Vinyl obsession
- Thread starter dctom
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Put me squarely in the digital camp. I was without vinyl playback due to an issue with my pre amp. This summer and fall my 2 channel rig was put into storage during an extensive home remodel. I used the time to have the pre amp repaired. Once the new room was up and the equipment installed and the room tweaked a bit, grabbed a few of my better sounding LPs and compared them to digital files of the same material. One great example is a DCC lp of Nat King Cole's Love's the Thing. Another great one is Reference Recordings' From the Age of Swing. These are great LPs and I am playing them on a VPI/Kuzma/Benz system. In all respects the digital files sounded better. All of the spaciousness and air was there on the digital files which also had a solidity and weight that the vinyl couldn't match. I will still play the vinyl I have if it is the only copy of that music I gave. Otherwise, I will stick with digital. Of course, YMMV. Also, I must say, the pleasure and relaxation I feel with music is due to the listening. I get no added pleasure with being able to handle the music physically. Again, I note than many due.
Posted this on another forum, but thought that it pertained to this conversation.
I hate this MQA stuff
I was perfectly happy with Tidal and listening to the 16/44.1 tracks. I had so many albums that I liked and listened to regularly.....I was totally happy. NOW, there are only 500ish albums available and NONE of the albums that I want to listen to are in the MQA list, but the MQA files sound so good that I can't get myself to go back and listen to the 16/44.1 stuff that I used to love. Now I don't want to listen to anything but the MQA tracks.
My thoughts are that the higher the system potential the higher it will soar with this new found glory. I find that there are many of the MQA albums sound good but not great, but when you find one of the albums that is a very good or great recording and it responds very well to the MQA processing then I think these albums will compete with vinyl. They do in my set ups.
This is just IMHO, but if you take one of the best MQA recordings and compare it to an ok vinyl recording I know that I would prefer the MQA over the vinyl. If you take a top vinyl recording then yes it probably has the edge but it might be that it is just a great recording, not so much the vinyl format.
NOT saying MQA is better than vinyl, but for me, it's the closest sound to vinyl that I have heard from digital.
I love good native DSD, but to me it has it's own great sound, but does not remind me of vinyl....I like/love both DSD and vinyl listening, but they are two different experiences for me. With the MQA files I find myself thinking "this has the same feeling and certain characteristics of vinyl listening".
I hate this MQA stuff
I was perfectly happy with Tidal and listening to the 16/44.1 tracks. I had so many albums that I liked and listened to regularly.....I was totally happy. NOW, there are only 500ish albums available and NONE of the albums that I want to listen to are in the MQA list, but the MQA files sound so good that I can't get myself to go back and listen to the 16/44.1 stuff that I used to love. Now I don't want to listen to anything but the MQA tracks.My thoughts are that the higher the system potential the higher it will soar with this new found glory. I find that there are many of the MQA albums sound good but not great, but when you find one of the albums that is a very good or great recording and it responds very well to the MQA processing then I think these albums will compete with vinyl. They do in my set ups.
This is just IMHO, but if you take one of the best MQA recordings and compare it to an ok vinyl recording I know that I would prefer the MQA over the vinyl. If you take a top vinyl recording then yes it probably has the edge but it might be that it is just a great recording, not so much the vinyl format.
NOT saying MQA is better than vinyl, but for me, it's the closest sound to vinyl that I have heard from digital.
I love good native DSD, but to me it has it's own great sound, but does not remind me of vinyl....I like/love both DSD and vinyl listening, but they are two different experiences for me. With the MQA files I find myself thinking "this has the same feeling and certain characteristics of vinyl listening".
MQA does sound wonderful .. a huge step forward .. and Im just using the software decode and dont have a MQA dac so am not getting the full full monty....profound change in sound
I revisited some MQA albums of my youth and the sound definitely took me back to my TT days..but better
I revisited some MQA albums of my youth and the sound definitely took me back to my TT days..but better
MQA does sound wonderful .. a huge step forward .. and Im just using the software decode and dont have a MQA dac so am not getting the full full monty....profound change in sound
I revisited some MQA albums of my youth and the sound definitely took me back to my TT days..but better
Hi Rodney, I am also only using the sw decode. I have an MSB dac and there is a new MQA module on the near horizon, can't even imagine what it's going to sound like.
This guy on the meridian forum nailed it
The other thing is that the limited number of MQA albums on Tidal means that I've been going back and listening to old albums, which is not something I'd normally do terribly much of - I'm much more a new music kind of a guy. And part of the reason is that old albums don't always sound that flash in SQ terms ... so the MQA versions I've been listening to are just revelations.
There's a well known effect that whatever you listened to in your late teens is pretty much the defining music of your life. And part of the reason (in my case at least) is that the songs and the bands that you first heard during those impressionable years had this vivid quality to them, which - if you're into a bit of hifi - seems to get paler and paler as the decades roll by. The sheer impact of hearing Phil Collins drum his way through In The Air Tonight for the first time is never quite matched again; particularly as newer albums come out and the quality of the recording and the mastering is just so much better than anything that could be achieved in the 80s. Even when I've bought the the later hi-res versions of older albums, it was really for nostalgia's sake as they never quite recaptured the visceral quality of those first analogue listenings, IMHO.
