What a waste of money
Posted by: woodface on 31 January 2002
I refer of course to my recent purchase of the Hi-fi News Test Record! I honestly could not get any sense out of the thing! The channel test was fine but the bias was just plain annoying. No matter what I did the sound hardly seemed to change and even more annoying there was no clear instructions as to what effect various bias adjustments should have! I think these devices are psychosematic (yes I know I have spelled that word incorrectly), one hour of listening to some dumb pilot tone and any music you play will suddenly sound miraculous! What a waste of an evening! And what is the point of the 'torture track', it's probably only there to make you buy one of Len Gregory's cartridges. Has anybody else had similar experiences or am I just not anal enough?
Posted on: 31 January 2002 by Tony L
quote:
I refer of course to my recent purchase of the Hi-fi News Test Record! I honestly could not get any sense out of the thing! The channel test was fine but the bias was just plain annoying.
I have not got a copy, but do own a couple of earlier equivalents such as the New Hi-Fi Sound and Hi-Fi for Pleasure disks. I have to admit that I find these to be of little use and tend to set everything by ear using music.
This covers how I set up my turntable: Anti-skate thread...
Tony.
Posted on: 31 January 2002 by woodface
That was really helpful. In effect i need to listen to a mono record, preferably a dynamic one and adjust from there. At the moment my bias and tracking are the same but the conensus seems to be that the bias should be slightly less. Ideally the image should be central rather than either left or right? I'm not sure I see the point in starting at zero bias though as surley this is never going to be correct? I suppose some people just love to tinker! As regarding tracking i suppose you start somewhere between the manufacturers recommendations and go from there. My OC9 is on 1.6g at the moment which feels about right.
Posted on: 31 January 2002 by Tony L
quote:
I'm not sure I see the point in starting at zero bias though as surley this is never going to be correct?
Consider it a learning stage - it is useful to start with 'wrong' then it is easier to hear what happens when it gets 'right' and eventually you overshoot to 'wrong' again. It was something that I needed to learn how to hear, at first I was not quite sure what to listen for initially.
As with anything to do with hi-fi what you are after is a cumulative effect - nailing the anti-skate bang on is a noticeable beneficial effect, but combined with the correct alignment, VTA, and tracking force, the total effect is massively better than at the start. It is an evening very well spent.
Tony.
Posted on: 31 January 2002 by Rob Doorack
As someone who frequently changes cartridges and arms I think the Hi Fi News Test LP - and especially the antiskating test bands - is an indispensable tool. I bought a second copy to save for the future when I've worn out the primary copy. The AS tracks aren't hard to use: play the track, listen for distortion and / or breakup (headphones make this easier), and adjust AS until the distortion goes away. You should note that the fourth AS test track is a very very difficult test. Based on my experience and that of others on Vinyl asylum I suspect that the only cartridge that can play the 4th anti-skating track cleanly is a Shure V15.
Posted on: 31 January 2002 by woodface
I had another play this lunchtime using James Brown 'Black Caesar' which is dynamic to say the least! Using no bias I still got separation between centre, left and right but it was very muddy sounding. I adjusted the bias until it started to sound brighter and more lively and in the end I settled on 1.6g and 1.5 bias. This seemed about right. I found that this record responded quite well to heavy tracking but when I listened to KOB it had no life. In the end this tinkering has all but driven me mad and I am looking forward to listening to music again!
