Lampizator VP4 Silver: Can vinyl get to the level of digital and if so at what cost?

[Sampajanna]

+ It also looks SOOOOoooOO good on the shelves near the Horizon. SQ is 99% of my love for it, but just sayin’

 

[godofwealth]

What is wrong with that? In case it happens...(and will not)

Agreed. It’s always a good thing for a brand to diversify its portfolio. As this thread attests, folks who like Lampi DACs are more likely to try their other products. Brand loyalty is a powerful force in keeping a company healthy and profitable.

 

[Sampajanna]

When you are treated well and the product is great, loyalty is natural. The uptick with the VP4 was very apparent and not small.

 

[godofwealth]

Now that you are hooked on vinyl, the next step in your journey is to discover the truly mind blowing sound of mono recordings on vinyl played back on a true mono cartridge. As I’m typing this, I’m listening to the majestic sound of John Coltrane’s saxophone on one of his many famous mono albums recorded in Hackensack, New Jersey. I’m using a restored Garrard 301 turntable with a Miyajima Zero Infinity true mono cartridge (probably the best mono cartridge ever made). Vinyl’s true heights are only reached on mono recordings, IMHO. Once you hear that sound, you are forever changed.

You have to understand that the greatest recordings in jazz, folk, blues, rock and roll etc. from the 1920s-1960s were recorded and released in mono. The Beatles need to be heard in mono, not fake stereo. Ditto for Bob Dylan. Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, the list is endless. So, get a mono cartridge and buy some new or used vinyl in mono!

 

[Sampajanna]

Interesting. Thanks for the tip. I already bought one mono on accident of Django. I’d love to compare though!

 

[godofwealth]

Stereo on vinyl was always a compromise. The stylus has to track vertical and lateral modulations. It’s a miracle it works at all. A true mono cartridge like the Miyajima only tracks lateral groove modulations. That’s the only information on a true mono recording. The benefits are a huge increase in dynamics, tone color and almost complete freedom from surface noise. On the downside, you lose stereo! But on almost every recording made from 1920s-1960s, there was no stereo to begin with. It’s all fake. Like the “stereo” Beatles albums that were almost all recorded in mono. The Beatles personally supervised the mono album mastering. They knew that’s what almost everyone had in those days. Stereo was just a way for the studios to earn a few cents more on each album. There’s a reason the reissued Beatles in Mono vinyl sells for ridiculous amounts on eBay. It’s a collectors item now. Bob Dylan absolutely hated the fake stereo versions of his early classic albums: harmonica on one channel and his guitar on the other. Makes him disembodied. Even worse was the fake DSD multichannel mix that Sony was trying to peddle in later years to save the dying SACD business.

The joy of vinyl is hearing the great artists as they were meant to be heard. In most recordings from the big band albums to jazz to folk to popular to rock and roll, that is usually mono vinyl.