So on getting back into the hobby again, I was getting records with my wife and she chose Lionel Richie's debut solo album. Without arguing the merits of the album itself-- I personally think it's pretty good-- I noticed on first play that at least one of the (inner) tracks was pretty rough in specific sections, distorted all to heck. Even my wife could hear it.
I figured it was evidence of my system being a work in progress, and that it could have been the cartridge or the tracking force being off or anti-skate or any number of other things... So when I went a-buying for a new turntable, I actually brought the record along to use as a test track. To my surprise, every table I tried it in sounded just as bad on that track: the Sansui I bought, a Marantz, a Dual belt drive model, and the seller's Pioneer. It was just the record atter all, and my system at home was not as bad as I'd believed!
Fast forward to today... I'm in a record shop and I find a copy of the same album in the racks, and the price is right. What the heck? I figure. It's cheap, and the one I have at home is obviously flawed.
I get home with the thing, throw it in the system... and it sounds exactly the same as the other one; distorted in the exact same parts!
So I'm left assuming that the recording is either a) really challenging for various tables to play correctly or b) mastered with significant distortion.
Have any of you encountered this situation before-- a record that just seems to be bad on every table you play it on, even on multiple separate copies of itself?
I figured it was evidence of my system being a work in progress, and that it could have been the cartridge or the tracking force being off or anti-skate or any number of other things... So when I went a-buying for a new turntable, I actually brought the record along to use as a test track. To my surprise, every table I tried it in sounded just as bad on that track: the Sansui I bought, a Marantz, a Dual belt drive model, and the seller's Pioneer. It was just the record atter all, and my system at home was not as bad as I'd believed!
Fast forward to today... I'm in a record shop and I find a copy of the same album in the racks, and the price is right. What the heck? I figure. It's cheap, and the one I have at home is obviously flawed.
I get home with the thing, throw it in the system... and it sounds exactly the same as the other one; distorted in the exact same parts!
So I'm left assuming that the recording is either a) really challenging for various tables to play correctly or b) mastered with significant distortion.
Have any of you encountered this situation before-- a record that just seems to be bad on every table you play it on, even on multiple separate copies of itself?