‘I am shopping for a turntable, but most information I find on audiophile blogs is for jazz or classical music. I like electronic and experimental music. Can you please advice on selection of turntables, arms and cartridges?’
to which I replied:
I must say that I am too inexperienced with turntables to give any advice.
But in general I can tell you that the genres you listen to are not that important; what is important is what you need to get out of your music listening on an emotional level.
What is the experience you are looking for?
You can only make this clear to yourself and you are the only one that can decide/feel if a certain turntable + arm + cartridge is delivering this, in your system.
If I have learned something from listening together with other enthusiasts, it is that you cannot trust anybody but yourself.
So you will have to start your own journey.
I advice you to get a turntable + arm + cartridge combination that—
- you admire, or at least respect;
- that makes you want to play records every day and buy more every week;
- has a cartridge that is compatible with your phono preamp;
- whose price is in harmony with what you paid for the rest of your system.
enjoy, —ps
Hi Peter,
ReplyDeleteI got the exact same email. My reply was similar to yours. It seems to be a common practice nowadays to look for the answer on the internet about how something sounds. You are so right on this: Nobody can answer this in a meaningful way for other people. Those who give answers to such questions probably know as much about audio as the one who asked, since they don't get this and think their opinion has general validity.
Thomas
thanks for the thumbs-up, Thomas
DeleteHi Peter and Thomas... I also got the VERY same email from "Guillame"... I was trying to elaborate a similar reply, aehm, maybe less cleverly written, maybe... BUT then, something clicked and I someway found this email SO badly posted that it was - sort-of - "offending" all the time and dedication and knowledge and passion and expense the typical audio scholar spends on the matter... such a question was way too broad and imperfect at same time... which is not "wrong", but nonetheless it sounded like "Find a wife for me!" or something... so - to my regret - I trashed it and called it Spam.
Deleteso, who is going to be my next audio buddy who got the very same email? ;^}
DeleteHi! And there are many people out there who almost feel obliged to answer such a question. It probably gives an ego boost and the feeling of being knowledgeable. I actually know some people like that. I even witnessed a situation where someone whom I know gave detailed descriptions about the sound of a amp or preamp. The interesting part: I know for sure that he never heard the component under question himself. So much for 'sound' advice... ;-)
ReplyDeleteThomas