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Contributor I
November 9, 2024

Speaker(s) Recommendation for Vinyl

  • November 9, 2024
  • 32 replies
  • 561 views

What speaker(s) are best for playing vinyl via turntable and why would you recommend them?

 

Thanks in advance!

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32 replies

jgatie
November 10, 2024

 

 

Hence the copy is not an exact copy.

 

It is for the frequencies we can actually hear. 

Prodigy III
November 10, 2024

Even an analog process cannot result in an exact copy because the process adds noise and distortion and will probably not have an exactly uniform frequency response — assuming that the process bandwidth is as least as wide as the source. Even though a number of people consider an analog copy to be “perfect”, it’s always a little disheartening to compare copy 100, in a chain, with the original.

The real issue is: How well will the resulting copy fulfill its intended purpose?

 

 

Agreed. But I felt it was important that we avoid saying that a digital copy is an exact copy, because that misrepresents the conversion process.

But... IMO, pretty much everything else about a digital copy makes it superior, compared with analogue. I’ve heard “print through” on analogue mastered vinyl, and the steady high frequency deterioration as the stylus grinds away the surface of the record each time you play it, and the audible noise that gets added when you carry out multiple edits (Kraftwerk’s early albums were a great example of this, groundbreaking as they were) and a load of other analogue artefacts.

And yet some people prefer vinyl, for all its flaws. I hope the OP finds a good match for his turntable, within his budget (whatever that might be).

Stanley_4
Grand Maestro
November 11, 2024

 

It is for the frequencies we can actually hear. 

I can hear from DC to Xrays and hear the rattle of individual electrons as they circle the voice coils.

And on the Internet nobody can prove I can't. 

Prodigy III
November 11, 2024

I was not questioning Nyqyist. What I was questioning was spending £500-800 on a turntable to connect it to a relatively cheap pair of speakers that will have equally cheap ADC/DAC stages along with fairly powerful radio transmitters. Seems like a waste of money if you want good quality vinyl audio, where I would stand by my ‘non-answer’. (We’ll gloss over the fact that most vinyl pressings these days are cut from digital masters)

If you just enjoy the process of buying vinyl, and using it, then fine, but I’d go Era 300’s over Five’s as they have much more modern innards so won’t get dropped by Sonos so quickly in the future. 

 

DAC/ADC chips are commodity items, you don’t have to spend more than a few pennies for 100% accuracy.  The math behind them is over 100 years old.  

Again, I am not questioning any of the maths. Just the quality of components being used throughout the chain. 3.5mm to RCA lead probably cheap, input board electronics via USB-C, along with plenty of digital noise. 

You can spend £1000 on a pair of Sonos Five speakers for a turntable or £1000 on a stereo amplifier and a pair of speakers, which will be fully analogue. 

Unless I wanted to transmit the record all around the house, which is risky when the needle hits hits the run out groove and you’re not in the same room, then Sonos would not be the answer. If I wanted to occasionally do the above, adding a Port at some point might make more sense. In ‘party’ mode ultimate SQ isn’t the main thing, although vinyl during a party is a much riskier thing than an all digital play list. 

Prodigy III
November 11, 2024

Even an analog process cannot result in an exact copy because the process adds noise and distortion and will probably not have an exactly uniform frequency response — assuming that the process bandwidth is as least as wide as the source. Even though a number of people consider an analog copy to be “perfect”, it’s always a little disheartening to compare copy 100, in a chain, with the original.

The real issue is: How well will the resulting copy fulfill its intended purpose?

Let’s not forget RIAA curves used in cutting and playback for vinyl… there’s no probably about it. 

jgatie
November 12, 2024

Again, I am not questioning any of the maths. Just the quality of components being used throughout the chain. 3.5mm to RCA lead probably cheap, input board electronics via USB-C, along with plenty of digital noise. 

You can spend £1000 on a pair of Sonos Five speakers for a turntable or £1000 on a stereo amplifier and a pair of speakers, which will be fully analogue. 

Unless I wanted to transmit the record all around the house, which is risky when the needle hits hits the run out groove and you’re not in the same room, then Sonos would not be the answer. If I wanted to occasionally do the above, adding a Port at some point might make more sense. In ‘party’ mode ultimate SQ isn’t the main thing, although vinyl during a party is a much riskier thing than an all digital play list. 

 

When you start out by saying “I don’t see why people want to spend lots of money on turntables and connect to something that digitises the sound and then undoes it again to play on a speaker… 😉”, can you understand that people would consider that “questioning the maths”?  No mention of DAC quality (which is also an audiophile myth), no mention of cable quality (yet another myth), just “digitizes . . . and then undoes it”.

sigh
Prodigy II
November 13, 2024

What speaker(s) are best for playing vinyl via turntable and why would you recommend them?

