Why, oh why, does vinyl continue to blow away digital?
- Thread starter godofwealth
- Start date
One additional note, to achieve that “raw” and “live” sound that I desire, the high frequency extension and detail is mandatory to realize that sound texture.
Conversely, to achieve the “natural” sound that you desire, the high frequency roll-off is mandatory to achieve that perceived sense of “weight” and “smoothness”.
Realistic reproduction has to be the goal of the High Fidelity Audio hobby. Luckily some manufacturers still appreciate this, others hide behind the 'its all subjective' line as their equipment is simply not good enough. At the London show, Quested had two rooms, one with live band, the other with a system playing recordings of the same band so you could compare the two:
The London Audio Show 2024 | The Ear
The London Audio Show in the Radisson Red hotel was a small but attractively formed event with exhibitors in 29 rooms of which three were of a good size
the-ear.net
Very true indeed. I was going to mention that in my previous post. If someone did that, it would be death by a thousand analog (digital is too harsh and grainy) cuts.
I never said anything about smoothness. Those are your words that you are trying to attribute to me. I did not hear smooth last night with the performance. I did not hear the thin tipped up bright sound that I hear from your videos. I understand that you like that and that is fine, but I don’t hear that live and I don’t want to hear it from my system. I want to have that same experience, the energy filling the room and the power of the sound the startling dynamics. The realistic timber so the instruments sound the way they do live. There was nothing thin or smooth or bright in the live music experience of that jazz performance.
I agree with you Carlos.
A high end audio transducer should get a CE marking of some sort.
Lets say to qualify the FR has to be in a certain range.
In transducer business anybody can do whatever they want as long as it ' sounds good./ pleasing"
Problems with a tilted FR are solved with a soft sounding / less dynamic amp for example, and vice versa .
Then you have the " i change the sound with cables ' business.
Power conditioners/ sound enhancers only thing thats left are magic spells to enhance the sound
Its a free for all hocus pocus business for a large part and that may be an atttaction in itself in this more and more rules based administrative controlled society .
One of the last places you can escape and do what ever you want lol.
Vinyl.is in that philosophy it allows for enless fiddling untill you get what pleases you.
A shouty horn ... okay lets roll it of 10 db
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So many competing "solutions" just tells me there's still a fundamental problem with digital that these approaches are attempting to solve...
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In my point of view, a recording played on a home system will never come close to a live event, but at the same time what I do appreciate is listening to a system that breathes life into music. It is hard to explain, and it can happen even if a system has known limitations that obviously make it less "accurate" than others on some aspects. The best way I can explain the "lifelike" quality of a system is in terms of how I react to it: the ability to immerse myself into the sound, to drift off and mentally navigate into the sound as if I were walking into a picture and exploring it from different angles - it is a very "visual" experience, even "tactile" perhaps. It also does not necessarily take a great recording.
I have yet to figure out exactly what "ingredients" are necessary and sufficient to provoke this feeling!
In my experience, digital and analog can sound very good; and I think you don't need the best system to figure that out, but I could be wrong. In my modest system, it's a "no brainier", but maybe I am not getting the best of either. What I do find is that each recording/mastering is unique and you can find flaws in any if you look for them. There are too many variables at play to rule out flat one type of media - that's my experience and mindset.
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Turntables:
Belt drive, direct drive, idler. Different bearing types including air bearing.
Tone arm types:
Uni-pivot Bearings, Gimbal Bearings, Linear Tracking Bearings, Double-blade Bearings, Precision Ball bearings, Four-point Needle Bearings, etc.
Not to.mention cartridges.
To just slightly modify your sentence:
So many competing "solutions" just tells me there's still a fundamental problem with vinyl that these approaches are attempting to solve...
Erm, hmm, what was your point again?
Nope. For me it’s digital waves vs analogue waves. We hear analogue and I personally feel those waves and listen to digital. Not a scientist.
Rob Watts gives a very good explanation of how the human brain hears music at the Munich High End Show last week with this years release of the new Chord Quartet M Scaler for the Chord DAVE DAC;
Erm, hmm, the recordingsErm, hmm, what was your point again?
This comment makes no sense to me at all….
Every tool used in audio reproduction, from turntables to dacs to speakers has many approaches and applications to solving “the problem.”
So there was april 15’th 1981.
The day that Herbert Von Karajan sat beside Akio Morita (boss of Sony)!at the release of the cd medium
And he said:
‘We are grateful that it has happened"..
Perfect sound forever…
So Herbert Von Karajan was the actuall driving force that made Sony release the Digital era.
Or CD, to be more exact.
Timbre, Dynamics and harmonics…
but vinyl was not dead..,
There Are talks about 6bit DSD these days.
I Wonder , whom will champion that?
Was Karajan making a Sophism - or is Vinyl dead.
The take away is that it is easy and straight forward to set up my systems to sound like you describe. If you read my posts they are full of explanations and reasoning. I know the elements at play in sound reproduction to achieve the sound that I target. When I read your posts they are almost whimsical about descriptions without any real comprehension of how what is being described has come about.
I have placed videos of your system side by side with some of my systems’ videos and if you prefer what you hear from your system video over what you hear from mine then great. To me, the sound of your system is not resolving and your videos also have an overwhelming room reverb on top of the muddy bass and curtailed treble. To each their own. I will keep the sound of my systems every day.
Listen I’m not the first one that has told you this about your system. Those comments came from individuals that have listen to your system in person and in the room with you, and not over videos. It gives you something to think about, when you see a trend.
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Jussi Laako is an authority on digital audio processing. Jussi has taken what Rob Watt has done and implemented an option with many greater number of taps than what Chord offers for those that want to use those filters, but he cautions on the limitations of that approach. Check out HQPLAYER and Jussi Laako’s work at Signalyst. High rate DSD is the best playback according to Jussi and he provides the technical explanation for it.
I thought the same thing, the comments says nothing but insinuates a problem without providing any details or explanation. Whatever the problem is, he should search Roon Communities or AudiophileStyle as Jussi Laako has probably already discussed it and addressed it.
It probably has more to do with money ... the digital age.
Karajan got probably a nice amount of $$ for promoting digital.
And Sony incrreased their margin as CD s are much cheaper to produce then vinyl