Pushtec appreciation thread

[kilroy]

I think the same probably applies to the hearing as well. I mean, it can't be just a fluke that serious listeners (not the iPod generation teens but adult people of various ages and income groups) usually prefer vinyl and tube amplifiers etc. (or then maybe it's just a matter of psychology, that they are used to the medium of vinyl as that was their generations most common medium.. however, why isn't there then a generation that likes C-cassette over everything else?). Both vinyl and any analogue amplification systems have inherent complex non-linearities and randomnes/chaos in the signal.

Blimey...you should not have brought that up, mate.

I'm a total vinyl sound geek...if the playback rig is an exceptional one, ye olde vinyl can sound very, *very* good.

Now, vinyl is a flawed medium...it has some serious issues, as do all music playback mediums. But despite those shortcomings I firmly believe vinyl to be capable of a higher fidelity listening experience than most common optical media. The theoretical dynamic range may be smaller, but the overall impact and depth of a well engineered recording can be stunning. I have lots of good vinyl recordings that, in my ears, clearly trump the 44.1k CD versions...more depth and dimension, nicer sound stage, generally greater perception of being immersed in the performance...and beeyoooteeeful big, whomping transients.

[duncanparsons]

I couldn't agree more..

DSP

[kritikon]

I never liked vinyl, probably never will.

It crackles, it jumps, it scratches, it can't handle bass, it sucks and it's poo. And nowadays, it's also an expensive media to run. Storage is a pain, and they melt easier than CD, and when they do, they're too big for ashtrays. The sleeves come apart. I like old character houses, preferably with real wood floorboards...and vinyl jumps all over the place when you even do a silent but deadly fart on a wooden floor.

I really was very pleased when CD came in.


I like alot of analogue thingummies, but vinyl? I don't understand how anyone can prefer it apart from nostalgia value.

[Watto]

It's so FUNKY, though!

[loveless]

I can't attest to Vinyl's funk factor. But, I can say with complete confidence that, if nothing else, the FEELING of Vinyl is much more apparent, as opposed to CD's/MP3's, etc. Those cracks and pop and little imperfections appeal to us in more of a psychological/psychoacoustic way than digital audio seems to. I'm sure there're some technical explanations as to why, but strictly speaking, it just reminds (some of) us of a simpler time.

[justified]

I'm almost convinced, probably will aply Izotope Vynil on all my music collection tomorrow.

[Debutante]

Another vote for vinyl here. *Punch* and depth sound somewhat different

[Watto]

We're voting for vinyl now?

[sirocco]

I'm gonna do a comparison tomorrow between the Pushtec EQ and the URS emu to see how close it can come. Don't have a UAD-1 to test it against their emu, which I'm sure is fantastic. So jealous of you UAD-1 guys. Anyway, should I post results here, or in a new thread?

A/B Tested UAD-1 Pultec vs. Pushtec

http://forum.audionews.ru/redir.php?url ... 9525388AE0

whats audionews.ru, i cant sign up?!?!?

i need a invite code..what is this? a new forum?!!?!

[kilroy]

I never liked vinyl, probably never will.

It crackles, it jumps, it scratches, it can't handle bass, it sucks and it's poo. And nowadays, it's also an expensive media to run. Storage is a pain, and they melt easier than CD, and when they do, they're too big for ashtrays. The sleeves come apart. I like old character houses, preferably with real wood floorboards...and vinyl jumps all over the place when you even do a silent but deadly fart on a wooden floor.

I really was very pleased when CD came in.


I like alot of analogue thingummies, but vinyl? I don't understand how anyone can prefer it apart from nostalgia value.

Kritikon, it sounds as if perhaps you may have only experienced the worst that vinyl recording has to offer. However, I suspect most folks would most likely agree with your observations here.

My *biggest* gripe with the whole vinyl thing has not been the medium itself, but rather the playback devices that were made conveniently available to consumers. With few exceptions, any player remotely capable of rendering the true capability of a quality vinyl recording was too expensive and too difficult to source. And with few exceptions, most players made conveniently available to consumers were far below the quality of even the worst sounding vinyl recordings available to choose from.

It is an expensive media if you *really* want to hear the best of what it has to offer...absolutely no argument from me there. The cost of just my tonearm and cartridge is perfectly frightening. Like, I mean really, really frightening.

Vinyl is fragile, and can be a nuisance to clean and store...but it does not have to crackle and jump if kept in good condition and cleaned properly. Many common self noise issues can be *dramatically* reduced with the right tonearm/cartidge combination, and a good turntable mounted correctly on a high mass plinth. In fact, you might be surprised how quiet you can get the noise floor, actually.

Deep bass is no problem *if* whoever engineered/mastered the record knew what they were on about, and the disk cutting lathe was properly setup and maintained.

A favorite pop music album of mine is Robbie Robertson's debute record, a masterfully done piece of engineering/mixing done by Bob Clearmountain, with Bob Ludwig showing he clearly knows vinyl by delivering up a superb mastering. The song "Fallen Angel" on this record, if I was to pick just one song, dramatically demonstrates what the vinyl medium is capable of when a good recording is properly mated with excellent physics in the components of the playback device. *Amazing* breadth and depth of sound. The synth bass is enormously deep and solid. Astounding detail and depth to the drums and percussion elements....

Generally, my experience has been that folks who hear some well recorded vinyl playing back on a really good system end up going...

[kilroy]

We're voting for vinyl now?

You mean like, in keeping with the general off topic direction this thread is taking?

Aye, why not have a go.

[kilroy]

Actually, I had no idea bmanic was a chef. Maybe he could share some of his favorite recipes.

Actually, I could use something that is fairly easy to prepare for single bloke like me who, though decidely lacking any advanced culinary skills whatsoever, still just might want to charm a bonny lass with a nice exotic looking/tasting meal, and some of my home made elderflower wine.

[MrM]

Yes, the difference is quite subtle. What I would like to know is, which of these files do you prefer? Don't try to hard, just do some blind switching between them and simply find out which one you like the sound of most.

Cheers!
bManic

The third one (C) I liked the most.
Because of the enhanced highs.

[Fundy]

It looks a lot like the Pultec Pro. Are the frequencies fixed or are they set over set a certain range per controller?

[ToneCarver]

Mabye I missed an explanation along the way .. sorry if this is a repeat question, but can someone explain how the Push and Pull controls interact on the low freq band ? I have never used a real Pultec EQ and I am more used to an EQ with a single control (per band/filter) that is raised to boost and lowered to cut.

I am guessing that equal amounts of Push and Pull would not actually cancel each other out, right ? Otherwise there would not need to be two controls.

What is different between Push and Pull ? I like to understand what the controls are doing than just blindly turning knobs until something "pops".

Thanks !