Funk Firm - Houdini - Spamming and Scamming Warning

Tru dat

Pick some random eastern block classical recording on a label thats not in print, they'll not be checking licensing.

Id be surprised if it had a negative affect on bass, with only tracking weight effectively holding the thing together i doubt any stylus movement could provide enough energy to excite it. I see it much more as blocking, motor, chassis and environmental noise passing through arm to cart.

Ive only seen one test with an accelerometer on the arm tube for any deck review and that didnt show any music signal present in the arm. Plenty of energy at the motor and bearing frequencies but precious little else. They did the test with speakers on and off, with speakers on you could see a bit of signal feeding back, but not with speakers off.

Think it was an AES paper, it was years ago..

drop box is a good alternative, or google drive.

Downloadable and no need to lose SQ

Also, the comment wasnt that the Houdinin alone would make the sound soft....it was that one of the methods of vibrational damping in vinyl replay can result in a softer sound. The other, based in rigidity didnt seem to have that issue, but may have other short commings.

No one is predicting what will happen with the Houdini and i think we are all very eager to hear what happens when you try it.

Sounds like Digital lol

Just kidding.

Clean as a whistle via my phone speaker, will listen later via headphones

Stick with the above, sounded fine for an evaluation, unless you have a clearly better combination at home?

No, i was tesing. It sounded great.

I'l ldownload the file and play it on the system tomorrow if i can.

You are welcome to pop round to mine for a few hours to hear it first hand.
The four weeks in quarantine may be a bit rubbish though.

Oooh, this is gonna be good I feel....I'm looking forward to this

Will do when I get home...need to listen properly

Drums? Mickey Hart and Airto 'Dafos' will do it! -well, percussion generally.

I once saw Airto do a 15 minute solo on a Tambourine!

At Angus's request, i shall post this here.

"To clarify things for those who keep misquoting me and taking things out of context, my statement to Oliver about the Houdini is with reference to his system, which follows the rigidity principle. This was clearly stated in my earlier message to Oliver. Therefore introducing any unnecessary compliance will negatively impact its performance.

“As you know Oliver I have heard a 'soft' system with more than £45,000 worth of equipment and it was one of the most disappointing sounds I have ever heard. Resolution was limited and the sound had negligible impact or presence”

I’m not sure why this is taken as an indicator that I am pre-judging or condemning the Houdini, it’s a simple statement of fact regarding that particular system. For all I know a Houdini may well improve it (aforementioned Soft system).

Also, as far as I can determine Kevin's system is based on an SL-12x0 Mk2+ with an FX-1200 arm on the original Technics base. In which case it does not classify as a rigid system. There are too many breaks in the arm mounting and the VTA adjustment mechanism has to have clearances otherwise it wouldn’t move. Those clearances are substantially greater than the signals we are trying to retrieve from the disc."

So, just to add some context:

The conversation between Angus and i in regard to the houdini had been around our RIGID playback devices. IF the Houdini makes an improvement in Kevins system, it will be because it follows the same design ideas as the rest of the arm. Which is what we would expect. Neither of us think the Houdini to be "snakeoil" but understanding where it could and couldn't work is paramount to the findings of this experiment.

I think it's also wise to let this go now as 50% of the conversation isnt a member here yet lol.

Lets crack on.



I must say, those recordings sound very well transferred to digital format. @cageyh how did you do this?

Something else for me to be educated on please.

How can a tonearm with a damping mechanism be deemed as being “rigid”?

How do you get music on your Pi?

Hopefully Angus will join, as I am intrigued by the “differences”.

Put the file across to the SSD?