Mikey Does Video Podcast With Home Theater's Scott Wilkinson

By Michael Fremer • Posted: Jun 14, 2012

Mikey cuts loose on the superiority of vinyl on this new video podcast using his unbelievably unflattering MacBook Pro camera. The chatroom digiphiles went crazy!

You can watch it here:

Mikey's Podcast

Comments

Podcast

Submitted by alan james on Fri, 2012-06-15 17:47.

Enjoyed your podcast, but it dropped out on my Ipad a little over half way through. Probably an AT&T issue here in Atl.

Any chance of getting the USB microsope piece up on the site? I really like that new isolation device under the Caliburn. Pretty smart solution.

Just glad vinyl in back in a big way. As to the newer pressings, what I am noticing is much blacker backgrounds and little groove noise. Quality it back. I like my Spin Clean, but a vacuum cleaner must happen this year as clean vinyl is a must.

Thanks for taking the time for the podcast.

RMGI RR TAPE

Submitted by CEDUP on Fri, 2012-06-15 19:00.

Reel-reel tapes from RMGI is the original BASF formula. Mickey why ain't you covering analog TAPE. The ONLY analog that matters. Snap crackle pop PLAYBACK is nothing in hi fi. TAPE matters. If you want analog sound, with it's artifacts, the LP isn't it. TAPE is. MGI-USA.com The LP is an extremely limited playback medium. Analog tape done right can almost be modern hi fi. The best decks for tape don't cost $150,000 like some insane spining platter.

PodCast observations

Submitted by CEDUP on Fri, 2012-06-15 19:07.

Why is your $150,000 TT in need of ADDITIONAL adons which of course drastically improved it!!! It needed a new support system, and of course it improved it big time. When everything you add for more money improves the previously PERFECT sound you had, when does CREDIBILITY become a factor, is there any ovr priced update that didn't improve your already adbsurdly priced stuff? It's just all advertsing to shill for the next toy. You really are not doing a service to your readers, when every doo dad you add, makes a PROFOUND improvement. Admit it, you are just a salesman for more and more insane crap. Pro studios don't do addons like you do. Endlessly.

If you ain't doing TAPE, you are not really into analog. You are just pretending to be some analog shill, for one product segment. Start leaerning some science, because your talks are vauge, drivel, that is blather. You mumble over real questions, since you still don't seem to actually understand the science or machines. Your aduience has to be limited, if they think they are actually learning something from your drivel. FACTS, baby, where are they?

Tape...perfect?

Submitted by alan james on Fri, 2012-06-15 21:10.

Hardly. How many of you are running at 30ips? Dirty, undemagitized heads, azimuth issues, -55 to -60db noise floor and what is the distortion when you go over "0"? It starts climbing. Pitch stability?

I do not use a computer to record anymore and everything is at 2496 on SD cards. My noise floor is what ever the HVAC and room are, plus some electronics from the mic pres which are very low. Those issues are the same for tape except that the tape hiss may be higher than the noise floor of the room. Those natural reverb tails from the room I'm in are not falling into tape hiss. I am usually at -75db to -80db.

It would be nice to have a 2 inch 30 ips machine, but at 2496 this is getting so close to a pristine lp like ones I've been buying recently. There is no $400 R2R that would play back Tea for the Tillerman from QRP better than a Project Debut Carbon. My new copy of KInd of Blue is scarry good. The only thing better might be the DSD copy. We all know that most tape duplication was done at high speed. Time is money.

The old story of someome having to silent play a reel of magnetic tape prior to a session to insure there were no dropout on the tape IS real. There also was a certain manufacturer of tape who pruposely overloaded the tape to improve freq response and it always resulted in having to clean the heads more often.

Both LPs and tape have their quirks that must be addressed to make each medium sound their best. I would rather have a performance either recorded on 2 inch at 30ips or recorded digitally at 24/192. Either will make great sounding pressings from QRP or RTI. The quality of A2Ds today is remarkable.

From tape to LP?

Submitted by CEDUP on Sat, 2012-06-16 19:32.

But MF says teh LP always sounds better, when it came from teh old analog tapes, but you say tapes don't sound good unless teh machine is pristine, but you then put this info onto a spinning plastic record, and now it's better? The logic in that baffles me. Grinding signal off a groove each time you play it! No matter how good teh arm/cartridge, it's wearing out your $30 record! Just like tape looses oxide....DSD baby! 21st century

Good stuff Mikey. It's always

Submitted by planarhead on Sat, 2012-06-16 01:46.

Good stuff Mikey. It's always a good laugh getting digi-heads wound up.

Digiheads?

Submitted by CEDUP on Sat, 2012-06-16 08:50.

No, just ones that understand audio, understand electronics, understand mechancis, and work on equipment that costs 10X Mickey over priced spinning platters, or $200K speakers. When you don't understand what matters, or what things are really worth, or how things are made, you go along with any line of BS. Why on earth would the previously super duper, greatest sounding TT, for $150,000 , now be improved so much with yet another added on stupid toy? so the previoulsy perfect, engineered to perfection, for $150,00 TT is not really made right, if some added on suspension, made it dramatically better! Or Mickey is basically full of crap, and claims everything he does improves it, so his buddies sell more crap to the unknowing! When does reality set in? The BS quoient on Fremers stuff is beyond belief. I work on million dollar analytical systems, that run for 20 years, without assine tweaks and crap, and they are used to process multi million dollar ffactorys. MF and his BS, is beyond reality. Anyone with baisc knowledge, of stuff, can certainly understand, that a piece of plasitc, can't be demagnetized, to be audibly so improved, or that some $10K cartridge, is so much better sounding than some $400 "cheap" one....does reality stop when Fremer writes? You don't recall his trained ears couldn't hear a miswired $27,000 CD only player, he claimed it sounded great, probably the best this week, it was DEFECTIVE! And he couldn't hear it! But he hears DEMAGNETIZED PLASTICS!

