Leaderboard

A profile is added to a cartridge output to compensate for lack of bass if I remember rightly. I've forgotten exactly what it's called but there's a string of initials that refer. More later... RIAA equalisation curve. It reduces bass when recording to reduce groove width and thereby allow longer recording times, and the pre-amp corrects this bass reduction by applying the inverse curve. I have an LP of Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra (the well known opening music from 2001, a Space Odyssey comes from this tone poem) on the Decca Phase Four label and there's such a level of distortion at one point that I seriously thought that my (quite pricey) deck was to blame. It turns out that any deck it's played on does the same. I still have both the deck and the LP but neither has seen action for some years. Edited to clarify the groove width section.

I read a theory recently that the reason vinyl sounds warmer is that they limit the bass frequencies. Because proper bass would rattle the needle out of the groove.