The end of digital audio.?

[CatManDo]

The future is analogue streaming

 

[esldude]

It would perhaps be more exciting to see the revival of Edison.

 

Would you accept a replicant instead? Something that might be possible by 2116.

[ted_b]

Lawrence Welk liked vinyl cars???

 

Yes. In fact here's a his a favorite album, signed by da Lawrence Welk himself, and da Myron Floren, and da Pete Fountain and a da Champagne a Lady. A one a and a two a and a three a and a four a...signatures.

 

[Middy]

The way Google executive's are going trying to become immortal, they will be able to play digital from there titanium chassis. .

DARPA approved...

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/googles-chief-futurist-thinks-we-could-start-living-forever-by-2029-2016-4

 

 

 

Sent from my SM-G900F using Computer Audiophile mobile app

[Fitzcaraldo215]

Yes. In fact here's a his a favorite album, signed by da Lawrence Welk himself, and da Myron Floren, and da Pete Fountain and a da Champagne a Lady. A one a and a two a and a three a and a four a...signatures.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]28627[/ATTACH]

 

Hey, Ted - is there any Lawrence Welk available on SACD or in hi rez? Now, that would a be AWESOME at DSD264. Somebody should be remastering and preserving this extraordinary music for posterity in the highest fidelity possible. I can just hear that accordion now. An, a one, an a two an a tree. Play that and put on your polyester leisure suit and white vinyl shoes and you are in business, groovin' to the music and cheap Champagne bubbles. It just does not get any better than this!

[Jud]

Would you accept a replicant instead? Something that might be possible by 2116.

 

"And you have burned so very, very brightly, Thomas."

[Jud]

Yes. In fact here's a his a favorite album, signed by da Lawrence Welk himself, and da Myron Floren, and da Pete Fountain and a da Champagne a Lady. A one a and a two a and a three a and a four a...signatures.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]28627[/ATTACH]

 

Lawrence Welk quote (actual quote, little bit of an inside joke for you jazz fans): "And now, Duke Ellington's Take A Train."

[kumakuma]

Lawrence Welk quote (actual quote, little bit of an inside joke for you jazz fans): "And now, Duke Ellington's Take A Train."

 

+1

[bluesman]

It just does not get any better than this!

Aw, c'mon - do da' name Liberace strike a familiar note?

[duxservit]

The end of digital audio.?

Or not yet.?

 

Some Groovy Data | Stereophile.com

 

I knew that turntubles sales have been skyrocketing recently but I'm very supprised by the height of 2015/2016 sales spike. Will computer audio be passé in 2017..?

 

Does anyone have data on the correlation of this TT data with baby boomers retiring?

[esldude]

"And you have burned so very, very brightly, Thomas."

You get my award for cheeky repartee' of the month.[emoji4]

 

Well played sir.

 

Hopefully we won't need a 6 year failsafe.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Computer Audiophile mobile app

[TubeLover]

All in all the big vinyl resurgence is just a passing fad with the hipsters that have them around as a KOOL conversation piece and toy. Do you watch TV, ever notice how many TT's show up in the background of peoples homes and offices on the latest shows?

 

This is not to denigrate the true highend enthusiast that loves the sound, tweakery, and fun of playing vinyl, good for them, in the end it's whatever floats your boat. But their true numbers are still quite small.

 

+1, you've nailed it. Hipsters are buying most of the turntables, and they will move on to something else before you know it. Also, as noted earlier, a significant part of the total sales are USB models which have all the fidelity of a table radio!

 

JC

[CatManDo]

If the trend towards digital transmission in hifi systems takes off (wireless active speakers with DAC), turntables and other analogue sources (FM radio) will be in a strange situation, as their signal needs to be digitized first to be usable.

 

Already now, those who don't have a pre amplifier but use a DAC with variable output to feed a power amp or active speaker directly have a problem when using a turntable. Maybe we'll see more phono stages with integrated analogue/digital conversion in the future.

[esldude]

If the trend towards digital transmission in hifi systems takes off (wireless active speakers with DAC), turntables and other analogue sources (FM radio) will be in a strange situation, as their signal needs to be digitized first to be usable.

 

Already now, those who don't have a pre amplifier but use a DAC with variable output to feed a power amp or active speaker directly have a problem when using a turntable. Maybe we'll see more phone stages with integrated analogue/digital conversion in the future.

 

I think you will see more built in ADCs. They aren't terribly expensive to do plenty good enough for FM and such. Once the signal is digital you can do so much more with it.

