Technics SL-1200mk2 vs Linn LP12

[Marco]

Guys, this thread is currently running on pfm, so I thought it might be interesting seeing what folks here thought. Download the files from the Hoffman forum, have a listen, and see what you think:

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/thread...-drops.384955/

So which file do you think is the recording from which turntable?

I guessed it correctly, as soon as I listened (as the guy who produced the files has now said which is which), the reasons for why I came to that conclusion will be revealed later. However, if you don’t know, then just simply tell it as you heard it

Marco.

[struth]

Not a lot in it listening on the lappy through the creative labs but I preferred no 2.

[Stratmangler]

It's a pity that the files have tags that tell you which is which.
At least it tells me using Foobar which file is which.

Another point is that the recording level is pitifully low.
I've Replaygain scanned and applied the tags - there's a +8 dB figure thrown up.
It would have been better being somewhere around the 0 dB mark.

I'll have a listen to it tomorrow afternoon using headphones and the A/B tester plugin that Foobar has - my crappy laptop speakers aren't good enough to make any judgement calls.

[Lynster]

Without reading the tags, my first impression was to favour file 1 mainly due to the brightness of the slightly more prominent highs. By the end of listening the second time through, I preferred the overall balance of file 2, somehow a bit more solid and realistic particularly in the mids. I then cheated so I now know the truth but enough of that.

What I do find amazing is that it's a comparison of a fairly well sorted LP12 with a stock Techy. How the comparison would be if the Techy recorded file represented my midway modified 1210 let alone a full house item, is fascinating to contemplate.

[Stratmangler]

Returning to the thread over on the Steve Hoffman forums (which I didn't read first time around) I can see that there are all kinds of ifs, buts and whys all through it.
I'm going to have a listen tomorrow through a setup I know pretty well, and make any decisions thereafter.

The ABX element of Foobar is a very useful tool to have for such moments!

[Marco]

Hi Lynton,

What I do find amazing is that it's a comparison of a fairly well sorted LP12 with a stock Techy. How the comparison would be if the Techy recorded file represented my midway modified 1210 let alone a full house item, is fascinating to contemplate.

Spot on - and *that* is exactly the point.

However, I was different from you and instantly preferred file 1. It is, fundamentally in my opinion, the better sounding recording, and not just because it’s a little louder - and that’s exactly how it should be, because a reasonably well-specified LP12 should considerably outperform a stock SL-1200/1210.

With file 2, now confirmed as being the Technics, I can clearly hear the limitations that from experience I’d associate with a stock SL-1200/1210 (rather opaque sound, lack of openness and high-frequency detail retrieval, tonally monochromatic presentation, etc), although I can also hear the effect of its superior speed stability over that of the LP12; in short just the type of differences I’d have expected to have heard between both T/Ts.

The fact that, despite that, the results were still reasonably close, just goes to show the nonsense that some folk spout about the Techy, and also the potential it has for upgrading/modifying the areas of weakness it possesses in stock form, which from experience I know can be done, and thus transform it into a genuinely top-class turntable, capable of competing with the best.

Marco.

[struth]

It didn't show any tags with me. It didn't download either it just played them. I ran certain passages side by side several times in different windows but it did not run through any of the main players on the PC ie Foobar or jriver.

[Marco]

Has anyone else listened to the files? Come on folks, let’s have some more feedback!

Marco.

[Spectral Morn]

Just used laptop speakers but File 1 was superior more air, richer tonal palette, focus, weight and scale, even with the laptops limitations the difference was fairly obvious.




Regards Neil

[Macca]

Only crappy powered desktop speakers here but I preferred file 2.

Bassline more prominent, vocal is clearer, the whole thing is more 'together'. File 1 sounds a bit more plinky-plonk in the top with vague bass and muffled vocal.

Then I checked which was which. I'm not surprised. I'm surprised so many thought #1 was better.