone! Like magic!
The point of the story is that, not only could I clearly see the value of the pillow and the impact it has on the sound of my system, which I hadn’t fully appreciated before, but I also realized that the glare I was hearing was essentially at odds with transparency. The glare wouldn’t let me into the recording. It pushed me away. When it was gone the recording drew me in, and then all I wanted was to turn up the volume.
The boiler plate for your hot stamper descriptions often mentions the ability to “see into the recording.” Meanwhile, there are many potential sources of glare in a system, and therefore many possible obstacles to transparency to fix. You’ve mentioned to me before that you think most audiophile systems lack transparency and how this is the reason audiophiles don’t see the problems with heavy vinyl reissues.
Do you think unaddressed sources of glare is a major reason that audio systems are often not transparent?
Also, you’ve made it very clear you’re not a fan of high powered amps. Do you find high powered amps produce more glare and therefore less transparency?
I’m very interested in your thoughts on this.
TP: Think about just the issues you addressed in this question:
- You have equipment sitting on a pillow?
- A pillow got rid of glare in the system?
- Once the glare was gone you could hear into the record and felt like turning up the volume?
If you were to post any of this on an audiophile forum you would be considered a crackpot and shouted down by every right-thinking poster up there.
But everything you say is true and I know it is true because I have gone through it myself again and again over the last twenty five years.
Glare — or hardness, or brashness, shrillness, call it what you will — often comes about in my experience from bad electricity, mostly, and also often from equipment not sitting on the device or shelf. This is a very difficult subject to discuss because you really have to hear it to understand it and then work hard to fix it.
Here is a thought experiment
Imagine you have some transistor equipment, and you hear glare you don’t like. You don’t know the source. You don’t know how to get rid of it, but you know you must do something.
Here are some of the things you could do to “fix” it:
- You get a new phono cartridge with a dip in the upper midrange (lots of them have it).
- You could get some tube equipment that is more “mellow” sounding.
- You could roll your tubes until you find the right tubes that reduce the glare.
- You could play old Mobile Fidelity pressings, most of which have a badly sucked-out midrange, thereby reducing the glare.
- You could play some darker, duller heavy vinyl pressings to reduce the glare.
Some combination of these things will help reduce the glare in your system. They are common ways that audiophiles go about doing audio. But they are ALL bad ideas that will prevent you from making any real progress in this hobby. You haven’t solved the problem. At most you have come up with some “work-arounds.”
How will you ever find the source of the glare if you have now papered over it without ever finding out what caused it and what the cure might be? You’ve dug yourself a rut and are now stuck in it, only you don’t even know it. You think you took positive action and solved a problem. You might even go up to some audiophile forum and proclaim to the world that cartridge X or tube preamp Y is the answer to everyone’s dreams. It may be, but it is very unlikely to be.
Everyone needs to do what you did. Experiment. Prove yourself wrong. Don’t fall in love with your equipment. Try to find out what it’s doing wrong, or what else could be at fault — the electricity, the room, the shelf, whatever.
As far as high powered amps go, I have heard quite a few of them, and I consider them one of the greatest scourges in all of audio. They tend to be incapable of resolving subtle musical information, opaque, airless and lacking in musical color. They reduce the differences between good vintage records and new records. I know because my old high-powered system used to do exactly that.
A long story I will save for another day.
TBR: You just posted a review of Analogue Productions 45 rpm remaster of Tea For The Tillerman and there’s a lot I like about it, especially the specifics on how you used your reference copy to tweak your system. I find that type of content very useful.
I also like how you went into more detail on how you graded the reissue and why. You point out that your average early US pressing will beat this reissue, and this is in my view, such a strong point to make. It says “you don’t need to buy a copy from me to hear a better version than this one.”
I saw an Audiogon forum thread a few days ago by a poster seeking advice about how to get better sound from his analog front end. He said something like “I’m playing MoFi’s and AP’s so I’m not playing bad records.” Of course, nobody bothered to point out that this was part of the problem, which is frankly starting to tick me off.
I politely weighed in, suggesting he buy just one record from Better Records that he could return if he didn’t like it, and that if he did like it he would have at least one record to use to make improvements on his front end and the rest of his system.
TP: Oh my god! This is the biggest problem in audio of them all. This post is a great example:
ALISON KRAUSS & UNION STATION / SO LONG SO WRONG – WRONG IN THE VOCAL DEPARTMENT
TBR: This view just seems so sensible to me now, that we need really good records to get anywhere with analog, but I had a hard time getting a bite from responders. All I got was some guy complaining that it wasn’t a very economical suggestion, given the cost of building a collection with hot stampers, which I never suggested he do.
TP: Exactly. But everyone needs some really good test records, and the thread I would write if I were able to do so without causing a stir would be something like “test discs that challenge the system are the only ones that can help you and they will rarely be remasterings of any kind”
TBR: I also had one guy with the same tired old “why should I pay $300 for a $30 record? Their customers are drinking the kool-aid!” argument.
TP: Why aren’t these awful remastered records the kool-aid that is being drunk? This guy produces the most expensive kool-aid ever and audiophiles love him for it!
THE PERSONIFICATION OF THE DUNNING-KRUGER EFFECT
TBR: I appreciate that you’re offering more than one alternative to this reissue. Your message essentially is “Hey, you don’t need to buy a hot stamper to beat this expensive reissue, but it IS an option if you want to fully appreciate it as the work of art that it is” (paraphrasing).
TP: The record cleaning part of the puzzle is key here – if you can’t clean your records, this advice can be hard to follow, but sometimes just any old uncleaned copy will work.
TBR: Always a pleasure Tom! I look forward to next Tuesday!