The end of digital audio.?

[livelistenlearn]

For me, vinyl is a vivid, realistic, dynamic and immersive experience that demands your attention, in no sense"easy listening", while digital offers a cool, orderly, polite representation of the music.

 

If digital is a ride in the back seat of a luxury saloon, then vinyl is piloting a 70s Italian superbike down a twisty B road. Sometimes I prefer the limo...

 

One could say that a good vinyl system sounds more viscous and holistic. From the first note, the soundscape flows and ebbs, effortlessly, in a charged space. As some say great music should. Set the right amount of gain for a reference recording... and one can happily drown in illusions of grandeur.

 

Today’s CA systems strive to be faithful to recordings. A good digital system is also capable of sweeping one away... but the layering always seems more present. When listening to well-recorded music, one also hears the individual instruments (voices included) used to make it. Arguably, a high-performance CA system may make it easier for one to be ‘there', or be touched by performers' expressions. Such a system could also, effortlessly, render flawed recordings to be quite unenjoyable.

 

Viewpoint:

A great vinyl playback system may paint a soundscape with the vibrance of a Renaissance masterpiece.

A great CA system may present music like a thoughtful, skilfully shot high-resolution photograph.

Neither rendition is really real. Yet, both can be addictive and sublime.

[sphinxsix]

I'll ask once again the question about vinyl vs hi-res vinyl rips sound quality 'cause I think the answer can say a lot about the sound fidelity of both (vinyl - hi-res) formats. Anyone's got an opinion on the subject.?

[firedog]

I'll ask once again the question about vinyl vs hi-res vinyl rips sound quality 'cause I think the answer can say a lot about the sound fidelity of both (vinyl - hi-res) formats. Anyone's got an opinion on the subject.?

 

I've heard hi-res vinyl rips that are indistinguishable from the actual vinyl - when played back over the same systerm.

[Old Listener]

Convenience will always win, period. Nothing convenient about records and turntables.

 

All recorded music is a convenience. A real audiophile should reject all recorded music in favor of attending a live performance.

[davide256]

All recorded music is a convenience. A real audiophile should reject all recorded music in favor of attending a live performance.

 

Funny how that doesn't work for dead artist performances...

[The Computer Audiophile]

All recorded music is a convenience. A real audiophile should reject all recorded music in favor of attending a live performance.

No way. Metallica sounds much better in my house than the band did a couple weeks ago in US Bank stadium.

[bluesman]

No way. Metallica sounds much better in my house than the band did a couple weeks ago in US Bank stadium.

...and you can turn them down at home.

[Old Listener]

Funny how that doesn't work for dead artist performances...

 

I guess that you aren't all that pure. I'm certainly not.

 

Convenience is a good thing.

[sphinxsix]

All recorded music is a convenience. A real audiophile should reject all recorded music in favor of attending a live performance.

Reproduction of sound - over 100 year con.?

[sphinxsix]

...and you can turn them down at home.

 

 

Or ...UP!

[Old Listener]

Reproduction of sound - over 100 year con.?

 

 

Good one!

[esldude]

I'll ask once again the question about vinyl vs hi-res vinyl rips sound quality 'cause I think the answer can say a lot about the sound fidelity of both (vinyl - hi-res) formats. Anyone's got an opinion on the subject.?

 

I've heard hi-res vinyl rips that are indistinguishable from the actual vinyl - when played back over the same systerm.

I can confirm that hirez rips sound the same as vinyl. Yes it was a high quality TT rig. That's telling you hirez at least equals or exceeds vinyl.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Computer Audiophile mobile app

[Sal1950]

I don't miss it either. I downloaded a couple of 24bit vinyl rips just to check them out sonically. The moment I hear the 'frying eggs' noise of worn out vinyl I press the 'stop' button as fast as I can. I believe a good TT can sound great but old vinyl can't. And the new releases use usually digital masters so they in fact should be called 'digital vinyl' or 'digital analogue'...

 

Do you also happen to listen to hi-res vinyl rips? To what degree they retain the sonic qualities of the original vinyl?

 

I'll ask once again the question about vinyl vs hi-res vinyl rips sound quality 'cause I think the answer can say a lot about the sound fidelity of both (vinyl - hi-res) formats. Anyone's got an opinion on the subject.?

 

 

A bit confusing to me? Since any kind for comparison with commercial downloads is impossible. We can in no way have any idea what the LP on the ripping table sounded like, every one has a bit of it's own signature. Then there is the sound of the cartridge>TT>phono amp> etc used for playback during the rip. Way too many variables.

In discussing the digital side of the rip, taking a quality ADC chain for granted, IMO in no way is a hi rez sampling rate required to create a perfectly transparent copy of a LP's playback. With all the technical compromises applied to the file created for LP mastering, a good Redbook 16/44 sampling is more than sufficient for capturing anything in those groves.

I've ripped near 500 LP's using quality vinyl gear into Audacity running at 16/44. I did a number of quality checks along the way comparing the rip to the live LP playback and could detect absolutely no change in SQ. Not a level matched blind scientific comparison for sure, but still I was completely satisfied with my lives archived material in any case. That's all that most subjectives here require anyway.

[Norton]

I can confirm that hirez rips sound the same as vinyl. Yes it was a high quality TT rig. That's telling you hirez at least equals or exceeds vinyl.Computer Audiophile mobile app

 

I have no experience with vinyl rips, so I'm not saying this can't be true, but I'm sceptical on 2 counts:

 

1. In 2 decades I've heard only one commercial digital transfer of an analogue recording that equalled the sound of the LP. I find it hard to believe that a home user could routinely achieve something no record label seems capable of.

 

2. Vast amounts of space on this site are devoted to discussion on the differences in sound attributable to different DACs, servers and other components just in the digital chain, so it seems improbable that replay of a file on my digital equipment would just happen to sound indistinguishable to that of a LP via my TT.

[sphinxsix]

No way. Metallica sounds much better in my house than the band did a couple weeks ago in US Bank stadium.

The sound of heavy rock gigs is usually so so. I remember just one concert that (I repeat it over and over) sounded like CD (I didn't know hi-res audio back then). But of course it was much louder than an average 'loud' home playback level. It was middle of the 90s Bad Brains' gig. Middle size hall (1000 people approximately) JBL speakers and clearly the sound engineer who knew his job.. the sound just like the gig (in fact in my private ranking the best rock concert I've ever been to) was breathtaking!

 

But Metallica can also sound worse even on high-end gear than live. A provocative statement will follow.. Just check their sound reproduced by I believe majority of electrostatic speakers or many soft sounding triode SE tube amps. Both can sound fantastic but not necessarily with that kind of music.