There is lots of noise in the HIFI press about the revival of LP records and some extraordinary claims which defy scientific evidence and logic.
For some reason HIFI journalists seem to be going over the top when making subjective assessments of the performance of turntables.
Many journalists make reference to timing issues. If the speed of the turntable varies too much you can often hear changes to the pitch of instruments as a result of wow and flutter. If your turntable's speed varies too much then instruments such as the clarinet and piano can be heard to vary their pitch.
The best turntables maintain their speed with sufficient accuracy to ensure that you cannot hear wow and flutter affecting the pitch of an instrument. A mis-placed spindle hole in the actual LP itself can also cause wow and flutter and a mechanical solution to this problem is difficult and expensive.
HIFI magazines of course measure wow and flutter and make comparisons - all well and good. In general most modern turntables keep wow and flutter under control and generally the more expensive tables do a better job than the cheaper ones. However, if you do not set up your turntable with some precision you can suffer from wow and flutter no matter how much money you have paid. Even using greasy fingers on a turntable belt could cause speed variations.
I don't have too much problem with HIFI journalists making comments on wow and flutter from subjective point of view as long as they are balanced by evidence and objectivity.
I do have a problem when HIFI journalists compare turntables with their ability to reproduce the sequence in which notes are played. The wave form of a piece of music is embedded within the grove of an LP record. The only way that the sequence of notes could be varied would be to cut into the vinyl and make splices just as you could do with a cassette tape. This is really not possible. It would be possible to alter the sequence of notes electronically but this defeats the the point of HIFI reproduction. HIFI journalists are talking tripe with reference to this.
Many HIFI journalists also seem to be looking at LP sound reproduction through rose coloured glasses probably just because it is an analogue system which they claim to have almost infinite resolution. There is no doubt that you could create an analogue recording system with near infinite resolution. But, not with systems using lathe cutters to produce LP masters and stamping machines to produce the final product. The whole system of LP production is riddled with errors. A turntable and cartridge using a diamond stylus cannot improve upon those errors. To achieve error free transcription we are talking about using non-frictional transcription devices which store the wave form on a storage device to be read by a non-frictional means. Such a system would would probably involve lasers. This type of analogue system would be very expensive and would hardly improve upon digital recording methods such as CD or "HiRes" digital files. Would we be able to hear the difference anyway? Once again HIFI journalists are talking tripe when they claim that LP has a greater potential for HIFI reproduction than well implemented digital sound recording and sound reproduction.
It really is time for HIFI journalists to become more objective and professional in their judgements.
