The argument for original vinyl and the shortest analogue signal path for best analogue recorded playback

[Vandemann]

Fascinating argument for original vinyl and short signal path analogue playback systems offering the best possible reproduction of analogue recordings:

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/extreme_record_collecting_confessions_of_an_analog_vinyl_snob

Worth a read.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

I like vinyl (duh, my screen name) but vinyl causes a definite coloration of the original source master, whether its analog or digital. Vinyl has an advantage over digital files in that it has lots of real estate on the sleeve for images and text, not to mention the tactile enjoyment of holding an object (sorry, Roon and Tidal makes one mess with a computer or phone while listening). I like the colorations of vinyl, and some don't. I listen mainly to streaming because of the availability of most everything ever recorded, but when I want to settle down with a frosty beverage, vinyl is the way.

 

[voodooless]

Fascinating argument for original vinyl and short signal path analogue playback systems as offering the best possible reproduction of analogue recordings

According to that logic something like this would be best:

 

[abdo123]

10000 words are quite long for audiophile blurp.

Something is leached out when an analog signal is digitized (i.e turned into a series of zeros and ones) and the most obvious place you can hear this is with the drum transients and other percussion. It loses some of the energy.

 

[DSJR]

10000 words are quite long for audiophile blurp.

Who wrote that inset statement, a long experienced recording engineer? I doubt it as most recording engineers I've spoken to or read from state that digital recording was the best and way more truthful to the incoming signal than any analogue system even the best. It took a few years for mastering workstations to catch up though I gather - around the very late 80's...

 

[abdo123]

Who wrote that inset statement, a long experienced recording engineer? I doubt it as most recording engineers I've spoken to or read from state that digital recording was the best and way more truthful to the incoming signal than any analogue system even the best. It took a few years for mastering workstations to catch up though I gather - around the very late 80's...

the person who wrote that article this thread is about.

Anyway, reel-to-reel tape is quite accurate, and what music was actually recorded to ever since magnetic tape was invented, even though vinyl was still the 'Average Joe's' medium.

 

[sergeauckland]

10000 words are quite long for audiophile blurb.

I'd use the word 'bollocks' in place of blurb. There's not a lot of science or engineering in that article just subjectivist impressions we've read a hundred times.

I'm a fan of vinyl as I rather like the challenge of scraping music out of a ditch with a rock on the end of a stick, but I'm also under no illusions that digital does a much better job of capturing everything that matters, and indeed that HD digital doesn't capture anything audible that 44.1/16 can't.

Reel to Reel was the best there was in 1970, but by 1979 or thereabouts, digital recorders were already knocking spots off Ampexes and Studers, if for no better reason than they didn't need lining up twice a day so were a lot more stable. Bop 'till you drop was the first digitally recorded album to be released commercially, and it's still pretty good.

As I said, I like playing LPs, I collect SQ Quadraphonic LPs, mostly classical, as Quad mixes were rarely released on CDs, at least not deliberately, so they're fun, but don't try and persuade me they're in any way better. Much like driving a 1929 blown Bentley. Great fun, but hardly SOTA .

S

 

[Katji]

[...]Vinyl has an advantage over digital files in that it has lots of real estate on the sleeve for images and text, not to mention the tactile enjoyment of holding an object (sorry, Roon and Tidal makes one mess with a computer or phone while listening).

>> Vinyl has an advantage over digital files CD
>> in that it has lots of real estate on the sleeve for images and text,

That's what I hate about CDs. When I ripped them to WAV, I sometimes needed to use a magnifying glass to do the ID3 tags. It's like they took the album cover and shrank it. And I don't like the "jewel cases."

>> in that it has lots of real estate on the sleeve for images and text,

Big computer screen has more. ...And google images has even more. And sometimes their Instagram has even more, like where they live, and their cat.

And just for...context, I started with records in 1969/70. And my records did not have any surface or clicks. Except for 2 or 3 that I rescued, one of them being an old Jimi Hendrix with him playing House Of The Rising Sun, when he had short hair.

New music almost every day. SometimesI get sidetracked - by something on a forum - to revisiting my past - Youtube. People I respect, part of my life, but I don't want to listen to them anymore. Not Led Zeppelin, and certainly not Johnny Rotten, he's become an old..see you next Thursday anyway. And so it goes.
PS: So have I, probably.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

Big computer screen has more. ...And google images has even more. And sometimes their Instagram has even more, like where they live, and their cat.

But I fucking hate staring into a computer monitor while trying to enjoy music. I listen to music to get away from the computer I stare at all day at work. I'm sure I'm not alone in this.

 

[Katji]

It gets better when you retire. // At one time - one place - I did listen to psy trance while I was working - or supposed to be working, and my friend who was below me, on the floor below, came and asked me to stop stamping my feet.

 

[Robin L]

According to that logic something like this would be best:

View attachment 142710

This has the added advantage of absolutely no IGD, ever!

 

[MattHooper]

But I fucking hate staring into a computer monitor while trying to enjoy music. I listen to music to get away from the computer I stare at all day at work. I'm sure I'm not alone in this.

^^^^ Oh god, yes. THIS!

Listening to music via vinyl is my chance to finally unplug from the digital world. To get away from screens.

 

[MattHooper]

Fascinating argument for original vinyl and short signal path analogue playback systems offering the best possible reproduction of analogue recordings:

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/extreme_record_collecting_confessions_of_an_analog_vinyl_snob

Worth a read.

Admittedly I didn't read the article yet. But the very fact that digital can render a copy of an analog source or vinyl record indistinguishable from the original, seems to render any such argument that digital "loses" something, moot.

 

[Jim Matthews]

Admittedly I didn't read the article yet. But the very fact that digital can render a copy of an analog source or vinyl record indistinguishable from the original, seems to render any such argument that digital "loses" something, moot.

I suppose the issue is really down to the quality of the Master recording and preservation of the original S/N ratio. 2011 saw Bob Ludwig oversee the remastering and digital transfer of Queen's Greatest hits to CD and Vinyl.

They're both lifted from the same tape.

If the transfer is compressed, it will suffer by comparison. The benefit of a purely analog playback chain is mainly to avoid attempts to make the original recording more dynamic, or just plain loud.

 

[Chrispy]

But I fucking hate staring into a computer monitor while trying to enjoy music. I listen to music to get away from the computer I stare at all day at work. I'm sure I'm not alone in this.

This is something that's never interfered with my music enjoyment. I hate staring into computer monitors in general, tho. I don't do so while listening to music in any case unless I need some details as to what I'm listening to at the moment, just not a problem generally. What I hate more is having to get up each time a side of a vinyl ends and I have to get up to flip it/change it....something I can do digitally with many albums without having to do much at all except actually listen instead of fuss with the gear.....