Muddy-sounding Victors

Does any other collector have a similar problem that I have? I've noticed some Victors with the RCA Victor label (late 40's) that have a distorted sound and no highs from the middle of the record. The two physical characteristics I notice are the run out area has a sort of wavy look to it and the run out groove is thin with one eccentric groove, as opposed to the circular Victor label, which has two. Every copy of Cocktails for Two I have sounds this way. As an example,I have a Benny Goodman 25497 where the "Somebody Loves Me" side has two eccentrics and the "Jam Session" side has one. SLM sounds great while JS sounds muddy with no highs. I use a Stanton 500 cartridge but I don't know what size stylus I have. I think its a generic 78 one. Most records sound fine with it. Any suggestions? Thanks

RCA changed its recording curve several times in the late 1940s.

Different record companies used different recording curves when they made records. A little history:

- The recording curve on acoustic records depended solely on the characteristics of the mechanical parts: the horn, diaphragm, and cutting stylus.

- Early electrical recordings got their recording characteristics from the limitations of the cutter heads. Usually this caused a bass rolloff beginning at around 200 or 250 Hz.

- In the early 1930s, record companies started limiting the bass on their records to give more playing time per side. Various companies used different frequencies for this:

--- Columbia used a 300 Hz turnover point, and so had strong bass.
--- Most companies used a 400 or 500 Hz turnover point.
--- RCA chose an 800 Hz turnover point, so it had weak bass, but a longer playing time.

The next wrinkle was when Decca, in 1937, Developed its Full Frequency Range Reproduction system (ffrr). They boosted the treble by 6 dB at 10 KHz. This made their records sound brighter than other records, so other companies also started boosting treble, to increase brilliance, and to allow the treble to be cut in reproduction to reduce surface noise.

At first, other companies also added the 6 dB boost at 10 KHz, giving rise to what was known as the prewar curve. But then they started experimenting more:

--- Columbia used a lot of boost - 16 dB at 10 KHz.
--- Most companies settled on a value near 12 dB at 10 KHz.
--- RCA chose 8 dB at 10 KHz. So its records seem duller than other brands.

Somewhere around 1944, RCA decided to change its bass turnover from 800 Hz to 500 Hz. And, first for the 45 RPM record, it boosted the treble to 12 dB at 10 KHz. Then it changed over to a 500 Hz Turnover and a 12 db treble boost until 1952.

Adding another wrinkle to this mess was the fact that Japan had captured the only source of shellac, and shellac was needed for motor windings. So many records in the period of 1939 to 1947 were made using substitute materials. These materials are brittle and wear out faster. And because metal was also in short supply, record companies, particularly RCA Victor, used their record stampers for a much larger number of records than was normally done. This caused distortion and loss of high frequencies in the last discs of each run.

Then, in 1952, RCA did one of the two really good things it ever did. RCA created the Ortho phono curve that became the RIAA standard:

500R -13.7

Almost all records in the US since 1958 were recorded in it. (The other really good thing was the NTSC color standard.)

I have "Cocktails For Two" too, and it does sound muddy if not played with the 800N -8 curve. But I never noticed any change in quality partway through the disc.

I do know that stampers recorded with different recording curves were often coupled by RCA on opposite sides of the same discs. They did not keep track of which stampers had which curves. Because different recording engineers had different preferences, there were four combinations to choose from:

800N -8
500N -8
800N -12
500N -12.

So your Benny Goodman record might have different curves on each of the sides.

One other thing that might have affected the quality of some records is if they were recorded from movie film soundtracks, and had the horrid Academy curve smashed on top of a weak recording characteristic.

The change in quality as the arm nears the center of the disc suggests some equipment troubles:

- Is the arm exerting a side thrust on the pickup as the arm nears the spindle? Check the pickup leads and the automatic trip. I had this trouble with a Garrard RC-80 and a Garrard Type A II, because the trip friction was unusually high when closer than 3" to the spindle. A side force on the stylus might cause it to hit the stops or behave nonlinearly..

- Is the stylus bad or misaligned?

- Is the pickup mounted correctly? If not, it will produce more tracking error as the arm nears the center of the record. Tracking error reduces treble response and causes distortion.

NOTE: The Stanton and Neumark DJ turntable arms designed so reversed rotation does not cause the stylus to jump also cause a lot of tracking error near the center of the record.

One other thought:

There may have been several different versions of "Cocktails For Two." I have at least two of them. One is my 78, which has Holiday For Strings on the other side. I also have several LPs and CDs full of Spike Jones, and one LP contains an alternate version of "Cocktails for Two" with a laughing audience. It seems to have the Academy curve superimposed, because I had to EQ it to make it sound good. I also have at least three different versions of their destructions of Listz's Hungarian Rhapsody #2, with three different titles.