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First Time Set Up


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So, finally, this is what I went for after a long day of demos at Richer Sounds:

 

Pro-ject Debut Carbon Esprit SB w/Ortofon Red 2m

Pro-ject Phono Box MM

Cambridge 651A

Wharfedale Diamond 220 speakers

 

I've had it set up for about a week now, and the sound is definitely improving. At first the cart sounded really bright and I was getting a little sibilance on the high end with female vocals, but that's pretty much disappeared. At first I thought the cart was out of alignment, but all seems to be good (bearing in mind I have no idea what I'm doing other than by bugging Allen with a hundred PMs for advice - which has been invaluable!).

 

A friend who'd never heard non digital music before asked me to describe it to her, so I wrote this down early last week having only had it set up for about 36hours:

 

"This is what I think so far: it's an amazing sound, but it isn't a sound that's going to 'wow' you instantly, but at the same time it definitely isn't underwhelming in the slightest. It's a very different sound, and I think that comes in part from the mastering process and the fact that we're used to hearing albums in a certain way. What vinyl does, to my ears at least, is remove the compression of digital music so that you're left, in terms of vocals, with a singer who may as well be in a booth in your living room, singing directly into a mic. It's not a live sound, but it's definitely not a studio recording, either - by the measure of what we know as a studio recording. It's a big sound and it's a wide sound, and you'll hear things in tracks you've never heard before. But at the same time you'll feel like there's something ... not missing, but 'not quite right'. I couldn't figure out what that was, and in fact it's taken me until this morning to really get to the bottom of it -- is it a subwoofer, am I missing bass? Well, no, because the bass response is incredibly powerful. And then I realised that what I'm hearing is 'actual' bass, and not the 'idea' of bass, and I think therein lies the explanation. I've been so used to hearing music compressed by a digital medium for such a long time that I'm having to readjust to how it'd actually sound if I was standing there in the studio and hearing this stuff in front of me. So it's interesting. There's definitely a place for both digital and analogue, but purely for listening for the love of listening, analogue is winning -- and it's not exactly how I imagined it would sound."

 

So what do you guys think - half decent beginner set up? I'm not entirely sure about the phono box and the cart, though the cart is slowly breaking in to my ears. Any suggestions? Always appreciated.

 

Raye.

 

P.S. Thanks for all the help and sound advice - really helped stir me in the right direction of things to listen out for.

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Thanks arem, I'm considering the Blue (or a different cart altogether) for some time down the line, once the Red has really settled in and I actually get to hear it fully.

 

How would you describe the Blue in comparison to the Red, in your experience? And how noticeable is it as an upgrade?

 

As for records, I'm pushing the 100 stage, so I've got a fair bit of listening to do already...

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  • 2 months later...

Hi Sonja (or is it Chloe?),

 

The Blue was a revelation - I never really enjoyed the Red and I wasn't sure why at first, and then I found myself listening out for the production of a record rather than the music, and to add to that it was a little boomy and took an age to wear in (IGD on female vocal tracks, especially if you're into rock/metal, was a killer). Since getting the Blue, which took no time to wear in at all, all of those issues are gone, and I'm just listening to music again. It sounds really tight compared to the Red, better bass, more defined treble and separation - only criticism is that the mids could be punchier, but it's not something I find myself wishing for really. For the extra few pounds, especially if your friend just needs the stylus and not the whole cart (as you can fit the stylus to a Red body in, like, 5 seconds), it's a no brainer.

Hope this helps?

Raye.

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Hey, thanks Raye, and yep, it's been Chloe since 2002 ish. But Sonja, Chloe, either is fine by me!

Thanks for the info, and I know what you mean about the boominess of the Red. Ever since my friend got her TT that was the one thing that stood out to me, and she did get some distortion on high vox too but it disappeared after a while. Sounds like the Blue is definitely the way to go then? She's pretty much sold on it anyway, so that confirms it I guess!

