it's audiophile audio foolery time again because i happened to come across this thread on the steve
hoffman music forums where i just noticed that my messages seem to have been put on
moderator approval because i dared to question the legitimacy of audiophile fuses ooh that's a hot
topic but that's not what we're talking about in this video instead we're talking about turntables
because this person noticed that in the latest audio advisor newsletter
they claimed that a high quality belt drive turntable removes 90 percent
of the record surface noise and allows many times the musical information to come through
compared to older direct drive turntables and as proof of that quote someone else
posted a scan of it where it says exactly that so i wanted to investigate that claim
i used to get these audio advisor catalogs in the mail but i don't anymore so i went on their
web site and i downloaded the latest issue of the catalog that they have available as a pdf
file now it says summer 2020 so i think maybe the people who get the catalogs in the mail
have gotten a newer issue of it since then but we'll look at what this one says
if we go to the turntable section
and right here it's a very similar quote but you notice instead of a high quality belt drive
turntable it just says a high quality turntable but otherwise it makes the same claim about
it removing 90 percent of the record surface noise as compared to older direct drive turntables
now let's just put aside the whole belt drive versus direct drive debate for a while
instead focus on this claim of any turntable being able to remove 90 percent of the surface
noise of a record which seems ridiculous because as the name suggests surface noise
comes from the surface of the record the dust and dirt and the scratches and scuffs and fingerprints
that's what causes surface noise not the turntable and not even rca victor's miracle surface records
containing the anti-static agent 317x claimed to be able to remove 90 percent of the surface noise
and even here they say dust is one of the chief causes of surface noise and premature wear
so the only thing that's actually proven to remove at least
90 percent of the surface noise of a record is to replace it with a cd
this company claims to have expert consultants and they say their audio specialists
are considered the most knowledgeable and experienced you'll find anywhere
but i think what they're actually talking about when they refer to record
surface noise is the noise generated by the turntable itself commonly referred to as rumble
so if that's what they're actually talking about they're claiming that a high quality and most
likely belt drive turntable removes 90 percent of the rumble compared to older direct drive
turntables and if you look in the specifications of almost any turntable it lists the rumble also
known as the signal-to-noise ratio so we can quantify what a 90 reduction of it would be
and yes i know that signal to noise ratio and rumble are not exactly the same thing because
signal-to-noise ratio includes all sources of noise in the system both electronic and mechanical
and is expressed as a positive number while rumble only involves the mechanical sources
of noise in the turntable and is expressed as a negative number
but in this case since we're only dealing with turntables that do not have a built-in
preamp there are no electronics in the audio signal path from the phono cartridge to the
turntable's output so therefore the difference between signal to noise ratio and rumble
is negligible and most people use the two terms interchangeably when talking about turntables
so here's a web site called what's a decibel and if you scroll down it has
a chart comparing decibels to percentage and it shows that a 90 percent power reduction
is equivalent to a reduction of 10 db so for this claim to be true the turntables
that this company is selling should have a signal-to-noise ratio or rumble
rating that's at least 10 db better than older direct drive turntables
and i happen to have one of those this is a technics sl-qd33
it was almost their bottom of the line direct drive turntable
from 1987. the only model below it was the sl-qd22 which was the same
thing except there was only a semi-automatic turntable while this one is fully automatic
so i printed out the specifications from its service manual and right here it lists the
rumble as -56 db DIN A unweighted and -78 db DIN B weighted most turntables only list
the weighted din b specification so i'll use that as the benchmark of comparison
so this older direct drive turntable from 1987 has a signal to noise ratio of 78 db
let's take a look at the turntables that audio advisor is selling and right here is their highly
desirable editor's choice the pro-ject debut carbon esprit sb dc selling for $599 with the high
gloss black red or white finish and $649 with the satin walnut finish which is what they show here
and here it is on project's website there's actually so much demand for
it that it's currently sold out if we scroll down and look at the specifications we can
see it as a signal-to-noise ratio of 68 db well that is 10 db different than the
old technics direct drive turntable except it's 10 db worse not better
so let's look at some higher priced turntables in this catalog because maybe they'll be better
here's the rega planar 3 it has a base price of $945 if you want to know which signal to noise
ratio or rumble who knows? they don't list any specifications not even on the manufacturer's web
site and that's true for all rega turntables they don't list any specifications you think if these
turntables are really that good they would want to brag about it but instead they keep it a secret
here's another pro-ject turntable in the catalog it's the x2 it sells for $1299
and on the web site they list it as having a signal-to-noise ratio of 70 db which is better
than the other one we looked at but still not as good as the old direct drive technics turntable
so let's go for broke and look at the most expensive turntable in the catalog
the vpi prime scout with a list price of $3249.95
with the phono cartridge or with no cartridge you can get the bargain price of $2499.95
it was the 2017 stereophile product of the year award winner and let's look at the specifications
here and you can see rumble 78 db doesn't that sound familiar well it should because that's
the same exact figure that technic specified for the old direct drive turntable from 1987
so that's how easy it is to disprove this claim that a high quality belt drive
turntable removes 90 percent of the record surface noise rumble or whatever you want to call it and
allows many times the musical information to come through compared to older direct drive turntables
all you need to do is some quick math to convert percentage into decibels
and then look at the manufacturer's specifications of the turntables this
company selling compared to an almost bottom of the line direct drive turntable from 1987.