Category: Tech

Not Getting a Buzz On

Something for record playing loyalists to think about. Why spend more than $40?

“The Shure is an RXP3 body from Radio Shack, with a new, original Shure stylus. The AT85EP is new. The level of the turntable was checked with an Audio-Technica AT605.

Both the Shure and A-T cartridges play side 2, track 8 of the Hi-Fi News Test LP cleanly, without buzzing. The M92E is louder, at 5.0 mV vs. 3.5 mV. My Ortofon Super OM 20, mounted in a Thorens TD166-MKII, fails the same test.

The M92E is discontinued, but the AT85EP is widely available for only $40. Audio-Technica sells a $10 universal adapter for mounting in a standard tonearm.”

MeTube

I posted this 1-minute scene from “Taxi Driver” as a sort of in-joke for a friend. The reason I’m embedding it here is because in the process of uploading it I gleaned an insight into YouTube’s new monetizing practices.

The copyright check came up immediately, but it said the holder granted permission… with advertising. Now I see that the revised monetizing program is a good thing, because it gives copyright holders an incentive to allow content that would otherwise be refused.

Previously, if you tried to post something determined to have a copyright, you were given a “three strikes and you’re out” warning. Having the opportunity to see if a video passes a smell test, rather than being sent immediately to the penalty box, is definitely better. So bring on the ads! (Did I just mix sports metaphors by smell?)

The TV Tripler

My three favorite classic TV series, dating me very clearly as a prime Baby Boomer, are The Adventures of Superman, Leave it to Beaver, and Star Trek (TOS). Only Beverly Washburn appeared in all three of those shows, as I told her a few years ago at Trekconderoga. (This year’s event is in progress right now, with special guest George Takei.)

Those three shows were on TV before streaming, before the DVR, before DVD, before VHS and LD, and before cable. A couple of weeks ago, Beverly was on the Creature Features channel on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/n_OSHWkoGb4

Svengoolie will be showing Blood of Dracula on MeTV tonight, on standard definition station 5.2 here in Boston. As I await the arrival of ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV, YouTube channels like Creature Features have me wondering if broadcast television has much of a future.

Goody For Google

If you look up my name on Bing or DuckDuckGo, this site appears at the top of the list. But Google is where search matters, and as I explained, Prattling Before the Pratfall was dead to it. Which was funny, because Google had first indexed the site a long time ago.

As best as I can determine, the problem was caused when Bluehost migrated my site to not only another server, but overlaid it onto another domain. This triggered Google to think there was a security risk, due to a redirection, and the lockout didn’t clear up after the site was restored to its rightful domain. Anyway, after cleaning up some DNS cnames the domain is once again being indexed by Google, and so far I’m up to page 4.

 

Buzz Off!

Turn volume down before playing. Unpleasant test tone.

This is the text I posted on YouTube to accompany the video:

Audiorpheus (https://www.youtube.com/c/Audiorpheus…) posted a lot of interesting and fun videos related to affordable record playing. He used the Hi-Fi News Test LP to perform some tracking tests, with the Nagaoka MP-110 coming out on top.

For this short video I used my copy of the Hi-Fi News test disc to compare a Grado Green cartridge with an Audio-Technica AT92E. I bought the Grado for $100 a couple of years ago, and the Audio-Technica was purchased new in 2013 for only $20 (the price was increased later to $30). The cartridges are mounted and aligned in identical head shells, and installed on a vintage Pioneer PL-112D turntable.

The Grado Green buzzes just as badly as the Grado Black did for Audiorpheus. The AT92E, however, performs just as well on the difficult inner-groove tracking test as the Nagaoka did for Audiorpheus.

The replacement for the AT92E is the AT85EP, for $40. If the AT85EP performs as well as the older model, it’s today’s #1 tracking bargain, costing a fraction the price of a Nagaoka MP-110.