Article: "Spin Me Round: Why Vinyl is Better Than Digital"

“Playing a record is like looking through a window. You're not really there. You're on the other side of a wall, looking through glass. Layers and layers of glass. Some of them clear, some colored, some optically perfect, some wavy as hell. The scene is bent and blurred and colored and far from perfect. But its perfectly clear to your brain. To your brain this is no different than looking at a fish in the stream. Yes the water is wavy, murky, muddy, maybe even. But for all that there is no doubt in your mind, not the slightest shred of doubt, that there is a nice tasty trout in the stream.

When we push play on a CD we get a video on a screen. And the picture we see, it went through all the exact same layers of distortions as the record. Only now in addition to and on top of all that its been converted to video. No matter how sharp the contrast, how vivid the colors, there is never a doubt in the mind, not the slightest shred of a doubt, that we are looking at a video monitor. There is no trout. Maybe never was. Could be really good AI. Who knows?”

Thanks MC, this is beautifully put

Sometimes it’s ok to have things be what they are at an emotional level, not an empirical level.   As others have said, sound is a physical medium.  Hearing is a physical thing.  So there is a natural metaphysical symmetry in thinking that a physical phenomenon sounds better in a physical medium.  So vinyl (and reels) fit that value system better.   If you think that is all mumble-jumble, than you can accept that digital is king.   But to me, analogue is equivalent to painting with a brush.  Digital is equivalent to spray painting.  And (apologies to truly talented graffiti artists), I don’t know anyone that would pay millions for a spray painted painting....

As others have said, sound is a physical medium. Hearing is a physical thing. So there is a natural metaphysical symmetry in thinking that a physical phenomenon sounds better in a physical medium. So vinyl (and reels) fit that value system better.

A dac is a physical medium like a turntable....

In a digital file booklet you also have photos, musical analysis and more text than behind the cardbooard pocket of a vinyl......Even film sometimes in the files associated with the music...The files booklet can even be printed....Or only read on a "material" computer screen instead of a cardboard...




Except then for the " sense of touch" fetichism, digital and vinyl are about sound and music....

Guess where is the sound/music coupled with you Ears/brain?

Not in the files nor in the vinyl at all; 😊 the living experience is in the coupling of the speakers/room/brain...The electronic component being a dac or a turntable coupled to amplifier are necessary but the sound phenomena is not there at all...The sound waves dance in the unified room/ ears/brain phenomenon...

Change the acoustical settings of your room, and immediately the sound of your digital apparatus, if it was a relatively good one, will become "analog" like....




Ok seriously you say it is the "groove" in the vinyl that are the crux matter about analog, is not it?

But Fourier analysis can transform digital in analog and vice versa...

That sound too artificial? Relax your ears/brain do the same Fourier conversion....

The problem is bad digital, not digital; and the second problem is the acoustical settings of most living room, with an irregular geometry (many empty corners for example), a complex topology (doors and many windows) and a complex varied acoustical content(furniture, wood,concrete, etc) In a bad room(most audiophile ordinary room are bad, it is easy to see it in the virtual section photos) vinyl will suffer less than digital, it is evident, because of the difficulty to retrieve the refine higher frequencies from the too much reflective materials in a normal living room (glass, concrete, wood) a dac will sound worse...

With a simple good dac and a room treatment and controls, there is not much  difference between the 2 vinyl or digital... And if there is one you can decrease this difference by controls in the mechanical and electrical embeddings dimensions, not only with the acoustical dimension...

It is my experience...

Vinyl is good, digital ca be also very good.... It is a free choice really motivated by habits and negligence in acoustical settings of room or motivated by practicality and frugality

.... But the most important factors in S.Q. has nothing to do with vinyl/ digital choices, they are the embeddings controls or how do we installed an audio system in a house and room....Vinyl and digital wars are only fetichism and strategic marketting and long habits...

That is my experience....

So, digital isn't a perfect representation of a sinewave. A sinewave isn't a perfect representation of a sound wave either but since its the only way to translate audio we'll leave that alone. Digital audio has quantization errors. It's just a fact. Nothing will change that fact. When you take an analog sinewave and collapse it into a binary structure of 1s and 0s, what results is an approximation of the original signal.  We use dithering to smooth over the quantization errors, but they're still errors. Can these tiny, minute steps cause a fundamental degradation of our ability to enjoy the sound? I don't know. Possibly. There is the theory that humans enjoy hi-res music because we're more sensitive to time domain errors than frequency errors, so just because the frequency curve in a 20-20kHz window is reproduced perfectly our brains will nevertheless pick up on these tiny timing errors introduced by digital conversion. It could be this is why vinyl records, loaded with distortion and noise, can still sound better. The fact is NO one knows why hi-res sounds better. NO one knows why vinyl can sound better. The time domain theory is just that -- a theory. It might end up being validated. Is it related to the studies out of Japan using MRI to show listeners exposed to high-frequency music experiencing different brain activity? Is there some kind of non-linearity or unknown high-frequency reception process in our ear-brain system? The listeners are picking something up and doing something with it. I really don't think anyone knows the answers to these questions yet.

The fact is NO one knows why hi-res sounds better. NO one knows why vinyl can sound better. The time domain theory is just that -- a theory.

Interesting post....The science behind conversion is complex...

But when we listen the music in our room, my point is there is many more powerful factors to improve de sound than the switching of digital to vinyl or vice versa...Anyway the 2 have their own limitations and flaws....

Vibrations and resonance controls, decreasing the noise floor not only of the audio system but of our house, the passive materials treatment and active non electronical control of the acoustic of the room, all these are way more powerful change in S.Q. than the comparison between a very good dac and a very good turntable....

But it seems people are fixate on the less important choices that divide us instead of the more important factors that can create a better high fi experience with ANy audio system, digital or vinyl, and that can unite us...

A last word: for me the apex of audio experience is natural instrumental timbre perception and imaging... A turntable can make it and a dac can make it.... But the 2 will make it even greater if the mechanical,electrical, and acoustical embeddings dimension of the audio system is treated and controlled.... All the rest is relative to taste or habit at best, or useless at worst.... :)

Happy new Year and thanks for your post....