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Digitizing Vinyl

Spirit84

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I watched a Youtube video of a seminar that was held at Axpona 2017.
One of the panelists - an audio recording engineer - made a comment that I find very interesting.
He explained that when a vinyl record is converted to digital,
that the digitized copy when streamed will sound better than the
original vinyl because of the elimination of the "microphone" effect of the tonearm & cart.
This microphonic effect causes vibration and distortion which ultimately degrade the sound coming from the speakers.
The process of transferring from vinyl to digital eliminates the distortion and vibration because the speakers are not involved in the process.
This really intrigues me. Is there any scientific validity to this assertion?
I was planning to digitize my vinyl collection in the near future but never did I foresee that the digital copy would sound better than the original!!
 

restorer-john

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Absolutely true. If you play a record quite loud, the effect is more significant than at a lower level.

Back in the day when we obsessively recorded cassettes from vinyl, the volume was always turned all the way down or you listened on headphones while recording.
 

Blumlein 88

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I convinced a friend with a terrific LP rig to digitize some vinyl. He thought it did not sound quite the same. He didn't play the vinyl over speakers while recording. To convince him that was the difference I put his cartridge in the groove of a non spinning disk and recorded while playing a CD at normal volume. Though low on level you could hear the CD.

He re-recorded with speakers up and agreed the sound was the same as he expects.
 
OP
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Spirit84

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I really never knew!.
So not only is a good idea to archive my vinyl but the result will actually sound better!
What a strange hobby this is.
While on the subject:
There seem to be many ways to digitize. Is there a relatively simple and cheap way?
 

restorer-john

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Is there a relatively simple and cheap way?

Yes, plenty of cheap ways, but if you are taking the trouble to hear differences like we discussed above, it would pay you to consider a decent A/D converter, not a $10 Chinese one.

There are plenty of guys here who run external A/D converters for DSP and the like. I use a few M-Audio Audiophile internal PCI cards, but there are some good USB options for laptops/pcs (focusrites etc). I'm sure someone else will chime in with a good value option. You do have a RIAA stage on your amplifier/preamp I presume?
 

sergeauckland

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It is quite possible that it will sound better subjectively when the recording is done with the volume up, as the colorations thus introduced are considered pleasant, even if not accurate. It's one of the reasons some prefer vinyl to digital.

S
 

Panelhead

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There are several software based RIAA equalizers also. A microphone preamp will boost output to line level. Then software can do the heavy lifting.
The programs offer simple organizing of the resulting files into an album of tracks.
 
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