 

Thanks in advance!

Unfortunately there isn’t a best for playback of any source not just vinyl.

The interaction between your room and the speakers has a big impact on sound so what sounds good to me in my room within my budget, doesn’t mean it would sound good to you in your room.

Depending on budget, if you just want Stereo playback I personally would use a 2.1 or 2.0 system with room correction over the mythical best speakers for listening to X. The room correction will give a more pleasurable sound and a 2.1 setup a wider choice of suitably sized speakers for a room than chasing down rabbit holes of signal purity and best speakers for X.

If you want your turntable integrated into a wider Sonos system I would connect it to a Sonos port and connect the port to either an AVR or the newer integrated stereo receivers/network streamers with sub outputs and room correction.

I have owned both the Sonos Port connected to a power amp and via an AVR as well as the Sonos Amp. Using the same Fyne Audio F500 and F300i + Sub speakers a £400 Yamaha RX-V4A with room correction produces a far nicer sound to me in my room than a Sonos Port or Amp connected to the same speakers. Depending on the music being played both the Port and Amp would over emphasise the bass and lack of room correction with limited audio controls meant the Port and Amp were more sensitive to speaker positioning and lacked consistency across sources.

I used to have the Sonos Port connected to a power amp and then later to my A6A with Amps in two other rooms where I listened to music. My actual Sonos speakers were only ever really used for background music and not a match for the Port/Amp + Passive speaker setups.

My personal preference for speakers would be Fyne Audio F700/F500 series. While my main room has always been easy to setup speaker wise and get a wide soundstage, with my current Fyne 5.2.2 setup the F700 as LR and F500 before them were very easy to place in the room.

Yes, I’m one of those double audio heretics, who not only uses 2.1 and room correction for stereo audio in some rooms, I also use my A6A for stereo audio listening as well as surround audio. With well mastered sources the width, height and depth of sound stage seems to defy the size of the room at times and the speakers disappear as a distinct source of sound.

The first time I listened to Dark Side of the Moon through them, the voices and effects played behind me so clearly I even checked if I’d accidentally enabled some upmixing in my A6A and it was using the rear speakers.

War of the worlds expands and contracts the sound stage in between and far wider than the speakers as it changes between the small enclosed locations and open spaces of the story. Martians whistle above and front to back, the cylinder unscrews off to the right beyond where the speaker is.

The downside is poor quality sources and masters sound poor. My main listening Fyne and A6A setup and V4As in other rooms with Fyne/Dali 2.1 setups don’t hide how poor they sound unlike other speaker setups I’ve had in the past.

Prodigy III
November 13, 2024

When you start out by saying “I don’t see why people want to spend lots of money on turntables and connect to something that digitises the sound and then undoes it again to play on a speaker… 😉”, can you understand that people would consider that “questioning the maths”?  No mention of DAC quality (which is also an audiophile myth), no mention of cable quality (yet another myth), just “digitizes . . . and then undoes it”.

I think that’s just the way your mind goes to be fair… I expect many would instead take a view of why digitise an analogue signal, when for most, the use of vinyl is about an analogue sound which Sonos is not. As I said, use a Port (via tape loop) if you want to be able to occasionally stream the audio around the house. Otherwise an all analogue signal path is much more natural for Vinyl, and for £1000 there are some very good analogue amplifier/speaker combinations available. 

Prodigy III
November 13, 2024

The downside is poor quality sources and masters sound poor. My main listening Fyne and A6A setup and V4As in other rooms with Fyne/Dali 2.1 setups don’t hide how poor they sound unlike other speaker setups I’ve had in the past.

This is definitely the biggest battle these days, especially with all the software ‘correction’ and loudness nonsense that gets applied to a lot of mastering. Can you believe they’ve put Freddie Mercury’s voice through Auto-tune on the new reissue of their first album? The mind boggles. 

jgatie
November 13, 2024

I think that’s just the way your mind goes to be fair… I expect many would instead take a view of why digitise an analogue signal, when for most, the use of vinyl is about an analogue sound which Sonos is not. As I said, use a Port (via tape loop) if you want to be able to occasionally stream the audio around the house. Otherwise an all analogue signal path is much more natural for Vinyl, and for £1000 there are some very good analogue amplifier/speaker combinations available. 

 

What makes it “much more natural” if the math (which you are “not questioning”) says there’s no difference?