Vinyl Rip vs Orignial CD

[mansr]

Appreciate the link as it proves my point. Jim's main argument is about dynamic range,that CD's and LP's have similar theoretical limitations for dynamic range; even with the bizarre sounding Telarc digital LP's I purchased in the early 80's this promise of digital vs analog tape mastering was obvious for dynamic range.

 

The other factor is sampling rate, Jim does postulate for the effective mechanical sampling rate of vinyl which is what matters for resolution of

complex signals

 

"The effect is to divide the microns swing of a 0 dB 1 kHz sinewave into 32,000 steps — just as if the signal had passed through an ADC! "

Consider a CD would capture 44.1 samples for one 1khz sine wave vs the 32,000 of the LP mechanical playback limitation. So in Jim's model vinyl equates to a 32mhz/16bit digital playback solution.

 

You're confusing sample rate and bit depth. The 32000 figure is roughly 2^15, i.e. the number of discrete values either side of zero in a 16-bit digital signal. This is what determines the dynamic range and, as you say, CD has enough of it.