Lies about vinyl vs digital

[Allan F]

6 hours ago, JoeWhip said:

When I hear folks like MF claim that digital is flat, hard and lifeless compared to vinyl, I just shake my head and wonder what he is listening too. I have had vinyl guys over to hear my room and they are godsmacked with how great digital can sound, especially well mastered cds. There are many wonderful sounding DACS available and some great playback software. Good equipment and a great room environment will get you great sound these days.

 

If you could afford the astronomical cost of MF's turntable, arm, cartridge and phono preamp combination (assuming that, like me, you couldn't), you might view vinyl somewhat differently. And, as Firedog points out, MF has recently been considerably less harsh in his criticism of digital, while he still prefers vinyl.

[Allan F]

23 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 Hi Allan

 It still has to come down to personal preference .

 Compromises have to be made at every stage of the manufacturing of a Vinyl recording, especially at the low end, and in the dynamics of the recording due to the overload factor,(groove separation)  as well as the resulting higher noise floor of a Vinyl recording. Neither can Vinyl have "pin point" localisation of the different elements due to the greatly reduced channel separation of typically close to 50dB compared with even CD.

 

Regards

Alex

 

What you say is true, Alex, but it's also true that the quality of the mastering of a lot of old albums to CD was absolutely terrible and the LP sounded infinitely better. With newer well recorded and mastered digital albums, it's a different story.

[Allan F]

Semente:

You should be ashamed of yourself for polluting the forum with that disgusting image.

[Allan F]

16 minutes ago, kumakuma said:

I'm sure he'd have a similar reaction to most of your posts.

 

As I expect do many, if not most of us .

[Allan F]

7 hours ago, esldude said:

And I might not.  His rig can't overcome inherent limitations in the medium, most especially the mastering necessary to stamp out a playable disc.  It is also possible having optimized his rig to gloss over or make acceptable the short comings of vinyl he has impacted some of the extra resolution that CD can provide when done well.

 

A top mastering engineer working with well maintained vinyl presses can produce discs of excellent quality. As others have said, ultimately it comes down to personal preference. Vinyl can sound as good (or to some, better than) digital, depending on the associated gear.