[bluesman]

I think you will see more built in ADCs. They aren't terribly expensive to do plenty good enough for FM and such. Once the signal is digital you can do so much more with it.

That concept failed to find favor the first time around - maybe it arrived too early. Great phono/ADC units didn't sell & were D/C'ed. I got a new Parasound Zphono USB for about $250 as a closeout, and it's one great little unit. The John Curl preamp is excellent and the USB output does a fine job. But they obviously didn't sell. Maybe next time......

[firedog]

That concept failed to find favor the first time around - maybe it arrived too early. Great phono/ADC units didn't sell & were D/C'ed. I got a new Parasound Zphono USB for about $250 as a closeout, and it's one great little unit. The John Curl preamp is excellent and the USB output does a fine job. But they obviously didn't sell. Maybe next time......

 

I think they are starting to make some inroads - in inexpensive "entry" audiophile electronics from makers like NAD and PS Audio, all the way up to expensive units like Lyngdorf and Kii.

If the turntable comeback has staying power, I assume they will become common on some electronics as a way of playing back or archiving vinyl.

[alfe]

video-678136-h264_high.mp4

 

A new machine to be released in september, actually there is shortage of capacity for vinyl manufacturing.

[bluesman]

I think they are starting to make some inroads - in inexpensive "entry" audiophile electronics from makers like NAD and PS Audio, all the way up to expensive units like Lyngdorf and Kii.

If the turntable comeback has staying power, I assume they will become common on some electronics as a way of playing back or archiving vinyl.

 

I predict a different outcome. Vinyl's simply not convenient for remote access and control. And archiving its content as digital files is very labor intensive - it only took me a few albums to decide that the end didn't justify the effort. Listening to records is most enjoyable as an integrated activity, and every component is part of the pleasure - selecting the album, reading the jacket, lovingly slipping the disc out of the sleeve and placing it on the 'table, carrying out your own personal record hygiene regimen, dropping the needle precisely where you want it, then settling into your favorite chair and listening to a side before having to get up and flip or switch. This plus the engaging sound quality of good vinyl thru good equipment is what the newbies are discovering (along with the "cool" factor, which cannot be denied, Daddy-O).

 

As for using a digital playback chain with vinyl, it makes no sense to me if the goal is the best possible SQ. Pumping the pristine analog signal from your cartridge into an ADC and thru a digital amplification chain that ends in a DAC is yet another digression from the ideal concept of a wire with gain. Yes, I have and love my Parasound Zphono USB, but it has MM and MC voltage amplification stages in a very fine analog preamp that drives my PrimaLuna tube power amp. I don't listen to vinyl through the USB port and my digital systems unless I'm streaming the sound to other rooms (which is a convenience that's far cheaper than an analog system in each room - but the sound from the primary system is still better).

 

I strongly doubt that vinyl will ever again come anywhere close to being a major medium for offline storage of music, and I suspect that the physical difficulty and relatively poor sonic quality of records crammed into the digital space through mediocre equipment are the main reasons for commercial failure of the first wave of preamp/ADCs. Most cheap ADCs and USB turntables don't yield any better SQ than mp3s, and the ones I've heard sound worse. I simply can't even imagine a mass return to vinyl as the program source for digital libraries when mp3s are a much better alternative for the people who would buy cheap USB TTs.

 

The only way I could envision vinyl's taking over a large chunk of the retail music market is if we see digital transducers for our tone arms that are equal in quality to fine phono cartridges, have digital outputs, and are competitive in convenience and price. An optical cartridge (or any other digital approach to transduction) that's as good as a traditional cartridge in every way (tracking, SQ etc), costs the same as equivalent cartridges, directly drives a digital amplification chain, and does not require any more setup and maintenance than a mechanical cartridge & arm could be a true game changer. Yes, the ELP and DS Audio devices are moving us toward this goal - but they and every other product like them (developmental or commercial) are analog devices at their outputs. So for now, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[The Computer Audiophile]

I would love to see the reason for the large increase in the number of reported turntable units sold. To me that's more interesting than the number.

 

Possible reasons:

 

1) A very fat finger by data entry person

 

2) Change in methodology

 

3) Organic sales increase

 

4) This isn't an increase because the previous years were under counted

 

It could be many things. I'd like to know.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Speaking of analog, I just purchased a working vintage Zeiss IKON Moviflex Super 8mm Cine camera! Can't wait to use it to record subpar quality video that looks cool.

