Vinyl vs Digital?

[square_wave]

When digital was introduced, majority of people were astonished with the clarity and resolution of cd sound and never wanted to see the face of analog again. Now a days the same people feel vinyl was better. Its just a circle of life, everything comes back.

When I was introduced to digital during the late eighties I didn't like it at all. It sounded bright and harsh unless you owned some of the top of the line digital gear. Vinyl had matured by then and I used to have an audio techica and pioneer direct drive turntables. The LPs sounded way better on LP. It took more than a decade before digital started sounding good on mid level gear.

 

[arj]

Have you tried their HiRez streaming?? It's quite good, not as good as CD but still very good.

I found the CD comment interesting. Have you done a CD vs Digital file comparison ? I personally could never get the flacs to work better than the CD and never got the confidence to invest more on it so far either

 

[fLUX]

I found the CD comment interesting. Have you done a CD vs Digital file comparison ? I personally could never get the flacs to work better than the CD and never got the confidence to invest more on it so far either

I have done this for Bombay , there is a clear cut difference with CD being much better despite using a Panasonic BR player as the source. Both the comparisons were driven using the same DAC with source for one being CD and other via PW link as streamer (using optical out)

But from a collection viewpoint , I am doing the below due to cost reasons
i) Get LPs for all older numbers (pre-90s) and for few of my very favorite albums post-90s if its economical.
ii) Get CDs for a very few favorite numbers for post-90 where the LPs are costly
iii) Rely on my offline collection & streaming for the rest

 

[nosortf]

I found the CD comment interesting. Have you done a CD vs Digital file comparison ? I personally could never get the flacs to work better than the CD and never got the confidence to invest more on it so far either

Several times. CD is superior. Twice I have heard a WAV file being virtually indistinguishable from CD, but the cost of the digital ripper/renderer/client was stratospheric, equal to a lifetime of CDs. The logic collapsed.
However Atmos music may change the game, because suddenly owners of well calibrated HTs will have a great sounding music listening experience thanks to a new platform.

 

[DB1989]

Have you tried their HiRez streaming?? It's quite good, not as good as CD but still very good.

I am subscribed to whichever is their top tier that allows me MQA streaming and i have MQA decoding hardware as well viz. the ifi Zen DAC. Having said that, firstly i can't hear a difference between MQA and their normal hifi tier (i can usually tell the difference between mp3 and their FLAC counterparts as flac usually sounds crisper/cleaner). Secondly, my non-MQA decoding Chord Mojo sounds better, whether it's playing a track on tidal, Spotify or apple music when compared to MQA through the ifi zen dac (which again, does not sound different to my ears).

 

[nosortf]

I am subscribed to whichever is their top tier that allows me MQA streaming and i have MQA decoding hardware as well viz. the ifi Zen DAC. Having said that, firstly i can't hear a difference between MQA and their normal hifi tier (i can usually tell the difference between mp3 and their FLAC counterparts as flac usually sounds crisper/cleaner). Secondly, my non-MQA decoding Chord Mojo sounds better, whether it's playing a track on tidal, Spotify or apple music when compared to MQA through the ifi zen dac (which again, does not sound different to my ears).

So a laptop is the source for Tidal?
Direct Tidal hirez into a non compression streaming client will beat most other services, except Qbuzz. Of course I eagerly await Spotify launching Hirez too.

 

[DB1989]

So a laptop is the source for Tidal?

Guilty as charged.

Direct Tidal hirez into a non compression streaming client will beat most other services, except Qbuzz. Of course I eagerly await Spotify launching Hirez too.

Streamers?

 

[firearm12]

In this digital vs vinyl war, i feel the way technology is progressing digital will win eventually 50 yrs from now.

 

[nosortf]

Guilty as charged.

Streamers?

Yes a streaming client machine eg Marantz NA6006.

 

[arj]

IN the end it is still about the master's quality and the market for uncompressed recordings.

Eg for a 1970s analogue recording which has a good LP pressing..will they figure out a market to make an uncompressed digital recording or will they go for another compressed recording..thats the key and the technicalities of how good digital is does not even matter if the mastered content has been messed up !!

why are the New LPs not as good as the old LPs ? the master is messed up and at this quality i would prefer the older LP than any content including the newer LP


Thats why , call me a pessimist, I do not see the quality of music improving, although the technology will improve.

 

[firearm12]

Please read below article, it has interesting knowledge about vinyl, digital and mastering.

