The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Do you have a link?

I assume there are guys in Europe but if you can't find anyone there are guys in the US who can do it. I can do a 100% analog path from 1/4" and 1/2". Paul Gold can also do 1" There's a list of analog cutting guys here somewhere...

The problem with the analog vs. digital argument is that some take a philosophical view of it and then the sound becomes less important than the belief. Cognitive dissonance. "I like analog so this must the the sound I like" sort of thing. Tail wagging the dog, but it's their tail and their dog so t...

Yeah, it's not that difficult with readily available boards and a bit of effort. Kirkwood. JLM, Signal Transfer Co, lots of DIY sites. Custom PCBs are easier than ever. Dive in and give it a try. I've been building my own studio gear and having custom gear made for 25+ years. It's a great way to und...

1) Don't add distortion (that means don't hit it hard with a limiter)
2) Control HF content (sibilance, etc.)
3) Send it to the cutting guy (he'll do more if necessary but he can't undo any processing you have done)

Everything else is guessing.

The plating shop called today to say they ruined four of my lacquers. Left them in the cleaning solution too long. The interesting thing is that he said the amount of time to leave a lacquer in the cleaning solution depends on the type of lacquer. Specifically, he said Apollo lacquers need a little ...

I switched because they are quieter. I agree they seem softer. Have to be careful with groove echo.

I would be extremely surprised if that were true. MDC don't look or sound like the Apollo I was buying a few years ago.

Dietrich: Toby and Chris have always come through for me but I go through fewer than you do.

David was such a great guy. Always positive and excited about whatever he was up to. He had health problems off and on but the aggressive nature of his cancer was a surprise. He was an audio enthusiast to the very end - wanting to talk about cutting records and working on a licensing deal for some o...

Yes, and I've never heard a good explanation of how that happens. Do you know?

My suspicion on that it doesn't, but we attribute added echo to that stage when, in fact, it's really just the lacquer relaxing further. But I could definitely be wrong...

Thanks. Well I know that cutting at higher lpi will give me no echo.. but I found it strange tthat grooves are not overlapping and still echoing (and the echo is for the groove above not delayed-played one). Grooves don't have to touch to have echo. Echo happens when the first groove is cut. As the...

Groove echo. Are you cutting fixed pitch? Can you expand the pitch at those spots?

He did an A80 roller for me a few weeks ago.

Everything in the chain between the original source and signal to the head could be though of a as pre-emphasis (not to mention RIAA...) in an attempt to make the playback sound as close to the source as possible, but it's a moving target. The variation of different geometries and especially differe...

You also couldn't pick up the chip. I can't imagine a single benefit to the groove. If anything there would probably be more springback than usual.

Now do a tracing distortion plot across the whole side. It will be a cry riot.

Try calibrating the 25C setting. That's basically room temperature and where the system should sit when it's idling.

Who you are doesn't matter at all but understanding your goal would help us figure out how much detail you are looking for in an answer.

The more time you put into presenting clear questions, the better and more useful the answers will be.

And it would be swamped by lacquer variations.

There are probably 100 terms to define to get closer to an answer. You have defined one so far (width/depth.)

What is the goal of your question? Are you building, buying, re-designing, just interested?

I took a look at my cutting stylus in the "down" position as well as a head out of the system and I think the docs I have must be either worded incorrectly or just out of date / for the wrong system. There definitely is a pronounced stylus angle corresponding to C above. The puzzling thing is that I...