 

[bluesman]

Speaking of analog, I just purchased a working vintage Zeiss IKON Moviflex Super 8mm Cine camera! Can't wait to use it to record subpar quality video that looks cool.

Truly cool - and you can make it into an optical ADC, Chris! Mount a small LCD display in a lens cap, hook it up to an oscilloscope app driven by an audio line output, and.....voila!.....you're in Command!

 

(OK, newbies - go Google Command Records and you'll understand.)

[new_media]

1) A very fat finger by data entry person

 

[mrvco]

I predict a different outcome. Vinyl's simply not convenient for remote access and control. And archiving its content as digital files is very labor intensive - it only took me a few albums to decide that the end didn't justify the effort. Listening to records is most enjoyable as an integrated activity, and every component is part of the pleasure - selecting the album, reading the jacket, lovingly slipping the disc out of the sleeve and placing it on the 'table, carrying out your own personal record hygiene regimen, dropping the needle precisely where you want it, then settling into your favorite chair and listening to a side before having to get up and flip or switch. This plus the engaging sound quality of good vinyl thru good equipment is what the newbies are discovering (along with the "cool" factor, which cannot be denied, Daddy-O).

 

As for using a digital playback chain with vinyl, it makes no sense to me if the goal is the best possible SQ. Pumping the pristine analog signal from your cartridge into an ADC and thru a digital amplification chain that ends in a DAC is yet another digression from the ideal concept of a wire with gain. Yes, I have and love my Parasound Zphono USB, but it has MM and MC voltage amplification stages in a very fine analog preamp that drives my PrimaLuna tube power amp. I don't listen to vinyl through the USB port and my digital systems unless I'm streaming the sound to other rooms (which is a convenience that's far cheaper than an analog system in each room - but the sound from the primary system is still better).

 

I strongly doubt that vinyl will ever again come anywhere close to being a major medium for offline storage of music, and I suspect that the physical difficulty and relatively poor sonic quality of records crammed into the digital space through mediocre equipment are the main reasons for commercial failure of the first wave of preamp/ADCs. Most cheap ADCs and USB turntables don't yield any better SQ than mp3s, and the ones I've heard sound worse. I simply can't even imagine a mass return to vinyl as the program source for digital libraries when mp3s are a much better alternative for the people who would buy cheap USB TTs.

 

The only way I could envision vinyl's taking over a large chunk of the retail music market is if we see digital transducers for our tone arms that are equal in quality to fine phono cartridges, have digital outputs, and are competitive in convenience and price. An optical cartridge (or any other digital approach to transduction) that's as good as a traditional cartridge in every way (tracking, SQ etc), costs the same as equivalent cartridges, directly drives a digital amplification chain, and does not require any more setup and maintenance than a mechanical cartridge & arm could be a true game changer. Yes, the ELP and DS Audio devices are moving us toward this goal - but they and every other product like them (developmental or commercial) are analog devices at their outputs. So for now, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

I certainly can't disagree. The integrated amps w/ ADC conversion seem to be justified as somehow normalizing the sound across inputs when the "why convert analog to digital and then back to analog" is asked. While I don't mind the concept, I'd prefer to not lock myself into an integrated that only does ADA w/ no A2A option. I also don't mind powered speakers w/ an integrated DAC, but for me they'd be too limiting in my main system from a component selection perspective.

 

Vinyl is a niche market that currently commands premium prices, but I'm not sure about whether those premium prices result in premium margins over CDs and digital downloads. These appear to be different channels that complement each other far more than not, i.e. renewed interest in music, through vinyl nostalgia or whatever, typically begets more music purchases. Whole Foods isn't selling used vinyl.

[sphinxsix]

Speaking of analog, I just purchased a working vintage Zeiss IKON Moviflex Super 8mm Cine camera! Can't wait to use it to record subpar quality video that looks cool.

 

[ATTACH]28649[/ATTACH]

This clearly proves that the analogue video is also coming back.. I bet BluRay's end may be closer than anyone thinks

I'm pretty sure computers and internet will follow the trend and become analogue too one day....

[Sal1950]

Already now, those who don't have a pre amplifier but use a DAC with variable output to feed a power amp or active speaker directly have a problem when using a turntable. Maybe we'll see more phono stages with integrated analogue/digital conversion in the future.

Some have already addressed the situation. Emotiva brought out a expansion piece for their Steath DC-1 DAC's single analog input. The SP-1 expands that single input to 3 and also includes a MM/MC phono amp. Could be used with any of the DAC's out there that include a analog input (many).

https://emotiva.com/products/pres-and-pros/electronics/sp-1