RECORDING
Music players and sound engineers make many affords to
record music to
a final format so listener at home will get the precise
"picture".
If there are mistakes in the recording procedure, nothing
can fix it at home.
A stereo system is a passive system and it cannot fix
problems
that were recorded on basic format (c.d, record, or tape).
A stereo system cannot reproduce better quality than the
quality on
basic format, but a stereo system can reproduce less
quality, and
it's wise to get away from such systems...
TURNTABLE
Many people treat the words "digital sound" like a magic,
and many
manufacturers take advantage of this thought. The truth
is that old
and good turntables (you can buy new nowadays) sound
very
good and it's not easy for c.d players to beat them.
Many buyers made mistake while replacing old records
with
c.d's instead of buying a good turntable and keep listening
to
old records.
Today many stores sale old records and some manufacturers
print
new records and if you like to listen to this old format,
there are
million of used records on market.
A good turntable is built of good materials (good wood
usually) and
it's body is built of two parts - the motor drive and
power supply are
connected to the main part while platter and arm are
connected to a
"floating" sub body that is connected to the main body
by springs.
The springs acoustical isolate the platter and arm from the room.
The electrical motor drives the platter with a ribbon
so the platter
is isolated from the motor unstable rotating speed, many
platters have
heavy edge to create a fly wheel effect so platter will
rotate in
a very steady speed.
Some manufacturers build turntable body with one unit
only but with
unique materials that isolate the turntable as
described above.
Most of the good turntables have NOTHING but NOTHING
automatic on board.
C.D PLAYER
Basically a c.d player is built of two units - transporter
section and analogue
section.
The transport include the c.d carrier, the mechanical
system that
rotates the c.d and the laser beam source.
The analogue section receives the signal from the laser
beam,
translates it to an analogue signal and transfers it
to the amplifier.
The structure of the transport is important. It's wise
to get a c.d player
that has no carousel or other device to automatically
replace c.d's.
For a given budget it's better to buy more c.d player
and less c.d changer...
Some manufacturers claim that best results are achieved
when the c.d player
comes in two independent parts - the transport and the
analogue system.
Other claim that best results achieved when transport
and analogue sections
are closed in one box. There is at least one manufacturer
I know who built
the c.d player in two boxes - one box the power supply
and the other
include transport and analogue section.
In any case, it's wise to check by LISTENING ONLY to several
c.d
players and to decide which is the better. In places
where there are
many c.d players on shelves, it's possible to make first
check with
quality earphones.
Many manufacturers are proud of the system they use to
translate data
from digital to analogue, it means nothing to the listener.
The only
way to find which player is better, is by LISTENING ONLY
!!
TAPE RECORDER
Some tapes have disappointing sound while
listening to pre recorded
cassettes. Therefore it's advised to -
1 - To buy several pre recorded cassettes and see how
the tape you want
to buy plays them.
2 - If you plan to buy in the future a better and more
expensive tape,
consider that cassettes you'll
record with the present tape will not
sound good with future tape.
3 - Recording cassettes with a less quality tape from
a quality c.d player
will give better results then
recording with high quality tape from
a less quality c.d player. (Remember
the importance of the source !)
Every tape has at least two heads - one to erase cassette
and second to
record and playback.
Other machines have three heads - there is a special
head for record and
another one for playback. This has two main advantages
-
1 - Each head is built precisely to its purpose.
Record and playback heads
have some differences
in structure - what is impossible to get when
one head does the two
jobs.
2 - ONLY with three heads tape you can actually monitor
recording
in real time. If it's important
- three heads tape is a must.
(With two heads tape you can listen
to tape recorder player while
recording, but you don't
hear data from the tape itself !!)
Expensive tape recorders have quite a complicated mechanical
structure
(dual capstan , three motors) the mechanical structure
is very important
but it's not a guaranty for better sound performance
AS ALWAYS - THE ONLY GUARANTY IS TO CHECK BY LISTENING
!!!
TUNER
It's a great pleasure to listen to radio broadcasting
with a good tuner.
