Help with the PJ vinyl (speakers wise)

vedderman

Hey! I am buying speakers for my audio system. Today i have been listening to some vintage pair of Tannoy Eaton hpd 295. I've been told that these speakers are high quality, but i was soon dissapointed after we listened to a few PJ lps. The sound quality was shit. I've been listening to PJ every day since '95 and i know the sound. I even thought mp3s sounded better than a vinyl. We listened to No Code, Binaural, Into The Wild and Riot Act on a very expensive turntable Clearaudio, with a cartridge worth $3500, and with a great pre-amp EAR 834P, and a great amplifier. All LPs were vacuum cleaned before.

Then we listened to some jazz records. It sounded good if not great.

Is it possible that these speakers don't suit rock/pop music at all?

What speakers do you use and how PJ music sounds like on your speakers?

Ron Burgundy

Absolutely! Some speakers sound better with different type of music.

However, I think the problem here is the PJ vinyls themself. I tried different set up and never manage to get a good sound.

High quality vinyls sound good on my system (Neil Young reissues, Miles Davis, Cat Stevens) so I gave up!

vedderman

Ron Burgundy wrote:

Absolutely! Some speakers sound better with different type of music.

However, I think the problem here is the PJ vinyls themself. I tried different set up and never manage to get a good sound.

High quality vinyls sound good on my system (Neil Young reissues, Miles Davis, Cat Stevens) so I gave up!

Thanks for your answer. Well, to be honest it's a shame if PJ's lps sound bad. I think their cds sound ok overall on most audio systems.
I was shocked today when we listened to No Code. The lack of tweeters was phenomenal! There was no character in the music at all. I would think the major part for this were the speakers. How could lp sound so much worse than a cd? It couldn't be. I have never heard anybody talk about PJ's vinyl sound bad.
However, I will try some different speakers to be sure. I hope i will find something good.

eddiec

How old is the stylus? I'd try out a new stylus for a $100 before you invest in $1000 speakers.

vedderman

eddiec wrote:

How old is the stylus? I'd try out a new stylus for a $100 before you invest in $1000 speakers.

This is a good idea. I don't know about the condition of the stylus that we tried today.

But tomorow i will definately try my first turntable which i bought today. It's Linn Axis with Alphason tonearm and A&R p77 cartridge. It has a new stylus. I use EAR 834P pre-amp and NAD C372 amplifier. Curently i am using JBL ES80 speakers.

DriftingByTheStorm

Those Tannoy Eaton HPD 295 speakers are from the mid 1970s, and it is quite possible\likely that the foam driver surrounds have rotted out \ failed.

If this is the case, it would affect the sound quality of all the vinyl that plays over it.

That being said,
if you listen to vinyl OBJECTIVELY, i think you will conclude that the nature of the beast is that it "sounds like shit".

I hate to be the anti-audiophile, but i own plenty of vinyl, and have played it over the years through several different setups.

Anyone who thinks that "snap-crackle-pop" is equivalent to "high fidelity", is seriously confused.

Also, as far as I know, NOT ONE PEARL JAM ALBUM WAS RECORDED & MASTERED IN FULL ANALOG.
The primary argument for vinyl was that it was an ANALOG recording medium. That meant, ***IF*** your music was ORIGINALLY recorded and mixed on TAPE and then MASTERED TO VINYL DIRECTLY, then the Vinyl would not SAMPLE the sound of the tape, but record ALL of the sound. This is opposed to more modern computerized recording techniques that rely on some level of "sampling" DURING the recording process. Assuming all of Pearl Jam's catalog was recorded DIGITALLY and THEN transferred back to analog (vinyl) there would be NO good argument for it sounding "better" at all. In fact, you could probably argue the opposite, especially since back in the day, Mastering Engineers were trained to master everything with the levels (particularly bass) set JUST RIGHT ***FOR*** the Vinyl to which they were ORIGINALLY recording the mix down to. Given that no engineers remain employeed with that original knowledge of "mixing for vinyl", i'm guessing no modern vinyl is really mixed for the proper medium in the first place.

Sorry for the lame and probably inaccurate rant.
(i know the Lost Dogs album shows plenty of "tape" so, who fucking knows how it was recorded)

PS -- See if you can find a vinyl copy of Mirrorball -- looks like it was recorded in full analog.

pps - comment from another board regarding Backspacer vinyl:

another board wrote:

Wow does the vinyl suck! 26 bucks for a piece of clipped out garbage. I can't believe the songs are suffering so much from the pre-mastered digital transfer. Simply unacceptable...see my post above for how good I think the songs are.

vedderman

DriftingByTheStorm wrote:

Those Tannoy Eaton HPD 295 speakers are from the mid 1970s, and it is quite possible\likely that the foam driver surrounds have rotted out \ failed.

Those speakers were fully restored and they looked like new. Also the foam driver is new.

vedderman

Ok today i listened to the same PJ lps on my new system.
Compared to yesterday's friend's system this is a different turntable, a different cartridge, a different amplifier and a different set of speakers (JBL E80). All these components are not "HIGH END AUDIO" compared to a system from yesterday.

All i can say is that PJs music sounded AWESOME on MY system No Code sounded so much better now. I even played a cd later and i can say vinyl sounds better. It has a more natural, warmer sound.

Now i can sleep well.

DewieCox

I've said it before, I'll say it again...If PJ is gonna go to the trouble to remaster their albums, they should do separate masters for vinyl and digital formats. Far as I know they recorded on tape through Riot Act. There's a tune here and there that sounds really good, but for the most part PJ has pretty average sounding vinyl.

DriftingByTheStorm

DewieCox wrote:

Far as I know they recorded on tape through Riot Act.

If that's true, then it would be a crime for them to not do separate masters. As you say.