This is my 16,000th post let's make this count.
Ivor Tiefenbrun has spoken in the past about how the word Sondek derives from the word Soundex. In music or sound design this has traditionally been referred to as a "unique identifiable and recognisable sound" its a sound when placed against another that has unique identifiers, those identifiers are what separate one sound from the next and I note it is absent from any Linn Digital source following the Cd12.
I really do not think the LP12 is a transparent medium, I do not think vinyl can possibly transparent in the sense that every lathe, every stamper, every formulation of vinyl will add a coloration to the basic material, but the LP12 is an iterative exploration of extracting music from the record, to discover the sounds that separate one another in music. If you think about it, this is an incredible feat from a compromised and bandwidth-limited but very enjoyable media, and it is one that continues to engage listeners viscerally (for good or bad) to this day.
There are no end of bland record players out there with no real obvious reason for their existence, some record players are quite hard to extract these differentiating identifiers, the very structure of music seems obscured and muddled and Linn do not have the last word on this not do they have the first word, but they are still here along with a few from an era that embraced materials technology and addressed each issue point by point over the years. Some dead ends too -- that's research.
There are so many different takes on how music and information is extracted but from the onset; to composers and sound designers The soundex is the interaction of two or more sounds in a space, the cumulative of nulls, cancellations and additive resonances: it struck me that's a pretty good description of a turntable to me, the soundex is uniquely identifiable and that is a trait, like it or hate it in the LP12 and I think sondek, as a label, is a very honest appraisal of what the Linn LP12 was originally trying to achieve (nowadays it seems to be an opportunity to empty your wallet, of course but everyone is out to do that these days, everywhere, in all walks of life, it gets tiresome).
Turntables are a shot into the void, frankly I think it is finite and we reached that some time ago, but we will be trying to extract ever more difficult nuances from a reactive, stress loaded lathe head than is possible and I often wonder if we have reached the point where we are extracting the cutting noise of the lathe itself from a record -- so should I ever be mad enough to return to turntables -- rather than shoot for the moon, I would aim for a more achievable goal and I think anything over a certain point but. Under say £3k ish would do most vinyl lovers, it's not like its anywhere near as accurate (but it is less enjoyable) than a downloaded file -- and that's ok. People do not like accuracy when they hear it, its unnerving, many people, myself included have expressed a love of coloration, the contributory factors to a soundex: valves, FM live radio and Reel To Reel tape recorders each of these contribute to the overall and make the experience uniquely identifiable.
There, 16000 posts. Not bad for me. I feel I have come a long way understanding some things, and yet stood completely still and understood nothing at all -- just been a bit eroded, perhaps a retip is needed.
