The Forgotten Element - November 2022

As we approach winter and the heating season, I thought it timely to make you think about an important element: Water.

As your heaters begin to work, one of the common side effects of their use, more so than air conditioning, is the drying out of your home. You notice this with door jams, cabinets, and all sorts of things. For those of us who have pianos, controlled humidity is essential to preserve adhesives of different materials to wood like the felt on a hammer to the wood used to hold it. Sudden change in humidity sets off rapid contractions that may disrupt the attachment of adhesives. It can, as well, affect speakers erupting in the sudden appearance of unforeseen rattles or buzzes.

The most common experience involves you: static shock. This frequently happens as you walk across a carpet and touch a metal object that is grounded. ZAP! With today’s electronics and touch panels, I have seen where they become “locked up” by such a static shock. 99% of the time, simply turning off the product and turning it back on will suffice to bring it back to life. Sometimes you may also need to unplug the device for a few minutes and then start the product again.

Another common area this happens is with playing LPs, records, vinyl or whatever term you have for those black discs (fun intended on that one). Some companies have made a nice living by selling things like specially treated felt mats to static guns like Zerostat. They can work pretty well. But, I would like to suggest an entirely different approach, one that is inexpensive and can be healthy for you (those who suffer nose bleeds know this) IF DONE RIGHT.

It is called adding humidity. There are humidifiers, vaporizers, and even pretty cool lighted fountains. All of these are capable of solving humidity levels in your home. Along with one of these you should have a humidity monitor and these are very cheap and sold all over the place. I sell them as well and try to keep my house to 30 to 40% during the winter months.

Now, and this is really important, you MUST care for these devices using water. Not only should you use distilled water to avoid damaging the unit with mineral deposits but you also need to use some form of anti-bacterial treatment once in awhile and preferably, weekly. For vaporizers, cleaning with a little bleach is quite effective. Now some folks might flinch at spending a little for safety but given today’s medical charges, it’s incredibly cheap. If you have a humidifier on your furnace, remember to keep that clean as well. Remember, chlorinated water is only effective for so long and just add a bit of airborne dirt or dander and that pretty much finishes that. Just think about your pet’s water dish outside and you get the picture.

So, as always, happy and safe listening! -Lou

A Few Basic Rules For Speaker Cables - October 2022

First off, I am not going to venture into the controversial world of brands, designs, sound, and such.

There are a thousand different opinions with millions of participants all using all sorts of terms, which, if spoken to a real musician or band, would leave them wondering what drug you were using to either buy it or avoid it.

Instead I want to address some basic fundamentals. In general, speaker cable lengths should be kept to a minimum. The longer the length, the greater the resistance. This typically starts to really show up in most basic systems once you exceed about 10 feet. There are certainly important differences at shorter lengths with more serious systems. As you exceed 10’ there is a growing loss of clarity, again, with most receivers or amplifiers. This is because most amplifiers are designed around an 8 ohm load. So, adding 2 or more ohms can be, and often is, a significant proportional change. One of the ways around longer cable lengths if one has a preamp to power amp combination, is to use long interconnects from the preamplifier to the amplifier. Preamps are usually designed around the 50 to 100 thousand ohm load so adding a few ohms here or there has electrically very little impact.

Another typical issue is excess cable length for all sorts of reasons. The common mistake is to neatly coil up that excess and stuff it some place. This is a bad idea. Depending upon the excess length and the tightness of the coil, you end up creating an inductor. Inductors store energy in a magnetic field and in the process oppose any changes in current through them. In short, the amplifier ends up working harder to achieve the volume you want while also affecting both dynamics and clarity. So, what do you do? Well, go to the hardware store, buy some wire ties and lap the cable back and forth on top of itself and tie it tight. This is not a perfect solution but certainly substantially better than creating a coil.

Q: So, Lou, do you know of any tricks particularly when dealing with different cable lengths for stereo and home theater? Glad you asked. Yes, but you need to do a little homework or work with a good dealer. Depending upon the lengths, you change, with proper electrical calculations, the gauge of the wire. Shorter runs will have a lighter gauge than longer ones, basically. Some manufacturers do make different cables that allow you to do this easily. Others may not.

Just one more thing and I have seen this recently. How about splicing cables? Ah, no! You end up creating all sorts of issues the least of which is the potential for creating a short and blowing up the amplifier section of whatever you are using. At the very least, a fuse can be blown. At worst, a wonderful pyrotechnic display.

