It is on hiatus while we try to find someone who can fix the mimeograph machine.
The new compressed “louder” stereo ones, versus the new uncompressed mono ones.
The ones I’ve known, though I’ve not run in those circles for years. I still read Mix and a couple of other audio magazines, but I moved to video and computers in the 90s.
I have some excellent vinyl too, but it is such a pain to even approach the same level of quality that it is not worth it. As I said, in my experience, vinyl fans are fetishists. They love the act of playing a record - removing the object from the sleeve, handling it gingerly, cleaning it lovingly, placing it upon the alter, securing it with a clamp…
Been there, done that. Now I only do it when ripping something that has never been released on CD to hard disc.
I’ll argue that the best audio quality is obtained by playing from hard drive. If you rip from a CD with a top quality ripper, the resulting audio file will have fewer “concealed errors” than playing back the CD in real time.
The groove is cut into the raw lacquer with a device that is essentially a phono cartridge in reverse. Instead of the movement of the groove being transmitted via a shaft to a pair of magnetic pickups, the cutting head uses a pair of powerful electromagnets to move the shaft to cut the groove.
All bass energy has to be summed to mono. Not doing so could result in both electromagnets trying to pull the shaft in two different directions at the same time overheating the windings of the electromagnets and damaging them. I never caused this sort of damage myself, but the result is a very expensive thing to fix.
Between any two careful playings? No. But cumulatively? Yes.
Sorry it took me a while to notice this. I was distracted.
