ANALOG vs DIGITAL - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

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on modern computers. Both are in our
Audiophile Store. We have our eye out
for a better optical cable if there is one,
but we’ve come up empty so far.
Incidentally, though there are proquality
Firewire DAC’s still on the
market, Firewire itself seems poised to
vanish, to be overtaken by Thunderbolt,
the new high-speed interface developed
jointly by Apple and Intel, which has
replaced Firewire on current Macintosh
computers.
I am looking for a replacement turntable
mat. I’m wondering if you have a
10 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
preference for a felt or a cork mat, or
maybe another type I haven’t considered?
I have a Denon DP-23f turntable.
Mark Boutcher
SHERWOOD PARK, AB
Mark, the ideal turntable design is
the sort that doesn’t need a mat at all,
because then, with a clamp, you can get
the best possible rigidity of the system,
and therefore recover the most detail.
Few turntables are designed that way,
however, and a felt mat is the best compromise,
damping any possible ringing
of the platter, but maintaining good
rigidity. Mats made from cork, rubber,
and other resilient materials will have a
devastating effect on resolution.
We should add that, notwithstanding
what we’ve just said, some people
do buy such mats and swear that they
hear a huge improvement. There are
two possible reasons for the perceived
improvement. If the turntable, arm and
cartridge are mediocre, losing detail can
seem like a good thing, because artificial
detail can be annoying. And a thick mat
(some aftermarket mats are plenty thick)
will raise the record, which has the same
effect as lowering the tone arm, and
thereby affecting the vertical tracking
angle of the cartridge. A tone arm that
is too low will result in exaggerated lows
and wooly highs. Wooly highs might
seem like a bad thing, and it is, but if
those highs were harsh and unmusical
in the first place, rolling them off might
seem to offer welcome relief.
We’d go with felt.
I am considering the purchase of an
11-year-old Linn Genki CD player, and I
would ask what type of laser/mechanism
it utilizes. The excellent review of the
Linn Genki (in UHF Magazine No. 59)
is not clear enough in this matter. In
one place it reads, “the drawer is about
three times as tall as that of the Ikemi.
It belongs to the Philips CD-12 PRO
transport, the same one used by a
number of other manufacturers.” In
another “Linn’s custom-built transport
(used in the Ikemi and the CD-12) actually
doubles the cost of the player.”
Could you make it clear, please.
Jan Jedlinski
WARSAW, Poland
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