shure vn5xmr tracking question

I have a shure vn5xmr cartridge, with a new stylus, and it sounds great, but sometimes I can hear a very low volume start of the next song before it begins. It does'nt seem to hurt the sound quality, and does'nt happen all the time. Any ideas?

 

It's print through from the analog tape and has nothing to do with your turntable or needle.

 

Do you have the brush down? Some people say that it will cause exactly what you're describing to happen.

 

It doesn't on mine.

Go to this thread and read post #3.

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=41574

 

Pre-echo is fairly common on vinyl disks. Whether it's audible/noticeable depends on a load of things, like playback volume and the amount of noise your TT makes anyway.

I'd doubt it's print through on tape; we are dealing with (hopefully) professionals at the mastering stage and they know what they're doing in terms of tape storage and handling.

 

If it's vinyl pre-echo, then that will occur about 2 seconds before the actual sound. If ot's not close to that, it may be tape print through.

 

So there's nothing wrong with the V15 VxMR cartridge. In actuality, it's a flaw with the mastering of the record (as mentioned, it's pre-echo). From what I had read, it's something to do with letting the master lacquer (the master cut disc) sit for too long before making the negatives used to make the "mother disc" that's used to make the stampers which in turn makes the records. If one is familiar with auto body and lacquer painting, what may look like a smooth paint job the first week may reveal sanding marks once the lacquer "shrinks" weeks later (and I'm sure this is the same with cutting the master lacquer - if it shrinks before plating, it'll deform enough to cause the adjacent ones to deform slightly enough to cause echo). I'm sure there may be other variables that I am not familiar with, but simply said, it's a record mastering fault (and not a fault with your cartridge/stylus setup).

 

There's no such thing as vinyl print through.

 

Yes, there is, or sort of... It's the "negative" side of each groove. It happens when grooves are very thin or very thight. The "silent" - "smooth" - groove has a very tenuous negative image of the next track.

 

This would explain why it does not hapen on my s+p roy orbison's all time greatest, which I read was made with much care by Steve and Kevin Grey, and sounds out of this world wonderful.

 

Technically, you're right, there's no such thing as vinyl print through, though in actuality, it seems exactly like a form of "print-through" when the record is played. The flaw actually occurs during the disc mastering process when the initial lacquer disc is cut (not when the vinyl disc itself is made). The vinyl pressed disc itself simply replicates the error of the master lacquer (since the error will show up in all subsequent steps).

 

My copy of Straight Up (German Electrola) has some "pre-echo." A few of my other discs do, perhaps Walls and Bridges. Most of my discs do not. You'd think this kind of defect would be caught on the first test-listen of the lacquer or mother or whenever the engineer first QC's the product. Then again, maybe the record labels don't care. The fact that it's relatively common says a lot about the industry, IMHO.

 

I've heard people say that as well. But to my ears, the sound of the brush is more of a low-level "wind" noise. Very ghostly and indistinct. It sounds like groove noise but more harmonic. It doesn't bother me much but I don't use the brush much anyway.

And for some reason, most LPs I've heard suffer from some degree of groove echo. I'm always surprised when I hear that some people have never noticed it.

Also, I wonder if stylus length has anything to do with how much groove echo is audible?