There truly is a great deal more to talk about when it comes to speaker cables after 40 years of experience but that is best covered in my store as it can vary case by case. Lou

Used Phono Cartridges: A Basic Understanding - September 2022

You can go many places, like eBay, to find where used phono cartridges are being sold.

At the time of this writing, there are over 550 listed with nearly 400 sold. Is this a good idea? In short, not really. There are a number of issues when buying a used cartridge or stylus.

First off, there is the basic mechanical nature of them. With few exceptions, either moving magnet or moving coil cartridges or styli are constructed with some form of flexible suspension. This allows the cantilever, which holds the actual “needle” to move freely in the record groove to pick up the vertical amplitudes (vibrations). When first produced, they are compliant in flexibility as designed. However, like anything that is flexible, time, heat, and pollution, takes a toll on that flexibility. As they do, their flexibility (compliance) is changed taking it out of the original specifications of performance. Simply put, they do not sound as good. Oh yes, they still work to some greater or lesser degree but not as originally designed. This happens whether or not the turntable is used. It’s time and the environment ticking away. Depending upon where you live, this life cycle happens over a 3 to 5 year span. With moving coils, it can happen more quickly. If the pollution is bad, it can shorten the life to about 2 years. I have a customer from Los Angeles where pollution was so dreadful he even had to replace his wetsuits for scuba diving every 2 years! So, buying a used cartridge or stylus is a real pig in the poke and rarely is it a “bargain.” Now I understand that some companies are simply gone and you can only find used ones or some off brand of a replacement stylus. My advise is to move on. This aging process happens, as well, to old cartridges still in their original box or packing.

A second issue involves the metal contacts for cartridge tags or contacts on both moving magnet and moving coil cartridges. I have seen them both oxidize (when not gold plated) as well as corrode whether they are plated or not. So, you run up against the electrical barrier when you are only transmitting .3mv up to 5 mv. That’s millivolts. So, you might have a lower output, a distorted output or channel imbalance if it is more dramatic on one channel vs. the other.

Similar, to this, can be the physical deterioration of the coils used in moving coil cartridges or the electrical wires inside a moving magnet cartridge. This is usually far more pronounced with age and may also include contamination by dust and dirt.

Then, there is the destruction of a cartridge by a well intentioned audiophile. This includes the use of all sorts of goos for both stylus and records. In the case of the stylus, many cantilevers are hollow so the use of a fluid on them gets sucked up inside the cantilever and dries out. This changes the effective mass of the cantilever and its performance. If severely used, I have seen this crap find it way up to inside the moving coil mechanism itself. I have also seen it all over the rubber surround on a moving magnet cartridge. On records, fluid use for records can result in an enormous amount of baked on crude on the actual needle or around it. Used sellers may admit to using this, some may not, and then there are the thrift store sellers who have no idea what was done.

Up to this point, I have talked about the physical deterioration or destruction of the cartridge or stylus. Now, let’s talk about the risk to your records. When a stylus in the grove, it applies up to around 2000 pounds of pressure per square inch and instantaneously heats the vinyl to about 500 to 600 degrees. (Thus, only play a record once in a day and let the vinyl settle back to form for best results…but I am ahead of myself on used records). Diamonds or other materials will wear and shape under these conditions. As they do wear, they develop flat spots where the contact with the vinyl is made. Thus, I typically say that after about 500 hours of play, its time for a new cartridge if you care about your records and want performance. These flat spots start to become noticeable after about 50 hours of play. Now, here’s the devil in buying a used cartridge or stylus. These points in human scale are running at 60 miles per hour controlled by a pivot point 3 miles away. The precision is exacting and after 50 hours, they are mated. The risk then, when buying a used stylus or cartridge is where are those flat spots? One edge or another, unless the humanly impossible task of re-mating the position is done, is going to become a leading edge cutting into the record vinyl itself. If you don’t care about your records, fine. If you do, well…… There is some wonderful photography in sound engineering handbooks on this phenomena and likely on the web too. Again, sellers often have no idea how much play time is on them and if from a scrounger, well, they are just selling it at market price without any understanding or consideration of what is going to happen to your records.

So, as I always say, it’s your money and you can do what you wish. I just don’t recommend it for the reasons stated. Lou