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Comment by clpwn | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, and the treble at least was reduced exactly the amount the RIAA curve should reduce it (-10dB at 10kHz).

There are a ton of cheap "dubplate" vinyl cutting shops out there, and it seems like maybe the OP sent off to one of these shops to print their ROM. Otherwise, they could have just re-cut a new vinyl with the equalization fixes baked in...

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Are you saying they could have cut it without RIAA equalisation? That probably wouldn't work as the recording might not fit on the record without it. Quoting from Wikipedia:

> The purposes of the equalization are to permit greater recording times (by decreasing the mean width of each groove), to improve sound quality, and to reduce the groove damage that would otherwise arise during playback.

Dubplates don't always have the RIAA curve. Reason being that they're now mostly used in bass heavy genres and RIAA curve takes away the good stuff.

I have a hard time believing this. How is a non-RIAA equalized record supposed to be played? All palyback equipment/setups have built in equalization that converts the RIAA equalized signal from the vinyl back to normal. It's either built in to the vinyl player, or done via a phono-preamp usually in the amplifier or a mixer. This isn't usually explicitly stated anywhere on the equipment as it's an industry standard.

So if you have a record that doesn't have the RIAA curve applied, what are you supposed to play it on? The RIAA correction is pretty much unavoidable on any standard playback equipment.

EDIT: I'm willing to believe this if you can reference me to some example of modern non-equalized/non-RIAA vinyls.

isn't part of the reason for the curve to keep the needle from bouncing out of the groove?

it's simply to maximize the run-time of the vinyl. If you didn't use the compensation curve you'd have to cut wider tracks to accommodate the lows, and that would mean you'd get less time on a side.

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