Nest Theater Part Eighteen ~ Back To Vinyl 26Apr22

Twenty years ago or so Kala & I sold our ~400 LP collection of 1st vinyl pressings to an enthusiastic record store associate. We asked jack shit for the lot, believing that digital/etc was the "exclusive" future. After all, I sold all my 8 Tracks, Cassettes, and the even my reel-to-reel recordings previously ~ I move on full bore. I don't rue the day exactly as digital is ultimately so convenient. In fact I've optimized the Nest Theater DAC and digital library as well as my headphone systems (drawing from a .flac library) around the digital content playback notion... I've profiled these setups previously and I don't believe I'm sacrificing and get an awesome liquid response and visceral experience. However, too much evidence, including objective dynamic range measurements of some albums, indicate that I was leaving something on the table as to sound capable from the vaunted Nest Theater. Too, listeners in the know have commented they'd like to hear vinyl on the Nest Theater. So, with no further ado, I have added an "entry level" audiophile (that's my price point) phono setup to the Nest Theater, and I even bought some vinyl. Gear is described below.

Specifically I have a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Evo turntable with a Sumiko Ranier MM (moving magnet) cartridge. Since my hand built 300B SET amp does not include a phono stage pre-amp, I had to add one of those too, in order to amplify the ultra-low signals from the cartridge ~ for this I chose the Pro-Ject Tube Box DS2, an ECC83 tube pre-amp. This stuff is designed in Vienna and built in the Czech Republic and together the items cost ~$1,500 before interconnect cabling (though decent ones were included with the turntable). I also bought 6 pcs of vinyl to test A vs D: Phoebe Bridgers' Punisher, Reina del Cid's Morse Code, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway's Crooked Tree & Molly Tuttle's When You're Ready, Waxahatchee's St Cloud, and LSD's Obviously. If it shows promise, as Kala is rightfully concerned it might, I'll get new stuff in vinyl LPs since they often also allow me access to the .flac files or even hi-res downloads along with the vinyl purchase... unless I ramble through a vinyl shop. I also have to build another level onto my blackened Russian birch gear rack to hold the turntable & phono pre-amp; I'll ultimately make a matching vinyl holder. Here's the electronic and electro-mechanical stuff naked. Sweet satin black to match the rest.

I took a couple of days to add a deck to the gear rack... dang finishing wood takes days, and I had to mess again with black stain and polyurethane. The new level accommodated the phono subsystem as well as the all new digital music source for JRiver MC28. Tearing down a perfectly good system to only potentially improve it.

Adding a turntable required I again re-jigger audio paths - the existing setup would not have allowed use of the supertweeters or subwoofer when playing LPs. I removed the NAD amp from the mix and ran the XLR>RCA  out from the DAC to the amp and now directly drive the mains & supertweeters in parallel  from the 300B SET amp (they are same impedance and the Viawave tweeters can handle the unadulterated full spectrum). I send line level out from the DAC to the subwoofer simultaneously. Currently I don't have subwoofer output when playing LPs, but for D-A compares I just turn the sub off.

Anytime I rebuild to this extent I need to re-balance and re-equalize the system. The first task is to make sure the sub and the mains are right to deliver a clean low end. For this I take a dozen SPL measurements of the full system driven each 1/3 octave with pink noise from 16Hz to 200Hz. I then average 5 measures below my 80Hz "crossover" and 5 measures above that and adjust the sub gain so these averages are equal - that's my way of flattening the bass response. This is an "advanced" scheme but so necessary as many sub schemes are way too boomy on the low end.

I think it will make a very tough battle for the vinyl to best digital, as it delivers it's signal unadulterated to the DRC BLHs, which are not equalized on this path either. We'll see how I sense it all in the longer run. It does take me back searching the vinyl crates and checking the cool covers ~ but the sound and music matter most. I will also try to find some scheme to objectively compare vinyl and digital ~ after all, dynamic range, frequency range and spectral density can all be measured for each of these mediums. More on subjective listening comparisons with the vinyl I acquired, as well as objective measurements, in an update or future post.

UPDATE 10May22 - Vinyl storage rack is done and an initial cache of LPs is acquired. I finished the rack with the same Russian birch plywood, black stain and satin polyurethane as I did the gear rack and speakers. Looks nice.

I "filled" the rack with an initial set of LPs. That's Molly Tuttle's limited edition red vinyl in my hand. Past promotion time LPs can be scored fairly inexpensively but are often the lighter <140 gram variety. Audiophile viny at 180 grams is expensive. I went cheap but got some limited editions in the effort and some LPs came with download codes for "CD" quality digital versions.

• Lake Street Dive - Obviously - white - local shop in Dillon
• Jade Bird - Different Kinds of Light - red x 2 45rpm - Online Discogs.com
• Jade Bird - Jade Bird - black - deepdiscount.com
• Reina del Cid - Morse Code - black - bandwear.com
  
• Molly Tuttle - When You’re Ready - LE red w/ DL code - deepdiscount.com
• Molly Tuttle (& Golden Highway) - Crooked Tree - black w/ DL code - amazon.com
• Mysterines - Reeling - black - deepdiscount.com
• Waxahatchee - St Cloud - black w/ DL Code - deepdiscount.com
• Phoebe Bridgers - Copycat Killer - LE mtn blast w/ DL code - phoebefuckingbridgers.com
• Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher - black w/ HD DL code - phoebefuckingbridgers.com