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