The Vinyl Anachronist: The Good Stuff

By Marc Phillips

June 2006

Technics SL1200

Stop the presses! Some audiophiles can be snobs!

A few years ago, I got my first writing gig for a print audio magazine. I can't tell you how excited I was, envisioning tons of expensive audio equipment floating in and out of my living room at a steady pace. I had finally made it! I had the job of my dreams!

So imagine my disappointment when I was told by the publisher that while my system “was nothing to sneeze at,” I wouldn't be an equipment reviewer since the magazine concentrated on only the best gear available. My Spendor SP100 speakers, my Rega Planar 25 with an Exact cartridge, and my Naim separates and Naim CD player weren't quite up to snuff, apparently. So I was brought on as a music reviewer, with the promise that the magazine would help me, over the ensuing years, assemble a system worthy of an equipment reviewer. I was thankful for the opportunity, but deep down, all I could think was, “What a snob! My system is already great!”

The irony, of course, is that the magazine went under less than a year later, and now that publisher is a lowly equipment reviewer for an on-line audio web site. And my audio system, in my opinion, has easily surpassed his, although he would never admit that, since he's one of those guys who believes in “one true sound,” and I'm sure he'd dismiss my exotic handmade Japanese SET amplification, high-efficiency speakers, and British source components as being on the audio “fringe.” (He disliked all British hi-fi, too, which seems downright insane to me now.)

In other words, I know what it's like to have someone look at my system and sniff at it disapprovingly. It doesn't feel all that great. I know that many audiophiles take months to scrape together a few hundred dollars, buy a modest component based upon reviews, and are then told by some audio snob that their component is crap, that they're really not an audiophile, and that they should have bought something that costs many times more. Having a buying decision invalidated like that stings a little. It makes you angry.

The 1200 army

Those of you who follow my audio exploits outside of New Zealand know that I've spent the last year or so making quite a few audiophiles angry by dissing the venerable Technics SL1200 turntable. The “1200 Army,” as I now call them, are large in number, and quite passionate. I truly underestimated their fervor when I wrote, several times in fact, that a direct-drive, mass-produced turntable such as the SL1200 sounded terrible in comparison with a decent belt-drive 'table, something like, oh, maybe a Rega Planar 3. The nasty e-mails started flooding in. The audio forums were abuzz. People were saying that I didn't know what I was talking about. Others said that I had alienated a huge chunk of the audio community by bashing the Technics. One guy said that I had jumped the shark, and that my column was no longer worth reading.

Having my column invalidated like that stung a little, I admit. It made me angry. So I made a concerted effort to listen carefully to the 1200. I wanted to give it another chance. My opinions of it, after all, were based on the fact that I had heard many of them years ago, and they never excited me. It was an AR ES-1 and a Rega Planar 3 that fueled my enthusiasm for analog playback through the Vinyl Dark Ages, which lasted from the late '80s until just before the turn of the century. If I had kept the Technics 'table I owned back in 1982 or so, I probably wouldn't be writing these columns now. I would have lost interest.

So I was able to listen to a stock 1200 a few weeks ago, and again it didn't do much for me. But the 1200 Army persisted, telling me first that I needed to hear a 1200 that had been modded by KAB, and then that I needed to hear one with a different arm, like a Rega RB300 or an old SME. Then I was told that a decent cartridge really brought out the true potential of the Technics. I was contacted by another audio reviewer, Danny Kaey, who graciously invited me to his home to hear a Technics SL-1210Mk5SE (a slightly more refined version of the 1200) with an Ortofon Kontrapunkt B cartridge, which cost at last twice as much as the 'table.

And yes, it sounded pretty good. I thought the soundstage lacked depth, and that the low bass was a little bloated, but for the most part it sounded very competitive in its price range. This was a turntable I could actually recommend to people. But then I started looking at the rest of the system. He had a Yamamoto Sound Craft SET amp like mine, an exotic tubed preamp from NAT, and a pair of Zu Audio Definitions, which run about US$9000 a pair. And he had that superb Ortofon cartridge. That system was comprised of the Good Stuff. I started thinking that even a Technics couldn't have hurt that system that much.

Yes, the Good Stuff. That's the problem...once you've heard the Good Stuff, it's hard to go back. I have a lot of Good Stuff in my system now, which makes it hard for me to recommend $100 cartridges or $300 turntables. Another publisher I know says it best, that the Good Stuff really is much better than the budget stuff. It's not snake oil. The Law of Diminishing Returns really doesn't come into play that much. There is a clear delineation between the stuff that “sounds good for the money,” and the Good Stuff. You don't listen critically to the Good Stuff, meticulously noting the lack of grain in the upper-mids, or the exact depth of the soundstage in relation to the actual recording venue. You get swept away by the Good Stuff. It sounds right. And you know it instantly...it doesn't take months of critical listening.

Unfortunately, for a lot of people pull out the class card when it comes to the Good Stuff. They love to point out the exorbitant six-figure price tags of some of this gear. They consider it folly, the realm of those who simply have too much money. They don't understand that the Good Stuff doesn't necessarily have to cost a lot of money. They don't think about the wisdom of buying the Good Stuff on the used market. My Yamamoto Sound Craft A-08S 45 amplifier looks and sounds exquisite, yet costs less than some mediocre-sounding solid state amps. And I'm listening to a pair of speakers right now, the Devore Fidelity Gibbon Super 8s, which are not exactly cheap (US$4000 per pair), but surpass my expectations in every conceivable way.

Still, there is a lot of contempt for the Good Stuff, and the audio snobs who listen to it. I recently angered someone while discussing setting the correct VTA. Here was a guy who actually made charts and graphs noting the correct VTA setting for every LP he owned. He even went as far as to buy a set of digital calipers to measure the thickness of every record. He told me that a ten-thousandth of a millimeter made a difference. And what turntable did he own? You guessed it...a Technics SL1200. He told me that getting the exact VTA setting made a bigger difference in sound than in using a much more expensive 'table. And when I disagreed, he went ballistic. I though he was going to send out a Bolivian hit squad.

Bad tracking

This happened again when I wandered into a discussion about which cartridges are the best trackers. I have to admit that I've always been a little confused by this, since I don't think I've ever owned a cartridge that could be considered a bad tracker. They all seemed to stay in the grooves pretty darned well. I've always thought that bad tracking had something to do with those test LPs that had tracks designed to make a needle jump out of its groove. Then, I realized that when these guys talk about bad tracking, they're actually talking about inner-groove distortion, which doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the cartridge itself. It could be the fault of the pressing, or the tonearm, or just having the turntable set up properly. When I suggested this, however, and that I didn't have these problems with the Good Stuff, I was again called a snob.

AudioEnz publisher Michael Jones sent me an e-mail when he witnessed this particular exchange. We both agreed that these people who obsess over things like VTA and tracking are not necessarily using the Good Stuff. But there is no nice way to say that without sounding like an insufferable audio prig. The truth is, there is a lot of fun in getting the most performance out of modest equipment. An every audiophile worth his salt starts off at the bottom and works up slowly, over many years. It's a journey, and it's what makes the hobby so much fun. I've met plenty of audiophiles lately who are new to the hobby, and had the resources to buy the Good Stuff right from the beginning. I think they're missing something.

But there's no reason to hate the Good Stuff. And there's no reason to bash modest equipment, either. After the SL1200 debacle, I learned my lesson. But if you'll pardon me, I'm off to listen to some of the Good Stuff!

Marc Phillips has been writing about hi-fi and music under the Vinyl Anachronist banner since 1998. His earlier columns can be found on the Perfect Sound Forever website. You can discuss vinyl with Marc at Vinylanach@aol.com

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