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Frequency Response of L.P's

I have been trying to find out what the general Frequency Response of vinyl was over the other formats after reading an article in the Stereophile archives by John Atkinson called "What's going on up there?".Out to about 40Khz seemed to be the magic figure and he seemed to imply a lot of Classical music on the other hand might extend out to 30Khz.This compares favourably of course to cd with a cut-off of 22.05Khz and SACD with a lot of noise rising sharply above 40Khz and rolled off at 50Khz.DVD-A seems to partly match the extended response of vinyl but is digital not analogue.I have seen figures given of above 60Khz without proof for vinyl and some direct-to-disk recordings made in England extended out to 50Khz.In the 1950's a U.S recording company(RCA?)was recommending a player that provided 15Hz-35Khz for proper reproduction of vinyl in their advertising.Anyone care to impart their knowledge on this subject from among the learned members?
stefanl
jbatlanta
97 posts
 
So, getting back to the original topic, then LP is the 'superior' recording medium because it will reproduce music in more extented frequencies than CD is capable of?

Is this correct?
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
A vinyl disc can produce higher frequencies than a CD. The CD limit is 22 KHz, and it is a "brick wall"...nothing at all above it. However, fidelity does not degrade until this limit is reached. The fidelity of vinyl degrades gradually, and what you can get higher than 20KHz depends on the pickup used, and in any event will be of degraded fidelity. Also, high frequency information on a vinyl record degrades with repeated playing. Finally, there is some argument as to whether response over 20KHz is audible (to the majority of listeners).

"Superior" involves a lot more than frequency response. For use in an automobile, a CD is clearly superior.
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
JB: The problem seems to have more to do with the CD standard's implementation of the steep ultrasonic filter so close to the audioband, rather than the loss of the ultrasonic frequencies per se. However, the solution takes care of both problems: Simply increasing the sampling frequency (in a PCM format) of the recording, storage media, and playback machine, as is done with hi-rez DVD-A, to at least double the 44KHz CD standard will both extend the ultrasonic response into LP territory, and move the anti-aliasing filter well above the audioband allowing for a much gentler and less problematic filter slope.
stefanl OP
296 posts
 
The frequencies in the ultrasonic area of LP's do not seem to "wear out" after repeated plays.The article by Stereophile's editor-in-chief John Atkinson called "What's going on up there" found in their archives section on-line is absolutely essential reading.He used the end track of a record he had played on in the 70's (he could'nt locate the master tape).It had clicks and had been played many times, the frequency spectrum showed an extended frequency response for this LP that reached 40Khz.This was consistent with other recordings.The sonic information caused mainly by electric guitar and drums cymbals it was rock music.Anyway a classical sample he had extended out to 30 Khz.This is the area where LP looks very similar to DVD-A.stefanl
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