Category: Tech

The End of a Shure Thing

Shure M91ED stereo phono cartridge

Record Store Day ten days ago reportedly set a sales record in both the US and UK. As the CD format dwindles in popularity against online streaming, the resurgent ancient LP continues to gain strength. Ironically, one of the oldest and biggest names in phonograph cartridges, Shure, announced today that it is discontinuing its phono-related products.

Niles, IL., May 1, 2018—For more than 90 years, Shure has been committed to manufacturing and delivering products of the highest quality, reliability, and value. This commitment requires consistency in materials, processes, and testing, as well the capacity to react to fluctuations in demand.

In recent years, the ability to maintain our exacting standards in the Phonograph Cartridge product category has been challenged, resulting in cost and delivery impacts that are inconsistent with the Shure brand promise.

In light of these conditions, and after thorough evaluation, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue production of Shure Phono products effective Summer 2018.

Given our decades-long history of participation in the Phono category, we recognize that this decision may come as a disappointment to our channel partners and end users.

We are grateful for the support and loyalty demonstrated for Shure Phono products through the years and we are proud of the impact that these products have made on our customers’ lives and the reputation of the Shure brand. We believe that the proud legacy of Shure Phono is best served by exiting the category rather than continuing production under increasingly challenging circumstances.

Shure will continue to bring reputable, high quality products to market and we look forward to meeting and exceeding customer expectations on our current and future offerings. As Shure expands into new markets and product categories for audiophiles, our enduring commitment to premium performance and technological innovation will remain at our core.

I use a Shure M92E in one of my turntables, and fortunately I have several factory-sealed replacement styluses (nobody says “styli” anymore, do they?). My first Shure was the very popular and affordable M91ED, like the one pictured above. I was only seventeen when I bought it, and I remember being astounded by how much better it sounded compared to the bottom-of-the-line Pickering cartridge that came with the stereo I’d purchased months earlier with money from my part-time job. I recall the M91ED cost $20, which is equivalent to $120 today. For that much money the best cartridge currently available is probably the Nagaoka MP110, from Japan. Audio-Technica, also in Japan, continues to manufacture a line of cartridges, as does Ortofon in Denmark. They’re the two biggest remaining names in the business, with Grado holding its own in America, but not without some quality control problems that I have experienced myself. My A-T and Ortofon cartridges are both excellent and durable. Viva vinyl!

Now that I’m on the subject, I pulled out an oldie from college, my Ortofon FF15E. I figured I needed a cartridge from Denmark to go along with my Dynaco A-25 speakers from Denmark. Yes, I really did think that way. Still do, I suppose.

Ortofon FF15E

I’m going to give it a spin, despite the wear on the stylus from long ago, to hear how it sounds compared to my newer Ortofon cartridge. But right now I have to get back to not eating anything, because tomorrow I’m having a colonoscopy. You can read about my first colonoscopy, ten years ago, at this link. The prep this time around was much easier than the awful stuff I had to drink last time.

Needs More Dubly

At this link is one of the countless examples where user forums are often useless for technical support. Here is the question:

In the Sound control panel, when you select a speaker and click Configure, it opens a new Speaker Setup window and asks you two questions. The first one is stereo vs. surround (I have stereo), the second gives you the option to select them as full-range speakers. I’ve attached a screenshot.

My question is simple – all other things held equal – what does it actually DO if you select them as full-range? What EFFECT does it have if you select them as full-range versus not selecting them so? I mean just within Windows, in terms of processing or output I assume. Not even thinking about the speakers.

My question is simple so I’d prefer simple answers please, I’m just trying to zero in on what this option actually does.

Thank you,

Chuck

The answer, and the follow-ups, are apparently from a Microsoft representative, and not only are they are not simple, they are nonsensical techno-babble. But I also think that Chuck made his question less clear by saying, “Not even thinking about the speakers,” as the effect on how speakers sound is all that matters.

I determined the function of the setting for myself a long time ago, by using my excellent Sony SRS-BTX500 Bluetooth speaker. Not using full-range mode on an audio device in Windows 10 is an equalization setting that severely cuts off low frequencies.

What I don’t get is why Microsoft leaves full-range mode off by default. Without it, my Sony sounds thin, and using the speaker’s own bass boost button to compensate makes the sound boomy and awful. Being forced to choose between thin and fat sound wasn’t right, and that set me looking for the answer. This is the fix, assuming you need a stereo setup:

  • Right-click the speaker icon on the task bar
  • Click “Playback devices”
  • Select the playback device you want to use and click “Configure”
  • Click “Next”
  • Check the “Front left and right” box and click “Next”
  • Click “Finish”

Doing this made my SRS-BTX500 sound just right with the unit’s bass boost kept off. Full and balanced, and not at all boomy.