The best results can be achieved with a good antenna.
When buying
a tuner (after finding the one with a good sound) ask
about antenna.
Check the tuner at home - the best tuner in the world
will not function
at places where there is no receiving of radio waves.
AMPLIFIER
The inputs to amplifier are of two kinds -
Input for turntable and inputs for other sources.
The turntable outputs need special treatment
in the amplifier input.
The signal from turntable is very weak and differ from
other sources
output especially when a moving coil cartridge
is in use.
The RIAA circuits (the name of the electronic circuits
that receive
signals from cartridge in the amplifier) also bring the
width band of the
cartridge output signal to levels and structures of other
sources output
so pre can amplify it like it does with other sources
output.
It's a fact that nowadays most buyers don't use turntables,
that's
why almost all amplifiers, especially the expensive
ones,
come without expensive RIAA circuits which mean a turntable
cannot be connected to these amplifiers.
If someone wants to play a turntable through such an amplifier,
there are two options -
1 - If the amplifier manufacturer doesn't give the option
to add on
genuine input circuits, there
are such circuits to add between
turntable and amplifier - so
the unit receives the output of
a turntable and transmits to
the amplifier a signal that meets
the amplifier regular sources
input. The output of such a unit
can be connected to the AUX.
input of the amplifier.
2 - To add manufacturer genuine circuits to amplifier.
In both cases it's important that the add on circuits
will meet
the cartridge character. If a manufacturer gives precise
circuits,
there are three possibilities - circuits for moving magnet,
high output moving coil and moving coil.
Because of the difference between turntable inputs and
other
sources inputs, if you want to listen to either discs
and
compact discs, it's a must to test the amplifier by listening
to
both formats.
As I said before, the decision about an amplifier quality
must
be decided by listening to it only - and never according
to it's
technical data.
SPEAKERS
A speaker makes sound with a membrane that moves
forward
and back and so creates pressure waves on air. The problem
is
that every movement of the membrane forward, is immediately
followed by a movement back. This movement back creates
pressure that cancels the pressure that was formed by
movement
forward.
One way to solve this problem is to locate speaker in
a wooden
box - so box will "swallow" all pressure that was formed
by back
movements of the membrane.
It's impossible to build one speaker to respond to
all the hearing spectrum,
therefore every box has at least two speakers and an
electrical
unit (crossover) to transfer the right frequencies each
speaker is built to work with.
The hearing spectrum is divided to three sections - low,
mid and high.
Woofer is a speaker to deal with low frequencies, "midrange"
is a
speaker to deal with mid range frequencies and "tweeter"
is a
speaker to deal with high frequencies.
When there are only two speakers in a box, a woofer and
a tweeter
are a must.
The NUMBER of speakers in box say NOTHING
about the QUALITY of the
system.
The kind of box (sealed or open ) or its size say nothing about system quality too.
Only by LISTENING you can find which speaker is better for you.
An important technical datum of a speaker is it's efficiency.
This datum
SAYS NOTHING ABOUT SPEAKER QUALITY but says a lot about
speaker loudness.
An amplifier connected to 90 db speakers (90 db of efficiency)
will
be TWICE as loud as the same amplifier connected to 87
db speakers.
Every three db of efficiency UP means TWICE as loud to
our ears at the
same output level of an amplifier.
You overcome low power amplifier by coupling it to high efficiency speakers.
Every good stereo system whose goal is to listen to high
quality music only,
will always be end with two speaker boxes only
(left box and right box) !
ACCESSORIES
there are many accessories to add to a stereo system,
many of them are
a waste of money.
Two important kind of accessories are the stands for the
system units and
speakers (unless you have floor standing speakers) and
the interconnection
between units and between amplifier and speakers.
Like in any unit - when choosing accessories, you MUST
HEAR the benefit
of the accessory the dealer wants to sell.
Theoretical explanations do not come instead of
listening test.
It's recommended to buy an accessory only if it raises
sound quality
and only if you can FEEL it does so.