Author: DOuG pRATt
Tom Fooler Me
Towards the end of Tom Hanks’s “Here Comes Summer” show on Boss Radio 66, he played “Time Won’t Let Me” by the Outsiders, a #5 hit from 1966. The record sounded so different from my memory of it, I wondered if it had been remixed.
So let’s compare a mono reissue 45 of the single from the early 80’s, with the mono recording Tom played. See what you have time to do when you’re retired and recuperating from surgery?
This is my single.
This is what Tom Hanks played.
The mixes are very similar, and yet they sound very different. Although Tom apparently played a mono copy of the single, there’s no way a modern remix would be done in mono. At first I thought the effect must have been the result of a clean remastering, but then I remembered something and discounted that idea.
Some of the records heard on “Songs From the Back of the Station Wagon” are in stereo, but played in mono. All of them were given the mono treatment for Tom’s “AM Gold” show a month ago. Here is a Facebook exchange I had with Boss Radio 66’s Debbie Daughtry.
So the most likely explanation is, the two recordings of “Time Won’t Let Me” are indeed different mixes. My copy is an original mono mix, and Tom played the stereo mix of the song in mono.
Cheap Track
I’ve posted this video before, but I’ll do it again as a follow-up to today’s post about Ortofon. Audio-Technica doesn’t publish the tracking specs for its cartridges, but a $39 model, the AT85EP, tracks at the rated performance of the Ortofon 2M Blue at $189. In fact, it does it at a lower tracking force. If you listen with headphones, you can hear slight buzzing from the discontinued Shure M92E, indicating mis-tracking.
Royal Mail Rascals
Steve Stanley of Now Sounds Records has produced a wonderful new CD box set scheduled for release on Friday.
https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Atlantic-Recordings-Rascals/dp/B0CZ3NHLGG/
The last time I ordered a Now Sounds CD as an Amazon import, it didn’t arrive on the release date. I waited, then received a message from Amazon saying there was a delay. Then I waited some more, until eventually it arrived.
This time around, rather than saving the cost of shipping, and risking another delay, I ordered the set directly from Cherry Red Records in the UK.
Updates from Royal Mail were received…
… and, lo and behold, the set arrived today, three days before its scheduled release date.
But wait, what’s this? Royal Mail is being sold to a Czech billionaire? As with all such coincidences, it must be my fault. It comes from having an inherently guilty conscience.
Royal Mail owners to back £5bn takeover offer
It Could Be Worse
Imagine how bad the storms would be if climate change were real!
25 are dead across the US after weekend tornadoes. Texas is getting battered again
Ortofon the Obscure
This self-contradictory headline is obviously intended to attract attention. It caught mine. Saying that a particular brand dominates a market implies it isn’t obscure.
Why Does This Obscure Brand Dominate the Turntable Market?
https://www.gearpatrol.com/tech/ortofon-phono-cartridges-popular/
The article misses one reason why I favor Ortofon. They do something all cartridge manufacturers should do, by publishing the tracking ability of their products.
The 2M Red has a diamond-tipped stylus, and the 2M Blue has a solid, or “nude,” diamond stylus.
2M Red $99 Tracking ability at 315Hz at recommended tracking force 70 µm 2M Blue $189 Tracking ability at 315Hz at recommended tracking force 80 µm
Cleanly tracking a 70 µm (15 dB) cut in a record is very good, and tracking 80 µm (16 dB) is outstanding performance. Ortofon’s 2M Blue predecessor is the Super OM 20. It is also rated for 80 µm, which I confirmed in this test. Side 1 of the test record was pressed slightly off-center, resulting in “wow” being heard.
Something I first noticed fifty years ago, when replacing my American made Shure M91ED with the Danish Ortofon FF15E shown above, was the superior quality of plastic from the land of Lego.