Do Remastered Records Actually Sound Better? | Gear Patrol

What is remastering? Do remastered records actually sound better?

www.gearpatrol.com

 

[nosortf]

Here is something I experiened about 12 years ago. Many CDs which I thought were ordinary pressings and not upto the mark, because when played back on audiophile setups, the sound sucked. Then I happened to visit a setup where the room was built ground up, with the system/speakers, electronics configured right from the start. Suddenly stuff which I thought were ordinary pressings, hit me like a freight train. Terrific sounds from artists like Bad Company, Journey, Suzanne Vega, Depeche Mode, Pretenders etc, music you love but hate the recordings. Older Classical recordings from EMI and Deutsche Gramophone, which tend to sound thin and wiry on most audiophile systems, were now robust and full bodied. It was a wakeup, that its our beloved playback setups that are compromised by settings and surrounding and hence their inability to playback the recordings to their full potential.
Left with my head scratching and a lesson RELEARNT-
Room Interaction Is King, nothing wrong with the recordings.

 

[firearm12]

Has anyone tried to rip their vinyls using a good audio interface and played it back on his digital setup with same speakers and amp. Curious to know what would be the results.

 

[arj]

Has anyone tried to rip their vinyls using a good audio interface and played it back on his digital setup with same speakers and amp. Curious to know what would be the results.

Too many factors including the quality of the TT setup, ADC and converting device followed by a dac...but even with the best i guess the best possible would be they will be equal sound but practically it would have more distortion and degradation since every component modifies the sound in some way

Theoretically, at a high sampling bitrate, you should get one which is very analogue sounding

 

[souravin]

Has anyone tried to rip their vinyls using a good audio interface and played it back on his digital setup with same speakers and amp. Curious to know what would be the results.

I rip old rare bollywood vinyl using Sansui AU 717 recording out to HP laptop (Audacity) via Creative External sound card and audioquest jitterbug. Then listen rips using Foobar (WASAPI) through Schiit Multibit DAC.

Very impressive output and sounds superb, obviously a few notches down than direct analogue, but for convenience, it's optimum. I can share WAV samples to you if you are interested.

Thanks,
Sourav

 

[prem]

Sharing rips is not legal Souravin. The forum will unnecessarily attract attention for the wrong reason.

 

[firearm12]

I rip old rare bollywood vinyl using Sansui AU 717 recording out to HP laptop (Audacity) via Creative External sound card and audioquest jitterbug. Then listen rips using Foobar (WASAPI) through Schiit Multibit DAC.

Very impressive output and sounds superb, obviously a few notches down than direct analogue, but for convenience, it's optimum. I can share WAV samples to you if you are interested.

Thanks,
Sourav

Thanks, actually i was more interested to listen the experience on same system. Purpose was to find out if in this vinyl vs digital war, digital can sound indistinguishable from vinyl. Please put in more experience of such listening. Do you feel that in ideal scenario, wherein if such vinyl rips are made they can sound indistinguishable from actual vinyl. If this is true then it can be said surely that its only the source sound that matters rather than media.

 

[souravin]

Thanks, actually i was more interested to listen the experience on same system. Purpose was to find out if in this vinyl vs digital war, digital can sound indistinguishable from vinyl. Please put in more experience of such listening. Do you feel that in ideal scenario, wherein if such vinyl rips are made they can sound indistinguishable from actual vinyl. If this is true then it can be said surely that its only the source sound that matters rather than media.

Analogue would remain analogue. My listening experience is vinyl rips which is mostly 24/96 FLAC, would remain to be sounded as digital, the sweetness is missing by few notches from vinyl. However the benefit is digital vinyl rips are far better than OST CDs, at least for Bollywood oldies.

 

[Bhaskar Jyoti Talapatra]

Analogue would remain analogue. My listening experience is vinyl rips which is mostly 24/96 FLAC, would remain to be sounded as digital, the sweetness is missing by few notches from vinyl. However the benefit is digital vinyl rips are far better than OST CDs, at least for Bollywood oldies.

Second your opinion. Besides this , your effort , I mean digitisation of vinyls ( which sound so sweet atleast to my ears) will also enhance the shelve life of those tracks. Vinyls can be eroded/ damaged but those digitised versions will survive .
Regards

 

[ssf]

Most of the albums that I was listening to in my late teens were LPs recorded onto good quality cassettes, pop crackle and all. Did not know I was encouraging piracy back then. Analogue vs Analogue;