🚀 go-pugleaf

dear john, angus mckenzie here.  as you go mearer and nearer the
centre, less groove per sec passes under the stylus.  therefore the
steepness of the wiggling becomes greater.  this becomes difficult for
some pickups which have a pinch effect problem.  it becomes
progressively more and more difficult to cut the higher frequencies as
you get nearer the centre.  so you may note a decrease of subjective
hf, but you may hear more hf distortion as you get mearer the centre.
isn't it time to change to cd?  happy listening. angus. f.a.e.s.

barr@shrsys.hslc.org (JOHN BARR) writes:

>I seem to recall hearing or reading that high frequencies
>are drastically reduced as the needle approaches the center
>of an LP.

>Does any one have the facts on this?

No facts, but a reason. Though (indeed, because) the record is spinning
at a constant rate all the time (well, relatively constant, sadly), the
stylus is covering less distance per second near the center than it is at
the outside of the record. Roughly, one-half inch in from the outside of
the record, the stylus will cover 19.2 inches per second; at 2.75 inches
from the center of the record, it will have dropped to have that, 9.6ips.
The amount of space available to imbed all those little squiggles in the
vinyl is therefore dramatically reduced--and, some have said, is so badly
reduced that it is physically impossible to reproduce 20kHz tones at that
point on the record. That's part of the reason that some audiophile LPs
play at 45rpm.

This is one of many aspects of record manufacture which, appropriately
changed, would eliminate some of the complaints people have about vinyl.
Its so-called limited dynamic range (which, actually, is not so much of a
problem as is sometimes thought), can be quite dramatically affected by
how the record is made. E.g., listen to LPs that have 30 minutes of music
on one side: The grooves have to packed very close together; as a result,
the average volume tends to be reduced, leading to a somewhat compressed
sound, a subjectively higher level of surface noise, and so forth. I've
also frequently found that such records have more bleed-through between
grooves.

Maybe one of the people around here with mastering knowledge could
enlighten us all? Gabe?

Yours,
Richard

As the needle approaches the centre of an LP, its relative velocity
is slower, because it is traversing a smaller circle in the same
amount of time.  Therefore you should encounter poorer frequency
response and higher noise.

The worst example I ever personally encountered was the album
"Trick of the Tail" by Genesis.  Side One had a very long playing
time (about 30 minutes, I think), so the last song on Side One
sounded pretty awful, especially the quiet passages.

The best sound I ever got from an LP was from a few 12-inch
EP's that were mastered at 45 RPM.  The playing time was short,
but the overall audio quality was significantly better than
a conventional LP.

Producer Tom Dowd was interviewed in Stereophile a couple of months
ago.  He was very critical of LPs due to his assertion that the
frequency response was substantially worse toward the center of an
LP than at the beginning.

mkohutnw@YKnet.YK.CA (Mike Kohut) writes:

>The best sound I ever got from an LP was from a few 12-inch
>EP's that were mastered at 45 RPM.  The playing time was short,
>but the overall audio quality was significantly better than
>a conventional LP.

Except that EPs ar not LPs :) What you have here is the philosophy
behind 12'' singles.

Greetings

Wolfgang

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