MQA is completely different. Leaving aside the technological machinations, those old albums now have a life and an energy that instantly dragged me back to the first moment the stylus hit the vinyl and some new band exploded into my teenaged bedroom. So I've been working my way through the (limited) back catalogue on Tidal and the effect is the same, no matter how much of a muddy mess the original album was - I'm looking at you, Yessongs.
Over the last few decades of enjoying hifi, I'd come to expect that old albums are a bit like a slices of life preserved in amber - interesting, but no longer engaging in the way they were when they were new and fresh. MQA has utterly changed my view ... I don't know how it's done (alright, I kinda have an idea from tipping my toes in the shallow end of the technical descriptions), but I find the effect transformative - MQA can take a recording and turn it back into music. It's a truly stunning achievement, and Bob and team should be justly proud that they've not only improved the way new music is listened to, they've also found a way of exhuming and reinvigorating the past in a way that I didn't believe possible without a time machine.
So I'm completely convinced by the promises made about MQA. Someone should go grab Bob out of his office and stand him against the wall so we can all take turns throwing praise and accolades at the man. smile
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The other thing is that the limited number of MQA albums on Tidal means that I've been going back and listening to old albums, which is not something I'd normally do terribly much of - I'm much more a new music kind of a guy. And part of the reason is that old albums don't always sound that flash in SQ terms ... so the MQA versions I've been listening to are just revelations.
There's a well known effect that whatever you listened to in your late teens is pretty much the defining music of your life. And part of the reason (in my case at least) is that the songs and the bands that you first heard during those impressionable years had this vivid quality to them, which - if you're into a bit of hifi - seems to get paler and paler as the decades roll by. The sheer impact of hearing Phil Collins drum his way through In The Air Tonight for the first time is never quite matched again; particularly as newer albums come out and the quality of the recording and the mastering is just so much better than anything that could be achieved in the 80s. Even when I've bought the the later hi-res versions of older albums, it was really for nostalgia's sake as they never quite recaptured the visceral quality of those first analogue listenings, IMHO.
MQA is completely different. Leaving aside the technological machinations, those old albums now have a life and an energy that instantly dragged me back to the first moment the stylus hit the vinyl and some new band exploded into my teenaged bedroom. So I've been working my way through the (limited) back catalogue on Tidal and the effect is the same, no matter how much of a muddy mess the original album was - I'm looking at you, Yessongs.
Over the last few decades of enjoying hifi, I'd come to expect that old albums are a bit like a slices of life preserved in amber - interesting, but no longer engaging in the way they were when they were new and fresh. MQA has utterly changed my view ... I don't know how it's done (alright, I kinda have an idea from tipping my toes in the shallow end of the technical descriptions), but I find the effect transformative - MQA can take a recording and turn it back into music. It's a truly stunning achievement, and Bob and team should be justly proud that they've not only improved the way new music is listened to, they've also found a way of exhuming and reinvigorating the past in a way that I didn't believe possible without a time machine.
So I'm completely convinced by the promises made about MQA. Someone should go grab Bob out of his office and stand him against the wall so we can all take turns throwing praise and accolades at the man. smile
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It's funny for the last two years I have been personally boo-hooing MQA. I had heard the Meridian demos at 2 or 3 shows and honestly I did not hear anything that even showed promise to me. I though it was all total bs......I was DEAD WRONG.
Same here , very skeptical , and majorly p'd off that I couldnt use it in my system as there was no digital feed (dirac etc) vowed i wouldnt pay a cent for it
I was wrong..and its free...
I was wrong..and its free...
I am an equal opportunity music format lover. I would rather hear music than not.
I appreciate all formats for what they are. Sometimes I like to sit with the iPad in my hands an not get up, some times the vinyl ritual and other times with headphones.
I still get a kick out of the digital crowd and the no clicks and pops argument, that really ruins your day does it?
I appreciate all formats for what they are. Sometimes I like to sit with the iPad in my hands an not get up, some times the vinyl ritual and other times with headphones.
I still get a kick out of the digital crowd and the no clicks and pops argument, that really ruins your day does it?
Franz..you can turn MQA on or off on the fly ... its not the masters , its whatever MQA does ....
I have compared my local rips to the same master ..ie my 1644 to their mqa encoded 24/48 and there is a difference , but its not a remastering difference.. it's quite difficult to verbalise the difference as it is such a paradigm shift ..
My system is amazing for imaging , scale and soundstage .. this just takes it to a new level in terms of suspension of belief.. add to that sharper transients , a more open sound , better bass texture and timing
There is even more to be had , in my case , if I could use a MQA dac rather than just decode in software , maybe Devialet will cater for MQA at some time
I have compared my local rips to the same master ..ie my 1644 to their mqa encoded 24/48 and there is a difference , but its not a remastering difference.. it's quite difficult to verbalise the difference as it is such a paradigm shift ..
My system is amazing for imaging , scale and soundstage .. this just takes it to a new level in terms of suspension of belief.. add to that sharper transients , a more open sound , better bass texture and timing
There is even more to be had , in my case , if I could use a MQA dac rather than just decode in software , maybe Devialet will cater for MQA at some time
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