Sculptress of Sound

Once again I turn my attention to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. BBC Radio 4xtra is repeating a 2010 feature on workshop creator Delia Derbyshire. One point about Delia’s incomparable interpretation of Ron Grainer’s Doctor Who theme that seems obvious, but isn’t mentioned, is that one of the sounds is evocative of a Ben Franklin glass harmonica. The programme is also available on this YouTube video.

A few years after this documentary was produced, Paul McCartney revealed that he had a great interest in the Radiophonic Workshop, and had even made a point of meeting Delia, with the intention of trying an electronic backing to “Yesterday.” Nevertheless, the most experimental Beatles production to be released isn’t by Paul, but is John Lennon’s “Revolution 9.” One of Delia’s recordings in the documentary, with voices and a heartbeat, sounds as though it could have been an inspiration for Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.”

The Persistence of Vinyl

“Audiophiles don’t use their equipment to listen to your music. Audiophiles use your music to listen to their equipment.” — attributed, possibly erroneously, to “Dark Side of the Moon” engineer Alan Parsons

I don’t think of myself as an audiophile, I prefer to think of myself as an enthusiast. Most of my gear is really old. I don’t buy new stuff very often, and when I do it’s chosen carefully and at a really good price. But saying that, I’m reminded of a friend at a Star Trek convention who once pointed at someone he knew wearing a Spock costume with pointed ears and he said, “I’m not a fanatic, he’s a fanatic.” He said that while dressed as Captain Kirk, with his hair suitably combed.

But back to hi-fi. Long ago I tried, and eventually gave up, getting excited about CD players. My first, an inexpensive Philips-Magnavox unit, lasted maybe a year. A more expensive Sony CD player was better built, and it was much faster at loading, playing, and scanning, but then one day it stopped working.

So I thought maybe a high-end deck with superior dual D-to-A converters and a top-of-the-line output stage would sound better and maybe even last longer. Wrong! The two really expensive models I bought were demo units — a Sony ES and a Pioneer Elite. The Sony failed after a couple of years, and that was when I got the Elite, and it also broke after a few years. On top of that, I can’t say either one sounded particularly superior to what I’d used before. New or used? Didn’t matter. Expensive or cheap? Didn’t matter. So I gave up on chasing a “better” CD player and decided that they are, like VCR’s, a disposable commodity. I feel the same way about computers.

I should stop here and explain the exception. The thing the more expensive players did better than the cheap ones. I was at a high-end hi-fi store in Cambridge, MA, listening to a CD on a pair of then-new Spica TC-50’s that I’d read about in Stereophile Magazine. As a piece of music faded out, I asked the salesman, “Hear that? You hear what’s happening? There’s a grainy sound drifting from right to left. What is that?” He had no idea what I was talking about, so I used the A-B repeat button, and after a few times he heard what was very obvious to me and my big ears. “I don’t know what that is,” he admitted. Later, in another magazine (I think it was the late Leonard Feldman’s now-defunct “Audio”), reviews of CD players began to include a “fade to black test.” Cheap D-to-A converters had poor low-level linearity. That was the noise I had heard. The Sony ES and Pioneer Elite didn’t have that problem, so I was right about the value of superior D-to-A converters, in at least one regard.

I loved the styling and build quality of the Pioneer Elite. It felt solid and luxurious, like a German sports car, so when it started to sputter and screw up like the Sony ES had I made an effort to see what the problem was by opening it up and taking a look. The tray worked fine, the disc started playing, but then after a while the laser began skipping all over the place. A lens cleaning disc didn’t help. Maybe the focusing chip was failing? Whatever was wrong, it wouldn’t be an easy or inexpensive or even guaranteed fix. I was so disgusted I taped the remote on top and donated it to a flea market at an annual charity event in town, with a note that said, “NEEDS WORK.” Here is an example of one, from an eBay auction, of course:

Pioneer Elite PD-73 CD player

So this takes me back to my project that I still haven’t started yet, replacing the belts in my Sony CDP-CX335 300-disc carousel. I bought the thing at Best Buy because it could hold 300 discs. No other reason. If the carousels were still made I’d buy a new one, but they aren’t so I’ll give the repair a try and, heck, I’m retired. Fortunately, Sony sells the belts required to fix the thing. It’s going to be a complicated job, but in a way I’m looking forward to tackling it.

Meanwhile, I’m having a lot of fun with my LP record collection, and I’m waiting not only for the re-issued Holst Planets LP, but for a new phono cartridge to be delivered. It’s the Grado Prestige Green, one of the models covered in this video series. This guy is a blast! He captures the spirit of what’s good about this crazy hobby, and about YouTube as well.