You mentioned Rock/Metal - what bands are you into? Just curious! :P

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I'll add my endorsement for the Red to Blue upgrade. I've had my Blue for about a month now, and am astounded by how much better it sounds than the Red. I figured going from a Red to a Bronze or Black would be a huge leap in quality, but I really wasn't expecting this big of a difference between the Red and Blue. Definitely worth it.

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Hey, thanks Raye, and yep, it's been Chloe since 2002 ish. But Sonja, Chloe, either is fine by me!

Thanks for the info, and I know what you mean about the boominess of the Red. Ever since my friend got her TT that was the one thing that stood out to me, and she did get some distortion on high vox too but it disappeared after a while. Sounds like the Blue is definitely the way to go then? She's pretty much sold on it anyway, so that confirms it I guess!

You mentioned Rock/Metal - what bands are you into? Just curious! :P

 

Hey, no worries - I listen to a lot of stuff these days, but I grew up with bands like:

 

Van Halen

WASP

Iron Maiden (I had a six year phase where I'd listen to nothing else, but it was the late nineties and there literally was nothing else, so, figures)

Steve Vai

Joe Satriani

The Cure

Megadeth

The Stones

Echo & The Bunnymen

And a lot of 80's pop, too.

 

How about you?

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Hey, yeah, fantastic I love pretty much all of the above! I grew up on Iron Maiden too, blame my folks, and I actually just saw WASP on tour last week. Blackie was surprisingly great, vox were incredible. Do you go to many gigs in the UK?

 

Not to be a thread Nazi, but you'd probably elicit more discussion over in the Everything Else subforum. There are threads already for stoner/doom metal. black metal, and I'm sure a general/classic metal one would be welcome if you wanted to start one (I'd be in it a lot). Lots of metal fans on here that would probably join in.

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Not to be a thread Nazi, but you'd probably elicit more discussion over in the Everything Else subforum. There are threads already for stoner/doom metal. black metal, and I'm sure a general/classic metal one would be welcome if you wanted to start one (I'd be in it a lot). Lots of metal fans on here that would probably join in.

 

Thanks, we already concluded that discussion in private :-) Plus it was Raye's thread, so I guess it was harmless to have quick a chat about bands.

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Whether he meant literally or figuratively, or even metaphorically, trying to provoke people is just a massive waste of everyone's time. Who cares - Raye made his point. Perfect and grammatically correct English doesn't exists in everyday speech without sounding like a robot. Sometimes people use phrases that are incorrect, so what? If this thread shouldn't be used for discussing certain genres of music then I'm pretty sure that picking on someone's grammar should also be irrelevant and taken elsewhere? Why don't you just PM him instead if it bothers you so much that you have to call him out on it? :)

 

P.S. I actually erased that first line before you replied, but you got me too!! :P But If you want to get grammatical about it's called hyperbole, or at the very least sarcasm.

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One word, irony :P I don't think you quite understood that he wasn't using the word literally, literally. In the meantime, let's just have fun and discuss records? Bagging on someone's grammar is a pretty pointless exercise; You must have better things to do, right? :)

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People are far too sensitive on this board anymore. Does no one joke around with friends in the modern age or is everything just a constant serious discussion of things? This thread is bringing me down, Bruce. Peace oot.

 

It's all about delivery. If you just turn up and the OP and I don't know you from the next guy, and you just type some words down that on the surface seem to be made to provoke with no indication of tone, then yeah, expect the chance that someone might get pissed off. We don't know what's going on in your head and we don't know you, if you turned up in a bar and did the same thing to a group of friends who also didn't know you you'd probably get a similar response. Some idiot actually asked me if I was 'down to f***' on my profile page the other day, so it's probably not a stretch to say that yeah, people get defensive when people they've never spoken to before start ribbing them, no matter how friendly or not it was intended. You seem like a genuine guy and you've explained, so that's cool :)

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It's been a few days and I missed all this, but for the record (what a funny pun, eh?) Sonja was right - I didn't literally mean 'literally', it was just a casual exaggeration. Anyway, back on topic, my Pro-ject Carbon Esprit with the 2M Blue is going along just fine. The only thing I'm thinking about upgrading is the phone stage at some point - apart from that, I'm happy.

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