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In Reply to: RE: Tube-Mastered LPs posted by Triode_Kingdom on October 09, 2024 at 18:17:29
Starting in 1958 when the Westerex 3D cutter head became available, all stereo LPs used a tube electronics chain from the microphone to the cutting lathe.
So RCA Living Stereo, Mercury Living Presence, EMI, Decca and so on. About 1963 in the US some solid state electronics began to show up but this was inconsistent as at that time, most of solid state was germanium and not up to snuff for studio equipment. Sometime in the mid 1960s silicon started showing up and so silicon based studio equipment began to appear. This was slower to happen in Europe where the idea that 'new is better' wasn't as prevalent as in the US.
Westerex introduced a new solid state mastering electronics package called the 1700 series about 1968 or 69. It was highly advanced for its day; the amps were unstable so you had to be really careful powering up the system. But it was capable of exceedingly low distortion due to how feedback was employed so it lacked brightness that was a hallmark of solid state home electronics back then.
Something to keep in mind about LP mastering systems is they were designed to be impossible to overload. You would easily fry the cutter head long before you got anywhere near even half power in the cutter electronics. So the kinds of distortion that are commonly heard in home systems don't exist in LP grooves. In the case of the Westerex 1700 electronics the head itself might have been able to handle about 10 Watts before burning up; the amps could make 125 Watts.
You often read how 'digital only' guys make the case of distortion in the LP format. 95% of more of that distortion occurs in playback, not when recording. The actual LPs themselves have vanishingly low distortion at any level a modern arm can track. On this account, all the studies of 'LP distortion' made at almost any time in history are so much bunk because this simple fact is never taken into account. They are simply measuring the distortion of their specific playback system.
Follow Ups:
Did it start with silicon? Silicon kind of came after germanium, and silicon didn't appear in solid state guitar amps until maybe 1968 or so. But there were germanium amps before that.
Germainium didn't show any particular advantage over tubes; it appears that studio equipment manufacturers didn't really embrace transistors until silicon become more widespread.
The best recordings that I've heard are generally from '58 to ~'62. Your post may partially explain that.
That's very interesting information. As I mentioned elsewhere, I'm mostly interested in determining which of the legacy albums I already own are most likely to have been recorded in the studio with tube equipment. The earliest would be from the mid-'60s or so, with the majority being produced from about the late '60s to mid-'70s. I believe this covers the transition period. These are original albums from that time frame, sold when the master tapes were still fresh. A few I feel certain are of solid state origin based on sonics, but many have the less strident sound of tubes. I'd just like to know for sure. Maybe this sort of thing has been lost to time, or would only be known to those who worked in the studios when the transitions were being made.
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