Digiheads

Submitted by CEDUP on Sat, 2012-06-16 08:56.

Ya listen to a digital recording put onto an obsolete spinning LP, and think it's superior! Now thats funny! You are obviously not trying for hi fi, but colored, distorted reproduction. LP is limited in range, Fremer thinks analog is infinite, he has to be really confused. WOW, he doesn't understand anything about electronics, audio, recording or mechanics! Analog guru? Holy Mackerl! He doesn't liek to be challenged by ones who know more than him, he doesn't understand it.

"It's always a good laugh

Submitted by planarhead on Sat, 2012-06-16 22:27.

"It's always a good laugh getting digi-heads wound up"

Case and point made

Someone has missed the point.

Submitted by alan james on Sat, 2012-06-16 22:35.

Criticizing MF for being able to own a great tt makes no sense. The quieter the platter/bearing system the better a LP sounds. Is it way better than an SME 30? I don't know as I've never heard one, but MF has and it's his money. I sure his old Simon Yorke would have suited me just fine.

Now that he is trying to define the differences between carts from $1K and up I can certainly see how he would need the best there is to determine their sonic values. I'm sure those who intend to drop $5K on a cart are glad MF is doing what he is doing. I'm not sure a loaner would work for a dealer as to who would want to buy a "used" $5K cart? If MF finds a tweak that improves his Caliburn, good for him, it is his money. I doubt anyone is out there spending crazy money just on Michael's say so. Why should I get upset if someone buys a 7 Series BMW? I hope they enjoy it.

You can take any R2R you want and any recording you have on tape and I would never believe that it should sound better than a Project Debut Carbon playing the QRP pressing of Teaser and The Firecat, Catch Bull at Four, or Tea for the Tillerman, or anything else you what to listen to from QRP. You won't have a tape that can touch that. That is only a $430 expense.

If vinyl had all sounded this good the format probably would not have had such a slow down. There were just too many poor quality pressing done in the 60's, 70's, and early 80's and all were mastered from R2Rs. I have no idea how much one can blame the poor sound on a poorly made recording from an engineering stand point. I have an LP of David Benoit: This Side Up, that is a superb LP recorded with great dynamic range and deep bass, so at least some mastering engineer did not compress it to death when he prepared the lacquers.

The new pressing I have of Kind of Blue is so good and so quiet that I am amazed what can come off an LP and at my tracking force I am not "plowing" through the grooves and certainly not anymore than the tape residue left behind by playing some mylar coated tape over and over. I can tell you that if anything is holding back that sound it would be the master tape that John Marks had a chance to hear with his visit with Mark Wilder about the SACD release. That is a great article to read. It would be great if there was another manufacturing run of that SACD.

And, it would be nice if SACD were REALLY alive today, but Sony killed it and the limited amount still coming out is hardly going to set the world on fire. No one can argue that there are many more turntables and new LPS being sold than SACDs or SACD capable players. I love SACDs, but I'm not crying over their loss. Sony screwed up and that is all there is to it. They don't care about high end audio anyway. Making one pair of $30K "statement" speakers is not a commitment to the audio industry.

Michael knows what he hears, and I know what I hear on my crappy turntables and what I hear is pretty remarkable coming from a "dead" format. I'll be long gone before any one starts manufacturing R2Rs and anyone supplies commercial R2R recordings. Good luck with that. They would duplicate them at such a fast speed anyway it wouldn't matter.

I would bet that with the speakers you have you SHOULD easily be able to hear the difference with one of the new QRP pressing. Give it a try and borrow a table from a friend. I'll bet a Debut Carbon is easily in your budget. I would hope so.

R2R versus records

Submitted by CEDUP on Sat, 2012-06-16 23:29.

I have a VPI MK III with 3 different HMW arms from VPI. Different cartridges on each....I know what a record can do, I know what DSD can do. That's why records are obsolete. I also have EMM Labs pre amp that upsamples any standard CD to 2X DSD. LIVE DSD on my Korg MR-2000S or MR1000 smokes anything on a record, I don't care who made teh record. How long can people trying to make a living off of obsolete products, keep telling the same BS storys? Why don't Rotary phones make a come back? It's ANALOG, click click click. Relay Relay logic....lets have operators back to connect your call, it was ANALOG! Mickey is milking the obsolete record for as much as he can, to make a living. He faield to do so, in so many other tries...he found his niche at telling storys. Ever wonder what he is really saying with all his reviews, that have no basis of FACT! Happy words, about how something he imagines. Take measurements, PROVE what he says. He can't. Won't even publish a legit hearing test, on those ears he says can hear demagnetized PLASTIC, but can't hear defective mis phased CD player, that cost $27,000...he thought it sounded great, cus he knew it was priced at $27K, how could it not!? A $500 Korg MR1, which I think is their smallest cheapest unit, will smoke his $150,000 TT, without teh need for magic lifts and supports!

Actually

Submitted by CEDUP on Sun, 2012-06-17 04:31.

PHILIPS pioneered SACD, and sold off it's stuff to Sony, and Sony didn't do anything with it. SACD was to replace standard CD, since the 17 year patent was off, SACD meant a new stream of money for PHILIPS. Who invented the CD and all things CD, including the jewel box it held all the patents. SACD even came in a different box. SACD/DSD still is the finast means of recorded sound. Bar none. LP is STILL OBSOLETE. Bar none. If it takes a $150,000 spinning platter to sound close to DSD, it's not a viable product. A good R2R machine in good shape will smoke MF's platter. Without magic supports and gadgets of the week to optimize it!