Volume level between changes in a given system is a basic one…and one of most abused. A simple app on a smart phone will let you know if you have a significant change there. Comparing between systems can only really be done if the recording is made by the same gear and (again) with levels controlled. Hear an IPhone makes sense because almost everyone has one.
But if you want to give people the clearest picture of your system’s overall quality and you want people to best hear relative changes in your system and they have to listen remotely, then recording with high quality gear makes a lot of sense.
Brad I agree with you that matching the volume would have been better. Perhaps even a mistake to post the videos without volume matched. I will likely never hear the end of it from you and microstrip and Al and the other vocal critics. However I tried to explain up thread that I made the first video a month or two ago and did not record the volume setting on my preamp that has no digital display. I did not count the clicks and make a note of it for every video I made in the last year.
I had no idea that I would have this other turntable in my system when I made that video. I could’ve made five different videos approximating the volume and then uploaded each one to YouTube and then chosen the one that most closely matched it and then share a link to that particular video. I was not willing to put in that amount of effort.
Regarding the two videos of Saint James infirmary which were made a few days apart, I should indeed have recorded the volume and simply moved the arm from one to the other with the same volume and made another recording. I did not think of doing that and it was a grave mistake. I don’t know what else to tell anyone. Perhaps I’ll do it in the future but frankly the constant challenge for everything I do on this thread makes me reconsider whether or not sharing anything is worth the trouble. There is a point at which I’d rather just listen to the music and not share everything. I have learned what I want to learn from these turntables.